Patent attributes
A flow control valve having a valve member engageable with a valve seat. The valve opens when the valve member disengages the valve seat as fluid pressure is bled from a pressure chamber on one side of the valve member. The valve closes after the pressure bleed ends when fluid pressure is metered back into the pressure chamber through a metering path. The speed at which the valve member closes is selectable depending upon the degree to which the metering path is tortuous. Two different tortuous configurations of the metering path are provided by two differently shaped labyrinths. The user can select one closing speed or the other by choosing which labyrinth is in the metering path.