Helium management control system
First Claim
1. A system for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators comprising:
- a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant;
one or more sensors attached to the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line to determine a differential pressure between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line;
a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators adapted to consume the refrigerant; and
an electronic controller capable of determining a mode of control in accordance with the differential pressure.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A helium management control system for controlling the helium refrigerant supply from a common manifold supplies a plurality of cryogenic refrigerators with an appropriate helium supply. The system employs a plurality of sensors to monitor and regulate the overall refrigerant supply to deliver an appropriate refrigerant supply to each of the cryogenic refrigerators depending on the computed aggregate cooling demand of all of the cryogenic refrigerators. An appropriate supply of helium is distributed to each cryopump by sensing excess and sparse helium refrigerant and redistributing refrigerant accordingly. If the total refrigeration supply exceeds the total refrigerant demand, or consumption, excess refrigerant is directed to cryogenic refrigerators which can utilize the excess helium to complete a current cooling function more quickly. Similarly, if the total refrigeration demand exceeds the total refrigeration supply, the refrigerant supply to some or all of the cryogenic refrigerators will be reduced accordingly so that detrimental or slowing effects are minimized based upon the current cooling function.
-
Citations
11 Claims
-
1. A system for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators comprising:
-
a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant; one or more sensors attached to the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line to determine a differential pressure between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators adapted to consume the refrigerant; and an electronic controller capable of determining a mode of control in accordance with the differential pressure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators including:
-
a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant; one or more sensors attached to the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line to determine a pressure differential between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators adapted to consume the refrigerant; the refrigerant comprises helium; an electronic controller coupled to the one or more pressure sensors, the method comprising; determining a pressure differential based on the output of the one or more sensors associated with the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; determining an over pressure mode of control in accordance with the differential pressure, wherein the over pressure mode of control is indicative of excess supply of the refrigerant from the compressor bank; reducing the excess supply of the refrigerant from the compressor bank. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators including:
-
a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant; the refrigerant comprises helium; one or more sensors attached to the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line to determine a pressure differential between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators adapted to consume the refrigerant; an electronic controller coupled to the one or more pressure sensors, the method comprising; determining a differential pressure in accordance with reading the output signals from the one or more sensors; determining a mode of control in accordance with the differential pressure, wherein the mode of control comprises normal, over pressure and under pressure control modes; varying the supply of the refrigerant from the compressor bank in accordance with the determined mode of control; wherein the supply of refrigerant from the compressor bank is increased as a result of increasing the speed of the at least one compressor while the determined mode of control is under pressure and the supply of refrigerant from the compressor bank is decreased as a result of reducing the speed of the at least one compressor while the determined mode of control is over pressure.
-
Specification