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US 12,716,515 B2Granted
Hydraulic smart valve
AssigneeDpc Hydraulics S.R.L.
InventorsMaurizio Bartoli, Stefano Fasano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are herein provided for a hydraulic smart valve. In one example, a hydraulic valve system comprises a hydraulic solenoid valve comprising a valve body and a spool; a bi-directional actuator; and a controller with instructions stored thereon to determine a position of the spool via inductance variance of the bi-directional actuator.
Claims17
A hydraulic valve system, comprising:
- a hydraulic solenoid valve comprising a valve body and a spool;
- a bi-directional actuator;
- a voltage comparator configured to determine a time delay between an overvoltage peak at transistor turn-off and a predefined voltage level;
- a digital-analog converter configured to sample voltage values during overvoltage decay to determine a waveform of the overvoltage decay;
- and
- a controller with instructions stored thereon to determine a position of the spool via inductance variance of the bi-directional actuator, comprising:
- determining resistance variation of the bi-directional actuator during turn-on;
- during a turn-off phase, determining values of one or more overvoltage decay characteristics based on the resistance variation;
- comparing the values of the one or more overvoltage decay characteristics to reference values stored in memory of the controller;
- and
- based on comparison with reference values, determining the position of the spool.
8 more elements
A method for a hydraulic valve, comprising:
- determining resistance variance of a push-pull actuator configured to alter a position of a spool of the hydraulic valve;
- determining, based on the resistance variance, values of one or more overvoltage decay characteristics;
- determining, based on comparison of the values of the one or more overvoltage decay characteristics to reference values, the position of the spool of the hydraulic valve,
- wherein the one or more overvoltage decay characteristics include a time delay between a peak voltage at transistor turn-off and a predefined voltage level and a waveform of the overvoltage decay.
1 more element
A hydraulic smart valve, comprising:
- a valve body;
- a spool positioned within the valve body, the spool having three positions including a first position, a central, neutral position, and a third position;
- and
- a bi-directional actuator configured to move the spool among the three positions within the valve body,
- wherein a position of the spool is determined via evaluation of overvoltage decay characteristics of the bi-directional actuator during a turn-off phase, and
- wherein the position of the spool is determined without a position sensor or a reading element.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.