Releasable dust mitigation covering
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsLeora Peltz, Kavya K. Manyapu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A covering includes an outer material, a plurality of conductive-fibers, and a fastening material. The outer material includes a front surface and a back surface and the conductive-fibers are disposed between the front surface and the back surface. The conductive-fibers are configured to receive a voltage that causes the conductive-fibers to repel and remove dust from the front surface of the outer material. The fastening material is coupled to the back surface of the outer material and facilitates releasably attaching the outer material to an article.
Claims21
A covering comprising:
- an outer material having a front surface and a back surface;
- a plurality of conductive-fibers disposed between the front surface and the back surface, wherein the plurality of conductive-fibers are configured to receive a voltage that causes the conductive-fibers to repel and remove dust from the front surface of the outer material;
- signal conditioning circuitry to generate the voltage, wherein the signal conditioning circuitry includes outputs that generate time-varying voltages of different phases, wherein the voltages of different phases are applied to adjacent conductive-fibers by the signal conditioning circuitry such that a first voltage output is coupled to a first set of conductive fibers and a second different voltage output is coupled to a second set of conducive fibers;
- a fastening material coupled to the back surface of the outer material that facilitates releasably attaching the outer material to an article;
- and
- a status indicator in communication with the signal conditioning circuitry, wherein the status indicator is configured to indicate an amount of damage to or usable percentage of conductive-fibers detected by the signal conditioning circuitry.
A covering comprising:
- an outer material having a front surface and a back surface;
- a plurality of conductive-fibers disposed between the front surface and the back surface, wherein the plurality of conductive-fibers are configured to receive a voltage that causes the conductive-fibers to repel dust from the front surface of the outer material;
- one or more button-snaps coupled to the outer material that facilitate releasably attaching the outer material to an article;
- signal conditioning circuitry to generate the voltage, wherein the signal conditioning circuitry includes outputs that generate time-varying voltages of different phases, wherein the voltages of different phases are applied to adjacent conductive-fibers by the signal conditioning circuitry such that a first voltage output is coupled to a first set of conductive fibers and a second different voltage output is coupled to a second set of conducive fibers, wherein the plurality of conductive-fibers are arranged in different dust repelling groups and wherein the signal conditioning circuitry is configured to selectively apply voltage to the different dust repelling groups to selectively repel dust from different regions of the outer material;
- and
- a user interface in communication with the signal conditioning circuitry that facilitates specification of one or more dust repelling groups of conductive-fibers to which voltage is to be applied.
A method for repelling dust from an article, the method comprising:
- generating time-varying voltages of different phases;
- communicating time-varying voltages of different phases at 120 degrees out-of-phase with one another to a plurality of conductive-fibers arranged between a front surface and a back surface of an outer material of a covering, wherein the time-varying voltages of different phases are configured to cause the conductive-fibers to repel and remove dust from the front surface of the outer material, wherein the time-varying voltages of different phases include a first output voltage, a second output voltage, and a third output voltage, and the first output voltage is 120 degrees out of phase with the second voltage, the second voltage is 120 degrees out of phase with the third output voltage, and the third output voltage is 120 degrees out of phase with the first output voltage, wherein the time-varying voltages of different phases are applied to adjacent conductive-fibers such that the first output voltage, the second output voltage, and the third output voltage are respectively coupled one of every third adjacent conductive-fiber of the plurality of conductive-fibers;
- and
- attaching the covering to the article via a fastening material arranged on a back surface of the outer material that facilitates releasably attaching the covering to the article.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.