GB2392813A

GB2392813A - Fluid Flow System

Info

Publication number: GB2392813A
Application number: GB0321411A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David John Dugmore; Denver Preece
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-09-12
Filing date: 2003-09-12
Publication date: 2004-03-17
Anticipated expiration: 2023-09-12
Also published as: GB0221110D0; GB0321411D0; GB2392813B

Abstract

A system for controlling flow of fluid to a plant container 18 comprising a fluid valve 1 including a valve body defining a flow passage (7,8, fig.1a); a valve element (4, fig. 1a) movable between an open and closed position; a mover element (3, fig. 1a) connected to the valve element; a movably mounted driver element 2 for magnetically moving the valve element and support means 10-17 for the container which transmits the force due to the mass of the container to the driver element. When the mass of the container reduces below a predetermined level the driver element causes the mover element to open the valve. The support means may suspend the plant container using a pivotally sprung beam 11, which is preferably adjustable to vary the mass threshold at which the valve element opens.

Description

Fluid Flow System This invention relates to a watering system for

controlling flow of water or other fluid to a plant-growing container.

There are number of automatic watering systems on sale. The most basic 5 uses a simple timer, which turns the water on and off for fixed periods. The problem with simple systems is that they tend to over or under water because there is no feedback relating to weather conditions i.e. when there have been long periods of sunshine or rainfall. The most successful systems use a computer, which uses various sensors and pickups to monitor the weather and 10 other factors, which affect the amount of water that is retained in the soil. These factors include rainfall, sunshine, temperature, wind, humidity, and ground drainage. All of this information is fed into the computer which works out the amount of water that the system needs, then sends a signal to an electrical solenoid 15 valve which turns on the water to the watering system. Because of the complexity of this type of system they are expensive and because they are operated by electricity, give added problems with safety and the need for an electricity supply. Embodiments of this invention are able to compensate for the above mentioned parameters and utilise a modified electrical solenoid valve, 20 without the use of electricity.

Accordingly, this invention provides a watering system for controlling flow of water or other fluid to a plant growing container said system comprising: a fluid valve including: a valve body defining a flow passage for fluid to pass into or

::: a:: e. ce:e À e.

2..' towards said container, a valve element movable between an open configuration, in which fluid may pass along aid passage and a closed position, in which flow along said passage is prevented, and 5 a mover element connected to said valve element; a movably mounted magnetic or magnetizable driver element for magnetically co-operating with said mover element to urge it to move the valve element between said open and closed positions, as the driver element moves between a first position and a second position, and 10 support means for said container and for transmitting at least part of the force due to the mass of said container to said driver element, whereby in use, as the mass of the container reduces beyond a predetermined level, said driver element moves to a point where it causes the mover element to move said valve element to an open position.

15 Preferably said fluid valve includes a spring bias which biases the mover element to urge the valve element towards a closed position.

The mover element is conveniently a generally cylindrical ferrous or magnetizable element mounted within a sleeve forming part of or attached to the valve body. In this case the driver element is preferably ringshaped, with said 20 sleeve passing generally co-axially through the centre thereof.

Said driver element and said mover element are preferably magnetically associated in a manner such that, in a cycle of loss of fluid from the container and subsequent replenishment, the mass threshold of the container necessary to cause the valve element to move to the open position to initiate fluid flow is

À : e: À. significantly less than the mass threshold necessary to cause the valve element to return to the closed position.

Although the support means may be used in different configurations, the support means preferably includes means for suspending the plant-growing 5 container in use. In this instance said support means may comprise a pivotally mounted beam element having to one side of the pivot region means for attachment to said driver element. A counterbalance mass may be movably mounted on said beam for movement to accommodate different masses of plant-growing container. Similarly said beam may have associated therewith 10 spring bias means for applying an adjustable bias to said beam.

In another embodiment, said support means may comprise an anchor element for attachment to a relatively fixed structure, and a lower element suspended from said anchor element by one or more spring means, with said lower element having means for carrying said plant-growing container, and also 15 supporting said drive element. This arrangement preferably includes means for adjusting said spring means to adjust, in use, the mass threshold of the plant growing container at which the valve element opens.

In the above arrangements, the fluid outlet from said valve may branch, with a portion of the outlet flow passing in use to the plant-growing container, 20 and the remainder thereof passing to one or more other locations. Here means may be provided for adjusting the proportion of the flow that passes in use to the plant-growing container.

Àc Àeecece4ee In preferred embodiments a permanent toroidal magnet is used to control the opening and closing of a modified electrical solenoid valve, by means, of the movement of a permanent toroidal magnet.

The weight or level of the water controls this movement. Consequently 5 the control component of this system is water.

It will be appreciated that the materials used in the manufacture of the system in the vicinity of the valve should be non-ferrous, for example: brass or plastic, the use of ferrous materials would affect the magnetic flux produced.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of 10 example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figures 1A to 1C are detail views of a valve arrangement used in this invention;. Figure 1D is a detailed view of a prior art electrically-operated servo

valve; 15 Figures 2A and 2B illustrate a first embodiment of this invention, and Figures 3A and 3B illustrate a second embodiment of this invention.

Referring initially to Figure 1D, this shows, in cross section, a standard servo-type, electrical solenoid valve. An electrical control coil 9 is fitted on the 20 valve stem, and when the coil 9 has an electrical current passed through it, a magnetic flux is produced which attracts the pilot valve 3 into the valve stem 5.

The pilot valve 3 compresses the spring 6. The servo valve 4 lifts and water flows from the inlet 7 to the outlet 8. When the electrical current is turned off, the

. :: te..e e. t:.: À À r magnetic flux is lost and the spring 6 pushes the pilot valve 3 onto servo valve 4 thereby shutting the valve and stopping water flow from inlet 7 to outlet 8...DTD: Referring now to Figures 1A to 1C, Figure 1A and Figure 1B show in cross section, and Figure 1 C shows in plan view, a non-electrical valve 5 arrangement used in this invention, in which the electrical coil 9 has been removed and replaced by a movable permanent toroidal ring-shaped magnet 2 (otherwise referred to as a driver magnet 2). Figure 1A shows the valve 1 in the closed position. The permanent toroidal magnet 2 is at the top of the valve stem 5 and the pilot valve 3 (otherwise referred to as a mover element 3) is not 10 affected by the magnetic flux produced by the permanent toroidal magnet 2 and the spring 6 forces the pilot valve 3 onto the seat of the servo valve 4 so that the valve is shut and water is prevented from flowing from the inlet 7 to the outlet 8.

Figure 1B shows the solenoid valve 1 in the open position. Here the permanent toroidal magnet 2 has moved down the valve stem 5. The pilot valve 15 3 has been attracted by the magnetic flux produced by the permanent toroidal magnet 2 and has lifted into the valve stem 5, against the bias of the spring 6.

The servo valve 4 is forced up against the valve body 1 by water pressure from inlet 7 and the valve opens to allow water to pass from the inlet 7 to the outlet 8.

When the permanent toroidal magnet 2 is moved back up the valve stem 20 5 towards the position shown in Figure 1A, there comes a point when the compressed spring 6 overcomes the attraction from the magnetic flux, produced by the permanent toroidal magnet 2. The pilot valve 3 is then forced onto the servo valve to close the solenoid valve closes and thereby stop water flow from inlet 7 to outlet 8.

:;:'.;: c.e'e,.e fe -:.e À Referring now to Figure 2; this embodiment implements a means of controlling the movement of magnet 2 by using a balance beam method, which is being used to control the amount of water fed to the hanging basket 18. The valve 1 is fixed to a wall bracket 10 with a balance beam 11 connected to the 5 wall bracket 10 at pivot 12. The toroidal magnet 2 is attached to one end of the balance beam 11.

The hanging basket 18 is hung on the other end of the balance beam 11.

The balance beam 11 is grooved at 13 to allow the hanging basket 18 to be moved incrementally nearer to or further away from the pivot 12. A spring 15 is 10 attached between the wall bracket 10 and the balance beam 11 and its preload or tension is adjustable via threaded anchorage 16 and adjusting nut 14. An adjustable weight 17 is attached to balance beam 11; the weight 17 is adjustable between pivot 12 and adjusting nut 14. To set up the system the dry hanging basket is placed on the balance beam 11. The adjustable weight 17 and the 15 spring 15 are adjusted so that the magnet 2 is at the bottom of the valve stem 5, as shown in Figure 2B in which position the valve 1 is open.

The arrangement of the driver magnet 2 and the mover element 3 provides a magnetic or hysteresis effect whereby the force applied to the driver magnet 2 needs to overcome an opposing threshold force generated by 20 interaction of the driver magnet and mover element, both to move the driver element from the closed position to the open position and vice versa. In other words there is a linear toggle effect, whereby having switched from one state to the other, a significant change in the force applied to the driver magnet by the plant container is required to switch back.

- - e -: À À e: À..e..: :..e This provides an important advantage in practical terms because it assists in providing a single snap open or snap closed operation of the valve, as opposed to repeatedly cycling between open and closed positions when the plant container is at the design mass, or due to minor disturbances such as wind 5 etc. When the water supply is attached to inlet pipe 19 and the valve is open, water flows through valve 1 to T-piece 20 then to outlets 22 and 23. Water from outlet 23 is fed to the watering system for more hanging baskets or may be used for general watering. Water from outlet 22 flows through feedback valve 21, and 10 this is used to control the amount of water fed back to the hanging basket 18.

According to the setting of feedback valve 21 water is fed to hanging basket 18, which gets heavier, eventually the weight of the hanging basket 18 will overcome the tension on spring 15 and the weight of the counterbalance 17. The balance beam 11 will turn on pivot 12 and lift magnet 2 up valve stem 5 to the 15 position 9 Fig 2A. The valve 1 then shuts and the, water is turned off.

Once the watering system shown in Fig 2 is correctly set up. Depending on climactic condition, various factors will case water to be lost or gained from the hanging basket as described below: À Water loss by evaporation from the plant of water taken by the plants 20 À Water collection by the hanging basket if it rains Reduced water loss from the basket if humidity is high À Increased water loss from the basket if humidity is low À Increased water loss with higher wind speed

-. À: t À À;,, I,

C À,,

À ' À Increased water loss with more sunshine and higher temperatures The loss or gain of water from the basket will result in it being lighter or heavier. As the plants in hanging basket 18 grow the basket gets heavier and the plants will require more water. This is achieved by moving the counter 5 balance weight 17 along the balance beam 11 nearer to the tension spring 15 or by adjusting the nut 14 to apply more tension to the spring 15.

If the system shown in Fig 2 is used to supply water only to the hanging basket 18, the outlet pipe 23 is sealed off. Feedback valve 21 is used to regulate how quickly hanging basket 18 is supplied with water from outlet pipe 22. If the 10 system shown in Fig 2 is to supply water to other water outlets, these outlets are connected to outlet pipe 23. The feedback valve 21 is used to control the amount of water fed to these outlets compared to the amount of water fed to hanging basket 18. For example: if outlet 23 is used to supply water to several hanging baskets, If feedback valve 21 is nearly shut, a small proportion of water 15 would flow from outlet pipe 22 and this would mean that hanging basket 18 would take longer to gain enough weight to turn off valve 1. This would cause a lot of water to flow from outlet pipe 23. If feedback valve 21 is opened fully, a large proportion of water will flow from outlet pipe 22 and this would cause hanging basket 18 to gain weight quickly and shut off valve 1, and so a smaller 20 proportion of water would flow from outlet pipe 23.

The water from outlet pipe 23 could be used for example to supply a garden sprinkler system, with the amount of water supplied to the sprinklers and duration of the watering cycle depending on the setting of feedback valve 21.

-. : ::: t. F'.. e. ',.e.: 8 À Referring now to Figures 3A and 3B, these show an embodiment which implements a means of controlling the movement of magnet 2 by using a spring weighing method, which is used to control the amount of water fed to hanging basket 18. In these embodiments the valve 1 is fixed to a threaded bar 27, and 5 on adjustment nut 29 moves a moveable plate 25 up or down threaded bar 27.

The magnet 2 is fixed to a lower plate 26. The lower plate 26 is attached to an upper adjustable plate 25 by expansion springs 24, and a bracket 30 is fixed to plate 26. The hanging basket 18 is attached to bracket 30 by a hook or the like.

As before water is fed into valve 1 by an inlet pipe 19. When valve 1 is open, 10 water flows through the valve to T-piece 20 and out through outlet pipes 22 and 23. Water flowing through the outlet pipe 22 is controlled by a feedback valve 21. To set up the system shown in Fig 3, the hanging basket 18 is hung on the bracket 30. The adjusting nut 29 is adjusted until the magnet 2 has travelled 15 up valve stem 5 as shown in Fig 3B. The water is turned on and when the valve is open it flows from inlet pipe 19 through valve 1 to T-piece 20 and out through outlet pipes 22 and 23. The hanging basket 18 collects water from the outlet pipe 22 and gets heavier. The tension springs 24 stretch under the increased mass and the plate 26 along with magnet 2 moves down valve stem 5.

20 Eventually the weight of the basket 18 moves the magnet 2 far enough down valve stem 5 and to shut the valve 1, turning the water off.

As in the embodiment of Figs 2A and 2B, the hanging basket will gain or lose water due to a variety of factors and the variation in mass of the basket will control the flow of the water.

A: À À e.: ::... As the plants in hanging basket 18 grow the basket gets heavier and the plants require more water. This is achieved by adjusting nut 29 to apply more tension to springs 24.

The feedback valve 21 is used and operated as described in the 5 embodiment of Figure 2A and 2B.

Claims

- -: :::; - t' À e: À CLAIMS

1. A watering system for controlling flow of water or other fluid to a plant growing container (18), said system comprising: a fluid valve (1) including: 5 a valve body defining a flow passage (7,8) for fluid to pass into or towards said container (18), a valve element (4) movable between an open configuration, in which fluid may pass along aid passage (7,8) and a closed position, in which flow along said passage (7,8) is prevented, and 10 a mover element (3) connected to said valve element (4); a movably mounted or magnetizable driver element (2) for magnetically co- operating with said mover element (3) to urge it to move the valve element (4) between said open and closed positions, as the driver element (2) moves between a first position and a second position, and 15 support means (10-17;24-30) for said container (18) and for transmitting at least part of the force due to the mass of said container to said driver element (2), whereby in use, as the mass of the container (18) reduces beyond a predetermined level, said driver element (2) moves to a point where it causes the mover element (3) to move said valve element (4) to an open position.

20

2. A watering system according to Claim 1, wherein said fluid valve

(1) includes a spring bias (6) which biases the mover element (3) to urge the valve element (4) towards a closed position.

3. A watering system according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said mover element (3) is a generally cylindrical ferrous or magnetizable element

- - - À -:

::: c.;; cee. he '..e À: À mounted within a sleeve (5) forming part of or attached to the valve body.

4. A watering system according to Claim 3, wherein said driver element (3) is ring-shaped, with said sleeve (5) passing generally co-axially through the centre thereof.

5 5. A watering system according to any of the preceding claims wherein said driver element (2) and said mover element (3) are magnetically associated such that, in use in a cycle of loss of fluid from the container and subsequent replenishment, the mass threshold of the container (18) necessary to cause the valve element (4) to move to the open position to initiate fluid flow 10 is significantly less than the mass threshold necessary to cause the valve element (4) to return to the closed position.

6. A watering system according to any of the preceding claims wherein said support means (10-17; 24-30) includes means (1 1;30) for suspending the plant-growing container (18) in use.

15

7. A watering system according to Claim 6, wherein said support means (10-17) comprises a pivotally mounted beam (11) element having to one side of the pivot region (12) means (13) for attachment to said driver element (2)

8. A watering system according to Claim 7, wherein a counterbalance 20 (17) mass is movably mounted on said beam (11) for movement to accommodate different masses of plant-growing container (18).

9. A watering system according to Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein said beam has associated therewith spring bias means (15) for applying an adjustable bias to said beam.

-by -id ': :::.;e eee. t;e ''t' ':

10. A watering system according to Claim 6, wherein said support means (24-30) comprises an anchor element (27-29) for attachment to a relatively fixed structure, and a lower element (26) suspended from said anchor element (27-29) by one or more spring means (24), with said lower element (26) 5 having means (50) for carrying said plant-growing container, and also supporting said drive element (2).

11. A watering system according to Claim 10, including means (29) for adjusting said spring means (24) to adjust, in use, the mass threshold of the plant-growing container (18) at which the valve element (4) opens.

10

12. A watering system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the fluid outlet from said valve branches, with a portion of the outlet flow (22) passing in use to the plant-growing container, and the remainder (23) thereof passing to one or more other locations.

13.A watering system according to Claim 12, including means (21) for 15 adjusting the proportion of the flow (22) that passes in use to the plant-growing container (18).

14.A watering system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference, and as illustrated in, any of the accompanying drawings.