Back to results
US 11,859,764 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.
Claims21
A sensing device, comprising:
- one or more temperature sensors configured to generate sensor signals representing one or more temperatures;
- one or more transmitters configured to wirelessly transmit sensor data representing the sensor signals to a 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 time series data representing the one or more temperatures;
- a thermo-electric generator configured to harvest heat energy from an environment in which the sensing device is deployed;
- an energy harvesting device configured to harvest a different type of energy than heat energy from the environment;
- an energy storage device configured to store energy derived from a combination of the heat energy and the different type of energy;
- and
- power management circuitry configured to control the storing of the energy derived from the combination of the heat energy and the different type of energy by the energy storage device.
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 wirelessly 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 thermo-electric generator configured to harvest heat energy from an environment in which the steam trap monitor is deployed;
- an energy harvesting device configured to harvest a different type of energy than heat energy from the environment;
- an energy storage device configured to store energy derived from a combination of the heat energy and the different type of energy;
- and
- power management circuitry configured to control the storing of the energy derived from the combination of the heat energy and the different type of energy by the energy storage device.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.