Originally Posted by
pbjosh
(shakes head) I realize this is an old debate - but the seal isn't really a definition of a valve. It is the whole assembly. The basic poppet valve is the seal, the valve stem, the valve body, the actuator, etc. The action is as defining as the components, and is a valve in whole.
Same with a spool valve, normally defined as the switching valve on a hydraulic system - a center moving part, and some o-rings on a center shaft or in the body, and the shaft moves through the body to shift fluid volumes.
The Automag, in the simplicity of our two valve definitions in paintball (since a ball valve or butterfly valve really wouldn't work well), would be a spool valve, clear and simple. Or else we need to construct or adopt a different word for some silly reason that defines the same thing.
In the Automag a center shaft moves across an o-ring that is held in a valve body. The moment the shaft moves past the o-ring the fluid transfers. Spool.
Face seals, like in a poppet valve, can be used in spool valves, and O-rings can be used in the seal of a poppet - but the embodiment of the whole unit defines the total of the valve. The Axe Center piston, while using a face seal, doesn't have ony other component of a poppet valve. There is no shaft, no valve body like a poppet. Functionally, it is more like a Mag - a shaft moves in a center body, and when it does the seal opens and the fluids transfer. There is no valve stem acted on by an actuator.