Plastic ball valve ball seal means
In a ball valve comprising a valve body, conduit portions extending from said valve body, said valve body having a chamber therein, BALL VALVESsaid conduit portions defining a flow passageway therein extending through said chamber, said valve body having a bore therein normal to said flow passageway, Bellow Seal Valvea ball member disposed in said chamber and movable between closed and open positions in said flow passageway, a valve stem disposed in said bore and connected to said ball member, a pair of annular seats disposed in said chamber and adapted to engage said ball member, Cast Steel Valves and a seat retainer for each of said annular seats adapted to retain one of said annular seats, an improvement in which said seat retainers are slidably movable in respective annular grooves in said chamber, each of said grooves being defined by inner and outer concentric walls interconnected by an end wall formed in said chamber, each of said grooves being disposed concentrically of said flow path and extending in a direction axially of said flow path, said slidable movement of said seat retainers thereby being in said direction axially of said flow path and between said inner and outer walls to permit floating of said seats, such that said seats and said seat retainers maintain contact with said ball member in assembly of said valve. An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide improved sealing means for a ball member of a plastic ball valve, of the type above described, which sealing means may be put in place during assembly of the valve and may be depended upon to self-adjust to movement of the ball member during assembly of the valve, to maintain sealing engagement with the ball member. With the above and other objects in view, as will hereinafter appear, and in accordance with a feature of the present invention there is provided in a ball valve comprising a body member, conduit means extending from the body member, the conduit means defining a flow passageway therein extending through the chamber, the body member having a bore therein normal to the flow passageway, a ball member disposed in the chamber and movable between closed and open positions in the flow passageway, a valve stem disposed in the bore and connected to the ball member, a pair of annular seals disposed in the chamber and adapted to engage the ball member, and a seal retainer for each annular seal and adapted each to retain one of the annular seals, an improvement in which the seal retainers are movable in grooves in the chambers to permit floating of the seals, such that the seals and the seal retainer maintains contact which the ball member in assembly of the valve. The above and other features of the invention, including various novel details of construction and combinations of parts, will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims. It will be understood that the particular valve embodying the invention is shown by way of illustration only and not as a limitation of the invention. The principles and features of this invention may be employed in various and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.
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