Patent ID: 8689831

Claim:
A rotary valve comprising: an elongate spool defining coaxially aligned inlet and outlet ports for respectively receiving and discharging a fluid, and spool inlet and outlet orifices in fluid communication with the inlet and outlet ports, respectively; a rotary cage assembly coaxially surrounding the spool and mounted for reciprocal rotations thereabout, wherein the cage assembly defines an annular cage recess and oriented cage inlet and outlet orifices in communication with the recess; and an actuator assembly coupled to the rotary cage assembly for moving the rotary cage assembly between an open position wherein the cage inlet and outlet orifices are in fluid communication with the spool inlet and outlet orifices, respectively, to allow fluid to flow from the spool inlet port to the spool outlet port by way of the annular cage recess, and a closed position wherein fluid communication is blocked between at least the cage and spool outlet orifices, whereby fluid is prevented from flowing from the spool inlet port to the spool outlet port, wherein the spool further defines a bypass port and a bypass orifice in communication therewith, and wherein the cage further defines a cage bypass orifice in fluid communication with the annular cage recess, and wherein the cage assembly when in the open condition prevents fluid communication between the cage and spool bypass orifices, but when in the closed condition allows fluid communication between the cage and spool inlet orifices and between the cage and spool bypass orifices, whereby fluid entering the annular cage recess from the spool inlet port through the spool inlet orifice is allowed to flow into the spool bypass port through the cage bypass orifice.