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US 10,345,134 B2Granted
Storage tank having an active support rod measurement system
AssigneeAvtechtyee Inc.
InventorsKen Vander Putten, Dan Moore, Todd Bolduc
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A measurement system for a tank includes a tank configured to contain material, a plurality of support rods to support the tank and each of the plurality of support mechanisms including a load measurement sensor. The system further including a weight measurement circuit configured to determine an amount of material contained in the tank in response to the load measurement sensor.
Claims19
A measurement system for an aircraft storage tank comprising:
- a tank configured to contain material received from an aircraft system;
- a plurality of support mechanisms configured to support the tank within an aircraft, each of the plurality of support mechanisms comprising a support rod;
- each of the plurality of support mechanisms including a load measurement sensor;
- and
- a weight measurement circuit configured to determine an amount of material contained in the tank in response to the load measurement sensors,
- wherein the weight measurement circuit comprises a plurality of sensor conditioners, a low pass filter for each load measurement sensor configured to remove higher frequency signals output from the sensor conditioner, a summing circuit for each pair of the plurality of sensor conditioners, a comparator for each of the summing circuits, and an averaging circuit responsive to the summing circuits;
- wherein each signal conditioner is configured to output a built-in test equipment (BITE) status signal, the BITE status signal indicating a faulty load measurement sensor;
- and
- wherein the weight measurement circuit is further configured to compensate for the faulty load measurement sensor.
6 more elements
A measurement process for a tank arranged in an aircraft configured to receive material comprising:
- arranging a tank configured to contain material within the aircraft;
- arranging a plurality of support mechanisms to support the tank within the aircraft;
- arranging, with each of the plurality of support mechanisms, a load measurement sensor;
- conditioning an output signal from each load measurement sensor of each of the plurality of support mechanisms with a signal conditioner;
- determining a faulty load measurement sensor in response to a built-in test equipment (BITE) status signal from the signal conditioner;
- determining an amount of material contained in the tank in response to the load measurement sensor that compensates for the faulty load measurement sensor;
- and
- outputting a signal when it is determined that the amount of material contained in the tank has reached a determined amount.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.