High pressure hydraulic contamination injection and control system
OwnerGraham Wadeson, Payman Kianpour +1inventors
InventorsGraham Wadeson, Payman Kianpour, Amir Fazeli
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Abstract
An automated particulate contaminant injection and control module that controls the level of contamination in the hydraulic fluid passing to a component, system or sub-system under test and removes the injected particulates upon return to the parent test stand. Using the pressure and flow of clean hydraulic fluid from the parent test stand, the contamination module prepares a concentrated contaminant slurry and injects it at a rate determined by a feedback signal from an in-line contamination sensor and an internal control algorithm.
Claims7
A high pressure hydraulic contamination injection device for adding of a contamination powder into a clean fluid to produce a contaminated fluid for a hydraulic test and removing said contamination powder from said contaminated fluid after said hydraulic test comprising:
- a. a powder feed hopper to keep said contamination powder;
- b. a geared motor drive to drive a plurality of conditioning paddles installed inside of said powder feed hopper to ensure consistent powder bulk density and mobility for the duration of said hydraulic test;
- c. a slide plate batching valve to discharge a predetermined quantity of said contamination powder from said powder feed hopper to a pre-mixing vessel containing a predetermined quantity of said clean fluid;
- d. said pre-mixing vessel being equipped with an air-driven mixer to mix said clean fluid with said contamination powder to produce a contaminated fluid and to ensure good particulate dispersion is achieved and maintained for the duration of said hydraulic test;
- e. an air actuated transfer valve transfers said contaminated fluid to a feed vessel;
- f. said feed vessel being equipped with a low shear agitator to maintain an even distribution of said contamination powder in said contaminated fluid;
- g. a plurality of level sensors to monitor the level of said contaminated fluid in said feed vessel and command to said air actuated transfer valve to open when the level of said contaminated fluid in said feed vessel is low;
- h. a manual valve at a distal end of said feed vessel to provide isolation from a contaminant injector;
- i. said contaminant injector injects a predetermined quantity of said contaminated fluid into a clean fluid flow entering to a into contamination module from a parent test stand;
- j. a plurality of filters to remove said contamination powder from said contaminated fluid returning after the hydraulic test from said parent test stand;
- and
- k. a support frame having a right and a left longitudinally extended beams with ground engaging legs to stably support said infection device, wherein the spacing between said right and left beams defines the width of the support frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.