Patents by Inventor Qiao Lu

Qiao Lu 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).

  • Patent number: 9134053
    Abstract: A vapor cycle refrigeration system includes a thermoelectric device (TED) as a sub-cooler to sub-cool liquid refrigerant exiting a condenser to increase cooling capacity of an evaporator and pull down temperature within a refrigerated compartment quickly. The TED sub-cooler is turned off after initial temperature pull down and is not operated during steady state operation for maintenance of the compartment temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventor: Qiao Lu
  • Patent number: 9062909
    Abstract: A point-of-use air chiller unit for an aircraft galley cart compartment is provided comprising a generally flattened rectangular case, comprising two main surfaces having a substantially larger surface area than four remaining surfaces of the case, a condenser, a compressor, an evaporator, and an evaporator fan, wherein the condenser, compressor, and evaporator are connected in a standard refrigeration manner, and a plane parallel to the main surfaces passes through the condenser, the compressor, the evaporator, and the evaporator fan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, Timothy Andrew Birkmann, Ian Oswald, Edward J. Bates, Steven Whisler, Thang Ha
  • Publication number: 20150089970
    Abstract: An improved aircraft air chiller unit particularly suited for an aircraft galley that requires refrigerated or cooled beverage/meal carts and/or chilled storage compartments. The chiller of the present invention takes the form of a line replaceable unit (“LRU”) and incorporates a liquid-cooled refrigerant vapor compression cycle, arranged in a housing with a vertical orientation. Because of the vertical orientation, ducting on the rear surface of the chiller is omitted, reducing the overall footprint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, William J. Godecker, James R. Forbes
  • Publication number: 20150089968
    Abstract: An improved aircraft air chiller unit particularly suited for an aircraft galley that requires refrigerated or cooled beverage/meal carts and/or chilled storage compartments. The chiller of the present invention takes the form of a line replaceable unit (“LRU”) and incorporates a liquid-cooled refrigerant vapor compression cycle, arranged in a housing with a vertical orientation. Because of the vertical orientation, ducting on the rear surface of the chiller is omitted, reducing the overall footprint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, William J. Godecker, James R. Forbes
  • Publication number: 20150007600
    Abstract: A chiller for an aircraft galley that is sized to be disposed in a compartment for housing beverage carts, the chiller comprising a vapor cycle refrigeration system with a liquid cooled condenser located within the housing and a liquid cooling unit located within the housing. Further, the vapor cycle refrigeration system and the liquid cooling unit have a combined footprint that is less than a footprint of a food and beverage cart within the housing, such that the space occupied by the chiller displaces no more than one beverage cart.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 1, 2014
    Publication date: January 8, 2015
    Inventors: William J. Godecker, Qiao Lu, Tortsten Trumper
  • Patent number: 8839631
    Abstract: A thermoelectric cooling system includes a thermoelectric device that transfers heat from a cold side to a hot side via a Peltier effect, an air heat exchanger that transfers heat from air to the cold side, and a heat sink that transfers heat from the hot side to a fluid coolant. The system also includes a temperature sensor that measures a temperature of air, and a controller that controls a flow of electrical power to the thermoelectric device according to a temperature measurement. The system also transfers heat from the air heat exchanger to the heat sink via the thermoelectric device according to a heat conduction effect due to a temperature difference between the air heat exchanger and the fluid coolant. The controller may reduce an effective voltage across the thermoelectric device to reduce power consumption of the thermoelectric device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventor: Qiao Lu
  • Publication number: 20140123683
    Abstract: A thermoelectric cooling device comprises a liquid heat exchanger, at least two air heat exchangers, and at least two thermoelectric modules. The liquid heat exchanger includes a liquid circulation path through which liquid coolant flows to exchange heat with the liquid heat exchanger. Air flows over each of the air heat exchangers to exchange heat with the respective air heat exchanger. A first thermoelectric module is thermally coupled on a first side with a first side of the liquid heat exchanger and on a second side with a first air heat exchanger to transfer heat between the air heat exchanger and the liquid heat exchanger. A second thermoelectric module is thermally coupled on a first side with a second side of the liquid heat exchanger and on a second side with the second air heat exchanger to transfer heat between the air heat exchanger and the liquid heat exchanger.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Publication date: May 8, 2014
    Applicant: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventors: Kai S. Hou, Qiao Lu, Edward M. Stoebner, Patricia Gary, William Godecker, Eric Mickelson
  • Patent number: 8607586
    Abstract: An aircraft galley refrigeration system is provided which, in one embodiment, includes: first and second galleys; a first chiller for providing a first heat transfer fluid to the first galley; a second chiller for providing a second heat transfer fluid to the second galley; and a heat exchanger including a first circuit and a second circuit, the first circuit connecting the first galley with the first chiller, and the second circuit connecting the second galley with the second chiller. In another embodiment, the system includes a first cooling subsystem with a first heat transfer fluid, a second cooling subsystem with a second heat transfer fluid, and a heat exchanger that thermally couples the first and second cooling subsystems for distributing heat between the first and second heat transfer fluids.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventor: Qiao Lu
  • Publication number: 20130247600
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a refrigeration system that cools a compartment includes a compressor, a condenser, a condenser fan, a condenser fan motor, an evaporator, an evaporator fan, an evaporator fan motor, and tubing adapted to transport refrigerant through the refrigeration system in a circulation order from the compressor to the condenser to the evaporator and back to the compressor again. The evaporator fan may be positioned in an air inlet path to the evaporator. The evaporator fan motor may be outside a chilled air circuit of the evaporator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, William Godecker, Richard Rigney
  • Publication number: 20130247590
    Abstract: A dynamic chilled mini-bar includes: a cover; a movable compartment translatable to expose an interior thereof from behind the cover; and a cooling device operable to cool the interior of the movable compartment. A piece of integrated entertainment equipment in a vehicle includes: a dynamic chilled mini-bar movably installed on the integrated entertainment equipment; and an actuator coupled with at least one of a side of the integrated entertainment equipment and the movable compartment, the actuator being operable to translate the movable compartment. A method of operating a dynamic chilled mini-bar includes: receiving an input signal to translate a movable compartment of the dynamic chilled mini-bar from a first position to a second position with respect to a cover of the dynamic chilled mini-bar; and linearly translating the movable compartment to the second position according to the input signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2013
    Publication date: September 26, 2013
    Applicant: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, William Godecker, Javier Valdes De La Garza
  • Patent number: 8516832
    Abstract: A controller for a thermoelectric cooling system comprises a sensor input that receives input from a sensor that measures a performance parameter of a thermoelectric cooling system. The thermoelectric cooling system comprises a plurality of thermoelectric devices electrically coupled in a combination of in series and in parallel with one another and electrically driven by a common driver. The controller also comprises a voltage control signal output, a processor, and a non-transitory memory having stored thereon a program executable by the processor to perform a method of controlling the thermoelectric cooling system. The method comprises receiving sensor data from the sensor input, determining a parameter of the voltage control signal based on the input sensor data, and transmitting a voltage control signal having the parameter to the driver to control heat transfer by the plurality of thermoelectric devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventors: Vishal Bhavsar, Qiao Lu, William Godecker
  • Publication number: 20130047657
    Abstract: A reconfigurable vent system in fluid communication with an air chiller to deliver chill air to one or more galley food and beverage storage compartments in parallel is reconfigurable to operate in either of an air-through or an air-over orientation. The reconfigurable vent system comprises a vent in fluid communication with the air chiller via a duct and configured to provide the chill air to the one or more galley food and beverage storage compartments. The vent directs the chill air substantially toward the interior of the one or more galley food and beverage storage compartments in the air-through orientation at a first angle, and the vent directs the chill air substantially around the one or more galley food and beverage storage compartments in the air-over orientation at a second angle different from the first angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Publication date: February 28, 2013
    Applicant: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventors: Ian Oswald, Qiao Lu, Steven Whisler
  • Publication number: 20130047630
    Abstract: A vapor cycle refrigeration system includes a thermoelectric device (TED) as a sub-cooler to sub-cool liquid refrigerant exiting a condenser to increase cooling capacity of an evaporator and pull down temperature within a refrigerated compartment quickly. The TED sub-cooler is turned off after initial temperature pull down and is not operated during steady state operation for maintenance of the compartment temperature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2011
    Publication date: February 28, 2013
    Applicant: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventor: Qiao Lu
  • Publication number: 20130048264
    Abstract: A storage compartment cooling apparatus includes a liquid circulation system that circulates a liquid coolant, a heat exchanger that cools an interior of a storage compartment using the liquid coolant, a bypass line through which the liquid coolant selectively bypasses the heat exchanger, one or more valves that controllably increase and decrease the flow of the liquid coolant through the heat exchanger and the bypass line, and a controller that controls the one or more valves. A storage compartment cooling system includes a liquid coolant distribution loop that distributes a chilled liquid coolant to a plurality of the storage compartment cooling apparatuses coupled in series and a recirculation cooling device that includes a chiller that chills the liquid coolant to have a temperature lower than an ambient temperature and a circulation unit that circulates the chilled liquid coolant through the liquid coolant distribution loop.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2011
    Publication date: February 28, 2013
    Applicant: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, William Godecker
  • Publication number: 20120312030
    Abstract: A thermoelectric cooling system includes a thermoelectric device that transfers heat from a cold side to a hot side via a Peltier effect, an air heat exchanger that transfers heat from air to the cold side, and a heat sink that transfers heat from the hot side to a fluid coolant. The system also includes a temperature sensor that measures a temperature of air, and a controller that controls a flow of electrical power to the thermoelectric device according to a temperature measurement. The system also transfers heat from the air heat exchanger to the heat sink via the thermoelectric device according to a heat conduction effect due to a temperature difference between the air heat exchanger and the fluid coolant. The controller may reduce an effective voltage across the thermoelectric device to reduce power consumption of the thermoelectric device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2012
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: B/E AEROSPACE, INC.
    Inventor: Qiao Lu
  • Patent number: 8275141
    Abstract: A noise reduction system and a noise reduction method are provided. The noise reduction system comprises a uni-directional microphone, an omni-directional microphone and a signal processing module. The signal processing module comprises an adaptive noise control (ANC) unit, a main noise reduction unit and an optimizing unit. The uni-directional microphone senses a first audio source to output a first audio signal, and the omni-directional microphone senses a second audio source to output a second audio signal. The ANC unit executes an adaptive noise control to output an estimated signal according to the first audio signal and the second audio signal. The main noise reduction unit executes a main noise reduction process to output a de-noise speech signal according to the estimated signal and the second audio signal. The optimizing unit executes an optimizing process to output an optimized speech signal according to the de-noise speech signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2012
    Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
    Inventors: Shih-Yu Pan, Min-Qiao Lu, Jiun-Bin Huang, Shyang-Jye Chang
  • Publication number: 20120114139
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a suppressing noise system applied in a mobile device, comprises: at least two microphones are used for respectively transmitting a first audio signal with noise and a second audio signal with noise; a pre-processing unit is coupled to the at least two microphones for oversampling the first and second audio signals, downsampling the sampled first and second audio signals, and then generating a first adjusted signal and a second adjusted signal; and a suppressing noise device is coupled to the pre-processing device for filtering noise in the first and second adjusted signals once again, and outputting a third audio signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2011
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Shih-Yu PAN, Chih-Yuan Yu, Jiun-Bin Huang, Min-Qiao Lu
  • Patent number: 8171749
    Abstract: An aircraft-galley chiller, enclosed in a housing, including an evaporator condensate drying device. The galley chiller may operate on DC power and may be transported from one cart to another to provide chilled air to a particular cart.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventors: Qiao Lu, Timothy Andrew Birkmann, Shon Mattly, Steven Whisler, Richard Rizzo, Michael E. Wright, Edward Bates
  • Publication number: 20120047911
    Abstract: A controller for a thermoelectric cooling system comprises a sensor input that receives input from a sensor that measures a performance parameter of a thermoelectric cooling system. The thermoelectric cooling system comprises a plurality of thermoelectric devices electrically coupled in a combination of in series and in parallel with one another and electrically driven by a common driver. The controller also comprises a voltage control signal output, a processor, and a non-transitory memory having stored thereon a program executable by the processor to perform a method of controlling the thermoelectric cooling system. The method comprises receiving sensor data from the sensor input, determining a parameter of the voltage control signal based on the input sensor data, and transmitting a voltage control signal having the parameter to the driver to control heat transfer by the plurality of thermoelectric devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2010
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Applicant: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventors: Vishal Bhavsar, Qiao Lu, William Godecker
  • Publication number: 20110289939
    Abstract: Example personal beverage warmers and coolers for vehicle seats are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus to regulate the temperature of a beverage near a seat of a vehicle, the apparatus includes: a base including a thermally conductive material that conducts heat in a direction that is at least one of to or from a container seated thereon, a thermoelectric device thermally coupled with the base and to be energized to exchange heat with the base, and a heat exchanger thermally coupled with the thermoelectric device and a liquid medium to exchange heat therebetween.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2011
    Publication date: December 1, 2011
    Applicant: B/E Aerospace, Inc.
    Inventor: Qiao Lu