小型化トリガ機構を備えた正圧駆動式オーバーフロー防止弁

抄録

A new over-flow prevention valve with a trigger mechanism is designed, fabricated and studied experimentally to evaluate its performances. Loading arms are used to transfer combustible fluid such as oil between tankers and tanks. A loading arm is equipped with an over-flow prevention valve for safety. This valve stops the fluid flow when the fluid exceeds a threshold level in a tank. It must be composed of mechanical elements solely because electric components may induce combustion. Therefore, it uses a pneumatic circuit to detect the fluid level and close the valve. The fabricated valve utilizes positive pressure caused by the height difference of fluid level between the tank and the sensor probe instead of negative pressure that was used in a conventional valve. However, the positive pressure is insufficient to close the valve directly. Therefore, a trigger mechanism is introduced between a piston pushed by the positive pressure and a locking mechanism keeping the valve open. This mechanism generates sufficient force to release the lock and close the main valve from the force pushing the piston. The concept, operation principles and the pneumatic circuit design are presented. Experiments simulating actual operation are carried out with the fabricated valve. The sensor probe is inserted into the water with a constant speed by a single-axis robot instead of flowing oil into the tank. The relation between the velocity and the depth when the valve closes are studied experimentally.