Fail-fixed servovalve with controlled hard-over leakage

摘要

The second stage (10) of a fail-fixed flow-control servovalve has a five-lobed valve spool (12) slidably mounted in a body bore (19). At null, the end lobes (41,45) are substantially zero-lapped with respect to supply pressure slots (22,26), the middle lobe (43) is substantially zero- lapped with respect to a pair of return slots (23,24), and the intermediate control lobes (42,45) are both symmetrically underlapped with respect to their associated control slots (29,30). Stops (34,35) limit movement of the spool in either axial direction. When the spool is at null or in either hard-over position, deliberate flow with respect to the control slots is blocked, and relative leakage flows are controlled. Such leakage flows may be balanced such that there is substantially-zero net leakage flow with respect to each control slots. Alternatively, such leakage flows may be deliberately mismatched to provide for desired net leakage flows with respect to control slots.