Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system in a specific environment – Electrical signal parameter measurement system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-23
2004-09-07
Hoff, Marc S. (Department: 2857)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system in a specific environment
Electrical signal parameter measurement system
C702S182000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06789030
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to portable data collector and analyzer systems for collecting and analyzing data and, in particular, to a handheld portable data collector and analyzer apparatus and method for collecting and analyzing industrial plant asset data for protecting and managing industrial plant assets including machinery.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Portable data collector and analyzer apparatus supporting predictive and preventative maintenance of plant assets have been employed in industry for a number of years. However, this apparatus is specialized and can only be targeted for narrow applications. For example, hand-held vibration measuring apparatus has been designed and targeted for the predictive and preventative maintenance of rotating machinery assets. Likewise, compressor performance measuring systems have been designed and targeted for reciprocating compressors. Manual data loggers have been used to record the condition of large assets such as pipe-work and underground tunnels. Further apparatus is required to align and balance machinery. This methodology of employing a large variety of specialized apparatus has resulted in significant costs and logistical problems for maintenance departments and personnel in industrial environments.
For example, the employment of a multiplicity of specialized apparatus for providing predictive and preventative maintenance of industrial plant assets augments costs by having a direct correlation to the amount of training required by personnel on each of the different specialized apparatus.
Additionally, personnel making multiple visits to a site with each of the specialized apparatus or carrying a collection of the specialized apparatus to a site for collecting data is both a laborious and time-consuming task that also augments the costs of providing predictive and preventative maintenance of industrial plant assets.
Furthermore, the task of procuring, maintaining and training personnel on a variety of different apparatus often from a variety of vendors and then routing the personnel with this variety of apparatus for collecting data is a huge logistical problem which is both costly and time consuming and results in resources being directed to the logistical problems of collecting data at the expense of correcting problems.
Moreover, safety risks to the health of maintenance personnel in industrial environments are significant. For example, many installations are classified as hazardous due to the likelihood of the presence of explosive gases. These gases, in even much smaller concentrations, may also be deleterious to the health of maintenance personnel. Thus, the employment of a multiplicity of specialized apparatus for providing predictive and preventative maintenance of industrial plant assets increases the exposure of personnel to these hazards and thus brings about greater safety risks.
Hence, there is a need to provide a single portable data collector and analyzer apparatus that not only provides predictive and preventative maintenance of a multiplicity of commonly occurring assets within an industrial environment for reducing costs, training and logistical problems but also provides an apparatus that increases the types of measurements that can made during each visit to each asset for reducing the exposure and safety risks of personnel to these hazardous environments thereby providing, inter alia, significant costs, training, logistical, safety, and timeliness advantages.
Notwithstanding, current portable data collector and analyzer apparatus have also failed to address the important fact that typically machinery diagnostics rarely rely on a single plot or data type for a complete understanding of problems and in stark contrast one looks for multiple indicators from various sources to confirm problems. Additionally, current portable data collector and analyzer apparatus require significant manual operation which is more prone to human error. Furthermore, there is a need to increase the speed and accuracy in current portable data collector and analyzer apparatus.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a single portable data collector and analyzer apparatus that collects and analysis a variety of different types of asset data in a variety of different ways. Additionally, there is also a need for increasing the ease and accuracy in which these instrumentalities operate for, inter alia, providing fast and accurate data collection thereby allowing personnel to correct (rather then detect) problems. Furthermore, the improvement in speed and accuracy directly correlate to cost savings and to the speed in which problems may be addressed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention recognizes the shortcomings of the known prior art and is distinguished thereover in a multiplicity of ways. One of the starkest differentiations that the present invention enjoys over the known prior art involves the fact that the present invention is not a specialized apparatus that merely targets a single category of machinery or other plant asset for providing predictive and preventative maintenance. In stark contrast, the present invention provides a single handheld multi-purpose portable data collector and analyzer apparatus and method that, inter alia, provides predictive and preventative maintenance of a multiplicity of commonly occurring assets within an industrial environment for reducing costs, training and logistical problems. The single handheld multi-purpose portable data collector and analyzer apparatus and method, in accordance with the present invention, also increases the types of measurements that can made during each visit to each asset for providing significant cost, training, logistical, safety, and timeliness advantages.
Additionally, the present invention combines a flexible hardware and software design to provide a multi-purpose apparatus and method that permits the preventative and predictive maintenance of the multifarious types of assets typically found within an industrial complex. It can be configured to be operatively coupled with a wide range of transducer types e.g. vibration, temperature, speed, process variable, pressure as well as provide the means to manually record a broad range of values and observations relating to the condition of a variety of assets including machines. Moreover, the present invention provides a single multi-purpose apparatus that employs a single unified display application for addressing the wide range of transducer types and signal processing options.
Furthermore, the present invention is designed to provide extensive external communication capabilities. As a result, the present invention is capable of correlating information from multiple sources that allows timely, operational decisions on machinery condition that consider both the machinery and the surrounding process conditions/constraints. Thus, the present invention provides fewer and less severe failures, better production availability, maintenance cost reductions, and the potential for increased production revenues. This ability is provided by the present invention gathering information from multiple information sources within the industrial complex and integrating the information into a single upload to a host computer for further analysis and storage.
For a clear explanation, the present invention can be partitioned into a transducer input/output module, a analog signal conditioning module, an anti-alias filtering and analog to digital converter module, microcontroller module, a digital signal processing module, a user input and display module, a communications module, and a power supply/charger module.
These modules are preferably housed by an injection molded casing formed from a polycarbonate/ABS material for providing high impact resistance and durability.
Transducer Input/Output Transfer Module
The transducer input/output module provides connector means for transferring input and output signals between the analog signal conditioning module and transducers interfaced to the connect
Barnes Andrew
Coyle Sean
Dagnall Christopher
Doggett Anthony
Wood Dean
Bently Nevada LLC
DeBoo Dennis A.
Hoff Marc S.
Raymond Edward
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