VALVE ASSEMBLY

Abstract

A valve assembly with at least two valve modules is described, wherein the valve modules are arranged one beside the other in a line-up direction. The valve assembly also comprises an indicating device for displaying a state of the valve modules and/or of the valve assembly and/or of a component connected to the valve assembly. In the line-up direction the indicating device continuously extends over all valve modules.

Claims

1. A valve assembly with at least two valve modules which are arranged one beside the other in a line-up direction, and with an indicating device for displaying a state of at least one of the valve modules, the valve assembly and a component connected to the valve assembly, wherein the indicating device is a display for outputting text and/or symbols, which in the line-up direction extends continuously over all valve modules.

2. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the display extends across the entire width of the valve modules.

3. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the indicating device comprises display fields whose number corresponds to the number of the associated valve modules and which each are geometrically allocated to one of the valve modules.

4. The valve assembly according to claim 3, wherein in each of the display fields text and/or at least one symbol can be displayed, wherein the text and/or the symbol corresponds or correspond to a state of the valve module associated to the display field.

5. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein text and/or at least one symbol can be displayed in the indicating device substantially over its entire extension in the line-up direction, wherein the text and/or the symbol corresponds or correspond to a state of one of the valve modules.

6. The valve assembly according to claim 4, wherein the text and/or the symbol in each of the display fields can be displayed in temporal alternation with the text and/or the symbol over the entire extension of the indicating device in line-up direction.

7. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the indicating device is arranged in a display module of the valve assembly and the extension of the display module in the line-up direction substantially corresponds to the extension of the indicating device.

8. The valve assembly according to claim 7, wherein connections for sensors are arranged on the display module.

9. The valve assembly according to claim 8, wherein the connections for sensors each are arranged in a region of the display module which in line-up direction corresponds to the extension of the valve module associated to the respective connection.

10. The valve assembly according to claim 9, wherein the display module is formed and connected such that both the states of one or more integrated solenoid valves of a valve module and the states of the actuator connected to the valve module and controlled by the same are indicated, wherein on the same display module the sensor inputs are arranged, which report back the states of the actuator.

11. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the valve modules are mounted on a common carrier module.

12. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the common display is the only indicating device of the individual valve modules and the same otherwise do not have their own indicating devices.

13. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein in the line-up direction additional modules are arranged beside the valve modules and in the line-up direction the indicating device substantially extends across the entire width of the valve modules and the additional modules.

14. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the indicating device is coupled with a control unit arranged in the valve assembly and acts as output unit of the control unit.

15. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the indicating device is coupled with a bus line and acts as output unit associated to the bus line.

16. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein it comprises a plurality of indicating devices and in the line-up direction the indicating devices each extend substantially across the width of a group of adjacent valve modules, wherein to each valve module at least one indicating device is associated.

17. The valve assembly according to claim 1, wherein the display is an LCD display, an OLED display, a vacuum fluorescent display or an e-paper display.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a valve assembly according to the invention,

[0025] FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of a valve assembly according to the invention,

[0026] FIG. 3 shows an indicating device of a valve assembly according to the invention in a first state,

[0027] FIG. 4 shows an indicating device of a valve assembly according to the invention in a second state,

[0028] FIG. 5 shows an indicating device of a valve assembly according to the invention in a third state,

[0029] FIG. 6 shows an indicating device of a valve assembly according to the invention in a fourth state,

[0030] FIG. 7 shows a third embodiment of a valve assembly according to the invention, and

[0031] FIG. 8 shows a fourth embodiment of a valve assembly according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a valve assembly 10 which comprises four valve modules 12a to 12d.

[0033] In the valve assembly 10 there is also arranged a display module 14 in which an indicating device 16 in the form of a display is provided.

[0034] To the valve modules 12a and 12b a first component 18 in the form of an actuator, here a first pneumatic cylinder or first pneumatic valve, and to the valve modules 12c and 12d a second component 20 in the form of a second actuator, here a pneumatic cylinder or second pneumatic valve, is connected, so that each valve module has an integrated solenoid valve.

[0035] Frequently, however, a valve module has two solenoid valves and hence two outputs to which a pneumatic cylinder, e.g. on opposite sides of a piston or actuating member, or a pneumatic valve is connected, i.e. one solenoid valve for aeration and one solenoid valve for deaeration. The pneumatic valve then is closed by means of a spring and opened with air.

[0036] In FIG. 1 this variant is indicated with broken lines for the valve modules 12a and 12d. In this case, the valve modules 12b and 12c can be omitted.

[0037] The indicating device 16 substantially extends in a line-up direction 22 of the valve modules 12a to 12d, which are represented by an arrow, continuously over all valve modules 12a to 12d.

[0038] FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the valve assembly 10. In the following, merely the differences to the first embodiment from FIG. 1 will be discussed.

[0039] In the embodiment of FIG. 2 an additional module 24, which here is configured as control unit, is provided in addition to the valve modules 12a to 12d and to the display module 14. In this embodiment the display device 16 extends in the line-up direction 22 both over the valve modules 12a to 12d and over the additional module 24. In this embodiment with additional module 24 it is, however, also possible that the display module 14 extends exclusively over the valve modules 12a to 12d.

[0040] The indicating device 16 can be coupled with the control unit via a bus line and act as its output unit.

[0041] FIG. 3 shows the indicating device 16 in a detail representation. This can be the indicating device 16 similar to the one of the first embodiment of the valve assembly 10 (see FIG. 1).

[0042] The indicating device 16 is formed for a valve assembly 10 with four valve modules 12a to 12d and therefore comprises four display fields 26a to 26d, which each are associated to one of these valve modules 12a to 12.

[0043] In the display field 26a an indication consisting of symbols is displayed, which for example is linked with a valve module in which two electromagnetic pilot control valves are arranged. A bar 28a displayed in white and a bar 28b displayed in black indicate that the pilot control valve associated to the bar 28a is not energized, whereas the pilot control valve associated to the bar 28b is energized. In this embodiment the valve module 12a and the valve module 12d each have two outputs and two solenoid valves, as is indicated in FIG. 1 with broken lines, whereas the valve modules 12b and 12c each have only one solenoid valve and one output.

[0044] A bar 30 displayed in black reveals that a piston of a connected actuator actuated by the valve module is in an upper end position. A bar 32 displayed in black reveals that a piston of a connected actuator actuated by the valve module is in a lower end position.

[0045] The same applies for the pilot control valve associated to the display field 26d. Bars 34a and 34b indicate that both pilot control valves are energized. In addition, the bars 36 and 38 reveal that both actuators actuated by the valve module are in a lower end position.

[0046] The display fields 26b and 26c for example are linked with a pneumatic cylinder connected to an associated valve module (cf. FIG. 1).

[0047] Bars 40 and 42 can be associated to an end position of the pneumatic cylinder. The pneumatic cylinder associated to the display field 26b hence is in an upper end position and the pneumatic cylinder associated to the display field 26c is in a lower end position.

[0048] The bars 44 and 46 can correspond to an operating state. The bar 44 shows that the solenoid valve, i.e. the pilot control valve, is energized, and the bar 46 shows that the solenoid valve is not energized. The valve modules associated to the display fields 26b and 26c include only one solenoid valve, while the valve modules associated to the display fields 26a and 26b include two solenoid valves.

[0049] FIG. 4 shows a further state of the indicating device 16, which for example can be part of the first embodiment of the valve assembly 10 (see FIG. 1). In the following, merely the differences to the state of the indicating device 16 shown in FIG. 3 will be discussed.

[0050] In FIG. 4, a lightning symbol is shown in the display field 26d. The same indicates a short circuit. The remaining display fields 26a to 26c do not differ from FIG. 3.

[0051] In the state of FIG. 4 an alternating display of information takes place. This means that in temporal alternation the display fields 26a to 26d and an indication 48 reaching across the entire width of the indicating device are shown.

[0052] The indication 48 is made up of two lines and indicates that a short circuit exists at the “valve 4”.

[0053] In FIG. 4, segments of the indications appearing one after the other are arranged one below the other and are connected with a dotted line that symbolizes the temporal sequence.

[0054] Thus, both the display fields 26a to 26d concerning the individual valve modules and an indication 48 reaching across the entire width of the indicating device 16 can be displayed.

[0055] FIG. 5 shows a further state of the indicating device 16, which for example can be part of the first embodiment of the valve assembly 10 (see FIG. 1).

[0056] Here, a circuit symbol is shown in the display field 26b, which indicates a line break. Due to the arrangement of this symbol in the display field 26b, an allocation of this symbol to the second valve module is intuitively visible.

[0057] The display fields 26a to 26d again are shown in alternation with a text display 50 which indicates the line break in “valve 2”. The alternating display again is represented by a dotted line.

[0058] Another state of the indicating device 16 is shown in FIG. 6. Again, the indicating device 16 can be part of the first embodiment of the valve assembly 10 (see FIG. 1).

[0059] Here, a symbol indicating an upcoming maintenance is shown in the display field 26a. The display field 26a is associated to a “valve 1”.

[0060] Again, in alternation with the display fields 26a to 26d an indication 52 reaching over the entire extension of the indicating device 16 is shown. This indicates the upcoming maintenance at the “valve 1”.

[0061] FIG. 7 shows an alternative embodiment of the valve assembly 10.

[0062] The same comprises a carrier module 54 on which valve modules 12a to 12l are arranged. To the valve modules 12 to 12l a display module 14a to 14c each is associated in groups of four.

[0063] In the display modules 14a to 14c an indicating device 16a to 16c each is provided, which in a line-up direction 22 of the valve modules 12a to 12l extends over all associated valve modules.

[0064] The display modules 14a to 14c are configured as covering modules.

[0065] Beside the indicating devices 16a to 16c the display modules 14a to 14c comprise connections 60a to 60c for sensors. As is symbolized by the dash-dotted lines at the display module 14a, the individual connections 60a for sensors are associated to the individual valve modules 12a to 12l in the same way as the display fields of the indicating device 16a. The same applies for the connections 60b and 60c for sensors. The display modules 14, 14a, 14b, 14c are formed and connected such that both the states of one or more integrated solenoid valves of a valve module 12a-12l and the states of the actuator (e.g. pneumatic cylinder) connected to the valve module 12a-12l and controlled by the same are indicated, wherein at the same display module 14, 14a, 14b, 14c the sensor inputs, i.e. connections 60a to 60c are arranged, which report back the states of the actuator.

[0066] In addition, a control unit 56 and an end cap 58 are associated to the valve assembly 10 as shown in FIG. 7. The end cap 58 closes the air channels.

[0067] One or more of the indicating devices 16a to 16d can be coupled with the control unit 56 and/or the control unit 58 via a bus line and act as its output unit.

[0068] FIG. 8 shows an additional embodiment of the valve assembly 10.

[0069] In this embodiment an indicating device 16a is associated to the valve modules 12a to 12c. An indicating device 16b is associated to the valve modules 12d to 12f and an indicating device 16c is associated to the valve modules 12g to 12j.

[0070] A further indicating device 16d is associated to the valve modules 12b to 12h.

[0071] Thus, one indicating device 16a or 16c each is associated to the valve modules 12a, 12i and 12j. Hence, a single display field, which is not shown in more detail, is associated to each of these valve modules 12a, 12i, 12j.

[0072] To the valve modules 12b to 12h two indicating devices 16a and 16d or 16b and 16d or 16c and 16d each are associated. To each of these valve modules 12b to 12h two display fields, which are not shown in more detail, hence are associated.

[0073] The common display forms the only indicating device of the individual valve modules 12a-12l, i.e. the same otherwise do not have their own indicating devices, neither for outputting symbols or letters/text nor ready indicators such as LED lights.