Patent Application
20080099714
This invention relates generally to control systems and, more specifically, relates to controllers and systems using electronically controlled valves, electronically controlled valves, and portions thereof.
Control systems for electronically controlled valves control many different types of fluids for many different purposes. While control systems, their controllers, and the associated electronically controlled valves have many benefits, these control systems, controllers, electronically controlled valves and portions thereof may still be improved.
A further exemplary embodiment in accordance with this invention is a valve. The valve includes a valve body that at least partially defines a valve envelope. Also includes a plurality of circuit substrates which is disposed within the valve envelope. At least one circuit substrates in the plurality of circuit substrates includes circuitry for controlling the valve.
An additional exemplary embodiment in accordance with this invention is a circuit module. The circuit module includes at least two circuit substrate. The circuit substrate include circuitry for controlling a valve. The circuit module is configured to fit within a valve envelope that is at least partially defined by a valve body.
Another exemplary embodiment in accordance with this invention is a method. A valve body that at least partially defines a valve envelope is provided. A plurality of circuit substrates are disposed within the valve envelope. At least one circuit substrate of the plurality of circuit substrates includes circuitry for controlling the valve.
The attached Drawing Figures include the following:
Referring now to
The electronically controlled valve 120 controls fluid (e.g., air, gas, water, oil) 141 flow through the electronically controlled valve 120 by operating the spool 130. The spool actuator 125 controls movement of the spool 130 based on one or more control signals 116 from the spool position controller 115. The spool position controller 115 modifies the one or more control signals 116 based on the one or more input signals 111, which include addition of the control input signal 105 and the one or more feedback signals 151. The feedback sensor module 150 can monitor the spool actuator 120 (e.g., current through the spool actuator), a sensor indicating the position of the spool 130, or sensors indicating any number of other valve attributes (e.g., pressure or flow rate of the fluid 141). Aspects of the present invention are related to a number of the elements shown in
Turning to
In the example show in
Patent application Ser. No. ______, filed on Sep. 19, 2007 and titled “Retaining Element for a Mechanical Component” describes the motor housing retainer 207 in further detail. Patent application Ser. No. ______ is assigned to the assignee of the present application, and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The spool 230 includes in this example a passage 265. The passage 265 has a number of purposes, including equalizing pressure between the upper cavity 215 and the lower cavity 216, as described in more detail below. The passage 230 is included in an exemplary embodiment herein, but the spool 230 may also be manufactured without passage 265.
The electronics cover 205 includes a connector 206 used to couple a spool position controller 115 to the voice coil 221 on voice coil portion 222. The electronics cover 205 and connector 206 are only examples of a cover and connector in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of this invention. The cover 205 and connector 206 shown are non-limiting examples.
A description of exemplary operation of the valve 200 is included in U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,831, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. It forms part of the present application and the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,831 describes, for instance, airflow through the external ports 270, 271, 280, 281, and 283 and the circumferentially spaced internal ports 270a, 271a, 280a, 281a, and 283a. It is noted that the springs 240, 245 along with the coil header assembly 220, motor housing 210, and spool 230, are configured such that the spool 230 blocks the ports 281A when no power is applied to the voice coil 221. Other portions of pneumatic valve 200 are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,831.
The motor housing retainer 207 is a circuit module with limited functionality, which means that the valve controller 160 of
A classical approach to circuit design is to conduct ‘product proprietary’ circuit design. Clearly, this can consume a great deal of time and cost due to duplicated effort. Alternatively, circuit designs can be ‘copied’ and ‘pasted’ into several designs; however, a problem in one circuit would impact every circuit from which the original design was copied. Traceability would become a concern when using such an approach to ensure that the changes occurred in every duplicated circuit.
An exemplary proposed solution herein divides basic functional elements into ‘circuit modules’ with board-to-board connectors placed strategically and manufactured with appropriate orientation and type of connectors to ensure that improper installation is not allowed. Each circuit module utilizes a common backplane for analog signals, digital signals, and power. In this manner, the circuit modules can be stacked vertically (e.g., top surface to bottom surface) in any arrangement without affecting performance or operation (small X-Y footprint, but Z varies with the number of modules).
Additionally, a backplane printed circuit board (PCB) can be manufactured to accept these modules with a common backplane such that the modules can be used in various products, decreasing cost, easing change management, reducing the number of manufactured parts while increasing the number of products that can be offered, and providing design flexibility. It would therefore be possible to stock a cabinet full of modules and manufacture product shells. Upon product order, the product could be assembled from bins of circuit modules, where the same circuit module would show up on numerous products but require only a single design effort. Furthermore, modification of that one circuit module would not necessarily affect other circuit modules. Typically, however, modification of that one circuit module would cause an automatic upgrade to all products that use the modified module.
Various circuit modules may be defined and used either as part of a valve assembly (e.g., valve assembly 2000 as show in
The circuit modules 2110 may be, for example, a driver/controller module or a power supply module. Each of these circuit modules has certain corresponding functions.
A driver/controller module may be designed to accept analog input signals and to provide anti-alias filtering prior to analog to digital conversion. It may include a ‘driver disable’ input for emergency functions.
An industrial signal conversion module can convert an input signal to a signal to be placed on a backplane for processing by other circuit modules. Such a module may include switches to steer the signal to the appropriate outputs on the backplane.
A connector interface and indication module may also double as a dummy module. Such a module may provide connectors to connect to external device. Additionally, the module may include indicators, such as LEDs.
Additionally, a module may be designed to provide active circuit connections.
A benefit to these circuit modules is that they can be placed vertically on top of the motor housing retainer 207 and therefore provide certain functionality within the valve assembly 2000. Furthermore, the circuit modules 2110 can be placed “horizontally” in the mounting locations 2310, 2320, and 2330 of
In the example of
Additionally, at least one of the substrates provides a given functionality. Said substrate is selected according to the functionality it provides.
Depending on the specific requirements of the valve a given module may be located either “vertically” in the valve envelope or “horizontally” in the external controller 160. It is therefore possible to create the control circuitry for a valve using a number of pre-existing modules by selecting the modules providing the desired functionalities and placing the selected modules either within the valve envelope or in the external controller 160 (e.g., on a common backplane provided in the external controller 160).
Certain embodiments of the disclosed invention may be implemented by hardware (e.g., one or more processors, discrete devices, programmable logic devices, large scale integrated circuits, or some combination of these), software (e.g., firmware, a program of executable instructions, microcode, or some combination of these), or some combination thereof. Aspects of the disclosed invention may also be implemented on one or more semiconductor circuits, comprising hardware and perhaps software residing in one or more memories. Aspects of the disclosed invention may also include computer-executable media tangibly embodying one or more programs of computer-readable instructions executable by one or more processors to perform certain of the operations described herein.
The foregoing description has provided by way of exemplary and non-limiting examples a full and informative description of the best techniques presently contemplated by the inventors for carrying out embodiments of the invention. However, various modifications and adaptations may become apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. All such and similar modifications of the teachings of this invention will still fall within the scope of this invention.
It is noted that the example described above specifically concerns valves and controller for valves. However, the techniques shown above are also applicable to any electronic device having various electronic functions which may be suitable for modular embodiments, and the use of the exemplary embodiments of this invention is not limited to electronic valves.
Furthermore, some of the features of exemplary embodiments of this invention could be used to advantage without the corresponding use of other features. As such, the foregoing description should be considered as merely illustrative of the principles of embodiments of the present invention, and not in limitation thereof. While the exemplary embodiments are illustrative of electronically controlled valves, the techniques in accordance with this invention may be applied to various electronically controlled devices, e.g., motors, etc.
This patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from Provisional Patent Application No. 60/854,562, filed Oct. 25, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60854562 | Oct 2006 | US |
