Patent ID: 7243672

Claim:
A flow control valve, comprising a valve body; a spool slidably disposed in a spool bore formed in the valve body; a pump port, a supply port, and return port connected to the spool bore respectively; wherein a part of an operating fluid introduced from the pump port to the supply port is returned back from the return port according to a displacement of the spool, the flow control valve comprising: a concave portion opened to the spool bore and facing the return port opened to the spool bore; a land portion disposed in an outer periphery of the spool; a circular groove disposed adjacent the land portion in an outer periphery of the spool; a control rod portion attached coaxially with the spool to control a flow quantity of fluid to the supply port; and a set spring urging the spool in the axial direction against an operating fluid pressure in the pump port, wherein: a width of the concave portion and a width of the return port are greater than a width of the land portion, a groove bottom of the concave portion is formed to be a flat plane generally in parallel to an axis line of the spool, and when the spool moves against the set spring, the return port and the concave portion are opened simultaneously by the land portion, thereby flowing a part of the operating fluid via the concave portion and the circular groove to the return port; in a case the return port and the concave portion are opened by the land portion due to movement of the spool, a clearance formed between one end of the land portion and the return port, an area of which changes depending on the movement of the spool, is a first orifice (S 1 ), and a clearance formed between a top face of the land portion and the groove bottom of the concave portion, an area of which does not change regardless of the movement of the spool, is a fixed orifice (S 4 ), when the spool moves to a position where the center of the land portion coincides with the center of the return port, a relation between an opening area of the first orifice (S 1 ) and an opening area of the fixed orifice (S 4 ) is set as (S 1 )/(S 4 )≧2; and a clearance formed between the land portion and the concave portion, an area of which changes depending on the movement of the spool, is a second orifice (S), which includes the fixed orifice (S 4 ), and a sum of the areas of the first orifice S 1 and the second orifice S changes in proportion to the movement of the spool.