Aircraft heating system

• US 9,046,899 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2012
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Goodrich Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Goodrich Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Shearer, Jon D., Aeshliman, Carl R.
• Primary Examiner(s): PASCHALL, MARK H
• Application Number:
  US13/661,959
• Publication Number:
  US 20140332521A1
• Time in Patent Office: 949 Days
• Field of Search: 219/486, 219/202, 219/203, 219/497, 219/501, 219/494, 219/481, 244/134.D
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 13/08 the air being heated or cooled
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 15/12 by electric heating electric heating elements in general H05B
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 37/34 Conditioning fuel, e.g. heating during filling B64D37/18
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1917 using digital means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/24 the sensing element having a resistance varying with temperature, e.g. a thermistor

Abstract

An aircraft heating system (100) is provided which can be supplied with DC power from an onboard source (130). The system (100) comprises a heater (150) positioned to provide heat to an aircraft appliance (101), a sensor (160) situated to sense appliance-relevant temperatures, a reporter (170) reporting system faults, and an introducer (180) introducing temperature setpoints. A thermostat (200) integrates circuitries which together manage power supply, control heating, convey sensed temperatures, detect heater and/or sensor faults, and/or perform other advantageous functions.

Claims

1. A thermostat for an aircraft heating system supplied with DC power from an onboard source, said thermostat comprising:

power-supplying circuitry configured to receive, through a source supply line, DC power from an onboard DC power source, the power-supply circuitry configured to divide the source supply line into a high voltage supply line providing heating power and a low voltage supply line providing operational power;

processing circuitry receiving operational power from the low voltage line and formulating instructions relating to the heating power;

heating circuitry controlling supply of the heating power from the high voltage line in accordance with the instructions formulated by the processing circuitry; and

sensing circuitry conveying a sensed temperature to the processing circuitry for input when formulating the instructions relating to heating power;

wherein the heating circuitry and/or the sensing circuitry also detect faults and report them to the processing circuitry.

2. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the heating circuitry comprises a solid state switch which controls the supply of the heating power from the high voltage line.

3. A thermostat as set forth in claim 2, wherein the solid state switch is connected in series with the high voltage line.

4. A thermostat as set forth in claim 3, wherein the solid state switch is a field effect transistor.

5. A thermostat as set forth in claim 4, wherein the solid state switch is a metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET).

6. A thermostat as set forth in claim 5, wherein the switch converts between a heating condition and a non-heating condition.

7. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the heating circuitry comprises a solid-state switch that switches between an on state and off state in response to instructions from the processing circuitry.

8. A thermostat as set forth in claim 7, wherein the on-off switch is a transistor.

9. A thermostat as set forth in the claim 8, wherein the on-off switch is a bipolar transistor.

10. A thermostat as set forth in claim 2, wherein the on-off switch converts another solid state switch between a heating condition and a non-heating condition.

11. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the heating circuitry and/or the sensing circuitry receives operational power from the low voltage line.

12. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the heating circuitry detects an open fault.

13. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the heating circuitry detects a short fault.

14. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the sensing circuitry detects an open fault and/or a short fault.

15. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a setpoint-introducing which allows introduction of temperature setpoints to the processing circuitry for use when formulating the instructions relating to heating power.

16. A thermostat as set forth in claim 1, integrated into a package that is less than six cm long, less than four cm wide, and/or less than two cm thick.

17. A thermostat as set forth in claim 16, wherein two pairs of lead lines extend out from end of the package and two pairs of lead lines extend out from the other end of the package.

18. An aircraft heating system comprising:

a heater positioned to provide heat to an aircraft appliance;

a sensor situated to sense a temperature relevant to the aircraft appliance, and

a thermostat as set forth in claim 1, wherein the power-supplying circuitry is to the heater, and wherein the sensing circuitry is coupled to the sensor.

19. An aircraft heating system as set forth in claim 18, further comprising a fault reporter, wherein fault-reporting circuitry of the thermostat conveys fault-relevant data to the reporter.

20. An aircraft heating system as set forth in claim 19, comprising a programmer selectively connectable to the thermostat to introduce and/or update temperature-threshold information to the processing circuitry.