Liquid pump

• US 6,299,600 B1
• Filed: 01/02/2001
• Issued: 10/09/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: JMS Company Limited
• Original Assignee: JMS Company Limited
• Inventors: Saitoh, Teruhisa, Ikeda, Atsushi, Masaoka, Katsunori
• Primary Examiner(s): KENNEDY, SHARON E
• Application Number:
  US09/743,031
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 604/131, 604/151, 604/153, 604/30, 604/34, 604/503, 604/118-120, 417/474-477
• US Class Current: 604/118
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/14232 Roller pumps
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/172 electrical or electronic A61M5/16804, A61M5/16831 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/24404 Interpolation using high frequency signals

Abstract

When the control unit feedback-controls the DC brushless motor of the roller pump 5 to be driven for transferring the liquid in the flexible tube by using the pulse number of the encoder pulse from the encoder unit, the pulse number of the 4-multiplied encoder pulse, which is obtained by multiplying the pulse number of the encoder pulse by 4 by means of the frequency 4-multiplying circuit, is counted by means of the pulse counter. Therefore, since the encoder unit can multiply the pulse number of the encoder pulse which corresponds to the rotation of the output shaft of the DC brushless motor, the liquid in the flexible tube can be transferred with high constantivity even if the light-passing portion and the light-interrupting portion of the first and second encoding patterns can not been increased due to structural limitation. That is, since the resolution of the liquid flow rate to be detected with the encoder pulse to be output by the encoder unit is enhanced, the number of rotation of the output shaft of the DC brushless motor can be detected with sufficiently high resolution even if the rotation speed of the output shaft of the DC brushless motor are lowered

Claims

1. A liquid transferring pump system, wherein a motor for moving a movable squeezing member, which squeezes a flexible tube so as to transfer a liquid therein from an upstream side toward an downstream side thereof, is driven according to a drive pulse signal having a frequency determined correspondingly to a target flow rate of the liquid in the tube, and the frequency of the drive pulse signal is increased and decreased according to the frequency determined correspondingly to the target flow rate on a basis of the frequency of the drive pulse signal and a frequency of a rotation pulse signal which is output by an encoder correspondingly to rotation number of the motor so that a flow rate of the liquid in the tube agrees with the target flow rate, and

wherein a frequency multiplying means to receive the rotation pulse signal to be output by the encoder and then to output a multiplied pulse signal to be obtained by multiplying the frequency of the rotation pulse signal by n and

a drive frequency adjusting means to increase and decrease the frequency of the drive pulse signal according to the frequency determined correspondingly to the target flow rate so that a frequency of the multiplied pulse signal converges in the frequency determined correspondingly to the target flow rate are provided,

the drive frequency adjusting means having a desirable drive pulse calculating means that calculates pulse number, per unit time, of an ideal drive pulse signal for converging the frequency of the multiplied pulse signal in the frequency determined correspondingly to the target flow rate at every determined time period when the frequency of the multiplied pulse signal is calculated based on sampling number of the multiplied pulse signal, an integer judging means that judges whether or not the pulse number, per the unit time, of the ideal drive pulse signal is integer, an approximate pulse calculating means that calculates a first approximate pulse number and a second approximate pulse number, which are two integers smaller and larger, respectively, than the pulse number, per the unit time, of the ideal drive pulse signal, when the integer judging means has judged that the pulse number, per the unit time, of the ideal drive pulse signal is not integer, and a period calculating means that calculates the first period time and the second period time wherein a total of a first value of multiplying the first approximate pulse number by the first period time and a second value of multiplying the second approximate pulse number by the second period time is equal to a value of multiplying the pulse number, per the unit time, of the ideal drive pulse signal by the unit time and also another total of the first period time and the second period time is equal to the unit time, wherein, when the integer judging means has judged that the pulse number, per the unit time, of the ideal drive pulse signal is not integer, increase and decrease of the frequency of the drive pulse signal according to the frequency determined correspondingly to the target flow rate is carried out by means of successively executing a pulse signal output of the first approximate pulse number over the first period time and a pulse signal output of the second approximate pulse number over the second period time.

2. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 1, wherein

the approximate pulse calculating means calculates two integers smaller and larger, respectively, than and closest to the pulse number, per the unit time, of the ideal drive pulse signal as the first approximate pulse number and the second approximate pulse number.

3. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the encoder consists of m sets of sub-encoders which output subrotation pulse signals, which have determined frequency corresponding to the rotation number of the motor, with shifting phase by 1/m period, and by means of m subrotation pulse signals to be output by the m sets of sub-encoders a m-multiplied pulse signal to be obtained by multiplying the determined frequency by m is input into the frequency multiplying means as the rotation pulse signal to be output from the encoder and a m*n-multiplied pulse signal to be obtained by multiplying the determined frequency by m*n is output from the frequency multiplying means as the multiplied pulse signal.

4. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 3, wherein the encoder has a single base plate common to the sub-encoders, encoding patterns provided on the base plate correspondingly to the respective sub-encoders, and m sensors to detect the respective encoding patterns.

5. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 4, wherein one of the encoding patterns provided the base plate is common to the sub-encoders, and the sensors are arranged with a space in an extending direction of the one of the encoding patterns, whereby the one of the encoding patterns are detected by the sensors in different timing.

6. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 1, wherein a speed reduction mechanism is provided between the motor and the movable squeezing member.

7. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the encoder consists of m sets of sub-encoders which output subrotation pulse signals, which have determined frequency corresponding to the rotation number ofthe motor, with shifting phase by 1/m period, and by means of m subrotation pulse signals to be output by the m sets of sub-encoders a m-multiplied pulse signal to be obtained by multiplying the determined frequency by m is input into the frequency multiplying means as the rotation pulse signal to be output from the encoder and a m*n-multiplied pulse signal to be obtained by multiplying the determined frequency by m*n is output from the frequency multiplying means as the multiplied pulse signal.

8. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 6, wherein the encoder has a single base plate common to the sub-encoders, encoding patterns provided on the base plate correspondingly to the respective sub-encoders, and m sensors to detect the respective encoding patterns.

9. The liquid transferring pump system as set forth in claim 1, wherein a speed reduction mechanism is provided between the motor and the movable squeezing member.