Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7647783?dq=7,339,580
Timestamp: 2014-03-09 13:33:45
Document Index: 455118523

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 200610059644', 'Application No. 04023650', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 200610059645', 'Application No. 02108047']

Patent US7647783 - Compressor diagnostic system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsA diagnostic system and method for a compressor assembly including a compressor and a motor protector includes logic circuitry associated with the motor protector and operable to analyze a status of the motor protector as a function of time and identify a specific fault cause. The diagnostic system also...http://www.google.com/patents/US7647783?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7647783 - Compressor diagnostic systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7647783 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 10/776,856Publication dateJan 19, 2010Filing dateFeb 11, 2004Priority dateMar 27, 2001Fee statusPaidAlso published asCN1293307C, CN1384290A, DE60221177D1, DE60221177T2, EP1245913A1, EP1245913B1, US6758051, US7162883, US7222493, US7260948, US7313923, US7980085, US20030115890, US20040154319, US20040159112, US20040187502, US20060016200, US20060080978, US20100101250Publication number10776856, 776856, US 7647783 B2, US 7647783B2, US-B2-7647783, US7647783 B2, US7647783B2InventorsNagaraj Jayanth, Hung PhamOriginal AssigneeEmerson Climate Technologies, Inc.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (46), Non-Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (1), Classifications (34), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetCompressor diagnostic systemUS 7647783 B2Abstract A diagnostic system and method for a compressor assembly including a compressor and a motor protector includes logic circuitry associated with the motor protector and operable to analyze a status of the motor protector as a function of time and identify a specific fault cause. The diagnostic system also includes a demand signal sensor and a current sensor, wherein the logic circuitry is associated with the sensors to further enable the diagnostic system to determine a specific fault cause.
4. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, further comprising an indicator associated with said logic circuitry, said indicator receiving a signal from said logic circuitry to indicate a fault based on said current and demand signal.
5. The diagnostic system according to claim 4, wherein said indicator is a plurality of lights indicating the presence or absence of a fault condition.
6. The diagnostic system according to claim 2, wherein said demand signal sensor monitors a supply voltage.
7. The diagnostic system according to claim 2, wherein said demand signal sensor is in communication with a system controller supplying a signal indicating demand.
10. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, further comprising an indicator associated with said logic circuitry, said indicator receiving a signal from said logic circuitry to indicate a fault.
11. A method for diagnosing a compressor assembly including a compressor and a motor protector, said method comprising:
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said identifying a compressor fault cause includes indicating a specific fault cause based on said sensed current and demand signal.
14. The method according to claim 11, wherein said identifying includes outputting a coded sequence of electrical pulses to identify a specific fault cause.
15. The method according to claim 11, wherein said identifying occurs while the compressor is operating. Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/990,566 filed on Nov. 21, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/818,271 filed on Mar. 27, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,594). The disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a diagnostic system for a refrigeration or air-conditioning system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a diagnostic system for a refrigeration or air-conditioning system which uses various operating characteristics and the compressor's �trip� information to diagnose the problems associated with the refrigeration or air-conditioning system.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A class of machines exists in the art generally known as scroll machines which are used for the displacement of various types of fluid. These scroll machines can be configured as an expander, a displacement engine, a pump, a compressor, etc., and the features of the present invention are applicable to any of these machines. For purposes of illustration, however, the disclosed embodiment is in the form of a hermetic refrigerant scroll compressor used within a refrigeration or air conditioning system.
A large part of the compressors used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems have built-in protection devices called �internal line break protectors�. These protectors are thermally sensitive devices which are wired in electrical series with the motor. The protectors react thermally to the line current drawn by the motor and also other temperatures within the compressor including but not limited to discharge gas temperature, suction gas temperature or temperature of a particular component in the compressor. When one of these temperatures exceeds a designed threshold, the protector will open the electrical connection to the motor. This shuts down the motor operating the compressor which in turn shuts down the compressor and prevents it from operating in regions that would lead to its failure. After a period of time, when the temperatures have fallen to safe levels, the protector automatically resets itself and the compressor operates again. The temperatures that the protector is reacting to are a result of the operation of the compressor and the entire refrigeration or air-conditioning system. Either the operation of the compressor or the operation of the entire system can influence the temperatures sensed by these protectors. The significant aspect of the protection system is that some categories of faults repeatedly trip the protector with very short compressor ON time and other categories of faults trip the protector less frequently thus providing relatively longer compressor ON times. For example, a compressor with seized bearings would trip the protector within about twenty seconds or less of ON time. On the other hand, a system that has a very low refrigerant charge will trip the protector after typically more than ninety minutes of ON time. An analysis of the trip frequency, trip reset times and compressor ON times will provide valuable clues in identifying the cause of the system's problems.
FIG. 1 is a vertical cross section of a hermetic scroll compressor incorporating the unique compressor diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of the diagnostic system for a single phase motor for the compressor in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a diagnostic system for a three phase motor for the compressor in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of the diagnostic system for the single phase motor for the compressor in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of the diagnostic system for the three phase motor for the compressor in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a flow diagram which is followed when diagnosing a compressor system;
FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a typical refrigeration system utilizing the compressor and diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a contactor integrated with the diagnostic system's circuitry in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a schematic view illustrating the circuitry of the contactor illustrated in FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a compressor plug which illustrates the diagnostic system's circuitry in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of a diagnostic system for the compressor in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a chart indicating the possible system faults based upon ON time before trips;
FIG. 13 is a graph showing electrical current versus the temperature of the condenser;
FIG. 14 is a graph showing percent run time versus outdoor ambient temperature; and
FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of a diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Major elements of compressor 10 that are affixed to frame 22 include a two-piece main bearing housing assembly 24, a lower bearing housing 26 and a motor stator 28. A drive shaft or crankshaft 30 having an eccentric crank pin 32 at the upper end thereof is rotatably journaled in a bearing 34 secured within main bearing housing assembly 24 and a second bearing 36 secured within lower bearing housing 26. Crankshaft 30 has at the lower end thereof a relatively large diameter concentric bore 38 which communicates with a radially outwardly positioned smaller diameter bore 40 extending upwardly therefrom to the top of crankshaft 30. The lower portion of the interior of shell 12 defines an oil sump 44 which is filled with lubricating oil to a level slightly above the lower end of a rotor, and bore 38 acts as a pump to pump lubricating fluid up crankshaft 30 and into bore 40 and ultimately to all of the various portions of compressor 10 which require lubrication.
1. Protector has �tripped�. 2. The auxiliary winding of a single phase motor has no power or is open or has a faulty run capacitor. 3. The main winding of a single phase motor has no power or that the winding is open. 4. The main circuit breaker has contacts that have welded shut. 5. One of the phases in a 3 phase circuit is missing. 6. The phase sequence in a 3 phase system is reversed. 7. The supply voltage is very low. 8. The rotor inside the compressor has seized. 9. The protector is tripping due to system high pressure side refrigeration circuit problems. 10. The protector is tripping due to system lower pressure side refrigeration circuit problems. 11. The motor windings are open or the internal line break protector is faulty. 12. The supply voltage to the compressor is low. As a variation to the above, as shown in FIG. 3, diagnostic system 100 may only send the status of protector 54 to an intelligent device 116. In this option, the parameters of trip frequencies, ON times and OFF times with the diagnosis information may be generated at intelligent device 116. Intelligent device 116 can be a compressor controller associated with compressor 10, it can be a system controller monitoring a plurality of compressors 10, it can be a remotely located device or it can be any other device which is selected to monitor diagnostic system 100 of one or more compressors.
FIG. 4 represents a flow diagram for diagnostic system 100 in conjunction with a single phase compressor. The demand signal is provided to logic circuitry 104 from a device or a contactor 120 (FIGS. 2 and 3) along with the current signal from sensing devices 102. When the system is initially powered up, an initializing process is performed at 122 and, if successful, the system, as shown by arrow 124, goes to a normal OFF condition as shown at 126. When sitting at the normal OFF condition 126, if a demand signal is provided to the system, the system moves as shown by arrow 128 to a normal run condition shown at 130. Once the demand has been met, the system returns to the normal OFF condition 126 as shown by arrow 132.
FIG. 5 represents a flow diagram for diagnostic system 100 in conjunction with a three phase compressor. The demand signal is provided to logic circuitry 104 from contactor 120 (FIGS. 2 and 3) along with the current signal from sensing devices 102. When the system is initially powered up, an initializing process is performed at 122 and, if successful, the system, as shown by arrow 124, goes to a normal OFF condition as shown at 126. When sitting at the normal OFF condition 126, if a demand signal is provided to the system, the system moves as shown by arrow 128 to a normal run condition shown at 130. Once the demand has been met, the system returns to the normal OFF condition 126 as shown by arrow 132.
FIG. 6 represents a flow diagram which is followed when diagnosing a system problem. At step 300, the technician determines if there is a problem by checking the LEDs at step 302. If green LED 110 is lit, the indication at 304 is that compressor 10 is functioning normally and the problem is with other components. If yellow LED light 112 is blinking, the technician counts the number of blinks at 306. Based upon the number of blinks of light 112 the determination of the failure type is made at 308. The fault is corrected and the system is recycled and started at 310. The system returns to step 300 which again will indicate any faults with compressor 10.
FIG. 7 illustrates a typical refrigeration system 320. Refrigeration system 320 includes compressor 10 in communication with a condensor 322 which is in communication with an expansion device 324 which is in communication with an evaporator 326 which is in communication with compressor 10. Refrigerant tubing 328 connects the various components as shown in FIG. 7.
FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate flow diagrams for diagnostic system 100. While operating in the protector tripped condition 144, different paths are followed depending upon the moving window average of the ON time or the previous cycle ON time. These various paths help to determine what type of fault is present.
Using this approach, there are four major system faults as shown in FIG. 12 that can be identified based on the ON time and/or OFF time. First, a �locked rotor� (LR Trip) condition typically results from a compressor mechanical lock-out or a hard start problem. This results in the shortest trip time usually within twenty seconds or less. This is illustrated in FIG. 11 by arrow 162′ which leads to a locked rotor condition 164: from the locked rotor condition 164; the system moves back to the protector tripped condition 144 as shown by arrow 166′. Second, a �short cycling� condition is typically due to cut-in and cut-out of either the high-side or the low-side safety pressure switches. Both the ON time and OFF time during short cycling are typically in the order of two minutes or less. This is illustrated in FIG. 11 by arrow 162″ which leads to a short cycling run condition 164″. From the short cycling run condition 164″, the system moves back to the protector tripped condition 144 as shown by arrow 166″. Third, a �normal overload trip� (protector trip) condition is the one expected to occur most often imposing a max-load condition on the compressor due to system faults such as a blocked or failed condenser fan. The ON time between trips can be anywhere from four to ninety minutes depending on the severity of the faults. This is illustrated in FIG. 11 by arrow 168′ which leads to a normal overload trip condition 170′. From the normal overload trip condition 170′, the system moves back to the protector tripped condition 144 as shown by arrow 172′. As shown in FIG. 12, the normal overload trip can be broken down into two separate areas of the temperature if condenser 322 (Tc) is known. Fourth, a �high run time� fault condition results in very long run times typically greater than ninety minutes. A normal fifty per-cent run-time thermostat cycling based on a rate of three cycles per hour would produce an ON time of ten minutes. Thus, running more than ninety minutes is typically a fault. This is illustrated in FIG. 11 by arrow 174′ which leads to a loss of charge fault 176′. From the loss of charge fault 176′, the system moves back to the protector tripped condition 144 as shown by arrow 178′. Diagnostic system 100′ can replace diagnostic system 100 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 or diagnostic system 101′ can run concurrently with these other two diagnostic systems.
Cooling mod
Heating mod
Outdoor fan blocked/failed
Overload trip
Low delta T
Or Overcharge (High side)
High delta T
Indoor blower blocked/failed
Or Loss of Charge (Low side)
Defrost initiation
Compressor Fault
Current vs. Tcond
% run time
Additional diagnostic capabilities can be achieved by sensing the voltage in the power supply wires powering compressor 10. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate voltage sensors 402 incorporated for this purpose. Compressors with internal line breaks like temperature sensor 54 will �trip� if the supply voltage to compressor 10 falls below a specified value. This value is typically ten percent below the nominal voltage. Under this reduced voltage condition, the motor current will increase to a level that would generate enough heat to �trip� protector 54. Hence, if the voltage is known when protector 54 trips, this low voltage condition can be flagged as a specific fault. The service technician can then concentrate on finding the cause of the low voltage condition. The voltage can be sensed by several methods. It may be directly sensed at the compressure terminals as shown with sensors 402 or at other points in the electrical circuit feeding compressor 10. It may also be indirectly sensed by monitoring the control voltage of the system using a sensor 404 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The control voltage is typically a low voltage circuit (24 VAC) and it is derived using a step down transformer (not shown). This control voltage would also change in direct proportion to the change in line voltage. Hence, monitoring the control voltage could provide an idea of the line voltage.
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Chang & Associates.5Second Office Action dated Feb. 20, 2009 received from the Chinese Patent Office regarding Application No. 200610059645.8.6Second Office Action dated May 23, 2008 received from the Chinese Patent Office regarding Chinese Application No. 02108047.X.Referenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS7980085 *Jan 6, 2010Jul 19, 2011Emerson Climate Technologies, Inc.Compressor diagnostic system* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification62/126, 62/127, 361/31International ClassificationB25J9/16, F04C18/02, F25B49/00, F25B49/02, H02H7/08, H02H5/04, F21V7/04, F04C28/28Cooperative ClassificationF04C23/008, F25B49/005, F25B49/025, F04C18/0215, F25B2700/1931, F04C2270/86, F25B2700/2106, F25B2700/151, F25B2700/2116, F04C2270/80, F04C2270/07, F04C28/28, B25J9/1687, F04C29/0085, F04C2270/784, F04C2270/90, F04B51/00European ClassificationF04B51/00, F25B49/00F, B25J9/16T3, F04C18/02B2, F04C28/28, F25B49/02CLegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMar 12, 2013FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4Jul 27, 2010CCCertificate of correctionApr 26, 2007ASAssignmentOwner name: EMERSON CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIES, INC., OHIOFree format text: CERTIFICATE OF CONVERSION, ARTICLES OF FORMATION AND ASSIGNMENT;ASSIGNOR:COPELAND CORPORATION;REEL/FRAME:019215/0273Effective date: 20060927Owner name: EMERSON CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,OHIOFree format text: CERTIFICATE OF CONVERSION, ARTICLES OF FORMATION AND ASSIGNMENT;ASSIGNOR:COPELAND CORPORATION;US-ASSIGNMENT DATABASE UPDATED:20100203;REEL/FRAME:19215/273Free format text: CERTIFICATE OF CONVERSION, ARTICLES OF FORMATION AND ASSIGNMENT;ASSIGNOR:COPELAND CORPORATION;US-ASSIGNMENT DATABASE UPDATED:20100511;REEL/FRAME:19215/273Free format text: CERTIFICATE OF CONVERSION, ARTICLES OF FORMATION AND ASSIGNMENT;ASSIGNOR:COPELAND CORPORATION;REEL/FRAME:19215/273RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services©2012 Google