Masco Corporation

E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Brasscraft Manufacturing Company

Flint & Walling, Inc.

Champion Home Builders Co.

Robert D MacDonald

Robert K Rose

John W Papsdorf

A valve assembly comprising a temperature responsive servomechanism adapted to combine hot and cold water under pressure to produce a constant preselected temperature of water at an outlet. The valve assembly comprises a housing having a valving cavity, a hot water inlet leading to the valving cavity, a cold water inlet leading to the valving cavity, and a mixed water outlet passageway leading from the valving cavity. A valve member translates in the valving cavity and divides the cavity into two auxiliary chambers. A passageway through the valve member allows fluid to flow from each of the inlets to the outlet passageway at a rate that varies as the valve member translates. Passageways in the valve member permit a portion of the mixed water to flow into the auxiliary chambers. An auxiliary passageway is provided between each of the auxiliary chambers and the outlet passageway. A temperature responsive element is provided within the outlet passageway. In response to a deviation in the temperature of water in the mixing chamber the temperature responsive element closes one of the auxiliary passageways causing the valve member to translate until the water in the outlet passageway reaches the preselected temperature.

Handle valve assembly

Thermostatic valve assembly

Three-piece stop valves, in both angle and straight-through forms, are disclosed comprising a valve body, resilient control sleeve and handle, with no separate fasteners or sealing elements being required. The handle and control sleeve are retained within the valve body by resilient formations on the handle which snap into a retaining groove on the valve body. Inlet line pressure resiliently biases the side walls of the control sleeve into sealing engagement with the valve bore to prevent leakage.

Valve

A valve assembly comprising a temperature responsive servo-mechanism adapted to combine hot and cold water under pressure to produce a constant preselected temperature of water at an outlet. The valve assembly comprises a housing having a valving cavity, a hot water inlet leading to the valving cavity, a cold water inlet leading to the valving cavity, and a mixed water outlet passageway leading from the valving cavity. A valve member translates in the valving cavity and divides the cavity into two auxiliary chambers. A passageway through the valve member allows fluid to flow from each of the inlets to the outlet passageway at a rate that varies as the valve member translates. Passageways in the valve member permit a portion of the mixed water to flow into the auxiliary chambers. An auxiliary passageway is provided between each of the auxiliary chambers and the outlet passageway. A temperature responsive element is provided within the outlet passageway. In response to a deviation in the temperature of water in the mixing chamber the temperature responsive element closes one of the auxiliary passageways causing the valve member to translate until the water in the outlet passageway reaches the preselected temperature.

A valve assembly has a first ceramic valve member having a flat valving surface. An aperture open to the valving surface is provided through the valve member. The valve assembly further has a tubular valve member having an aperture therethrough, and an annular valving surface adjacent to the valving surface of the other valve member. The apertures through the respective valve members are moved into and out of registry with each other by relative movement therebetween. Preferably, a valve body is provided having a large bore accepting the first valve member and a small bore accepting the tubular valve member. The apertures are movable into and out of registry by rotation of the first valve member within the large bore.

Valve assembly

A faucet for controlling the rate of discharge of a fluid under pressure. The faucet has a housing having a passageway therethrough with an inlet port coupled to a fluid supply line. The passageway further has an outlet port open to the ambient atmosphere. A valve seat is formed intermediate the inlet port and the outlet port. A slideway is provided in the housing adjacent to the seat. A flat cantilever spring has one of its ends secured to said housing, the other of its ends overlying said seat, and its intermediate portion disposed within the slideway. A movable element is disposed within the slideway and engages one surface of the spring. The movable element is selectively movable within the slideway along the surface of the spring to regulate the rate of discharge of fluid by varying the distance between the end of the spring and the seat.

Faucet

A sump pump includes a submersible electric motor for driving an impeller which discharges water radially outward into a volute oriented in a horizontal plane at the bottom of the device. An optical sensor located at a predetermined pump-operating level utilizes the light reflecting and refracting properties of the sensor-chamber interface to sense the presence or absence of water at such level. In a first embodiment, the pump includes a supplementary water level-sensing chamber which has a first leg ascending from an inlet near its lower end to an overflow point at the top of a vertical barrier separating the first leg from a second leg which descends to the low pressure area of the impeller. The optical sensor is located at the overflow point such that the sensor will detect water and therefore activate the motor and the pump when the static water level is at least as high as the overflow point and will continue to detect water as the level subsequently drops because the pump will siphon water over the overflow point until the siphon is broken when the water level in the sump drops below the inlet of the first leg of the sensing chamber. When that occurs, the optical sensor will respond to the air drawn into the chamber by the pump and the control circuit will shut off the pump motor. In the preferred embodiment a single optical sensor is selectively positioned within the sump chamber to establish the pump-activating level. When the optical sensor senses water at this level, the pump motor is started, and once the water level falls below the pump-activating level, a signal for stopping the motor is generated. However, a delay circuit operates to delay the stopping of the motor for a predetermined time interval equal to the time required to pump a predetermined volume of water from the sump chamber. After this delay, the motor is stopped and will remain so until the liquid has again risen in the sump to the pump-activating level. In both embodiments, a single optical sensor functions to detect both the upper and lower levels which are predetermined to be the pump-starting and the pump-stopping control levels.

Submersible sump pump

A door hinge of the type adapted to urge a door to its closed position and to hold the door closed without the necessity of employing a latch mechanism. The hinge comprises a hinge member having an integral hinge pin portion formed thereon, a second hinge member having hinge portions rotatably mounted on the hinge pin, and a pressure member mounted on the second hinge member nd reacting against the first hinge member to urge the door to a closed position, the pressure member being operable to hold the hinge members in assembled condition.

Self-closing hinge

The fins of a heat exchanger are brazed to the exterior of the fluid-carrying tube by means of a lower melting point cladding on the tube which forms a secure bond between the tube surface and the unconfigured portion of the perimeter of the tube-receiving holes in the fins. The fins have a limited number of narrow tabs doubled back from the edge of each hole to function as longitudinal spacers between adjacent fins.

Method for bonding a heat exchanger fin to a tube

Fluid-carrying tubes for a heat exchanger are provided with internal longitudinal fins formed separately from the tube itself. One form utilizes individual elongated V-shaped strips biased radially outwardly by an annular sheet metal spring, with the tips of the fins brazed to the inner surface of the tube wall. Second and third embodiments utilize a one-piece corrugated sheet metal cylinder rather than individual strips, but with adjacent fins being almost completely severed from each other to provide sharp edge contact between the tips of the fins and the tube wall for optimum brazing. Either the fins or tube inner wall is clad with a lower-melting point material which permits furnace brazing of the fin tips to the tube wall. All three forms have longitudinally spaced holes and slots to enhance heat exchange by inducing transverse fluid flow through the fins and to allow liquid levels to equalize.

Internally finned tube

An apparatus for automatically closing a door with respect to a fixed support adjacent thereto which includes a torsional spring, a one-way clutch mechanism and a swash plate hydraulic damper concealably retained within a compact housing. The housing is secured to either the door or the fixed support and a first rotatable portion of the one-way clutch is coupled to the other of either of the door or fixed support so that the first rotatable portion rotates in a first direction when the door is opened in the opposite direction when the door is closed. The torsional spring is at least partially disposed about the one-way clutch mechanism and has one end anchored to the housing and the other end secured for movement with the first rotatable portion. As the door is opened, the first rotatable portion is rotated in the first direction to wind up the torsional spring. When the door is released, the torsional spring unwinds to reverse the process and close the door. As the torsional spring unwinds, the first rotatable portion is driven in the opposite direction causing the one-way clutch mechanism to drive a second rotatable portion in the opposite direction as well. The swash plate hydraulic damper includes a plurality of piston chambers formed in the second rotatable portion, a closed hydraulic circuit interconnecting the piston chambers, and a piston element slidably disposed in each of the chambers for sealing the same and having an end portion extending therefrom. The hydraulic damper includes a wedge-shaped swash plate whose upper surface operatively engages the exposed end portions of the piston elements to restrict the rotation of the second rotatable portion so as to control the rate at which the spring unwinds to close the door. The resistance encountered by the pistons can be selectively varied by adjusting the rotational position of the swash plate with respect to the bottom of the housing. In the preferred embodiment disclosed herein, the compact housing forms the central portion of an ordinary hinge having one plate secured to the door and the other plate secured to the door casing although the housing could be mounted on or within the door itself. The compact assembly of the present invention enables a door to be automatically closed with a relatively constant closing force and provides a means whereby the force may be selectively adjusted.

Door closing apparatus

Annular fins for a heat exchanger are fabricated in circumferential segments, arranged end to end, with each segment having inner and outer edges of identical but radially spaced contour, so that such segments can be stamped from a blank without any scrap created between the common edges of adjacent segments.

Growing community of inventors

Mesa, AZ, United States of America

Robert D MacDonald