Hydraulic damper spool valve

摘要

A hydraulic damper assembly includes a main body, a shaft assembly and a main piston operatively configured to define an upper portion and a lower portion within the main body. A hydraulic damper spool valve is adapted to provide a single path, variable hydraulic flow restriction between the upper portion and lower portion of the main body. The hydraulic damper spool valve is configured with an array of precisely shaped flow apertures that are proportionally opened and closed by a pair of valve spools in response to the pressure differential across the main piston. The damper's pressure-flow operating characteristic is simply and predictably dictated by the geometric configuration of the shaped flow apertures. The precisely defined open area of the shaped flow apertures provides a mathematically predictable hydraulic flow restriction that operates predominately in a turbulent regime resulting in insensitivity to hydraulic fluid viscosity and consequently temperature change.

主权项

1. A hydraulic damper spool valve for a hydraulic damper comprising:
a valve body configured with openings at its opposing ends one of which is in fluid communication with an upper portion of the hydraulic damper and the other is in fluid communication with a lower portion of the hydraulic damper; a hollow cylindrical valve sleeve defining an internal bore and adapted to be fixed within the valve body so as to create a closed outer volume and an inner volume that directly connects the valve body openings; the hollow cylindrical valve sleeve configured with shaped apertures adapted to hydraulically connect the inner and outer volumes; a pair of valve spools operatively configured to be moveably disposed within the internal bore of the valve sleeve and adapted to selectively block the shaped apertures; the valve spools configured with one-way check shims adapted to allow hydraulic flow out of the inner volume; a resilient energy storage member disposed between the valve spools away from each other and in opposing direction to forces generated by operating pressures in the damper's hydraulic fluid; such that when the energy storage member is compressed as operating pressure is induced at either of the valve body openings one or the other of the valve spools moves relative to the valve sleeve so that an open area of the shaped aperture varies in a proportional relationship to the pressure thereby varying a hydraulic flow restriction between the upper portion of the hydraulic damper and the lower portion of the hydraulic damper and the hollow cylindrical valve sleeve is configured with an array of rebound flow apertures at one end, an array of compression flow apertures at its opposite end and an array of transfer flow apertures in proximity to its centre and the pair of valve spools consists of a rebound control valve spool configured to selectively open and close the rebound flow apertures and a compression control valve spool configured to selectively open and close the compression flow apertures; and the rebound control valve spool is configured with a flat outer surface, the compression control valve spool is configured with a flat outer surface, and the valve body is configured with stop surfaces which that when no operating pressure exists in the damper the resilient energy storage member biases the valve spools in opposing directions so that the flat outer surfaces of the valve spools abut the stop surfaces of the valve body and the rebound control valve spool completely blocks the array of rebound flow apertures and the compression control valve spool completely blocks the array of compression flow apertures so that there is no hydraulic path between the upper portion of the hydraulic damper and the lower portion of the hydraulic damper.