Patents by Inventor Thomas Eilinger

Thomas Eilinger 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: 20220219939
    Abstract: An elevator system drive includes: an electric machine: a first converter electrically connected to an alternating current source and the electric machine: a drive controller controlling the drive: a drive safety circuit unit electrically connected to a safety circuit of the elevator system, to a controller of the elevator system, and to the drive controller; and at least one mechanical brake that is closed by a brake closing command from the elevator system controller. The drive safety circuit unit operates in a first operating state wherein it transmits an emergency stop command coming from the elevator system safety circuit directly and without delay to the first converter, and operates in a second operating state wherein it relays a modified emergency stop command coming from the elevator system safety circuit, with a delay, to the first converter to ensure safe braking of the elevator system even if the mechanical brakes fail.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2020
    Publication date: July 14, 2022
    Inventors: Roman Hopp, Thomas Eilinger
  • Publication number: 20220185623
    Abstract: A safety torque off (STO) device interrupts torque generation by an elevator installation drive machine supplied by a power supply device being part of an inverter device, for example. The STO device includes a control input, signal input terminals connected to signal generation device outputs and signal output terminals connected to driver circuit inputs. Each of the STO signal input terminals is electrically connected to an associated one of the signal generation device outputs via first and second signal transmission switches connected in series. The control input is connected to first and second control units, wherein the first control unit, controlled by a control signal applied to the control input, switches switching states of all the first signal transmission switches and the second control unit, controlled by a control signal applied to the control input, switches switching states of all of the second signal transmission switches.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2020
    Publication date: June 16, 2022
    Inventors: Adrian Schaller, Thomas Eilinger
  • Patent number: 11192752
    Abstract: A drive control method and system for controlling an inverter during power disruptions in the operation of an elevator drive includes the steps of predetermining whether a hoist motor of the elevator drive will be operating in a motor mode, a balanced mode or a regenerative mode on commencement of the power disruption, and controlling the inverter in accordance with the predetermined operating mode after commencement of the power disruption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: INVENTIO AG
    Inventors: Roman Camenzind, Thomas Eilinger, Om Prakash
  • Publication number: 20190202663
    Abstract: A drive control method and system for controlling an inverter during power disruptions in the operation of an elevator drive includes the steps of predetermining whether a hoist motor of the elevator drive will be operating in a motor mode, a balanced mode or a regenerative mode on commencement of the power disruption, and controlling the inverter in accordance with the predetermined operating mode after commencement of the power disruption.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2017
    Publication date: July 4, 2019
    Inventors: Roman Camenzind, Thomas Eilinger, Om Prakash
  • Patent number: 9061864
    Abstract: A method for operating an elevator having a car driven by a motor and at least one brake to stop the car, the method including closing a brake, increasing a torque of the motor until the car moves, and registering a value indicative of the motor torque at which the car moves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: Inventio AG
    Inventors: Erich Spirgi, Daniel Bossard, Danilo Peric, Enrique Almada, Urs Ammon, Urs Polin, André Peter, Thomas Eilinger
  • Publication number: 20120217100
    Abstract: A method for operating an elevator having a car driven by a motor and at least one brake to stop the car, the method including closing a brake, increasing a torque of the motor until the car moves, and registering a value indicative of the motor torque at which the car moves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2011
    Publication date: August 30, 2012
    Inventors: Erich Spirgi, Daniel Bossard, Danilo Peric, Enrique Almada, Urs Ammon, Urs Polin, André Peter, Thomas Eilinger
  • Patent number: 7261186
    Abstract: An elevator, particularly for transporting passengers, has an elevator car guided in an elevator shaft a direct drive motor. The drive motor includes an active primary part at the elevator car and a passive secondary part that is fixed in the elevator shaft and is spaced from the primary part by an air gap. In order to achieve a high power capability, the drive motor is configured as a transverse flux motor that moves the primary part linearly relative to the secondary part under the influence of an electromagnetic propulsive force. The secondary part has at least one rail made of a soft magnetic material and subdivided into a plurality of segments having a predetermined length. The segments are fixed to a wall of the elevator shaft by intermediate elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2007
    Assignee: Inventio AG
    Inventors: Romeo Deplazes, Jörg Evertz, Thomas Eilinger
  • Patent number: 6938733
    Abstract: Emergency current supply equipment for lift installations with electric motor drives has the task of bridging over temporary drops or interruptions in main voltage and of supplying, in the event of failure of the mains supply during a lift travel, all components of the lift installation needed for an evacuation travel with energy until such time as the lift car has reached the level of a story. The energy storage unit used for that purpose comprises as the storage medium exclusively capacitors in the form of super capacitors or a combination of super capacitors and electrochemically acting batteries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2005
    Assignee: Inventio AG
    Inventor: Thomas Eilinger
  • Publication number: 20050077113
    Abstract: An elevator, particularly for transporting passengers, has an elevator car guided in an elevator shaft a direct drive motor. The drive motor includes an active primary part at the elevator car and a passive secondary part that is fixed in the elevator shaft and is spaced from the primary part by an air gap. In order to achieve a high power capability, the drive motor is configured as a transverse flux motor that moves the primary part linearly relative to the secondary part under the influence of an electromagnetic propulsive force. The secondary part has at least one rail made of a soft magnetic material and subdivided into a plurality of segments having a predetermined length. The segments are fixed to a wall of the elevator shaft by intermediate elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2004
    Publication date: April 14, 2005
    Inventors: Romeo Deplazes, Jorg Evertz, Thomas Eilinger
  • Patent number: 6742630
    Abstract: Elevator installations with electric drive systems are equipped with devices (10) to reduce the power supply connection rating which have energy storage units (11) which are formed entirely or partly from so-called supercapacitors (13). The device (10) according to the invention has the effect on the one hand that power peaks during starting and braking operations are compensated by the exchange of energy between the storage unit (11) and motor supply, and on the other hand that the power consumption occurring during a trip is also spread over a part of the at-rest time. Supercapacitors (13) as energy stores tolerate by comparison with electrochemically acting accumulators a much higher number of charging and discharging cycles at high values of current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2004
    Assignee: Inventio AG
    Inventor: Thomas Eilinger
  • Publication number: 20030089557
    Abstract: Elevator installations with electric drive systems are equipped with devices (10) to reduce the power supply connection rating which have energy storage units (11) which are formed entirely or partly from so-called supercapacitors (13). The device (10) according to the invention has the effect on the one hand that power peaks during starting and braking operations are compensated by the exchange of energy between the storage unit (11) and motor supply, and on the other hand that the power consumption occurring during a trip is also spread over a part of the at-rest time. Supercapacitors (13) as energy stores tolerate by comparison with electrochemically acting accumulators a much higher number of charging and discharging cycles at high values of current.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2002
    Publication date: May 15, 2003
    Inventor: Thomas Eilinger
  • Publication number: 20030089556
    Abstract: Emergency current supply equipment (10) for lift installations with electric motor drives has the task of bridging over temporary drops or interruptions in main voltage and of supplying, in the event of failure of the mains supply during a lift travel, all components of the lift installation needed for an evacuation travel with energy until such time as the lift car has reached the level of a storey. The energy storage unit (11) used for that purpose comprises as the storage medium exclusively capacitors in the form of supercapacitors (13) or a combination of supercapacitors (13) and electrochemically acting batteries (14).
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2002
    Publication date: May 15, 2003
    Inventor: Thomas Eilinger
  • Patent number: 5625542
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for the low noise operation of a electrical machine driven by a pulse inverter computes the amplitudes and frequencies of the harmonics of the inverter output voltages. Through targeted setting of the modulation parameters, the frequency spectrum or the noise spectrum can be fanned out and harmonics, which would excite stator resonances, can be eliminated. Due to the independence of the modulation parameters from the modulation index (a.sub.0) and the fundamental oscillation frequency (f.sub.1), the fanning-out and the elimination has no influence on the fundamental oscillation (u.sub.GS) or on the operating point of the machine. The inverter is controlled through sinusoidal pulse width modulation (PWM) and sinusoidal pulse frequency modulation (PFM) of a triangular carrier signal (U.sub.H). By this method, the main groups of the harmonics with two ordinate numbers (n, v) are fanned out into subgroups with three ordinate numbers (n, m, v).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 29, 1997
    Assignee: Inventio AG
    Inventors: Herbert Stemmler, Thomas Eilinger