ACTIVE FILTERING OF OIL

• US 20140130900A1
• Filed: 12/24/2013
• Published: 05/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Voelker Sensors, Inc
• Original Assignee: Voelker Sensors, Inc
• Inventors: Hedges, Joe
• Application Number:
  US14/140,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20140130900A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 137/334
• CPC Class Codes: F16L 53/30 Heating of pipes or pipe systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/2888 Lubricating oil characteristics, e.g. deterioration lubricating properties G01N33/30
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/6416 With heating or cooling of the system

Abstract

Fuel contamination in oil is measured by using a sensor in contact with oil whereby fuel intrusion into the oil will change the electrical, mechanical, and/or chemical properties of the material as compared to the same electrical, mechanical, and/or chemical properties of the material when in contact only with mineral or synthetic oil only. The oil quality sensor provides real-time feedback so that an oil monitoring system can actively remove contaminates and/or increase an additive package as necessary.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for measuring oil quality, the method comprising:

sensing oil quality by way of one or more sensors in communication with a monitoring device;

measuring one or more properties of the oil; and

initiating an automated action to actively increase the quality of the oil when the measurement indicates that the oil quality is below an oil quality threshold.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, the program being further executable to activate an indicator reflecting a recommendation that the oil be changed when the oil quality is below an oil quality change threshold.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the automated action increases the quality of the oil by turning on a heater when the oil quality is below a heater quality threshold and then turning off the heater when the oil quality surpasses the heater quality threshold.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the automated action increases the quality of the oil by turning a vacuum on when the oil quality is below a vacuum threshold and then turning off the vacuum when the oil quality surpasses the vacuum threshold.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the automated action increases the quality of the oil by replenishing a contaminate removing additive in the oil when the oil quality is below a replenish contaminant removing additive threshold.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the automated action increases the quality of the oil by filtering the oil when oil quality is below a filter threshold and then deactivating the filter filtering the oil when the oil quality surpasses the filter threshold.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, the program being further executable to:

measure a first set of properties of the oil;

measure a second set of properties of the oil, wherein the second set of properties of the oil includes the same properties as the first set of properties of the oil plus at least one additional property of the oil not contained in the measurements of the first set of properties of the oil; and

perform a differential analysis comparing the measured first set of properties relative to the measured second set of properties of the oil.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium method of claim 1, the program being further executable to:

measure one or more properties of a finely filtered portion of oil, the finely filtered portion of oil having been filtered with a fine filter; and

perform a differential analysis comparing the measured the one or more properties of the oil relative to the measured the one or more properties of the finely filtered portion of oil.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, the program being further executable to communicate sensor data and analyzed data to an external computing device.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the sensor data and analyzed data are communicated to the external computing device through a wireless network.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the sensor data and analyzed data are communicated to the external computing device through a wire trace.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the sensor data and analyzed data are communicated to the external computing device through a cable.