PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16063494
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-06
Publication Date: 2019-01
Patent Classification: ["137", "014000"]

Abstract:
The present invention provides a monitoring apparatus for an outlet of a vessel storing gas under pressure. The monitoring apparatus comprises a flow control valve movable to a position between a fully open position and a fully closed position to adjust a flow of gas from the outlet of the vessel, a valve position detector connected to the flow control valve to detect the position of the flow control valve, an internal pressure sensor to sense an internal pressure P int (t) of the gas in the vessel at different times, a processor, a memory and an alarm. The processor calculates an actual rate of change in pressure dP int /dt of the gas in the vessel over time, and compares dP int /dt with an expected rate of change.

Claim (Index 1):
A monitoring apparatus ( 1 ,  2 ) for an outlet ( 10 a ) of a vessel ( 10 ) storing gas under pressure, comprising:\n a flow control valve ( 21 ) movable to a position between a fully open position and a fully closed position to adjust a flow of gas from the outlet ( 10 a ) of the vessel ( 10 ); a valve position detector ( 22 ) connected to the flow control valve ( 21 ) to detect the position of the flow control valve ( 21 ); an internal pressure sensor ( 14 ) to sense an internal pressure (P int (t)) of the gas in the vessel ( 10 ) at different times; a processor ( 16 ) connected to the internal pressure sensor ( 14 ) to receive from the internal pressure sensor ( 14 ) the pressure (P int (t)) sensed thereby at different times and to calculate an actual rate of change in pressure (dP int /dt) of the gas in the vessel ( 10 ) over time from the pressure (P int (t)) of the gas in the vessel ( 10 ) sensed at different times; a memory ( 11 ) to store a volume of the vessel ( 10 ) and for that volume, an expected rate of change in pressure ((dP int /dt) exp ) of the gas in the vessel ( 10 ) for each of a plurality of different positions of the flow control valve ( 21 ); the processor ( 16 ) being connected to the valve position detector ( 22 ) to receive from the valve position detector ( 22 ) the position of the valve ( 21 ) detected thereby, to retrieve from the memory ( 11 ) the volume of the vessel ( 10 ) and for that volume, the expected rate of change in pressure ((dP int /dt) exp ) of the gas in the vessel ( 10 ) for the position of the valve ( 21 ) detected by the valve position detector ( 22 ), and to compare the actual rate of change in pressure (dP int /dt) with the expected rate of change in pressure ((dP int /dt) exp ) for the same position of the valve ( 21 ) as detected by the valve position detector ( 22 ) and the same volume of the vessel ( 10 ) as retrieved from the memory ( 11 ); and an alarm ( 18 ) connected to the processor ( 16 ) to receive from the processor ( 16 ) an alarm signal (s) to activate the alarm ( 18 ) if the actual rate of change in pressure (dP int /dt) is less than a first threshold ((dP/dt) min ) defined in relation to the expected rate of change in pressure ((dP int /dt) exp ) which is compared with the actual rate of change in pressure (dP int /dt) and/or is more than a second threshold ((dP/dt) max ) defined in relation to the expected rate of change in pressure ((dP int /dt) exp ) which is compared with the actual rate of change in pressure (dP int /dt).

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 94.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.25806
- Patent Class: 137.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['12559022', '12445196', '13867208', '13119018', '14868094']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8295174474217172
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.459410921343627
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7925067948139082
- Mean Citation Score: 182.968186
- Max Citation Score: 190.4658
- Similarity Product: 147.96362635989192

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test