US 7,008,314 B2 · Aircraft modular cabin pressure regulator

Abstract

One embodiment relates to a modular cabin pressure regulator that can receive its destination parameter and control settings from an avionics system or a manual selector and display. The modular pressure regulator includes a removable selector, a controller, and a monitoring unit to control an electro-mechanical actuator driven valve. Such modular design allows a single unit to be used for the cabin pressure selector and display, controller, and monitoring functions. In one embodiment, the selector module can be bypassed or removed and the same pressure regulator design can provide the controller and monitoring functions to send and receive inputs from an avionics system. This embodiment can be mounted directly on the electro-mechanical actuator driven valve or elsewhere on the aircraft.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A pressure regulator comprising:

a controller to control the operation of an electro-mechanical valve;
a modular manual selector and display unit communicatively coupled to the controller, the manual selector and display unit to provide destination parameter settings and control inputs to the controller;
and
an interface bus communicatively coupled to the controller, wherein, if the controller senses signals over the interface bus, it is configured to receive a first destination parameter and control input settings via the interface bus, otherwise, the controller receives the first destination parameter and control input settings from the modular manual selector and display unit.

1 more element

An aircraft cabin pressure regulator comprising:

a processor configured to adjust cabin pressure;
a manual pressure selector to provide a destination parameters and control settings, the manual pressure selector communicatively coupled to the processor;
an interface bus to communicatively couple the processor and an avionics control system;
a pressure sensor to measure actual cabin pressure, the pressure sensor communicatively coupled to the processor to provide the cabin pressure to the processor;
an electro-mechanical actuator driven valve to increase and decrease the cabin pressure as necessary, the electro-mechanical actuator driven valve communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to
receive a first destination parameter and control settings if avionics control system is coupled to the interface bus, otherwise receive the first destination parameter and control settings from the manual pressure selector, and computes the commanded cabin pressure, and
compare the commanded cabin pressure to the actual cabin pressure, determine if there is a difference between the commanded cabin pressure and the actual cabin pressure, and
adjust the electro-mechanical actuator driven valve to reduce the difference between the commanded cabin pressure and the actual cabin pressure;
and
a display unit communicatively coupled to the processor, the processor configured to detect error conditions and display the error conditions in the display unit.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Aircraft modular cabin pressure regulator

Life of this patent

Aircraft modular cabin pressure regulator

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20