Reversing polarity of a pump on failure, and applications thereof
AssigneeZoeller Pump Company, LLC
InventorsAnthony Scott Hunchman, William Andrew Dickerson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pump is provided that reverses polarity of the current to reverse the rotation of an impeller on failure to clear objects that may be blocking the impeller. The pump may have an impeller configured to move fluid through the pump in a common direction regardless of which way the impeller rotates, an electric motor configured to drive the impeller, and a controller configured to detect potential failure of the impeller to rotate, and, in response to detection of the potential failure, reverse polarity of current to the electric motor to reverse rotation of the impeller.
Claims20
A pump, comprising:
- an impeller configured to move fluid through the pump in a common direction regardless of which way the impeller rotates;
- an electric motor configured to drive the impeller;
- a fluid detection sensor positioned to detect a quantity of fluid in a reservoir that the pump is configured to evacuate, a fluid detection sensor comprising a first float sensor and a second float sensor;
- and
- a controller is coupled to the fluid detection sensor and is configured to:
- based on a signal from the fluid detection sensor, detect a failure of the impeller to rotate, wherein the first float sensor detects a fluid level in the reservoir reaches a first height;
- in response to detection of the failure, reverse polarity of current to the electric motor to reverse rotation of the impeller;
- detect, by the second float sensor following detection by the first float sensor, a second fluid level that indicates the quantity of fluid in the reservoir is decreasing, wherein the second fluid level is lesser than the first fluid level;
- and
- in response to detecting the second fluid level, stop rotation of the impeller.
A method for controlling a pump, the method comprising:
- driving, by an electric motor, an impeller to move fluid through the pump in a common direction regardless of which way the impeller rotates;
- and
- detecting, by a first float sensor, failure of the impeller to rotate, wherein the float sensor detects a fluid level in a reservoir reaches a first height, wherein the pump is configured to evacuate fluid from the reservoir;
- in response to detection of the failure, reversing polarity of current to the electric motor to reverse rotation of the impeller;
- detecting, by the second float sensor following detection by the first float sensor, a second fluid level that indicates the quantity of fluid in the reservoir is decreasing, wherein the second fluid level is lesser than the first fluid level;
- and
- in response to detecting the second fluid level, stopping rotation of the impeller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.