Patent 7318577 was granted and assigned to Denso on January, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A motor-operated valve assembly has a housing, a motor, a driving force transmission means and a valve member. The housing has a fluid passage therein. The motor is installed in the housing. The driving force transmission means has an output rotor rotatably supported by the housing and transmits a driving force of the motor to the output rotor. The valve member is supported by the housing between the motor and the output rotor to be slidable in an axial direction thereof and engaged with the output rotor so that the output rotor slides the valve member to open and close the fluid passage.