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Hall effect monitoring of wear of bearing supporting a rotor within a stationary housing

  • US 5,336,996 A
  • Filed: 08/21/1992
  • Issued: 08/09/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/21/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for monitoring a rotor within a stationary housing including bearing means for mounting said rotor for rotation about a rotor axis, said apparatus comprising:

  • at least one magnet mounted about the circumference of said rotor;

    first radial hall effect means fixedly mounted in said housing radially adjacent to the circumference of said rotor for sensing magnetic flux density as said at least one magnet passes thereby and for generating a first distance signal representative of the distance separating said first radial hall effect means and said rotor in response to said magnetic flux density;

    second radial hall effect means fixedly mounted in said housing radially adjacent to the circumference of said rotor for sensing magnetic flux density as said at least one magnet passes thereby and for generating a second distance signal representative of the distance separating said second radial hall effect means and said rotor in response to said magnetic flux density;

    third radial hall effect means fixedly mounted in said housing radially adjacent to the circumference of said rotor for sensing magnetic flux density as said at least one magnet passes thereby and for generating a third distance signal representative of the distance separating said third radial hall effect means and said rotor in response to said magnetic flux density;

    fourth radial hall effect means fixedly mounted in said housing radially adjacent to the circumference of said rotor for sensing magnetic flux density as said at least one magnet passes thereby and for generating a fourth distance signal representative of the distance separating said fourth radial hall effect means and said rotor in response to said magnetic flux density, said first, second, third and fourth radial hall effect means being spaced substantially equidistantly about a circumferential portion of said housing; and

    signal comparison means for comparing said first and second distance signals to one another to generate a first comparison signal which is representative of the difference between the distance separating said first radial hall effect means and said rotor and the distance separating said second radial hall effect means and said rotor, for comparing said third and fourth distance signals to one another to generate a second comparison signal which is representative of the difference between the distance separating said third radial hall effect means and said rotor and the distance separating said fourth radial hall effect means and said rotor, said first comparison signal being representative of radial wear of said bearing means along a first axis which passes through said first and second radial hall effect means and said second comparison signal being representative of radial wear of said bearing means along a second axis which passes through said third and fourth radial hall effect means, said first and second axes being substantially perpendicular to one another and defining a plane which is substantially perpendicular to said rotor axis, said signal comparison means further generating a resultant wear signal indicative of resultant radial wear of said bearing means by taking the square root of the sum of the squares of said first and second comparison signals.

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