Filtering Apparatus and Quick-Opening Backwash Valve Therefor

In the prior art there are numerous examples of valve structures which embody actuators which employ an impacting member to open the valve, and which employ pneumatic or hydraulic power actuators for operating the valve. The closest art known to applicant are the following patents:

A. Impacting member type:

U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,596,968 -- Aug. 24, 1926

1,854,605 -- Apr. 19, 1932

3,770,241 -- Nov. 6, 1973

B. Pneumatic and hydraulic actuator type:

U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,025,871 -- Mar. 20, 1962

3,623,509 -- Nov. 30, 1971

3,865,132 -- Feb. 11, 1975

3,884,251 -- May 20, 1975

The present invention relates generally to fluid filtering apparatus which are arranged to be cleaned by a reversed backwashing flow.

Heretofore, it has been generally known to provide filtering apparatus in which the filter unit is arranged to be connected for normal filtering flow of the fluid to be filtered in one direction through the filter, and periodically reverse the direction of flow through the filter to remove the accumulated filtered out media. In many installations, the reverse flow or backwashing procedure, as previously practiced, is not entirely satisfactory for the reason that much of the filtered out media becomes lodged in the filter and is not effectively removed by the usual reverse flow or backwashing process.

In the development of the filter apparatus of the present invention it was found that the backwashing procedure could be greatly improved by providing some means by which the backwashing flow could be initiated with an explosive-like surge which could be relied upon to effectively loosen and remove the embedded filtered out media. Moreover, further investigation indicated that such an explosive-like surge could be obtained by the utilization of a backwashing valve of large capacity which could be quickly opened by an inertial or other type of operator which could quickly move the valve to a full open position.

While the prior art discloses valve structures generally which utilize an impacting member for applying an impact force to open the valve, or arrangements which utilize pneumatic and hydraulic actuators, the prior art patents have not envisioned the concept of using the quick-acting valve in a filter backwashing arrangement.

The Hansen et al U.S. Pat. No. 1,596,968, issued Aug. 24, 1926 discloses a magnetically operated valve wherein a magnet is energized to actuate a toggle linkage which causes downward movement of a hammer in order to impart an impact force to a spring-loaded, normally closed valve.

The Tratsch U.S. Pat. No. 1,854,605, issued Apr. 19, 1932 discloses an air gun in which a hammer head is moved to compress a spring by pulling of a trigger rearwardly, and upon release of the hammer to forcibly strike the stem of the air valve so as to momentarily unseat the valve and permit a flow of pressurized air to propel the projectile.

It has also been known from the Allen U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,241, issued Nov. 6, 1973 to provide a hand actuated springbiased impacting member arranged for imparting motion to a transfer member, and subsequently to a one-way clutch means which rotates a closure member or valve element.

Pneumatic and hydraulic valve opeators are known generally, and as indicated by the Knight U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,251, issued May 20, 1975, it has been previously known to utilize a valve having a valve stem telescopically connected to a pneumatic or hydraulic power actuator.

The prior art disclosures as noted above are lacking in the essential features which are incorporated in the unique filtering apparatus and backwash valve of the present invention to produce a quick opening valve action which will result in the production of an explosive-like surge upon the initiation of the backwashing flow, and which will effectively dislodge the embedded filtered out media.

The present invention relates generally to filtering apparatus, and is more particularly concerned with a unique backwash valve of the quick opening type to produce an explosive-like surge in the backwashing flow of the filter upon the initiation of such flow, and in a unique filtering arrangement which permits the utilization of pressurized filtered fluid for the backwashing operation.

It is one object of the herein described invention to provide an improved and unique fluid filtering apparatus having backwashing means which utilizes the clean filtered fluid produced thereby.

It is a further object to provide filtering apparatus according to the preceding object, which embodies a fluid storage reservoir or chamber, and which has control valves that are operable to effect charging of the reservoir with filtered clean fluid in a manner to provide a source of pressurized fluid for use in a backwashing operation.

A further object is to provide filtering apparatus in which clean filtered fluid is utilized for the backwashing operation, and which embodies a quick opening, large capacity, backwash valve for producing a high-explosive initial surge of the backwash flow in order to more effectively dislodge the filtered out media in the filter.

A still further object is to provide a unique quick opening backwash valve of simple and relatively inexpensive construction, which has operating characteristics particularly adapting it for use with filters that are arranged to be cleaned by means of a reversed fluid backflow.

Another object is to provide an improved backwash flow valve which is quickly operable to an open position by means of a manually actuated impacting member.

Still another object is to provide a quick opening backwash valve which utilizes a fluid pressure responsive actuator in combination with a compression spring, to sequentially first compress the spring, thereafter establish a direct connection with the valve and move it to an initial unseated position, and whereupon the compressed spring may function to quickly open the valve in a manner to provide an explosive-like surge flow therethrough.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be brought out in the following part of the specification, wherein detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing several embodiments of the invention without placing limitations thereon.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are for illustrative purposes only:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of filtering apparatus according to the present invention, portions being cut away to disclose the operative relationship of the fluid storage reservoir and the filtering components, and other portions being in section to disclose the component parts of the manually actuated backwash valve, the valve being in closed position;

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially on line 2-2 of FIG. 1, and illustrating the respective flow paths of the pressurized fluid during a filtering operation, and during a backwash reverse flow cleaning operation;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but illustrating the manual operation of the impacting member and the resulting movement of the valve to an open position for initiating reverse fluid flow through the filter for carrying out the backwash operation;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary side view, similar to FIG. 1 but primarily being a longitudinal section to show the cooperative relationship of the backwash valve of FIG. 1 arranged to be operated by means of a pressurized fluid actuator, and which is shown in its normal deenergized condition wherein an associated primary compression spring is in a normally expanded state;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to that of FIG. 4, except that the actuator has been moved so as to compress the primary spring and closely approach a stop position where it will have established a direct connection with the valve, and initially unseat the valve as the actuator reaches its stop limit position;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5, except that the actuator is shown in a position against its limit stop, and the previously compressed primary spring has operated to move the valve to a fully opened position; and

FIG. 7 is a curve which graphically illustrates the changes in pressure of a pressurized fluid acting to hold a poppet valve in seated position, as the valve is moved from a closed position to fully opened position.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, for illustrative purposes, the invention is shown in FIG. 1 as comprising filtering apparatus, as generally indicated at 10, and being composed of a filtering unit 12 and a backwash valve unit 14, which are assembled and interconnected into a compact operative assemblage. The filter unit and backwash valve unit may be constructed of any suitable materials such as metal or plastic, and may be interconnected by various means and may assume various configurations, and are not to be limited to the particular materials, connection means, or configuration as illustrated herein.

More specifically, the filter unit is shown as comprising a lower cylindrical housing 16 and an axially aligned upper cylindrical housing 18. These housings have their inner adjacent ends closed by a common separating wall 19 having a central communicating opening 20. The lower end of the housing 16 is closed by an end wall 22, and the upper end of the housing 18 is closed by an end wall 24. A plurality of tie bolts 26 extend through the peripheries of the walls, these tie bolts being threaded to receive appropriate holding nuts 28. As thus arranged, the housing 18 forms a closed reservoir or chamber, except for the communicating opening 20. The housing 16 forms a filter chamber 32 arranged to house an appropriate filter cartridge 34.

The filter cartridge 34 is fabricated from suitable filtering material and shaped to provide an elongated tubular structure having an axial bore 36 extending between its ends. The respective ends of the filter cartridge are sealed with respect to their adjacent wall structures by means of appropriate annular sealing disks 38 which are provided in each case with a circumferentially extending grooved sealing flange 40 which overlaps the associated end of the cartridge and extends into an annular space 42 which extends between the inner surface of the housing 16 and the outer surface of the filter cartridge 34. The annular space 42 is in communication with a flow port 44 which constitutes the inlet for fluid to be filtered. The axial bore 36 of the cartridge has its uppermost end in communication with the chamber 30 through the opening 20, and the lowermost end of the bore 36 is in communication by means of a central opening 46 of the end wall 22 with a connection 48 which constitutes the filter outlet. This filter outlet leads to and is connected with an outlet control valve 50.

The backwash valve unit 14 is supported on one side of the filter unit and comprises generally a T-shaped body 52 fabricated of metal, plastic, or other suitable material. This body is internally provided with a flow passage 54 which extends between the flow port 44 and a discharge port 56, the flow passage being formed between the flow port 44 and discharge port 56 with a valve seat 58 for operative cooperation with a poppet valve member 60 to control fluid flow in the flow passage between the flow port 44 and discharge port 56. The portion of the flow passage containing the valve 60 is further provided with a fluid inlet port 62 which is connected with a fluid inlet control valve 64 for controlling the admission of pressurized fluid to the flow port 44 into the filter. The admitted pressurized fluid will act on the valve member 60 and urge it into a seated position against the valve seat 58 during a normal filtering operation in which the fluid will pass radially inwardly through the filter cartridge from the annular space 42 into the axial bore 36 and then downwardly through the outlet connection 48 and the valve 50.

The valve member 60 is mounted on one end of a valve stem 66 which extends through the valve seat 58 and is supported for reciprocable movements in a wall member 68 which is retained in assembled relation with the other components of the valve body by means of a plurality of tie bolts 70 and associated nuts 72, the tie bolts extending between body retaining clamping rings 74 and 76. The outermost end of the stem 66 projects beyond the wall member 68 and is appropriately sealed with respect to the flow passage of the valve body by a sealing ring 78.

In the filtering apparatus as disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 3, the backwash valve unit is arranged to be operated by means of an actuator of the inertia type, and which will operate in a manner to quickly move the valve member 60 from a seated position to an open position with such speed that the pressurized fluid will flow from the inlet side of the valve to the discharge side with an explosive-like surge which is utilized in the present invention to dislodge the entrapped filtered out media during a backwashing operation, as will be more fully explained subsequently.

More specifically, the above mentioned actuator is illustrated as comprising a generally cylindrical mass 80 that constitutes an impact member which is supported for axial movements within a tubular guide member 82, the guide member being supported in coaxial relationship to the stem 66 by slip fit connection of its inner end over an annular projecting flange 84 formed on the wall member 68. The impacting member 80 is guidingly supported in its movement by a pair of oppositely extending handles 86 which project through elongate guiding slots 88 in which the handles are laterally movable. The projecting outermost end of the stem 66 is formed with a head portion 90, preferably of an elastomeric material, this head portion being so spaced with respect to the valve member 60 that when the valve is moved to open position, the extent of such movement will be limited by the peripheral engagement of the head portion with the outer end edge of the annular flange 84 which thus functions as an abutment stop.

When it is desired to move the valve 60 from a closed position as shown in FIG. 1, to an open position as shown in FIG. 3, it is only necessary to manually grasp the handles 86 and by a quick movement of the impacting member 80, bring it into engagement with the head portion 90. This sudden impact force will quickly move the valve 60 from its seated position to a fully opened position as limited by the engagement of the head portion 90 with the abutment stop formed by the annular flange 84. Advantage is taken of this quick opening characteristic in effecting the backwashing operation of the filter, as will now be explained.

Considering that the filter is in normal operation, the valves 50 and 64 will both be open. When it is desired to initiate a backwashing operation, the valve 50 will first be closed to cut off the filter outlet. By maintaining the inlet valve 64 in open position, clean filtered fluid will then be forced upwardly through the opening 20 into the chamber 30, and as the fluid level rises in this chamber the entrapped air will be compressed until the air pressure in the chamber is equal to the pressure of the inlet fluid. The valve 64 is then closed, and further flow within the filter unit will be held in abeyance.

The backwash operation may now be initiated by forcefully moving the impacting member 80 into engagement with the head portion 90, whereupon the inertial impact forces will quickly displace the valve 60 from its seated position to a fully open position so as to allow large capacity flow from the flow port 44 past the valve and out of the discharge port 56. This action produces an explosive-like reverse surge of clean filtered fluid from the chamber 30, and this sudden surge will very effectively remove the lodged filtered media from the filter cartridge and carry it along with the discharge fluid to the discharge port 56. The path of reverse flow is indicated by the phantom flow arrows.

FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 illustrate a modified form of the invention in which the poppet valve 60 is arranged to be actuated by means of a fluid pressure power actuator. In this embodiment, the annular flange 84 has been extended so as to form an elongate tubular projection 84'. The sleeve 82 is now formed as a non-slotted cylinder 82', and at its outermost end is provided with a closure cap 92 which is bonded or otherwise secured to the outermost end of the cylinder 82'. Internally, this cap is formed with a circumferentially extending radial shoulder 94 which coacts with the end edge of the cylinder 82' to grippingly engage the periphery of a flexible diaphragm 96 which supports a movable wall 98 at one side of a fluid pressure chamber 100 having communication with a fluid flow connection 102.

In this structure, the outermost end of the valve stem 66 is formed with an end section 104 of reduced diameter and has a telescoping sliding connection with a tubular stem extension section 106. The outermost end of section 106 is enlarged to form a head portion 108 which is seated within a recess 110 in the adjacent face of the movable wall 98. The stem 66, at its juncture with the end section 104, fixedly mounts a cup member 112 with its open side facing the movable wall 98 and having its rim outwardly deflected to form a circumferentially extending flange 114. As thus arranged, it will be appreciated that the stem sections 104 and 106 provide in effect a lost motion connection between the movable wall 98 and the valve member 60. The arrangement also includes a primary coiled compression spring 116 which is positioned around the telescoped sections with one end bearing against the head portion 108, and its other end seated in the cup member 112. A lighter secondary compression coil spring 118 is positioned on the opposite side of the cup member 112 in end-to-end axial alignment with the primary spring, the secondary spring having one end bearing against the flange 114, and its other end bearing against the adjacent face of the wall member 68. By reference to FIG. 4, it will be seen that the secondary spring operates normally, with the actuator deenergized, to urge the valve 60 to a seated position. The primary spring 116 at this time provides a resilient connection between the movable wall 98 and the valve 60.

Upon energizing the actuator by supplying a pressurized fluid to the pressure chamber 100, a sequence of valve opening steps will be effected. The fluid pressure in the chamber 100 will move the wall 98 in a direction to compress the primary spring 116, and this spring compressing action will continue until the movable wall reaches a position as shown in FIG. 5 in which it is slightly spaced, as indicated at 120, from the adjacent end of the tubular extension 84'. At this position, the innermost end of the tubular section 106 will engage a bottom 122 of the cup member 112 and form a direct connection between the movable wall 98 and the valve 60 so that the further movement of the wall 98 through the space 120 will operate to initially unseat the valve 60.

When the valve 60 is unseated, the fluid pressure force which is normally urging the valve to a closed position will be radically reduced to such an extent that the primary spring 116 will become effective to quickly move the valve 60 to a fully open position and thus provide the previously described explosive-like surge in the reversed backflow during the backwashing operation. The opening movement of the valve is limited by the abutment of the cup 112 against a spring centering washer 124 surrounding the stem 66 and in engagement with the wall member 68.

In order to better understand the change which takes place in the fluid pressure force which retains the valve in closed position, and its relation to the primary spring force acting in a valve opening direction, reference is made to the typical curve 146 shown in FIG. 7. This curve represents the fluid force acting to close the valve, plotted against the distance of the valve above the valve seat. As will be seen from this curve, the fully compressed primary spring does not exert a sufficient force to open the poppet valve 60. The required force to initiate the valve opening is obtained from the fluid actuator, when the movable wall 98 is moved sufficiently to establish the direct connection between the movable wall and the valve 60. As soon as the valve is unseated a relatively small distance as indicated at D.sub.1, the fluid pressure holding the valve in closed position drops radically at a rapid rate to an amount below the opening force which is being exerted by the compressed primary spring, and which operates to quickly activate the valve to a fully opened position as indicated at D.sub.2.

From the foregoing description and drawings, it will be clearly evident that the delineated objects and features of the invention will be accomplished.

Various modifications may suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention and, hence, it is not wished to be restricted to the specific forms shown or uses mentioned, except to the extent indicated in the appended claims.