Automatic temperature and humidity regulation – Distance-adjusted
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-09
2004-07-20
Tanner, Harry B. (Department: 3744)
Automatic temperature and humidity regulation
Distance-adjusted
C236S094000, C702S184000, C702S185000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06764019
ABSTRACT:
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 198933/2000 filed Jun. 30, 2000.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for servicing and maintaining heat supply equipment provided with a boiler or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for servicing and maintaining heat supply equipment, which can fulfill 24-hour response and which includes preventive maintenance for securing safety and security.
For servicing and maintenance of boilers in heat supply equipment, maintenance stations are provided at individual controlled areas, and a serviceman disposed at each of these maintenance stations performs the servicing and maintenance of the boiler. When any one of the boilers has halted due to occurrence of an abnormality, a telephone contact will be made from a person in charge of management of the boiler to the maintenance station, and a serviceman will take measures based on the contents of this contact.
However, it has been often the case that only telephone contact could not make the cause of the abnormality clear, or going to the site and finding the cause would take long time, or that even if the cause is determined, the serviceman does not have replacement parts and so needs setting out again. Further, when the serviceman is on the way to the site or checking for the cause of the abnormality, the boiler is left halted. Further, if the person in charge of management is late in finding the halt of the boiler, the halt period would be elongated resultantly. Like this, if the halt period of the boiler is elongated, production factories or the like would incur a lot of loss. Therefore, the boilers need to be prevented from occurrence of abnormalities to the best possible, and besides, if an abnormality has occurred, it is necessary to take a prompt countermeasure.
Abnormalities of the boiler can occur during the night or on holidays of the maintenance station. Therefore, it is desirable that maintenance stations be ready for prompt countermeasures over 24 hours. For this purpose, there arises a need of increasing the number of servicemen at the maintenance station.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to fulfill a so-called preventive maintenance, i.e. a maintenance for preventing occurrences of abnormalities in advance, securely and efficiently in heat supply equipment provided with boilers or the like, and to fulfill a prompt countermeasure even with occurrence of an abnormality so that the resultant halt time can be made as short as possible. A further object of the invention is to fulfill 24-hour support with the least staff efficiently.
In order to achieve the above object, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for servicing and maintaining heat supply equipment, which includes making a servicing and maintenance contract to implement equipment performance maintenance, function maintenance, abnormality recovery and a diagnosis for preventive maintenance of the heat supply equipment, providing a communication network of the heat supply equipment, a first computer of a control station and a second computer of a control center communicatable thereamong via communication means, and implementing contents of the servicing and maintenance contract based on information obtained by communications in this network, the method comprising the steps of: upon occurrence of an abnormality, performing a sequence of processes that: when the first computer receives abnormality occurrence data automatically transmitted from the heat supply equipment, the control station confirms contents of the abnormality occurrence data and requests detailed information as to the abnormality occurrence data from the heat supply equipment, receives the information, the control station analyzes the abnormality occurrence data and the detailed information and, based on results of this analysis, issues an instruction for dispatch of a serviceman or for recovery by a person in charge of management of the heat supply equipment; in a case where the control station makes no response such as in nighttime or on holidays, transferring the abnormality occurrence data from the first computer to the second computer, and by the control center instead of the control station, performing the sequence of processes, to thereby fulfill the contents of the servicing and maintenance contract over 24 hours a day; and for execution of the diagnosis, obtaining information relating to the diagnosis of the heat supply equipment via the communication means and performing an analysis of the obtained information.
In a second aspect of the invention, the method for servicing and maintaining heat supply equipment further includes, in a periodic inspection for fulfilling the contents of the servicing and maintenance contract, obtaining information as to inspection items in advance via the communication means and analyzing the obtained information, so that possible places of object equipment units that need an emphatic inspection or possible places that need parts replacement can be narrowed down before the serviceman goes for the periodic inspection.
In a third aspect of the invention, the method for servicing and maintaining heat supply equipment further comprises periodically requesting and receiving operating data and heat control data from the heat supply equipment so as to confirm whether or not the communication means is in a normal state and, as required, transferring and storing the two types of data from the heat supply equipment into the first computer of the control station.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, the method for servicing and maintaining heat supply equipment further comprises: totaling the operating data and the heat control data and offering an analysis result or a heat balance report based on this totalization to the servicing and maintenance contractor.
Next, embodiments of the present invention are described. The servicing and maintaining method of the invention is used for heat supply equipment provided with boilers or the like, where the boilers include various kinds of boilers such as steam boiler, hot water boiler, heat medium boiler and the like. The heat supply equipment includes equipment for supplying cold and heat, such as cooling and heating machines. Further, the servicing and maintaining method of the invention is applicable also to equipment such as water treatment systems or the like additionally provided to the boilers.
First of all, for the implementation of servicing and maintenance of heat supply equipment, a servicing and maintenance contract is made with the owner of the heat supply equipment or user (hereinafter, referred to as “servicing and maintenance contractor”). This servicing and maintenance contract provides for implementation of equipment performance maintenance, function maintenance, abnormality recovery and a diagnosis for preventive maintenance of the heat supply equipment. That is, the contract provides for maintaining the equipment in a successful state (high efficiency state), maintaining the proper functions of the equipment by preventing the equipment from halting due to occurrence of any abnormality, and recovering the equipment, even upon occurrence of some abnormality, to the normal state immediately. Further, as a diagnosis for preventive maintenance, the contract provides for performing a periodic inspection, for example, on a four-month basis.
The heat supply equipment and a first computer of the control station as well as a second computer of the control center are communicatably connected to each other via communication means. That is, the heat supply equipment is provided with a computer to be connected to the first computer and the second computer, where this computer is given by computers of individual units of equipment or a computer that integrates together those individual units. Then, the contents of the servicing and maintenance contract are implemented according to information from the mutual communications. In
Kayahara Toshihiro
Tachino Kazuhiro
Watanabe Yasuo
Miura Co., Ltd.
Tanner Harry B.
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