Synchronization Systems Patents (Class 318/705)
  • Patent number: 11962255
    Abstract: Systems and methods of controlling a length of an air gap in an electric machine using an air gap controller may include: determining an air gap length value for an electric machine at least in part using an air gap controller, comparing the determined air gap length value to an air gap target value using the air gap controller, and outputting a control command from the air gap controller to a controllable device associated with an air gap control system when the determined air gap length value differs from the air gap target value by a predefined threshold. A control command may be configured to impart a change to an operating parameter associated with the air gap control system to adjust a length of an air gap between an outer surface of a rotor core and an inner surface of a stator core of the electric machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Pablo Gabriel Piazza Galarza, Fabian Isaza
  • Patent number: 11952018
    Abstract: A drive system for a vehicle includes a plurality of electric traction motors, each mechanically coupled to at least one drive wheel to generate traction. At least one traction power converter is connected on an AC voltage side to at least one electric traction motor to supply the electric traction motor with electric power. A traction control unit for controlling at least one traction power converter is provided and is designed to control the at least one traction power converter while the vehicle is moving based on electrical output alternating quantities of the at least one traction power converter. A rotational movement of the at least one drive wheel of the vehicle during standstill of the vehicle is not detected by a separate detection unit based on the output alternating quantities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Bombardier Transportation GmbH
    Inventors: Christian Wirth, Markus Vogelsberger
  • Patent number: 11843331
    Abstract: A system for determining an initial angular position of a rotor of a synchronous machine includes a motor driver module configured to provide a motor driver voltage signal to the synchronous machine, the motor driver voltage signal being sufficient to induce an electrical current in the synchronous machine; and a rotor position determination module configured to receive an indication of the current generated in the machine and to determine the initial position of the rotor based on the indication of the current generated in the machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Eaton Intelligent Power Limited
    Inventors: Yaojin Mo, Huaqiang Li, Jimmy Qi, Tony Zhao, Hao Cai
  • Patent number: 11804792
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating mechanical and/or electrical energy are presented. A system generates mechanical energy by using direct current to cause a plurality of rotors to rotate within and/or around a plurality of stators and generate electrical energy by using the rotation of the rotors within and/or around the stators to generate an electromagnetic field. Sensors provide information about the rotors and the stators to a control system which sends commands to alter various properties and conditions for the rotors and stators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: COALMONT ELECTRICAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
    Inventor: Shaun McCutcheon
  • Patent number: 11791754
    Abstract: A motor driver having an automatic phase switching mechanism is provided. After a three-phase motor is started up, a back electromotive force detecting circuit starts detecting a back electromotive force signal of each of three phases of the three-phase motor. A driving waveform generating circuit extracts parts of a plurality of first wave segment patterns from a first wave segment pattern signal as a plurality of first wave segments of a first waveform signal according to the back electromotive force signal. A motor controlling circuit controls the motor driving circuit to drive the three-phase motor to rotate normally according to the first waveform signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: ANPEC ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ming-Jung Tsai
  • Patent number: 11594991
    Abstract: A robust position control method for a permanent magnet synchronous motor considering current limitation is provided. The method fully considers the influence of current limitation on a closed loop system in controller design, stability analysis and other theoretical analysis phase, can effectively overcome the influence of system disturbances including system parameters uncertainty and unknown load torque, and finally realize a control objective of accurate tracking of the motor position. More importantly, the technology is a continuous control method which can overcome the inherent chattering problem while having strong robustness of sliding mode control. Meanwhile, a controller designed by the present invention also has the advantages of simple structure, etc. The technical solution proposed by the present invention has wide practical application prospect due to the characteristics of excellent anti-disturbance capability, and simple and feasible structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: DALIAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Ximing Sun, Jianyi Zhang
  • Patent number: 11557997
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of determining the magnetic flux ? of an electric machine, based on measurements (MES) of currents and voltages in the phases of the electric machine, on a dynamic model (MOD) of the magnetic flux and on an adaptive Kalman filter (KAL).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: IFP ENERGIES NOUVELLES
    Inventors: Hoai-Nam Nguyen, Gianluca Zito
  • Patent number: 11183958
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for operating an electric machine which can be operated using PWM control (A1) and using block control (A3), wherein a transfer control (A2) is used for transfer between the PWM control (A1) and the block control (A3), in which method, within the scope of controlling a torque of the electric machine, a d value of a phase voltage is set as a manipulated variable and a q value of the phase voltage is changed continuously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: SEG Automotive Germany GmbH
    Inventor: Daniel Szepanski
  • Patent number: 10734931
    Abstract: As a configuration of carrying out a turning operation of a brushless synchronous power generation apparatus, there are provided a synchronous generator, an AC exciter, a rotary rectifier attached to an armature of the AC exciter, and short-circuiting means which three-phase short-circuits armature windings of the AC exciter, wherein the armature windings of the AC exciter are short-circuited, causing the AC exciter to operate as an induction motor, thus rotating the rotor shaft of the synchronous generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryoji Miyatake, Ayumu Yamada, Keisuke Yoshida
  • Patent number: 9748888
    Abstract: A method for operating power semiconductors arranged in converters, includes measuring with a temperature sensor a temperature of at least one of the power semiconductors, performing a comparison of the temperature of the at least one power semiconductor with a reference temperature and providing a result of the comparison; activating a pre-heating phase for preheating the power semiconductors as a function of the result; during the pre-heating phase, defining a pre-heating current; and impressing the pre-heating current into an electrical load.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Gunnar Dietz, Holger Hoffmann, Harald Hofmann, Michael Leipenat, Stefan Völkel
  • Patent number: 9705435
    Abstract: A method of controlling a brushless motor that includes storing a lookup table of control values, periodically obtaining a speed-adjusted control value, and exciting a phase winding of the motor. The speed-adjusted control value is then used to define the phase and/or length of excitation. Obtaining the speed-adjusted control value includes measuring the speed of the motor, increasing or decreasing a speed-adjust variable in the event that the measured speed is greater or less than a threshold, selecting a control value from the lookup table using the measured speed, and adjusting the selected control value using the speed-adjust variable to obtain the speed-adjusted control value. Additionally, a control system that implements the method, and a motor assembly that incorporates the brushless motor and the control system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: DYSON TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
    Inventors: Hanping Dai, Yu Chen, Mark Edward Leaver, Samuel Wesley Hinchliffe
  • Patent number: 9684290
    Abstract: A motor controller and methods of controlling a variable speed motor using the motor controller after a power-loss event are described. The motor controller is configured to be coupled to a motor. The motor controller includes a computing device configured to determine power is being supplied to the motor controller a power-loss event. The computing device is also configured to operate the motor in accordance with a predetermined operating schedule such that the computing device operates the motor at a first speed for a first time period, and after completion of the first time period, the computing device operates the motor at a second speed for a second time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Regal Beloit America, Inc.
    Inventor: Marc McKinzie
  • Patent number: 9664499
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for determining the angular offset between the rotor and the stator of an electrical machine for driving a motor vehicle, the rotor being supplied with a rotor-energizing current and voltage, the stator being supplied over three phases with stator-phase currents and voltages, wherein the method includes the following steps: verifying that the electrical machine is stopped; applying a rotor-energizing signal for an amount of time capable of causing the partial magnetization of the rotor; applying a rotor-de-energizing signal capable of causing an active and rapid demagnetization of the rotor, while measuring, during the magnetization, the stator-phase currents and maintaining zero voltage among the phases of the stator; determining the direct stator currents and quadrature stator currents corresponding to the stator-phase currents measured by applying Park and Clarke transforms and in accordance with a measurement of the electrical position of the rotor; determining the maximu
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: RENAULT s.a.s.
    Inventor: Edouard Negre
  • Patent number: 9041328
    Abstract: An electrical controller for electric motors is provided. A control system for an electric motor comprises a supply for supplying excitation current to different windings of the motor at any given time. Furthermore, the amplitude of the excitation current is independently variable of the timing and duration of the application of the excitation current to the windings. This allows increased control of the motor and facilitates the operation of the motor at high mechanical and/or electrical speeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: AERISTECH LIMITED
    Inventors: Bryn Geoffrey Roddick Richards, Wenshan Hu
  • Patent number: 9007012
    Abstract: A slide-out or retractable room for a mobile living quarters, such as a recreational vehicle, is provided with actuating assemblies mounted on opposite side walls of the slide-out room and the adjacent wall of the main living area. The actuating assemblies include a pair of parallel gear racks mounted on the side wall, which are engaged by pinions rotated by torque shafts mounted on the main living quarters. Each torque shaft is rotated by a separate motor. A roller engages a bearing surface on the lower portion of the gear racks. Accordingly, the slide-out room is extended and retracted by rotating the torque shafts to cause the gear racks and the attached slide-out room to extend and retract. The weight of the slide-out room is supported by the rollers, thereby supporting the slide-out room off of the floor of the main living quarters as it extends and retracts. A synchronizing control operates the motors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Lippert Components Manufacturing, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael A. Schwindaman, Thomas J. Rogers, Michael W. Howard
  • Patent number: 8982595
    Abstract: Design of a T-connected autotransformer based 20-pulse ac-dc converter is presented in this invention. The 20-pulse topology is obtained via two paralleled ten-pulse ac-dc converters each of them consisting of a five-phase (five-leg) diode bridge rectifier. For independent operation of paralleled diode-bridge rectifiers, a zero sequence blocking transformer (ZSBT) is designed and implemented. Connection of a tapped inter-phase transformer (IPT) at the output of ZSBT results in doubling the number of output voltage pulses to 40. Experimental results are obtained using the designed and constructed laboratory prototype of the proposed converter to validate the design procedure and the simulation results under varying loads. The VA rating of the magnetic in the proposed topology are calculated to confirm the savings in space, volume, weight, and cost of the proposed configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2015
    Inventor: Rohollah Abdollahi
  • Patent number: 8872465
    Abstract: A line-start synchronous motor has a housing, a rotor shaft, and an output shaft. A soft-start coupling portion is operatively coupled to the output shaft and the rotor shaft. The soft-start coupling portion is configurable to enable the synchronous motor to obtain synchronous operation and to drive, at least near synchronous speed during normal steady state operation of the motor, a load having characteristics sufficient to prevent obtaining normal synchronous operation of the motor when the motor is operatively connected to the load in the absence of the soft-start coupling. The synchronous motor is sufficiently rated to obtain synchronous operation and to drive, at least near synchronous speed during normal steady state operation of the motor, a load having characteristics sufficient to prevent obtaining normal synchronous operation of the motor when the motor is operatively connected to the load in the absence of the soft-start coupling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Baldor Electric Company
    Inventors: Stephen D. Umans, Donald L. Nisley, Michael J. Melfi
  • Patent number: 8853974
    Abstract: A method for connecting a second motor to a variable speed drive in parallel with at least one existing motor under load and controlled by the variable speed drive is provided. The method disconnects the existing motor from the variable speed drive and a state estimator calculates transient state of the existing motor including at least the speed of the existing motor based on a previously established load model. The method then connects the second motor to the variable speed drive and the second motor is operated using a suitable directive until the actual state of the second motor attains the calculated transient state of the existing motor at a given time. Upon attaining the calculated transient state, the existing motor is reconnected to the variable speed drive such that no current spike is generated in the aforementioned process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Schneider Toshiba Inverter Europe SAS
    Inventors: Thomas Devos, François Malrait
  • Publication number: 20140239875
    Abstract: A method comprises providing a line-start synchronous motor. The motor has a stator, a rotor core disposed within the stator, and a motor shaft. In accordance with a step of the method, a coupling for coupling a load to the motor is provided. The coupling has a motor shaft attachment portion configured to provide substantially concentric contact around the shaft at the end of the motor shaft. The coupling has a load attachment portion configured to operatively connect to a load. In accordance with a step of the method, a load is coupled to the motor with the coupling, and driven from start to at least near synchronous speed during steady state operation of the motor with a load coupled thereto. The motor shaft attachment portion may comprise a bushing assembly with matching and opposed tapered surfaces that cooperate to secure the motor shaft attachment portion around the motor shaft.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2014
    Publication date: August 28, 2014
    Inventors: Michael J. Melfi, Galen E. Burdeshaw
  • Publication number: 20140184132
    Abstract: A method for switching the voltage supply for an alternating current electric engine between a supply from an ASD and a supply from an electrical network, the method comprises a stage for determining an ideal speed of rotation for the electric engine and for synchronising the phase and the amplitude of the voltage delivered by the ASD with the voltage delivered by the electrical network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2013
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Inventors: Sami Siala, Prakash Battu Reddy
  • Publication number: 20140097784
    Abstract: A method for controlling a motor at low operational speed is disclosed, wherein the motor comprises a magnetic rotor and a stator arranged to produce a magnetic field responsive to an applied electric current, wherein the method comprises ramping up an electric current applied to a stator from an initial current level to a synchronisation current level over a period of time. The initial current level is less than a minimum current required by the stator to produce a magnetic field having magnetic flux of a sufficient magnitude for synchronising a position of the magnetic rotor with respect to the magnetic field. The synchronisation current level is greater than or equal to the minimum current required to produce a magnetic field having magnetic flux of a sufficient magnitude to synchronise the position of the magnetic rotor with the magnetic field.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2013
    Publication date: April 10, 2014
    Applicant: Control Techniques Limited
    Inventor: Simon David Hart
  • Patent number: 8622002
    Abstract: A rail vehicle has a powered bogie, wherein the powered bogie has driven wheels. Each driven wheel of the powered bogie can be driven by an electric machine, with a power converter being assigned to the electric machine. As a result, a separate power converter is assigned to each driven wheel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Andreas Jöckel
  • Patent number: 8581540
    Abstract: A slide-out or retractable room for a mobile living quarters, such as a recreational vehicle, is provided with actuating assemblies mounted on opposite side walls of the slide-out room and the adjacent wall of the main living area. The actuating assemblies include a pair of parallel gear racks mounted on the side wall, which are engaged by pinions rotated by torque shafts mounted on the main living quarters. Each torque shaft is rotated by a separate motor. A roller engages a bearing surface on the lower portion of the gear racks. Accordingly, the slide-out room is extended and retracted by rotating the torque shafts to cause the gear racks and the attached slide-out room to extend and retract. The weight of the slide-out room is supported by the rollers, thereby supporting the slide-out room off of the floor of the main living quarters as it extends and retracts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Lipperts Components Manufacturing, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael A. Schwindaman, Thomas J. Rogers, Michael W. Howard
  • Publication number: 20130264990
    Abstract: A line-start synchronous motor has a housing, a rotor shaft, and an output shaft. A soft-start coupling portion is operatively coupled to the output shaft and the rotor shaft. The soft-start coupling portion is configurable to enable the synchronous motor to obtain synchronous operation and to drive, at least near synchronous speed during normal steady state operation of the motor, a load having characteristics sufficient to prevent obtaining normal synchronous operation of the motor when the motor is operatively connected to the load in the absence of the soft-start coupling. The synchronous motor is sufficiently rated to obtain synchronous operation and to drive, at least near synchronous speed during normal steady state operation of the motor, a load having characteristics sufficient to prevent obtaining normal synchronous operation of the motor when the motor is operatively connected to the load in the absence of the soft-start coupling.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2013
    Publication date: October 10, 2013
    Applicant: BALDOR ELECTRIC COMPANY
    Inventor: Baldor Electric Company
  • Publication number: 20130257342
    Abstract: A mechanical soft-start type coupling is used as an interface between a line start, synchronous motor and a heavy load to enable the synchronous motor to bring the heavy load up to or near synchronous speed. The soft-start coupling effectively isolates the synchronous motor from the load for enough time to enable the synchronous motor to come up to full speed. The soft-start coupling then brings the load up to or near synchronous speed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2012
    Publication date: October 3, 2013
    Applicant: BALDOR ELECTRIC COMPANY
    Inventor: Michael J. Melfi
  • Patent number: 8497655
    Abstract: The present invention provides a simple, robust, and universal position observer for use with sensorless synchronous machines. The observer may be implemented using an equivalent EMF model of a synchronous machine or, alternately, using a sliding mode controller based on the equivalent EMF model of the synchronous machine. The observer may be used on any type of synchronous machine, including salient or non-salient pole machines such as a permanent magnet, interior permanent magnet, wound rotor, or reluctance synchronous machine. The observer provides low sensitivity to parameter variations and disturbances or transient conditions in the machine. In addition, no knowledge of speed is required as an input to the observer and an estimated position may be calculated using a subset of the machine parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jingbo Liu, Semyon Royak, Mark M. Harbaugh, Thomas A. Nondahl, Peter B. Schmidt
  • Patent number: 8497654
    Abstract: There is provided a single-phase AC synchronized motor that does not need smooth of rectifier waves but stably performs shift from a starting operation to a synchronized operation. In the motor, based on detected signals of a position sensor, rectified current is reciprocally flowed to each direction of a single-phase coil which starts the motor. The motor includes a start-up operation circuit with a sensor starting period that increases a rotational speed until reaching to a first predetermined rotational speed; and a control device that controls operation of the motor as that shift to synchronized operation is performed when a rotational speed of a permanent magnetic rotor is reached to a second predetermined rotational speed nearby a synchronized rotational speed but not exceeding the synchronized rotational speed, and when the rise and fall of detected signals of the position sensor and the zero-cross point of AC current are approximately correspondent to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Minebea Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takahiro Sakaguchi, Masahiro Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 8476851
    Abstract: A motor magnetic pole position correction method includes preventing a movement of a movable element of a direct drive motor by mechanical brake (step S9), generating a command that designates a position spaced or separated from the present position (step S10), detecting a torque command value of the direct drive motor (step S12), determining a magnetic pole position correction value based on a comparison between the detected torque command value and a predetermined threshold value (steps S14 and S16), storing the determined magnetic pole position correction value in a memory (step S18), and performing motor control using an electrical angle offset value obtained based on the magnetic pole position correction value stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: OKUMA Corporation
    Inventor: Yoichi Kawai
  • Patent number: 8421395
    Abstract: A synchronous motor including therein a three-phase inverter and position sensors, having a unit for calculating a digital input current value from the analog output of an input current detection circuit that detects the input current flowing into the DC input terminal of the three-phase inverter, and a digital feedback speed control unit for adjusting the amplitudes and frequency of the AC voltages outputted from the three-phase inverter in such a manner that the motor speed calculated by a motor speed calculation unit 41 on the basis of the outputs of the position sensors approaches a speed command value received by a communication reception unit from outside the synchronous motor. The synchronous motor further includes therein a communication transmission unit for transmitting the input current value and the motor speed to outside the synchronous motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2013
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Information & Control Solutions, Ltd.
    Inventors: Daisuke Maeda, Kenji Sakurai, Hiroyuki Hasegawa, Hidefumi Shirahama, Mitsuhiro Mishima
  • Publication number: 20110316468
    Abstract: A rotating electrical machine to be connected to a polyphase power grid, having: a polyphase synchronous motor including a rotor with permanent magnets and a polyphase asynchronous motor axially coupled together, and a switching system arranged so as to electrically connect the asynchronous motor to the grid during the machine starting phase in order to bring the synchronous motor to a speed that enables the motor to operate while connected directly to the grid, and to electrically connect the synchronous motor to the grid during a subsequent phase.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 22, 2009
    Publication date: December 29, 2011
    Applicant: MOTEURS LEROY-SOMER
    Inventors: Ali Makki, Eric Coupart
  • Patent number: 8049458
    Abstract: A speed-variable field winding type of synchronous rotary electric machine is provided, where a rotor with plural-phase windings faces a rotor with a field winding. A field current is limited to flow through the field winding in one direction thereof. A fundamental component of armature current, which corresponds to a synchronizing current for producing a rotating magnetic field rotating in sync with the rotation of the rotor, is supplied to the armature windings. The synchronizing current is adjusted in frequency to change a rotor rotation speed. A pulsed rotor exciting current is supplied to the armature windings. The exciting current causes the field winding to induce the field current only during a specified current-supply duration shorter than a one cycle of the synchronizing current. The number of current-supply times for the exciting current, per electrical angle 2? and per phase, has a positive correlation with the cycle of the synchronizing current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventor: Masahiro Seguchi
  • Patent number: 7898199
    Abstract: In a predetermined operating state of an electric motor of an axial air-gap type, control is carried out as follows. A phase difference between an electric current supplied to an armature winding of one of the stators and an electric current supplied to an armature winding of the other stator is set so as to suppress a variation in an output torque of the electric motor, and electric currents having the phase difference are supplied to the armature windings of the stators. A variation in output torque can be suppressed only in an operating state where the variation in output torque of the electric motor is to be suppressed, and the output torque and the energy efficiency of the electric motor can be enhanced sufficiently in the other operating states.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hirofumi Atarashi
  • Patent number: 7872438
    Abstract: The present invention provides an initial pole position estimating apparatus and method for an AC synchronous motor without using magnetic pole detector. The initial pole position estimating apparatus includes a thrust force or torque pattern generating portion for generating a thrust force or torque pattern, a pole position command generating portion for generating a pole position command, and a position detecting portion for detecting a position of the AC synchronous motor. The initial pole position estimating apparatus can estimate an initial pole position in a short time with high precision without depending on a fluctuation in a load. The initial pole position estimating apparatus further includes a pole position correcting portion (8) for correcting the pole position command and a thrust force or torque pattern correcting portion (9) for correcting the thrust force or torque pattern, and an initial pole position is estimated through a repetitive correction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yaskawa Denki
    Inventors: Shinya Morimoto, Hyun-Soo Song, Mamoru Takaki, Kozo Ide
  • Patent number: 7852037
    Abstract: This application describes a motor designed to operate as a reluctance machine at low speeds and as an induction machine at high speeds. The drive waveform is composed of one or more harmonics to be used to match the reluctance pattern of the stator-rotor, causing the rotor to rotate due to the reluctance effect, and one or more other harmonics to induce current in the rotor, causing the rotor to rotate due to the induction effect and the subsequent interaction of the stator and rotor magnetic fields. The two effects are generally not applied simultaneously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Borealis Technical Limited
    Inventor: Jonathan Sidney Edelson
  • Patent number: 7769489
    Abstract: A robot control device that controls operation of a robot having an actuator includes a casing, an actuator driver, a drive-control board, a main control board, a main power supply board, a vent passage, a cooling fan, and a holding member. The actuator driver is accommodated in the casing and drives the actuator. The drive-control board is accommodated in the casing and controls operation of the actuator driver. The main control board is accommodated in the casing and controls operation of the drive-control board. The main power supply board is accommodated in the casing and supplies a power to the drive-control board and the main control board. The vent passage is defined by at least the drive-control board, the main control board, and the main power supply board and has an end open to the exterior of the casing. The cooling fan is arranged at an end of the vent passage and causes the air to flow through the vent passage. The holding member is provided in the vent passage and holds the actuator driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Ryosuke Teranaka
  • Publication number: 20100164427
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for fault tolerant cooling in a redundant power system. The apparatus receives power from a common power bus to power one or more power supply fans. The apparatus detects a non-functioning redundant power supply. The apparatus receives a fan control signal within a non-functioning redundant power supply. In addition, the apparatus uses the received fan control signal to synchronize a fan speed of a power supply fan within the non-functioning redundant power supply. The fan speed is synchronized with at least one fan control signal of a power supply fan within a functioning redundant power supply. Thus, the power supply fans of a non-functioning power supply continue to operate and are synchronized with power supply fans in functioning power supplies.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Publication date: July 1, 2010
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: C. Charles Dishman, Ted A. Howard, Randhir S. Malik, Trung M. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 7663334
    Abstract: The present invention relates to electrically magnetized synchronous machine comprising an electrically magnetized rotor, and electrically supplied sator windings, whereby it further comprises non-linear means, optionally controllable, such as rectifying means in a series with three sator phase windings, whereby a rotor field winding is arranged to be fed from said non-linear means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignee: Forskarpatent I Syd AB
    Inventor: Mats H. A. AF Klercker Alakula
  • Publication number: 20100017037
    Abstract: Provided is an air conditioning system comprised of a plurality of indoor units connected to each other in parallel, each having an expansion valve, and an outdoor unit including a plurality of compressors, in which at least one of the compressors provided to the outdoor unit is a capacity modulation compressor including an electromotive driving unit for driving a plurality of compression units capable of selectively compressing a working fluid, and the electromotive driving unit for the capacity modulation compressor has a stator with a coil wound around thereon and a rotor rotating inside the stator, the rotor being an LSPRM including a rotor core, flux barriers, permanent magnets and conductive bars.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2009
    Publication date: January 21, 2010
    Applicant: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Hyuk Nam, Kang-Wook Lee, Seung-Hyoung Ha, Geun-Hyoung Lee
  • Patent number: 7619385
    Abstract: A motor controller capable of suppressing a large speed change generated at the time of changeover from a synchronous operation mode to a position feedback operation mode and implementing even acceleration characteristics regardless of the load torque by estimating a torque of a permanent magnet motor in the synchronous operation mode for driving the permanent magnet motor and setting an initial value of a current command value in a position sensor-less operation mode on the basis of information of the torque estimated value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2009
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems, Co., Ltd., Hitachi Car Engineering Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takahiro Suzuki, Tsunehiro Endo, Kazuaki Tobari, Daigo Kaneko, Daisuke Maeda, Akira Yamazaki
  • Patent number: 7583046
    Abstract: For a multiphase alternating current (AC) wound field synchronous machine (WFSM) that has a stator with a selected number of poles, the WFSM having an associated exciter and multiphase AC permanent magnet machine (PMM) directly coupled to the WFSM, a method of sensing the position of a rotor in the WFSM comprises the steps of: configuring a stator for the PMM to have a number of poles that is a sub-multiple of the selected number of WFSM stator poles; configuring a rotor for the PMM to have high saliency; applying multiphase AC power of a selected frequency to the PMM stator; detecting at least one set of stator harmonic currents of the multiphase AC power resulting from the rotor saliency; converting the detected PMM harmonic stator currents from their multiphase coordinates to ?? coordinates; rotating the converted PMM stator currents into a reference frame for at least one selected harmonic to generate ?? coordinate harmonic current vectors; and estimating the position of the WFSM rotor based on the values
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2009
    Assignee: Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation
    Inventors: Vijay K Maddali, Albert L Markunas
  • Publication number: 20080258672
    Abstract: A starting method and system for a motor where the motor may be started as an induction motor by applying a magnetizing current to build flux through the stator, with the field current set at the maximum permissible exciter stator current (i.e., the current that will cause rated no-load current in the main field at the transition speed). The motor stator currents will be maintained at a value that allows the motor to generate sufficient breakaway torque to overcome any stiction. At a specific transition speed or after a period of time, the drive will initiate a transition from induction motor control to synchronous motor control by removing the initial magnetizing current, and a field current is then applied to the motor through the DC exciter. Once this transition is completed, the drive may ramp up to the desired speed demand.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 18, 2008
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Applicant: Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard H. Osman, Kinjal Patel, Mukul Rastogi
  • Patent number: 7312594
    Abstract: A control system for a synchronous machine including a converter for converting DC voltage to AC voltage or AC voltage to DC voltage. The synchronous machine is driven by the converter. The control system further includes a magnetic pole position presuming device for performing a presuming operation to presume a magnetic pole position of the synchronous machine based on high-frequency components of a voltage applied to the synchronous machine and a current flowing into the synchronous machine, and a control device for controlling the converter based on the magnetic pole position presumed by the magnetic pole position presuming device. The control device controls the converter so as to contain significant high-frequency components in the voltage or the current used in the presuming operation when a mean voltage or a mean current output from the converter is spatially in a region close to a straight line containing starting and ending points of non-zero voltage vector output from the converter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2007
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Kazuya Yasui, Kazuaki Yuuki, Kentaro Suzuki, Katsumi Maekawa, Shouji Onda
  • Patent number: 7292002
    Abstract: In a control method for a twin synchronization in which two motors for driving two axes (moving elements 3) mechanically fastened to each other by a fastening part (a fastening jig 6) are synchronously operated, one of the two axes is operated at low speed by a position control and the other axis is allowed to freely run and follow the one axis and a return to the origin is performed. A positional deviation between the one axis and the other axis is measured at an arbitrary pitch. The positional deviation corresponding to a position where the one axis travels is stored in a data base as a function. One position command is directly distributed to the one axis as a main position command and the position command is distributed to the other axis as a position command corrected by using the function stored in the data base to perform an operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2007
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yaskawa Denki
    Inventors: Kanji Watanabe, Kazuhiko Watariyou, Naoto Kiyota
  • Patent number: 7245104
    Abstract: A position-sensorless motor control device has a superposer that superposes, on the drive current with which the motor is driven, a superposed current having a different frequency than the drive current, a superposed component extractor that extracts, from the motor current fed to the motor, the ?-axis and ?-axis components of the superposed current, and a controller that controls the motor so that the direct-current component of the arithmetic product of the extracted ?-axis and ?-axis components of the superposed current converges to zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshio Tomigashi, Hiroshi Takao
  • Patent number: 7239108
    Abstract: A method for referencing a polyphase stepper motor by monitoring the current step response in at least one driven phase is presented. The coil current step response is compared to past step responses in order to determine when an increase in or maximum load is present. A combination of step to step variance, step response variance from mean current magnitude, and average current magnitude variance, as well as other measures can be combined to create an algorithm output. The output is compared to a pre-determined threshold and if the value is greater than the threshold, the motor is commanded to halt its position, which remains magnetically synchronous. This position is then used as a reference point to zero, or to home the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Eric P. Best
  • Patent number: 7180262
    Abstract: A vector-control system and method of a “sensorless” type for electric drives with a.c. motors is based upon generation of an oscillating magnetic field and upon measurement of the deviation, with respect to said oscillating field, of the flux generated thereby on account of anisotropy, whether natural or induced, of the magnetic structure of the machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignee: Universita′ Degli Studi Di Cantania
    Inventors: Alfio Consoli, Giuseppe Scarcella, Antonio Testa
  • Patent number: 7149606
    Abstract: A control system includes controllers that are coupled mutually by a communications network, on which information, transmitted from a master controller to a slave controller, is used to make timing corrections on the slave controller in order to synchronize event timers on the slave controller with that of the master controller. Timing accuracy for the occurrence of the event commanded by each controller is synchronized in narrow range of time, preferably within a few milliseconds depending on the specific application and system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2006
    Assignee: Fanul Robotics America, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenneth W. Krause
  • Patent number: 7116067
    Abstract: A method of controlling a power converter (20) of a motor drive system (10)controls the power converter (20) during a first operating mode by applying a current control scheme, which sets power converter commands to control torque current flowing from the power converter (20) to the motor (30) to achieve desired motor speed; and initiates a second operating mode when power supply to the power converter (20) is interrupted. The second operating mode includes controlling negative torque current between the power converter (20) and the motor (30) so that mechanical energy from the motor (30) charges an element (58) on a power supply side of the power converter (20). The first operating mode is resumed when the input power recovers. Torque current between the power converter (20) and the motor (30) is also controlled to limit a maximum transient DC bus voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
    Inventors: Jack Daming Ma, George You Zhou, Zheng Wang
  • Patent number: 7084597
    Abstract: In an automatic transmission position control by a motor, it is determined whether the present instant belongs to a starting period, that is, the present instant is immediately after resetting of a control unit or application of power to it. If it is the starting period, an actual shift position that is detected from an output of an output shaft sensor for detecting a rotation position of a motor is set as an instructed shift position. With this measure, even if the control unit is reset for a certain reason while the vehicle is running, the instructed shift position is not changed in association with the resetting. This prevents trouble that the shift position is switched contrary to the intention of the driver, whereby the reliability of a position switching control can be increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2006
    Assignee: DENSO Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Nakai, Shigeru Kamio
  • Patent number: 7067997
    Abstract: A method for determining a rotor position angle of a synchronous machine, the method comprising the steps of determining inductances (LA, LB, LC) of the synchronous machine in stator phase directions; generating an inductance vector (L) on the basis of the determined inductances (LA, LB, LC); and determining the rotor position angle (qr) on the basis of the determined inductance vector angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2006
    Assignee: ABB OY
    Inventor: Mika Neuvonen