Hydraforce, Inc.

Tomasz Slawinski

Joel Mekkes

Markus Bissbort

Damiano Roberti

David A Dornbach

Anthony Casale

Valeriy Kazak

Jianping Chen

A hydraulic suspension system includes a suspension cylinder, a pump, and a control valve therebetween. The control valve includes a spool reciprocally movable between a pump flow position and a tank flow position in which a control port of the control valve is in communication with a pump and a tank, respectively. A piloted logic element in fluid communication with and interposed between the control valve and the suspension cylinder is selectively movable between a through-flow position in which fluid can flow in either direction between a chamber of the suspension cylinder and the control port of the control valve and a blocked position in which fluid is prevented from flowing in or out of the chamber of the suspension cylinder. The logic element is biased to the blocking position, moving to the through-flow position when subjected to a crack pressure delivered from the control port of the control valve.

Hydraulic suspension for vehicle and multi-functional proportional control valve for the same

A proportional motion control valve includes an electro-mechanical actuator that provides an infinitely controlled pressure setting in response to an electric signal applied to the electro-mechanical actuator. In another aspect, a proportional motion control valve includes a pilot-operated valve disposed intermediately with respect to a cage and a valve body to fluidly isolate an internal cavity of the valve body from a bore of the cage. The pilot-operated valve is subjected to a hydraulic opening force of pilot fluid that is present in the bore of the cage. A spring is disposed within the internal cavity of the valve body and arranged to subject the pilot-operated valve to a closing spring force.

Method of controlling proportional motion control valve

Multi-functional proportional control valve for hydraulic suspension system for vehicle

Proportional motion control valve

A self-cleaning filter for use in a valve is disclosed. The valve can include a bore, an orifice disposed in the bore for accommodating a fluid flow therethrough, and a filter disposed in the bore between the input port of the fluid flow being filtered and the orifice being protected. The filter can include an entrance head in predetermined spaced relationship with the bore of the valve to define a filter entrance and a body portion. The entrance head can be configured to prevent particles of a predetermined size from entering the filter entrance. The body portion can include at least a portion that has a different shape than the entrance head which cooperates with the bore to define a fluid passage. The fluid passage can have an exit port which is communicable with the orifice to send filtered fluid to the orifice. The filter can include an offset portion which extends beyond an end face of the bore which is useful to develop pressure gradients which provide for a self-cleaning function. In some embodiments, the filter can include an integral orifice.

Self-cleaning filter

A cartridge relief valve uses a piston design. The piston replaces a tube used in prior art relief valves. The piston makes the inventive relief valve easier to manufacture and more stable than prior art relief valves. This is due to the fact that, for a given size valve, the diameter of the piston is smaller than the diameter of the tube that it replaces. Furthermore, the diameter of the pilot seat of the inventive relief valve is also smaller than the diameter of the pilot seat of many prior art valves.

Cartridge relief valve with improved stability

A valve having a mechanism for stabilizing the flow of fluid, such as in response to a nonlinear force, is disclosed herein. According to an embodiment of the valve, a tube is anchored within a retainer, and a solenoid mounted on the tube. A pole piece is fixed within the tube, and an armature is slidably disposed within the tube adjacent to the pole piece. A generally frustoconical gap is defined between the pole piece and the armature. A flexible, non-magnetic washer is disposed within the conical gap. The flexible washer counteracts the effect of a non-linear magnetic force by providing a non-linear force in opposition. The result is that the flow of fluid though the valve as well as the valve pressure is stabilized, in contrast with the prior art.

Growing community of inventors

Northbrook, IL, United States of America

Tomasz Slawinski