Patents by Inventor Thomas Karb

Thomas Karb 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).

  • Flexible expandable automation device with hot-swappable I/O-units
    Patent number: 10963412
    Abstract: A flexible expandable automation device includes: a main control unit; and at least two I/O-units connected to the main control unit and to each other via an I/O-bus. The I/O-bus works according to a daisy-chain technique. The I/O-bus has a bus signal line and a daisy-chain-control-line. Each I/O-unit has a daisy-chain-control-IN-port for receiving a daisy-chain-control-signal as a daisy-chain-control-IN-signal and a daisy-chain-control-OUT port for delivering the daisy-chain-control-signal as a daisy-chain-control-OUT-signal to a next adjacent I/O-unit. Each I/O-unit has an I/O-module carrier and a pluggable and unpluggable I/O-module. The daisy-chain-control-IN-port and the daisy-chain-control-OUT-port are part of the I/O-module carrier. Each I/O-module-carrier has a hot-swap-control unit that, in case of an unplugged I/O-module creating an interrupted daisy chain, automatically bridges the interrupted daisy chain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: ABB SCHWEIZ AG
    Inventors: Thomas Karb, Abderahmane Bellatreche, Juan Adalid Salas-Sanchez, Stefan Haug
  • FLEXIBLE EXPANDABLE AUTOMATION DEVICE WITH HOT-SWAPPABLE I/O-UNITS
    Publication number: 20190243793
    Abstract: A flexible expandable automation device includes: a main control unit; and at least two I/O-units connected to the main control unit and to each other via an I/O-bus. The I/O-bus works according to a daisy-chain technique. The I/O-bus has a bus signal line and a daisy-chain-control-line. Each I/O-unit has a daisy-chain-control-IN-port for receiving a daisy-chain-control-signal as a daisy-chain-control-IN-signal and a daisy-chain-control-OUT port for delivering the daisy-chain-control-signal as a daisy-chain-control-OUT-signal to a next adjacent I/O-unit. Each I/O-unit has an I/O-module carrier and a pluggable and unpluggable I/O-module. The daisy-chain-control-IN-port and the daisy-chain-control-OUT-port are part of the I/O-module carrier. Each I/O-module-carrier has a hot-swap-control unit that, in case of an unplugged I/O-module creating an interrupted daisy chain, automatically bridges the interrupted daisy chain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2019
    Publication date: August 8, 2019
    Inventors: Thomas Karb, Abderahmane Bellatreche, Juan Adalid Salas-Sanchez, Stefan Haug