Fluid control valve assembly

Claim 1

A control valve assembly for controlling the admission and discharge of fluid to, and from, fluid-powered actuator means, comprising: a pair of identical control valves, with each of said valves including a cylindrical bore passing through a valve body, a cylindrical tappet reciprocable in one end of said bore and protruding therefrom, sealing means between said bore and said tappet to prevent egress of fluid from the bore, a valve seat provided with a circular channel coaxial with said bore inset into the other end of the bore, a conical valve head removably secured to said tappet by means of an elongated valve stem, and resilient spring means entrapped in said bore between said tappet and said valve seat for urging said valve head into fluid-sealing contact with said channel; fluid manifold means in communication with said other end of the bore of each of said pair of control valves said fluid manifold means having an inlet/outlet means for communicating with a fluid-powered actuator means; fastener means, for securing said pair of control valves to a surface of said manifold means; valve actuating means, including a carrier member secured to at least one of said valve bodies, a rocking beam pivotably secured to said carrier member and superimposed above the protruding portions of said tappets in said valves, and operating means for controllable pivoting of said rocking beam from a neutral position equally spaced from both of said tappets into bearing contact with either tappet; and fluid port means communicating with said bore in each of said control valves, intermediate between said tappet and said valve seat, adapted to interconnect one of said valves with a source of pressurized fluid and the other of said valves with a sink for fluid, whereby, by selective pivoting of said rocking beam through said operating means, said actuating means may be placed in communication with either said source or said sink.