A pressure reducing valve assembly for receiving fluid from a high pressure line and delivering the fluid to a low pressure line, the valve assembly comprising: an elongated tubular body having a vent operable to prevent air pressure buildup within the body and including a compression spring housed therein;BALANCING VALVES a pressure reducing valve including a high pressure port for receiving fluid from the high pressure line, a low pressure port for delivering fluid to the low pressure line, a single valved opening, and an inner chamber interposed between the opening and the high pressure port and fluidly communicating therewith so that fluid pressure in the chamber is substantially the same as fluid pressure in the high pressure port;Reducing Valves a pressure reducing reservoir defined substantially between the body and the pressure reducing valve, said pressure reducing valve being shiftable into and out of a closed position, wherein fluid communication between the inner chamber and the pressure reducing reservoir is prevented, Bellows Seal Valvessaid pressure reducing reservoir comprising the only substantial fluid communication between the body and the pressure reducing valve, said high pressure port fluidly communicating with the pressure reducing reservoir by said single valved opening, said pressure reducing reservoir fluidly communicating with the low pressure port so that fluid pressure in the reservoir is substantially the same as fluid pressure in the low pressure port; and a base having an inlet port operable to fluidly communicate with the high pressure line, an outlet port operable to fluidly communicate with the low pressure line, and a single valve port operable to receive the pressure reducing valve such that the pressure reducing valve may be completely removed with the body through the valve port, said base being coupled to the body wherein the pressure reducing valve is disposed ther between so that the inlet port is in fluid communication with the high pressure port and the outlet port is in fluid communication with the low pressure port. Pressure reducing valves are commonly used when it is desired to use a common high pressure fluid source (e.g., a pump) to supply multiple components of a hydraulic circuit wherein one or more of the components require low pressure fluid and one or more of the components require high pressure fluid. For example, in a hydraulic clamping system having a single pump and multiple clamps operating at various pressure levels, a pressure reducing valve may be interposed between the high pressure hydraulic pump and one or more low pressure clamps. The valve delivers low pressure fluid to the selected clamps while allowing the remaining clamps to operate at a higher fluid pressure, thus eliminating the need for a separate hydraulic pump for each required pressure level. A problem with prior art pressure reducing valves is that they are typically bulky and therefore require a great deal of space. This is problematic in applications where space is limited such as in clamping operations where numerous clamps requiring different fluid pressure levels may be mounted to a single fixture.
Another problem with prior art pressure reducing valves is that they are not efficiently designed and therefore include a large number of parts. This not only increases the overall size of the valves, which contributes to the problems described above, but also increases the cost and the complexity of the valves.

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