Lubrication control system
AssigneeUniversity of Central Lancashire
InventorIan Sherrington
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
FIG. 2 shows a cross-section through a piston 10 and cylinder wall 12 of an internal combustion engine. A piston ring 14 is located within a ring groove 16 and the piston 10. The piston ring 14 is part of an oil film thickness measurement section 18, the other parts of which comprise a displacement transducer 20 and an electrical signal conditioning unit 22. The oil supply control system also includes a control system section 24, which comprises an on line calibration section 26, an oil injection system 28 and a controller 30. Also, a user interface 38 and a secondary signal conditioning unit 40 receiving secondary signal measurements from unit 42 or several units 42 are included.
Claims4
A method of controlling the distribution of lubricant in a system of engineering components comprises:
- measuring the thickness of lubricant on at least one element of the system with lubricant film thickness measuring means,
- passing a signal corresponding to the thickness measurement to control means,
- determining a value of at least one physical variable of the lubricant being of relevance to the lubricant film thickness with calibration means,
- sending the value of the at least one physical variable of the lubricant to the control means,
- calibrating the thickness measurement with the control means based on the value of the at least one physical variable of the lubricant to obtain a calibrated thickness measurement;
- determining an amount of lubricant to be supplied to one or more components of the system with the control means, based on the calibrated thickness measurement, and
- sending control signals to lubricant input means to control a supply of lubricant to the system.
A method of controlling the distribution of lubricant in a system of engineering components comprises:
- measuring the thickness of lubricant on at least one element of the system with a lubricant film thickness measurement apparatus,
- passing a signal corresponding to the thickness measurement to a controller,
- determining a value of at least one physical variable of the lubricant being of relevance to the lubricant film thickness with a calibration apparatus,
- sending the value of the at least one physical variable of the lubricant to the controller,
- calibrating the thickness measurement with the controller based on the value of the at least one physical variable of the lubricant to obtain a calibrated thickness measurement;
- determining an amount of lubricant to be supplied to one or more components of the system with the controller, based on the calibrated thickness measurement, and
- sending control signals to lubricant inputs to control a supply of lubricant to the system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.