Gate valve body rib reinforcement

Claim 1

A gate valve comprising a body formed of flat end walls secured to spaced parallel sidewalls, the end walls having aligned openings forming flow passages, a gate within the body and movable between open and closed positions relative to the flow passages, hubs or pipe sections secured to the end walls in regions immediately surrounding the flow passages, a pair of ribs disposed in a common plane perpendicular to the end walls and extending across the body, said ribs being disposed adjacent to said openings, tie members secured to the extremities of said ribs and extending across the sides of the body, said members serving to tie the extremities of the ribs together at each side of the body, each rib having pads formed on their inner edges and disposed adjacent each side margin of the end wall and in abutting engagement with the same, each rib also having a medial portion between said pads and spaced therefrom, said medial portion being fixed to the adjacent medial portion of the end wall by welding, said pads also being spaced in their entirety from said tie members toward said medial portions, said ribs serving to reinforce the end walls against deflection under forces applied to the hubs or pipe sections tending to deflect the end walls inwardly of the body and also to reinforce the end walls against outward deflection.