Nov 16, 2012
As you can tell if you have been reading these recent posts I'm working on gas valve design. We are going to need good control of very low flow rates. Very low. On the order of 1E-3 to 1E-6 cc/second at STP.
A gas valve with a major orifice .200" in diameter will not give us much control. It goes from fully on to fully off (at the very low flow rates required) with a travel of .1 thousandth of an inch. What can be done to increase the travel and also increase the flow control?
Angle the sealing plate (assuming a soft seal such as an O-ring). This will give more control as the valve comes closer to full off. It will also make the control algorithms trickier as the gain goes up with increased opening. An orifice plate in the vale would be a help in limiting maximum flow (gain) and it would help increase control in the proportional range by adding a flow resistance to the valve resistance.
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