Control valve

Claim 1

A control valve comprising a valve housing, a membrane wall sealingly clamped in said housing and forming therewith two separate chambers adapted to be subjected to different pressures, respectively, the housing having a valve seat in one of said chambers, and a valve body coacting with said seat and secured to the central portion of the membrane wall to follow movements of said wall axially thereof, the membrane wall including two separate membrane members, one on each side of said wall facing a corresponding one of said chambers, and a plurality of stiff support elements located between said membrane members, said support elements being movable relative to each other and each having one end pivotally connected to the valve housing and the opposite end pivotally connected to the valve body, whereby axial loads on the membrane members are transferred through the support elements to said housing and valve body, the control valve being characterized in that each support element has the general form of a circle sector, said sector elements, when in a common plane, coacting with each other to form a generally continuous planar circular support disc supporting the membrane members across substantially their entire surfaces, said support disc being axially flexible into a slightly conical form in which the radially inner portions of the sector elements have a greater spacing from each other than when in said common plane.