Back to results
US 11,709,144 B2Granted
Steam trap monitoring devices, systems, and related techniques
AssigneeEveractive, Inc.
InventorsJim Boley, Kyle Craig, Shadi Hawawini, Nathan E. Roberts, David D. Wentzloff, Benton H. Calhoun
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Devices, systems, and techniques relating to steam trap monitoring are described. These include battery-less steam trap monitors that run on power harvested from their environments, systems for acquiring steam trap monitor data for the traps in a facility or across multiple facilities, and techniques for processing steam trap monitor data to reliably determine the status of individual steam traps and potentially other system parameters.
Claims20
A sensing device, comprising:
- one or more sensors configured to generate sensor signals;
- one or more transmitters configured to transmit sensor data representing the sensor signals;
- control circuitry configured to control operation of the one or more transmitters, and to convert the sensor signals to the sensor data;
- a first energy harvesting input configured to receive first power from a first energy harvesting device configured to harvest a first type of energy from an environment in which the sensing device is deployed;
- a second energy harvesting input configured to receive second power from a second energy harvesting device configured to harvest a second type of energy from the environment, the second type of energy being different from the first type of energy;
- an energy storage device configured to store energy derived from the first and second power;
- and
- power management circuitry configured to receive the first power and the second power, and to control storing of the stored energy by the energy storage device, the power management circuitry being further configured to provide third power generated from the stored energy to the one or more transmitters and the control circuitry, wherein the power management circuitry is configured to operate in a first mode in which the stored energy is derived only from the first power, in a second mode in which the stored energy is derived only from the second power, and in a third mode in which the stored energy is derived from a combination of the first power and the second power.
5 more elements
A steam trap monitor, comprising:
- a plurality of temperature sensors configured to generate sensor signals representing a steam temperature and a condensate temperature associated with a steam trap;
- one or more transmitters configured to transmit sensor data representing the sensor signals to a remote device;
- a wakeup receiver configured to receive a wakeup message from the remote device;
- control circuitry configured to control operation of the one or more transmitters, and to convert the sensor signals to the sensor data, the sensor data comprising first time series data representing the steam temperature and second time series data representing the condensate temperature, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to wake up from a low-power mode in response to the wakeup message to take readings of the sensor signals, control operation of the one or more transmitters, and convert the sensor signals to the sensor data
- a first energy harvesting input configured to receive first power from a thermo-electric generator;
- a second energy harvesting input configured to receive second power from a photovoltaic cell;
- an energy storage device configured to store energy derived from the first and second power;
- and
- power management circuitry configured to receive the first power and the second power, and to control storing of the stored energy by the energy storage device, the power management circuitry being further configured to provide third power generated from the stored energy to the one or more transmitters and the control circuitry, wherein the power management circuitry includes power-point-tracking circuitry configured to track either or both of the first power and the second power, and wherein the power management circuitry is configured to operate in a first mode in which the stored energy is derived only from the first power, in a second mode in which the stored energy is derived only from the second power, and in a third mode in which the stored energy is derived from a combination of the first power and the second power.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.