US Patent 7600739 Compartmentalized electric/manual gate valve

The present invention provides a gate valve for controlling the flow of a medium through suitable plumbing, featuring a valve housing for coupling the gate valve to the suitable plumbing; a detachable drive unit having a movable blade arranged therein; detachable blade seals for slidably arranging in the valve housing in order to receive the movable blade to control the flow of the medium through the gate valve and to prevent the medium from entering the drive unit; and a latching mechanism for detachably coupling both the drive unit and blade seals to and from the valve housing so as to replace either the drive unit, the blade seals, or both, without having to remove the gate valve from the suitable plumbing.