SOUND DAMPER FOR A MIXING VALVE

DISPOSITIF D'INSONORISATION POUR ROBINET MELANGEUR

English Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A sound damper in a mixing valve of the type com-
prising a valve body, a stationary ceramic disc located
in a seat in the body and having inlets for hot and cold
water and an outlet for mixed water, a moving ceramic disc
having an opening which cooperates with the openings of
the stationary disc for the control of the flows of cold
and hot water, a plastic piece being fixed on top of the
moving disc and a recess in the lower surface of the plastic
piece forming, together with the moving disc, a flow chamber
for water. Sound attenuation is achieved in a simple
manner by providing at the lower surface of the plastic
piece ribs which are integral with it and extend, mutally
parallel and mainly in planes normal to the moving disc,
in the flow direction of water, the ribs partly extending,
at the opening of the moving disc, down substantially as
far as the interface between the moving disc and the
stationary disc.

Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A sound damper in a mixing valve, which comprises
a valve body; a stationary ceramic disc located in a seat
in the body and having inlet openings for hot and cold water
and an outlet opening for mixed water; a movable ceramic
disc having an opening which cooperates with the openings
of the stationary disc for the control of the flows of cold
and hot water; a plastic piece fixed on top of the moving
disc; a recess provided in the lower surface of the plastic
piece and forming, together with the moving disc, a flow
chamber for the water; and a plurality of ribs provided at
the lower surface of the plastic piece, being integral
therewith and extending, mutually parallel and mainly on
planes normal to the moving disc, in the flow direction of
water, the ribs partly extending, at the opening of the
moving disc, down substantially as far as the interface
between the moving disc and the stationary disc, the lower
edges of at least the outer ones of the said ribs, as seen
from the said direction, being curved in such a manner that
the ribs extend deeper down at the inlets and at the out-
let.
2. A sound damper according to claim 1, wherein the
center rib extends mainly along its entire length down as
far as the interface between the moving disc and the
stationary disc.
3. A sound damper according to claim 1, wherein the
ribs are spaced substantially evenly across the entire
cross sectional area of the flow chamber.
4. A sound damper according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
the ribs are platelike and their thickness is about 0.6 mm,
and the distance between the ribs is about 0.6 mm.

Description

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The present invention relates to a sound damper
for a mixing valve, which comprises a valve body, a sta-
1ionary ceramic disc located in a seat in the body, with
inlets for hot and cold water and a discharge outlet for
mixed water, a movable ceramic disc with an opening which
~orks in conjuction with the inlets of the fixed disc
in order to control the flows of cold and hot water, there
being a plastic piece fixed on top of the movable disc,
the notch on the lower surface of the plastic piece, to-
lQ gether ~ith the opening in the movable disc, forming thewater flow space.
It is previously known to design the water-mixing
chamber in various ways to provide sound damping. In the
chamber, it is known to place sieves, different types of
sound damping material, and air-filled rubber cushions,
and it is also known to shape the chamber, especially to
provide its floor with grooves and protrusions in order
to produce sound damping.
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The object of the present invention is to provide
in a simple manner an effective sound damper for mixing
valves of thé type
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mentioned in the ingress, in which a plastic piece attached
to a moving ceramic disc is used for forming the mixing chamber.
The sound damper according to the invention is characterized in
that the lower surface of the plastic piece has ribs, which are
integral with the plastic piece and extend, mutually parallel
and mainly on planes normal to the moving disc in the water
flow direction, in which case the ribs at the opening in the
moving disc partly extend down substantially to the interface
between the moving disc and the stationary disc.
The ribs are preferably cast in one piece with said plastic
piece and it is advantageous, in view of sound attenuation,
that the ribs extend along the whole lower surface of the piece,
whereby water turbulence as well as clogging of impurities in
the mixing chamber is prevented. As seen from the side, the
ribs are preferably of a curved profile, so that at the posi-
tions of the inlet and outlet openings they extend essentially
down to the contact surface between the ceramic discs, whereas
in the middle part the ribs are of lower profile, thus providing
a sufficiently big flow space. It has been observed that even
such ribs of lower profile in the middle area provide a suffi-
cient guiding of the flow so that turbulence is effectively
prevented. The central rib can, at least at the first end, which
is at the water inlet end, extend down to the contact surface of
the discs along a longer distance, so that intermixing of the
cold and hot water takes place farther from the inlet openings.
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The ribs according to the invention can thus be cast
simultaneously when the plastic piece is being manufactured,
- and the ribs can advantageously have curved lower edges, as
seen in the flow direction of water, in which case the longest
parts of the ribs are, of course, situated at the opening of
the moving disc.
The invention and its other characteristics are described below
in greater detail in the form of an example and with reference
to the accompanying drawings, in which
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Figure 1 depicts a sectioned side view of a mixing valve
which can be controlled with one hand and is provided with a
sound damper according to the invention,
Figure 2 depicts the sound damper of the mixing chamber on a
larger scal~ along section A-A of Figure 1, and
FIgure 3 depicts a similar section as Figure 2 of a somewhat
modified sound damper.
The mixing valve depicted is of a generally known type, and
its operation is not described in detail in this context. The
valve comprises a body 1, and the essential parts of the valve
are placed in a seat inside the body. A ceramic disc 2 is
sealed in relation to the body; the inlets 7 for hot and cold
water (only one shown) are situated on the right-hand side in
the disc 2 in Figure 1, and the outlet 8 for mixed water is
situated on the left-hand side. To the stationary disc 2 there
is sealed by surface contact a moving ceramic disc 3, to ~hich
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there is further tightly fixed a plastic piece 4 which moves
along with it. The movement of the plastic piece and the moving
ceramic disc is produced by a lever 5 mounted to the body with
bearings, the hand lever 6 being attached to the lever 5.
The moving disc 3 has an opening which works in conjunction
with the inlets 7 of the stationary disc and, in a known manner,
controls the flow of hot and cold water and, furthermore,
together with the plastic piece forms the water flow chamber.
Through outlet 8, the water arrives in the discharge pipe 9.
In practice, the essential point is that on the lower surface
of the plastic piece 4 there are ribs 10 which are integral
with the plastic piece 4 and parallel to it, extending
substantially in the water flow direction. The arrangement of
the ribs is best seen in Figure 2. They provide good sound
damping and are also simple to manufacture. The ribs 10 are
preferably curved at their lower edges, as seen in Figure 1.
At the edges of the opening in the moving disc 3, the ribs
extend downwards as far as the interface between the discs
2 and 3. The thickness of the ribs can be, for example, about
0.6 mm, and they can be spaced about 0.6 mm apart.
Figure 3 depicts an embodiment slightly deviating from that in
Figure 2; in it, the center rib 10 extends, along all of its
length, down as far as the interface between the discs. In
this manner, a separation of the hot and ~old water channels,
known E~ se, is achieved before the outlet 8.