Piston Pump Having A Force Sensor And A Method For Controlling Said Pump
OwnerThomas PREISWERK, Rene CHAVANinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a piston pump for generating a delivery flow, which is substantially free of pulsation, in particular to a dual piston pump, and to a method for controlling such a piston pump delivering a pumped medium from a low-pressure area into a high-pressure area, wherein measuring sensors detecting mechanical forces or moments transmitted by the structure of the pump or its associated drive unit are used instead of the pressure or flow sensors usually employed for this purpose.
Claims28
A piston pump for generating a substantially pulsation-free delivery flow of a medium to be delivered, comprising:
- at least first and second piston-cylinder-units for delivering the medium out of a low-pressure area into a high-pressure area;
- a drive unit for driving the piston-cylinder units;
- a control unit for controlling the driven speed of the drive unit;
- and
- a sensor for collecting an actual value of a control parameter, by which actual value the extent of pulsation of the flow generated in the high-pressure area is derivable;
- wherein the sensor is adapted for collecting values of mechanical forces and/or torques exerted or transmitted in or at the structure of at least one piston-cylinder unit and/or the drive unit.
A method for controlling a piston pump for delivering a medium out of a low-pressure-area into a high-pressure-area, the piston pump including at least first and second piston-cylinder units, a drive unit for driving at least one of the piston-cylinder-units, and a sensor for monitoring mechanical forces and/or torques exerted or transmitted in or at the structure of at least one of the piston-cylinder units and/or said drive unit, comprising:
- i) driving at least one piston-cylinder unit by a drive unit at a first speed (n), and monitoring using the sensor mechanical forces and/or torques exerted or transmitted in or at the structure of the at least one driven piston-cylinder unit and/or the drive unit;
- ii) monitoring the moment of the actual onset of delivery of the pumped medium out of the at least one driven piston-cylinder unit into the high-pressure-area by using the values of the mechanical forces and/or torques monitored by the sensor;
- iii) monitoring the rate of compression of the pumped medium at the moment of the actual onset of delivery;
- iv) modulating the drive unit rotational speed to a second speed (n+1), such that a varying compression rate due to varying system back pressure and/or varying compressibility of the pumped medium arising on the high-pressure side of the at least one driven piston-cylinder unit is compensated and a substantially pulse-free delivery flow of the pumped medium is generated in the high-pressure area and
- v) repeating steps i) to iv) for each pumping cycle using the drive unit rotational speed (n+1) modulated in step iv) as the first speed (n).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.