Patents by Inventor Alfred Rieder

Alfred Rieder has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20200278230
    Abstract: The Coriolis flowmeter according to the present disclosure includes: a measuring sensor including a bent measuring tube mirror-symmetrical with respect to a transverse plane, wherein a measuring tube center line runs in a longitudinal plane oriented perpendicular to the transverse plane, wherein an equatorial surface runs perpendicular to the longitudinal plane along the measuring tube center line; an exciter for exciting measuring tube bending vibrations; a first pair of vibration sensors for capturing the bending vibrations of the measuring tube; and an operating and evaluation circuit for driving the exciter, for capturing signals from the vibration sensors, and for determining a mass flow measured value, wherein the measuring sensor has a second pair of vibration sensors, which are arranged in a mirror-symmetrical manner with respect to the transverse plane, wherein the first pair of vibration sensors is separated from the second pair of vibration sensors by the equatorial surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2018
    Publication date: September 3, 2020
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder
  • Publication number: 20200271494
    Abstract: A method for ascertaining a physical parameter of a liquid containing gas in the form of suspended bubbles by means of a measuring transducer with an excitable measuring tube serving for guiding the liquid in bending oscillation modes of various eigenfrequencies, includes steps as follows: ascertaining the eigenfrequencies of the f1-mode and the f3-mode; ascertaining preliminary density values for the gas-containing liquid guided in the measuring tube based on the eigenfrequencies of the f1-mode and the f3-mode; ascertaining a value for the velocity of sound of the gas-containing liquid guided in the measuring tube, and/or ascertaining, as a function of the velocity of sound and the eigenfrequency of a mode, at least one correction term and/or density error for the preliminary density value, which was ascertained based on the eigenfrequency of the mode, for determining a corrected density measured value; and/or a correction term for a preliminary mass flow value for determining a corrected mass flow measured
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2016
    Publication date: August 27, 2020
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder
  • Patent number: 10724883
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for ascertaining a physical parameter of a gas using a measuring transducer having a measuring tube for conveying the gas, wherein the measuring tube is excitable to execute bending oscillations of different modes and eigenfrequencies, the method includes: ascertaining the eigenfrequency of the f1-mode and f3-mode; ascertaining preliminary density values for the gas based on the eigenfrequencies of the f1-mode and f3-mode; ascertaining a value for the velocity of sound of the gas, and/or, dependent on the velocity of sound and the eigenfrequency of a mode, at least one correcting term and/or density error for the preliminary density value; and/or a correcting term for a preliminary mass flow value for determining a corrected mass flow measured value based on the first preliminary density value, the second preliminary density value, the eigenfrequencies of the f1-mode and f3-mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder, Gerhard Eckert
  • Patent number: 10718648
    Abstract: A method for determining density and/or mass flow of a compressible medium with a measuring transducer of vibration-type having at least two oscillators, each including a pair of measuring tubes, wherein the pairs of measuring tubes are arranged for parallel flow, wherein the two oscillators have mutually independent oscillator oscillations with mutually differing eigenfrequencies for corresponding oscillation modes. The method includes steps of determining the values of the eigenfrequencies of at least two different oscillator oscillations, determining at least two preliminary density measured values based on the values of the eigenfrequencies, and determining a correction term for one of the preliminary density measured values and/or for a preliminary measured value of flow based on the preliminary density measured values and the values of the eigenfrequencies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder
  • Patent number: 10712189
    Abstract: A method serves for operating a measuring transducer of vibration-type having at least two oscillators, each of which is formed by a pair of measuring tubes, wherein the pairs of measuring tubes are arranged for parallel flow, wherein the two oscillators have mutually independent oscillator oscillations with mutually differing eigenfrequencies for corresponding oscillation modes. The method includes steps of determining a first value of a primary measurement variable, or of a variable derived therefrom, using the first oscillator, determining a second value of the primary measurement variable, or of a variable derived therefrom, using the second oscillator, checking an actual ratio between the first value and the second value by comparison with an expected ratio between the first value and the second value, and outputting a signal when the actual ratio does not correspond to the expected ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder
  • Patent number: 10704943
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a Coriolis mass flow meter including: a measuring tube; an one exciter for generating vibrations in the measuring tube; two sensors for detecting the vibrations in the measuring tube and for outputting associated sensor signals; and an operating and evaluating unit for determining a mass flow value of a medium in the measuring tube based on a phase difference or time difference between the sensor signals, wherein for Reynolds numbers below a Reynolds number threshold a cross-sensitivity to a viscosity of the medium correlates with a Stokes number, wherein the operating and evaluating unit is configured to determine a current value of the Stokes number for Reynolds numbers below the lower Reynolds number threshold and to compensate for the influence of the cross-sensitivity in the determining of the mass flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG
    Inventors: Vivek Kumar, Alfred Rieder, Simon Triebenbacher
  • Patent number: 10705055
    Abstract: A measuring transducer comprises two flow dividers having, in each case, two tubular chambers separated from one another and adapted for guiding in- and out flowing fluid, of which each has a chamber floor, in which are formed, in each case, two mutually spaced flow openings communicating with a lumen of the chamber, and as well as a tube arrangement having at least four measuring tubes connected to the flow dividers for guiding flowing fluid with parallel flow. Moreover, the measuring transducer comprises an electromechanical exciter mechanism for exciting mechanical oscillations of the measuring tubes as well as a sensor arrangement for registering oscillatory movements of the measuring tubes and for generating at least two oscillation measurement signals representing oscillations of at least one of the measuring tubes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder, Wolfgang Drahm, Michael Kirst
  • Publication number: 20200124452
    Abstract: The invention relates to a measuring system comprising a measuring and operation electronic unit (ME) and a transducer device electrically coupled thereto. The transducer device (MW) has at least one tube, through which fluid flows during operation and which is caused to vibrate meanwhile, a vibration exciter (41), two vibration sensors (51, 52), on the inlet and outlet sides, respectively, for generating vibration signals (s1, s2), and two temperature sensors (71, 72), on the inlet and outlet sides, respectively, for generating temperature measurement signals (81, 82), said temperature sensors being coupled to a wall of the tube in a thermally conductive manner. The measuring and operation electronic unit (ME) is electrically connected to each of the vibration sensors (51, 52) and to each of the temperature sensors (71, 72) and also to the at least one vibration exciter (41).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2017
    Publication date: April 23, 2020
    Inventors: Ennio BITTO, Christof HUBER, Alfred RIEDER
  • Patent number: 10620083
    Abstract: Method for monitoring and/or checking a pressure device having a lumen surrounded by a wall for conveying and/or storing a fluid. For such purpose, the method comprises a step of registering a strain, of the wall, by means of a strain gage, respectively a strain sensor formed therewith, affixed outwardly on the wall, for ascertaining a strain value representing the strain of the wall, as well as a step of using the strain value for ascertaining damage to the wall, as a result of plastic deformation of the wall and/or as a result of wear of the wall. A measuring system of the invention comprises supplementally to the pressure device at least one strain sensor affixed on a wall segment of the wall for producing a strain signal dependent on a time variable strain, of the wall segment as well as a transmitter electronics electrically coupled with the strain sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder, Holger Bernhard
  • Patent number: 10591335
    Abstract: A Coriolis mass flow measuring device and/or density measuring device includes two bent measuring tubes, which extend mirror symmetrically to a first mirror plane between the measuring tubes, an actuator arrangement and at least one sensor arrangement. At the inlet end and at the outlet end, a collector, with which the measuring tubes are joined, wherein the collectors each fulfill the functionality of a node plate. A support body, which connects the collectors rigidly with one another; and inlet end and outlet end, in each case, at least one plate-shaped coupler, which connect the measuring tubes pairwise with one another, in order to form an oscillator. The couplers have tube openings for measuring tubes, wherein the measuring tubes are connected at least sectionally with the couplers, wherein inlet end and outlet end, in each case, at least one coupler has, between the measuring tubes, a tuning opening for influencing the oscillation characteristics of the oscillator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2020
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder, Ennio Bitto
  • Publication number: 20200049543
    Abstract: The measuring system comprises a transducer apparatus (MT) with two tubes (11, 12), each of which has a lumen (11?) surrounded by a wall, especially a metal wall and extends from an inlet side end (11a, 12a) to an outlet side end (11b, 12b) Each of the two tubes is adapted to be flowed through by a fluid, starting from an inlet side end and proceeding toward an outlet side end, and, during that, to be caused to vibrate. An electromechanical- exciter mechanism formed by means of at least one oscillation exciter (41) serves for exciting and maintaining mechanical oscillations of each of the tubes about their associated static resting positions and a sensor arrangement (S) formed by means of at least one oscillation sensor (51) serves for registering mechanical oscillations of at least one of the tubes (11, 12).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2017
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Inventors: Alfred RIEDER, Gerhard ECKERT, Ennio BITTO, Hao ZHU
  • Patent number: 10533884
    Abstract: A measuring transducer for registering and/or monitoring at least one process variable of a flowable medium guided in a pipeline, which at least includes: a housing module, which is mechanically coupled with the pipeline via an inlet end and an outlet end, and a sensor module having at least one measuring tube held oscillatably at least partially in the housing module and caused, at least at times, to oscillate. The at least one component of the housing module and/or of the sensor module is manufactured by means of a generative method and method for manufacturing at least one component of a measuring transducer, which method includes manufacturing the at least one component by means of a primary forming process, especially by means of a layered applying and/or melting-on of a powder, especially a metal powder, based on a digital data set, which gives at least the shape and/or the material and/or the structure of the at least one component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Martin Josef Anklin, Gerhard Eckert, Christian Schutze, Ennio Bitto, Christof Huber, Claude Hollinger, Alfred Rieder, Michael Kirst
  • Publication number: 20190383656
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a measurement sensor of the vibrational type for measuring the density and/or the mass flow of a medium, including: two oscillators; an exciter for stimulating oscillator vibrations; and two vibration sensors, wherein the first oscillator includes first and second measuring tubes and a first resilient vibration coupler for coupling the measuring tubes, wherein the second oscillator includes third and fourth measuring tubes and a second resilient vibration coupler for coupling the third and fourth measuring tubes, wherein perpendicularly to a measuring tube transverse plane a measurement sensor longitudinal plane extends between the third and the fourth measuring tube, wherein the first and third measuring tube relative to a measurement sensor longitudinal plane are in mirror symmetry relative to one another, and wherein the second and fourth measuring tube relative to the measurement sensor longitudinal plane are in mirror symmetry relative to one another.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2017
    Publication date: December 19, 2019
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder, Ennio Bitto, Gerhard Eckert
  • Publication number: 20190383657
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a Coriolis mass flow meter including: a measuring tube; an one exciter for generating vibrations in the measuring tube; two sensors for detecting the vibrations in the measuring tube and for outputting associated sensor signals; and an operating and evaluating unit for determining a mass flow value of a medium in the measuring tube based on a phase difference or time difference between the sensor signals, wherein for Reynolds numbers below a Reynolds number threshold a cross-sensitivity to a viscosity of the medium correlates with a Stokes number, wherein the operating and evaluating unit is configured to determine a current value of the Stokes number for Reynolds numbers below the lower Reynolds number threshold and to compensate for the influence of the cross-sensitivity in the determining of the mass flow.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Publication date: December 19, 2019
    Inventors: Vivek Kumar, Alfred Rieder, Simon Triebenbacher
  • Publication number: 20190383658
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a vibration-type sensor for measuring the density and/or the mass flow rate of a medium, having at least one first oscillator, the sensor including: a curved first measuring tube; a curved second measuring tube; at least one first elastic vibration coupler that couples the first measuring tube and the second measuring tube to each; and at least one exciter for exciting oscillator vibrations in a bending vibration mode. The oscillator has a first oscillator resonant frequency for when the measuring tubes vibrate approximately in phase in the bending vibration mode and a greater second oscillator resonant frequency for when the measuring tubes vibrate approximately in counterphase in the bending vibration mode. The first and second measuring tubes have resonant frequencies differing from their arithmetic mean by no more than 8%, no more than 4%, no more than 2% or no more than 1%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2017
    Publication date: December 19, 2019
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder, Ennio Bitto, Gerhard Eckert
  • Publication number: 20190376831
    Abstract: The measuring system comprises a transducer apparatus (MT) with two tubes (11, 12), each of which has a lumen (11?) surrounded by a wall, especially a metal wall and extends from an inlet side end (11a, 12a) to an outlet side end (11b, 12b) Each of the two tubes is adapted to be flowed through by a fluid, starting from an inlet side end and proceeding toward an outlet side end, and, during that, to be caused to vibrate. An electromechanical-exciter mechanism formed by means of at least one oscillation exciter (41) serves for exciting and maintaining mechanical oscillations of each of the tubes (11, 12) about their associated static resting positions and a sensor arrangement (S) formed by means of at least one oscillation sensor (51) serves for registering mechanical oscillations of at least one of the tubes (11, 12).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2017
    Publication date: December 12, 2019
    Inventors: Alfred RIEDER, Gerhard ECKERT, Ennio BITTO, Hao ZHU
  • Patent number: 10497350
    Abstract: An arrangement, comprising a housing wall, an ultrasonic transducer and a damping element with a longitudinal axis, which damping element connects the ultrasonic transducer with the housing wall. The ultrasonic transducer has an end piece with a medium-contacting surface, from which ultrasonic signals are transferred into a gaseous or liquid medium. The damping element is provided for body sound damping between the ultrasonic transducer and the housing wall, and wherein the damping element has at least one, especially a number of, oscillatory nodes, characterized in that there is arranged between the damping element and the housing wall at least a first sealing ring, which is positioned at a height of an oscillatory node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Yaoying Lin, Alfred Rieder, Wolfgang Drahm, Michal Bezdek, Pierre Ueberschlag
  • Patent number: 10466151
    Abstract: A method is provided for measuring density of a fluid by means of at least one at least sectionally curved measuring tube. The measuring tube is adapted to be flowed through by the fluid and concurrently to be caused to vibrate over a wanted oscillatory length, namely a tube length measured from a first tube end to a second tube end, a length which is greater than a minimum separation of the second tube end from the first tube end. According to the invention, among other things, also a tilt measured value representing an inclination of the at least one measuring tube in the static resting position relative to a local acceleration of gravity is ascertained, in such a manner that such represents an angle of intersection between a direction vector of an imaginary first reference axis (y-axis) and a direction vector of an imaginary second reference axis (g-axis).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Gerhard Eckert, Alfred Rieder, Hao Zhu
  • Publication number: 20190323873
    Abstract: The invention relates to a measuring system comprising a measuring and operation electronic unit (ME) and a transducer device electrically coupled thereto. The transducer device (MW) has two tubes (11, 12), through which fluid flows during operation and in the process are caused to vibrate, a vibration exciter (41), two vibration sensors (51, 52), on the inlet and outlet sides, respectively, for generating vibration signals (s1, s2), and an inlet-side temperature sensor (71) coupled to a wall of the tube (11) for thermal conduction and an outlet-side temperature sensor (72) coupled to a wall of the tube (12) for generating temperature measurement signals (?1, ?2). The measuring and operation electronic unit (ME) is electrically connected to each of the vibration sensors (51, 52) and to each of the temperature sensors (71, 72) and also to the at least one vibration exciter (41).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2017
    Publication date: October 24, 2019
    Inventors: Ennio BITTO, Christof HUBER, Alfred RIEDER
  • Patent number: 10408652
    Abstract: A Coriolis mass flow measuring device includes four bent measuring tubes, two exciter mechanisms, and two sensor arrangements. All four measuring tubes are joined inlet end and outlet end with collectors, where the measuring tubes are connected inlet end and outlet end pairwise with node plates to form oscillators, where the exciter mechanisms are adapted to excite bending oscillation working modes between the two measuring tubes of an oscillator, where the first oscillator and the second oscillator have bending oscillation working modes with first and second working mode eigenfrequencies (f11, f12), where the magnitude of the difference of the working mode eigenfrequencies of the two oscillators (|f11?f12|) amounts to at least 0.1 times, for example, at least 0.2 times and especially at least 0.4 times the lower of the two working mode eigenfrequencies, where the sensor arrangements are adapted to register oscillations of the oscillators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: ENDRESS + HAUSER FLOWTEC AG
    Inventors: Hao Zhu, Alfred Rieder