Brush wear indicator
AssigneeAlexsava Holdings Limited
InventorAnthony L. Morgan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a brush wear indicator comprising and brush (3) moveable within a holder (2). The brush (3) is urged against a collector surface (10) of a rotor by a spring (4) which is mounted to a bracket (6) supported by the holder (2). A proximity sensor (5) is mounted to either a) the spring (4) or the brush (3), or b) a non-moveable part of the indicator which includes the bracket and configured to determine the distance to a) the non-moveable parts or b) the spring (4) or brush (3), respectively. The proximity sensor (5) in electrical communication with a CPU configured to determine the amount of wear that has occurred to the at least one brush (3) depending on the distance determined by the sensor (5) between the spring (4) or the brush (3) and the non-moveable parts.
Claims13
A brush wear indicator comprising:
- a brush holder;
- a brush located within the brush holder;
- a spring in contact with the at least one brush and configured to bias the brush against an electrically conductive collector surface, the spring and the brush being moveable in use;
- a proximity sensor mounted to a non-moveable part of the indicator, said proximity sensor being configured to determine a distance from the proximity sensor to a movable portion of the spring;
- the non-moveable part including a bracket supported by the holder;
- the proximity sensor being in electrical communication with a CPU that is configured to determine an amount of wear that has occurred to the brush according to the distance determined by the sensor between the spring and the non-moveable part.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.