The Singer Company

Theodore Emil Kwast

Gordon M Smith

Joseph S Danon

A valve operator is connected to a pipeline valve to control the throughput flow therethrough. A plurality of chambers are formed in the housing including control, balancing, bleed and regulator chambers. A poppet valve and an orifice device are disposed in the bleed chamber to be independently shiftable therein to vary the discharge from the orifice device which is shifted responsive to the pressure in the control chamber, while the poppet valve is shifted responsive to the pressure in the regulator chamber. A reset valve is connected in a reset loop connected between the control and balancing chambers to produce a predetermined delay in balancing the pressure gradient therebetween. The regulating chamber is formed in a regulator section of the housing to be detachably connected thereto so that a plurality of regulator sections can be formed each having a different operative pressure range so that the valve operator is selectively usable for example for high, medium and low pressure operation. The reset valve is adjustable to permit the delay to be set as desired.

Valve operator

A slam-shut valve or overpressure shutoff device used in series with, and upstream of, a pressure regulator to provide overpressure protection for apparatus downstream of the pressure regulator in the event of regulator failure. Overpressure or failure of the regulator automatically triggers operation of the slam-shut valve to close the same and prevent further passage of the gas through the pipeline. The slam-shut valve is normally in the open position, and the invention provides for manually resetting the slam-shut valve to reset it in the open position once it has been triggered closed. The valve element is carried on a lever which is pivotally mounted on a reset shaft and spring-biased to close, but prevented from closing by the latch which releasably holds the lever in the open position. The reset shaft is turnable from an external fitting, but will not function until the shaft has been depressed to lock a bolt head in the correspondingly-shaped socket of the lever, whereby on rotation of the shaft, the lever will be raised to re-engage the latch and once again hold the slam-shut valve in the open position. The reset assembly is used subsequent to the overpressure condition being corrected. A further safeguard is embodied in the reset assembly by use of an equalizing valve interconnecting the lever and valve element, and being automatically operated to equalize the pressure upon the initial movement of the reset shaft during the resetting operation.

Reset assembly for slam-shut valves

A method and apparatus for removing a flow control device mounted between two opposed flanges of a pipeline wherein the flanges are clamped together by a plurality of studs. The method comprises the steps of clamping a pair of axially expandable flange spreaders to hold the opposed flanges in axial aligned position. Next, all of the studs are removed or loosened to permit access to the flow control device. Stop means are appended to the flange spreaders at the inside basis of the flanges. Lastly, the flange spreaders are expanded to permit removal of the flow control device from the pipeline. Reversal of the procedure will permit reassembly of the pipeline. Each of the flange spreaders comprises a pair of interconnected members that are axially expandable or contractable, and initially are clamped in position to hold the opposing flanges in axial alignment. The stop means will be appended to the members to engage the inner face of the opposing flanges whereby on axially expanding the flange spreaders the opposing flanges will be axially forced apart. The flange spreaders may include a jackscrew threadedly connected to a base having a portion abutting the inner face of one of the flanges, and a jackscrew stop adapted to be connected to the jackscrew to abut the inner face of the other flange.

Growing community of inventors

Anaheim, CA, United States of America

Theodore Emil Kwast