Rheodyne, LLC

Brian Hauck

Kristine Olsen

A single selection valve allows the selection of three or more alternate flow routes without any unswept volume along any of the routes. The selection valve has a rotor (22) that can pivot about an axis (30) on a stator (12), the stator having ports (1-8) generally lying on a port circle (54) that is centered on the axis and the rotor having channels (60, 62) on its front face that faces the rear of the stator. Each rotor channel has a radial groove (70) with a port end (72) lying on the port circle, and each channel has an arc groove (74) that connects to the radial groove and that extends substantially circumferentially along an arc circle (76) that is centered on the axis, but that has a smaller radius than the radius of the port circle. The stator rear face has stator channels (90, 92), with each stator channel having a radial stator groove (94) with a port end (102) connected to one of the ports, and with a stator arc groove (96) that connects to the stator radial groove and that extends substantially circumferentially along the arc circle. Each stator arc groove and each rotor arc groove has a free end (80, 100), and the arc grooves extend sufficiently so their free ends overlap at every rotor position where fluid passes through the channels, to avoid any unswept volume.

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Santa Rosa, CA, United States of America

Brian Hauck