Watts Water Technologies, Inc.

Watts Regulator Company

Zoltan Goncze

James C Graves

A thermostatic mixing valve including a cold water bypass passageway controlled by a pressure-operated check valve that opens upon a failure of a hot water supply to the valve for use with safety devices, such as eyewash and drench shower stations. The thermostatic mixing valve allows the continued delivery of cold water upon a failure of a hot water supply. The lack of hot water causes a cold water valve opening to be closed by a thermal motor, which retracts upon the lack of hot water, yet the bypass passageway is adapted to allow cold water to bypass the thermal motor-controlled cold water valve opening and be directed to the outlet of the valve.

Thermostatic mixing valve

A thermostatic mixing valve (TMV) having a mixing chamber with a plurality of pockets defined therein. The mixing chamber receives cold water flow and hot water flow that has been passed through respective flow inlets and mechanically forced into the pockets defined within the chamber due to axial movement of the plunger. As the hot and cold flow moves into and out of the pockets, the flow streams disperse rather than being maintained in separate flow streams toward the thermostatic element. Because of the increased agitation, the thermostatic element is therefore able to sense a more accurate mixed flow temperature even at low flow rates.

An automatic compensating valve, e.g., for individual shower and tub/shower combination fixtures, has a valve body defining cold and hot water inlet flow passageways, a mixing chamber, a mixed temperate water outlet flow passageway, and an axial bore. The valve includes a plunger that defines, with other elements of the valve, a first orifice for communication of the cold water inlet with said mixing chamber and a second orifice for communication of hot water inlet with mixing chamber. The plunger is mounted within a mixing subassembly for axial movement within the bore, including in response to temperature of water within the mixing chamber to vary the ratio of flow of cold water through the first orifice to flow of hot water through the second orifice. The first orifice and the second orifice are arranged for flow of water transverse to axial movement of the plunger within the bore. The valve further includes a wax motor mounted axially within the bore for positioning of the plunger in response to temperature of water within the mixing chamber.

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Sandown, NH, United States of America

Zoltan Goncze