Method and system for controlling operation of a pump based on filter information in a filter information tag

• US 9,354,637 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2014
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Entegris Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Entegris Incorporated
• Inventors: Magoon, Paul J., Ramirez, Raul A., Batchelder, Traci L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lettman, Bryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): STIMPERT, PHILIP EARL
• Application Number:
  US14/175,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20140222222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F04B 39/16 Filtration; Moisture separation
• CPC Class Codes: F04B 49/065 and making use of computers
• CPC Class Codes: F04B 53/20 Filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 7/0617 specially adapted for fluid materials

Abstract

The disclosure describes systems and methods relating generally to filtration. Even more particularly, this disclosure relates to controlling the operation of a pump using filter information. A removable filter can include an electronically readable tag storing filter information. The filter information can be read by a tag reader and rules applied to the filter information to determine whether or how to operate a pump.

Claims

1. A pump system comprising:

a pump comprising;

one or more motors to draw fluid into an inlet of the pump and dispense fluid from an outlet of the pump;

a connection for a removable filter so that the removable filter can be placed in a fluid flow path between the pump inlet and the pump outlet;

an electronic tag reader positioned and configured to read filter information for the removable filter from an electronic tag on the removable filter when the removable filter is connected to the pump; and

a pump controller comprising a pump controller processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of control instructions executable by the processor to control operation of the pump to perform pump controller steps comprising;

receiving filter information for the removable filter from the electronic tag reader; and

communicating the filter information to the pump management system; and

a pump management system coupled to the pump controller via a communications link, the pump management system comprising a management system processor and a pump management system non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of pump management system instructions executable by the pump management system processor to cause the pump management system to perform pump management system steps comprising;

receiving the filter information from the pump controller;

applying one or more rules to the filter information to determine if the removable filter connected to the pump is an appropriate filter and, if the removable filter is an appropriate filter, determine further operation of the pump including how to prime the removable filter connected to the pump in preparation for dispense cycles; and

providing operation instructions to the pump controller;

wherein the pump controller steps further comprise operating the pump according to the operating instructions.

2. The pump system of claim 1, wherein the pump management system step further comprise accessing a first priming routine associated with a first filter type and a second priming routine associated with a second filter type, applying the one or more rules to select the first priming routine or the second priming routine depending on whether the removable filter is the first filter type or the second filter type, wherein the operation instructions comprise operation instructions corresponding to a selected priming routine.

3. The pump system of claim 1, wherein the electronic tag reader comprises an RFID reader.

4. The pump system of claim 1, wherein the filter information comprises a part number.

5. The pump system of claim 4, wherein applying the one or more rules further comprises comparing a received part number for the removable filter connected to the pump to an expected part number to determine whether to prime the removable filter connected to the pump.

6. The pump system of claim 1, wherein the pump management system is further configured to update the one or more rules to reclassify acceptability of filters based on dispense results.

7. The pump system of claim 1, wherein the pump management steps further comprise updating the one or more rules to reclassify a set of filters having a previously acceptable part number as unacceptable.

8. The pump system of claim 1, wherein determining the further operation of the pump further comprises determining a dispense cycle and wherein the operation instructions include operation instructions corresponding to the dispense cycle.

9. A pump comprising:

one or more motors to draw fluid into a pump inlet and dispense fluid from pump outlet;

a connection for a removable filter so that the removable filter can be placed in a fluid flow path between the pump inlet and the pump outlet;

an electronic tag reader positioned and configured to read filter information from the electronic tag;

a pump controller comprising a pump controller processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of control instructions executable by the processor to control operation of the pump to perform pump controller steps comprising;

receiving filter information for the removable filter from the electronic tag reader; and

applying one or more rules to the filter information to determine if the removable filter connected to the pump is an appropriate filter and determine further operation of the pump including how to prime the removable filter connected to the pump in preparation for dispense cycles;

controlling operation of the pump to prime the removable filter.

10. The pump of claim 9, wherein the pump controller steps further comprise accessing a first priming routine associated with a first filter type and a second priming routine associated with a second filter type, wherein:

applying the one or more rules to the filter information comprises applying the one or more rules to the filter information to select first priming routine or second priming routine depending on whether the removable filter is of the first filter type or the second filter type prime the removable filter according to the first priming routine or the second priming routine; and

controlling operation of the pump to prime the removable filter comprises controlling operation of the pump to prime the removable filter according to the selected priming routine.

11. The pump of claim 9, wherein the electronic tag reader comprises an RFID reader and the electronic tag comprises an RFID tag.

12. The pump of claim 9, wherein the filter information comprises a part number.

13. The pump of claim 12, wherein the applying the one or more rules further comprises comparing a received part number for the removable filter to an expected part number to determine whether to prime the removable filter.

14. The pump of claim 9, wherein applying the one or more rules further comprises applying the one or more rules to information specific to the removable filter to determine further operation of the pump.

15. The pump of claim 9, wherein the pump controller steps further comprise updating the one or more rules to reclassify a set of filters having a previously acceptable part number as unacceptable.

16. The pump of claim 9, wherein determining the further operation of the pump further comprises determining a dispense cycle and wherein the operation instructions include operation instructions corresponding to the dispense cycle.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more rules are applied by a system in communication with the pump controller.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the tag is an RFID tag and the electronic tag reader is an RFID reader.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein applying one or more rules to the filter information comprises comparing a part number in the filter information to an expected part number to determine if the part number in the filter information matches the expected part number.

17. A method of controlling operation of a pump comprising:

connecting a removable filter having an electronic tag storing filter information for the filter to a pump;

reading the filter information for the filter from the electronic tag with an electronic tag reader;

communicating the filter information for the filter from the electronic tag reader to a pump controller coupled to the electronic tag reader;

applying one or more rules to the filter information to determine if the removable filter connected to the pump is an appropriate filter and, if the removable filter is appropriate, to determine further operation of the pump;

operating the pump according to the determined further operation; and

updating the one or more rules based on a set of dispense results to reclassify a set of filters having a previously acceptable part number as unacceptable.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing a first priming routine associated with a first filter type and a second priming routine associated with a second filter type, wherein the one or more rules are applied by to select from the first priming routine or second priming routine depending on whether the filter is of the first filter type or the second filter type.