Ball-type valve

Claim 1

A valve comprising: a. a hollow housing having spaced-apart coaxial inlet and outlet flow ports defining a flowway through the housing; b. a closure member comprising a generally spherical body mounted in the housing betweeN said flow ports for rotation about a central axis between positions opening and closing said flowway; c. annular seat means about said inlet port; d. a spherical segment of said body having its spherical axis intersecting and normal to said central axis and defining a closure portion sealingly engageable with said seat means in the flowway closing position; e. a generally L-shaped passage through the body comprising a circular inlet end portion extending on a main axis normal to the axis of said spherical segment merging into an outlet end portion defined by a laterally extending slot of generally triangular shape encompassing said spherical and main axes and having a width substantially equal to the diameter of said inlet portion; f. a flowway-straightening element mounted in the housing to extend from said outlet flow port into said outlet end portion constructed and arranged to constrain fluid flow axially through said flowway at all positions of said closure member between fully open and fully closed; g. said flow-straightening element comprising a cylindrical body having a diameter closely approaching the width of said slot, the inlet end of said body being spherical in shape; a plurality of parallel ducts extending longitudinally from end to end of said body; and means securing said body to the valve housing; and h. means carried by the housing for rotating said closure member between said portions.