Unit for the administration of liquids to animals, more specially a watering bowl

摘要

For controlling the rate of supply of water to a watering bowl, a diaphragm valve with a diaphragm is placed in the water connection system, one side of the diaphragm resting against a barrel-like part, the space within the barrel being joined up, for example, with the bowl while the space round the barrel on the same side of the diaphragm is joined up with the water inlet so that, when the diaphragm is moved clear of the end of the barrel, water may make its way from the inlet into the bowl. On the opposite side of the valve diaphragm there is a pilot control space into which water may make its way through a small hole in the diaphragm and out of the pilot control space into the bowl through a pilot valve system in the form of an opening and a moving pilot valve which is worked by a lever or the like in the bowl, by a float or by a pilot diaphragm acted upon by the liquid level in the bowl. When the pilot valve is shut, water will slowly make its way into the pilot control space so that the pressure therein goes up to the pressure of water let into the space on the other side of the diaphragm with the outcome that the diaphragm is sealingly pressed against the end of the barrel. If the pilot valve is moved clear of the pilot outlet, the head of water in the pilot control space at once goes down to the pressure in the bowl so that the valve diaphragm is moved clear of the end of the barrel and a large valve opening produced so that the bowl is quickly filled up even with a low water input head, while the force needed for working the pilot valve is small, even if the head of the input water is at a high value.