Patent Application
20160104100
The invention relates to tank cylinder inventory signaling from a storage cage in a tank management system.
Industrial concerns, such as hospitals, welding shops, chemical processing plants and similar businesses, use large number of cylinders of industrial gases. Cylinders are delivered to such businesses in full condition and picked up after use. The cylinders are heavy, expensive and must be carefully stored. Methods for distribution and inventory control have been a subject of much research over the years. For example, see the paper in Interfaces 13, 6 Dec. 1983, p. 4-23 entitled “Improving the Distribution of Industrial Gages with an On-Line Computerized Routing and Scheduling Optimizer” by W. J. Bell et al. The article describes the efforts of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. to implement industrial gas cylinder inventory management at customer locations with delivery vehicle scheduling. A sophisticated software algorithm for the project is described. An essential part of the gas cylinder management problem is knowing the present inventory of full and empty tanks. Usually a customer is responsible for inventory status and different customers have different approaches.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,619,523 to F. Durtschi et al. describe “Gas Cylinders Monitoring by Wireless Tags”. In this system, each gas cylinder includes a RDID transponder configured to transmit a RFID signal received by a RFID receiver connected to a server. The gas cylinder data received by the server is collected in a database and thereafter used by a gas cylinder management software application. Published Patent Application 2011/0140850 describes a transport cap for gas cylinders where the cap supports RFID devices for gas cylinder tracking. A generic tank monitoring system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,304,588 to D. Ingalsbe et al. In published U.S. Patent Application 2014/0163727 to Y. Siaamer et al. describe a gas cylinder management system where tanks are identified by optically sensing the color markings of a tank or for detecting ferromagnetic material identifiers. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,473 to F. Radcliffe discloses a mobile cart with shelves with radio communication of inventory on the shelves. A scanner can identify the inventory and communicates with a terminal regarding the location identifiers.
An object of the invention is to monitor use of tank cylinders at end user locations and report used tanks to a tank management cylinder system.
One of the inputs for tank management software for industrial gas cylinders comes from a tank farm where tanks are stored prior to use. The present invention contemplates a tank cage that has bins where gas cylinder tanks are stored in bins, aligning multiple tanks in rows, with tanks separated by gates that are part of a signaling system. The signaling system of a tank storage unit, i.e. a cage, reports to a local server that maintains a database of tanks in the cage. The gates separating tanks are magnetically or electromechanically latched in a releasable manner with the open and closed position of the latches designating first and second logic states. The multiple latches are networked to the local server so that an initial state of all latches can be established. As each gate is opened, for example, upon removal of a gas cylinder tank for use, the change of state of the gate array is monitored and tank movement from the bins is inferred by the gate openings. A plurality of local servers is connected via the Internet or otherwise to a remote server that is associated with tank management and supply software and route management software. The remote server tracks tank usage from the tank storage units and orders replacement tanks and optimizes delivery of replacement tanks. The remote server can display tank management information via a website or a smart phone app.
With reference to
The width of the bin, such as bin 100 exceeds the width of a gas cylinder tank such as tanks 111, 112, 113, and 114 by a slight amount such that a series of tanks may be aligned in a bin, as shown in
Each bin, such as bin 100, has a series of movable gates, such as gates 121, 122, 123, and 124 that open and close forming tank cylinder enclosures. The gates are uniformly spaced in a bin and have a height dimension less than an upright post. Each gate is hinged on one side of the bin to open forwardly. The side of a gate opposite to a hinge has a latch. Latch 231 is shown to be associated with bin 200 and latch 331 is shown to be associated with bin 300. The latches are preferably magnetic but may be electrically or manually releasable.
When gas cylinders tanks are placed in the bins, all of the gates are opened forwardly to accommodate entry of the tanks into the bins. Then, as each tank is placed in a bin, toward the back of the bin insofar as possible, a gate is closed and latched so that the gate remains closed and spaced apart gates of a bin enclose one gas cylinder. When a bin has a requisite number of tanks in the bin, the gates should form back and forward enclosures for the tanks except for the most rearward tank which does not need a rearward gate since it is against back wall 60. When all bins are full of tanks, the cage appears to have a rectangular array of gas cylinder tanks in rows and columns.
With reference to
With reference to
While the initial state of a cage, also called a tank storage unit, is with all gates closed, another initial state may be defined if a gate is inoperative or immaterial. In that situation, a “don't care” state for a gate may be part of the initial state. Such that gate will be ignored in future monitoring of gate state changes.
The initial state of the gates is set in gate logic 411, seen in
A gate latch opening represents a change in the state of a bin array that is reported to the local server 413. Local reporting may be by a local wire network or a wireless network. The local server 413 reports the bin array gates state to a remote server 513, via the Internet or a private line. The remote server 513 tracks similar information from other tank storage units 415.
Remote server 513 has a database of tanks removed from bins based upon the bin array gate states from all connected tank storage units reporting through local servers. This database is used by tank management and supply software 515 that handles ordering, purchasing, stocking, and location of replacement tanks. In turn, the tank management supply module 515 is connected to a route management module 517 that optimizes delivery of replacement tanks. Both tank management and supply software and route management software are well known and have been described in many publications.
The remote server 513 has a video display output that can be an internet website 521 or a cell phone app 523 so that the server database can be graphically shown to users. Tank management supply software 515 and route management software 517 also communicate with the remote server for display of information through the website and the cell phone app.
In operation, if there has been no change in the initial bin array gate state from a tank storage unit, because no gates have been opened, no replacement tanks are needed for that location and such information can be displayed on a website or a cell phone app. On the other hand, if the bin array gate state from a tank storage unit shows that two gates in the same row of tanks have been opened, it is assumed that two replacement tanks of the type stored in that row are now needed. This information is conveyed by a local server to a remote server and then to the website or cell phone app. Replacement tank procurement is handled by the tank management and supply software 515 and delivery is handled by the route management software 517. All of this is facilitated by the tank cage of the present invention with bins holding gas cylinder tanks behind latched gates which communicate with gate logic as described.
