Throttle valve

Claim 1

A throttle valve for selectively varying the flow therethrough, said throttle valve comprising: (a) a housing; (b) a chamber formed within said housing, said chamber being substantially parallelepiped in shape and having a substantially greater length than width when viewed in plan; (c) first and second tubular members disposed at opposing extremities of said chamber, said tubular members being substantially parallel to said length of said chamber and being in fluid communication with said chamber; (d) a substantially planar plate disposed within said chamber so as to divide said chamber into first and second subchambers; (e) said plate being provided with throughgoing passages of substantially constant cross sectional area which establish fluid communication between said first and second subchambers; (f) a first multiplicity of bistable electromagnetically actuated armature translatably mounted in said housing adjacent sasid first subchamber, each of said first armatures being reciprocably translatable along a path substantially transverse to said substantially planar plate between a first position wherein each of said first armatures projects into said first subchamber and directly abuts said plate and a second position wherein each of said first armatures is retracted into said housing and does not project into said first subchamber; (g) a second multiplicity of bistable electromagnetically actuated armatures translatably mounted in said housing adjacent said second subchamber, each of said second armatures being reciprocably translatable along a path substantially transverse to said substantially planar plate between a first position wherein each of said second armatures projects into said second subchamber and directly abuts said plate and a second position wherein each of said second armatures is retracted into said housing and does not project into said first subchamber; and (h) electromagnetic actuation means for electromagnetically translating selected combinations of said first and second multiplicities of armatures between said first and second positions to thereby selectively alter the rate of fluid flow through said chamber and between said first and second tubular members over a wide ranges; whereby selected members of said multiplicity of first armatures and selected members of said multiplicity of second armatures may simultaneously be translated into their first positions directly abutting said plate while still permitting fluid flow between said first and second tubular members through said chamber.