초록 ▼

An automatically operating valve for regulating water flow, especially a mixing valve for automatically mixing hot water and cold water to obtain a mixed water of a desired temperature is characterized by employing piezoelectric actuators for operating valve bodies thereof. Due to such a constructio

An automatically operating valve for regulating water flow, especially a mixing valve for automatically mixing hot water and cold water to obtain a mixed water of a desired temperature is characterized by employing piezoelectric actuators for operating valve bodies thereof. Due to such a construction, the valve can not only fully close or open but also carries out the fine flow amount control by regulating the opening rate or angle of the valve body. Especially in case the automatically operating valve is a mixing valve, the mixing ratio of hot water and cold water can be accurately regulated so that the mixed water of a desired temperature can be always automatically obtained.

대표청구항 ▼

An automatically operating valve for regulating water flow comprising (a) a casing having inflow passage means at one side thereof and outflow passage means at other side thereof and a communicating portion disposed in said casing and having valve seat means formed therein, said inflow passage means

An automatically operating valve for regulating water flow comprising (a) a casing having inflow passage means at one side thereof and outflow passage means at other side thereof and a communicating portion disposed in said casing and having valve seat means formed therein, said inflow passage means and said outflow passage means communicating with each other by way of said communicating portion, (b) valve body means operably disposed in said casing and capable of moving toward or away from said valve seat means and coming into contact with said valve seat means for regulating flow of water through said communicating portion, and (c) piezoelectric actuator means for operating said valve body means, said piezoelectric actuator means comprising (i) a cylindrical actuator casing, (ii) a plunger disposed in said actuator casing on an axis of said actuator casing, said plunger being movable in an axial direction, (iii) a pair of clamping piezoelectric elements disposed around said plunger, said clamping piezoelectric elements being axially spaced apart from each other, (iv) a stroke clamping piezoelectric element disposed around said plunger and between said clamping piezoelectric elements and (v) a control device for applying pulse-like voltage to said clamping piezoelectric elements and stroke piezoelectric elements based on a sequential operation program stored in a memory of said control device.