N. Davis
Maui Innovation Group,
United States
Keywords: Valve, Leakproof, Magnetic Actuation
Summary:
The history of Magnetic Valves stretches back to at least 1942 with Ralph G Carlson’s US Patent #2,289,574 when he worked at Crane Valves, and the subject has been revisited nearly every decade since. However, no previous magnetic valve technology was able to withstand high temperatures, hence the most compelling use cases weren’t possible. All prior generations of magnetic valves contained internal magnets making high temperature operation extremely difficult to achieve. Dr. Davis’s recent work changed all of this. Rather than relying on pairs of opposing magnets (permanent or induced for example electromagnetically) facing each other across a sealed interface, his design creates a magnetic flux circuit that is completed thru a magnetically asymmetric core within the sealed valve. In layman’s terms, a magnet pole outside of the sealed valve interacts with another opposing magnet pole also outside of the valve via a magnetically conductive path traversing the valve – and this magnetic flux path has preferred orientations – This is a novel approach allowing the magnets to be placed outside of the sealed portion of the valve and away from temperature extremes and caustic working fluids.