Internal arrangement and mount of sound collecting sensors in equipment sound monitoring system

• US 10,145,761 B1
• Filed: 07/10/2017
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Discovery Sound Technology, LLC
• Original Assignee: Discovery Sound Technology, LLC
• Inventors: Jenkins, John, Stumpf, Mike
• Primary Examiner(s): Flanders, Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US15/645,611
• Time in Patent Office: 512 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 3/00 Measuring characteristics of vibrations by using a detector in a fluid G01H7/00, G01H9/00, G01H11/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 7/00 Vibration-testing of structures; Shock-testing of structures G01M9/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 99/008 by doing functionality tests
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/185 Electrical failure alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/187 Machine fault alarms

Abstract

A system and method are provided for equipment sound monitoring. The system includes an electromechanical device having at least one cavity defined therein. A dampening tube is such that at least a portion of the dampening tube is received within the at least one cavity without contacting a surface of the electromechanical device. A transducer box includes an opening defined therein, the opening configured to receive at least a portion of the dampening tube. The transducer box further includes a sound detection module configured to detect at least one of audio and vibration associated with the electromechanical device. A method of connecting and using the equipment sound monitoring system are provided.

Claims

1. A system for equipment sound monitoring, the system comprising:

an electromechanical device having at least one cavity defined therein;

a dampening tube configured such that at least a portion of the dampening tube is received within the at least one cavity without contacting a surface of the electromechanical device; and

a transducer box including an opening defined therein, the opening configured to receive at least a portion of the dampening tube,

a sound detection module configured to detect at least one of audio and vibration associated with the electromechanical device received via the dampening tube.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the electromechanical device is a pillow block housing.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a server connected to the transducer box via a communications network, and wherein the transducer box further includes a communications interface coupled to the communications network, the transducer box being configured to transmit one or more sets of data from the sound detection module to the server via the communications network.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the server is configured to:

receive the one or more sets of data;

determine baseline criteria according to one or more of an electromechanical device type, location, and sound data, wherein one or more comparative models of baseline data are associated with at least one status of operation of the electromechanical device;

compare the received one or more sets of data with the baseline data;

identify variations between the one or more sets of data and the baseline data associated with failure or substandard operation of the electromechanical device; and

generate an alert configured to notify a user of the failure or substandard operation of the electromechanical device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications network is a Bluetooth communications network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications network is a local area network (LAN) communications network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications network is the Internet.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one anchor coupled between the electromechanical device and the transducer box.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one anchor comprises a plurality of anchors coupled between the electromechanical device and the transducer box, the plurality of anchors configured to mount at least one transducer box to the electromechanical device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one cavity extends into the electromechanical device at least one inch.

11. A method for providing equipment sound monitoring for an electromechanical device, the method comprising:

creating a cavity within a housing of the electromechanical device;

inserting at least a portion of a dampening tube into the cavity without causing contact between the dampening tube and the housing;

anchoring a transducer box to the housing;

placing at least a portion of the dampening tube into the transducer box; and

measuring analog sound signals of associated with the electromechanical device by one or more transducers of the transducer box.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the creating a cavity comprises drilling a hole in the housing of the electromechanical device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the creating a cavity comprises forming the cavity in the housing during manufacture of the housing.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

converting the collected sound signals into digital sound data;

transmitting one or more data files comprising location data, electromechanical device type data, and the digital sound data to a server via a communications network;

determining baseline criteria according to one or more of the electromechanical device type, location data, and sound data, one or more comparative models of baseline data associated with at least one status of operation of the electromechanical device;

comparing the received digital sound data with the baseline data;

identifying variations between the collected digital sound data and the baseline data associated with failure or substandard operation of the electromechanical device; and

generating an alert configured to notify a user of the failure or substandard operation of the electromechanical device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the communications network is a Bluetooth communications network.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the communications network is a local area network (LAN) communications network.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the communications network is the Internet.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising anchoring the transducer box to the housing via one or more anchors.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the anchoring comprises anchoring a plurality of anchors between the electromechanical device and the transducer box, thereby mounting the transducer box to the electromechanical device.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the creating the cavity within the housing and the inserting the at least a portion of the dampening tube into the cavity creates an air gap within the housing, and wherein sound associated with the electromechanical device passes through the dampening tube to the transducer box perpendicular to at least one transducer of the transducer box.