Solenoid valve

Abstract

A solenoid valve incorporates a pressure chamber with passage to an inlet port, a pressure chamber with passage to an outlet port, and an electromagnetically-actuatable valve arrangement fitted in the fluid line between the two pressure chambers. The chambers are manufactured inside a housing inserted into a housing cavity bored into a mounting block. The opening or closing of the valve arrangement switches fluid lines, wherein each pressure chamber is fitted on either side in the axial direction with a seal in which the pressure-subjected area of each seal is virtually equal. Each pressure chamber is connected with passage to a corresponding inlet or outlet port. Thus, no axial force in any one direction is generated no matter how high the pressure becomes within a pressure chamber. Further, a pair of solenoid valves can be inserted face-to-face on either side of a housing cavity bored through the full length of the mounting block. The valve arrangement of each solenoid valve is set inside a common monolithic housing, thereby enabling another pressure chamber connected to either an inlet port or outlet port as appropriate, to be common to both solenoid valves.