Displacement safety system for electrical charging stations
First Claim
1. An electrical vehicle charging system consisting essentially of:
- an enclosure including a power converter unit capable of receiving incoming power from a remotely located main circuit breaker and converting said incoming power to a selected DC voltage and current levels to charge at least one battery of said electrical vehicle, said enclosure being mounted on a foundation which is fixedly secured to the ground, said enclosure having one proximity sensor mounted to each of two opposing walls therein, said proximity sensors monitoring the presence of two respective targets, said targets being mounted onto said foundation, said proximity sensors each inputting a signal to control circuitry contained within said enclosure, said signals informing said control circuitry of the presence or absence of said targets, said control circuitry sending a trip signal to a remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker in a situation wherein one or both of said proximity sensors senses that no target is present, thus causing a selected one of said main circuit breaker or said remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker to trip removing power from said enclosure.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A safety circuit for disconnecting the power feed to an EV (electrical vehicle) charging enclosure or gasoline station fuel pump enclosure in the event that the enclosure is partially or totally dislodged from the foundation and dangerously high voltage has been exposed due to underground conduits being torn apart and electrical cables being exposed and in contact with sheet metal cabinets and other metal parts, thus creating the possibility of an explosion or the electrocution of a user or bystanders. The safety circuit comprises at least two proximity sensors, each of which transmits a signal into a control circuit which causes the power feed to the enclosure to be disconnected at the source when either or both of the proximity sensors inform the control circuit that the station has moved either vertically or horizontally more than a few thousandths of an inch.
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Citations
3 Claims
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1. An electrical vehicle charging system consisting essentially of:
an enclosure including a power converter unit capable of receiving incoming power from a remotely located main circuit breaker and converting said incoming power to a selected DC voltage and current levels to charge at least one battery of said electrical vehicle, said enclosure being mounted on a foundation which is fixedly secured to the ground, said enclosure having one proximity sensor mounted to each of two opposing walls therein, said proximity sensors monitoring the presence of two respective targets, said targets being mounted onto said foundation, said proximity sensors each inputting a signal to control circuitry contained within said enclosure, said signals informing said control circuitry of the presence or absence of said targets, said control circuitry sending a trip signal to a remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker in a situation wherein one or both of said proximity sensors senses that no target is present, thus causing a selected one of said main circuit breaker or said remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker to trip removing power from said enclosure.
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2. An electrical vehicle charging system consisting essentially of:
an enclosure including a power converter unit capable of receiving incoming power and converting said incoming power to a proper DC voltage and current levels to charge at least one battery of said electrical vehicle, said enclosure including an electronic board containing a motion sensor selected from the group consisting of inductive probes, capacitance probes, optical sensors such as photocells, LVDT sensors (linear variable differential transformer), microwave sensors, absolute position encoders, eddy current sensors, Hall effect devices, piezoresistive accelerometers, servo accelerometers, force gages, laser Doppler vibrometers, tilt and vibration sensors, linear potentiometers, optical triangulation, ultrasonic sensors, limit switch sensors, and combinations thereof, said sensor capable of sensing a selected amount of movement of said enclosure whereupon said electronic board sends a trip signal to a remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker in response to a selected amount of movement of said enclosure as sensed by said motion sensor, thus causing said main circuit breaker to remove incoming power from said enclosure.
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3. An electrical vehicle charging system consisting essentially of:
an enclosure including a power converter unit capable of receiving incoming power from a remotely located main circuit breaker and converting said incoming power to a selected DC voltage and current levels to charge at least one battery of said electrical vehicle, said enclosure being mounted on a foundation which is fixedly secured to the ground, said enclosure having one proximity sensor mounted to each of two opposing walls therein, said proximity sensors monitoring the presence of two respective targets, said targets being mounted onto said foundation, said proximity sensors each inputting a signal to control circuitry contained within said enclosure, said signals informing said control circuitry of the presence or absence of said targets, said control circuitry sending a trip signal to a remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker in a situation wherein one or both of said proximity sensors senses that no target is present, thus causing a selected one of said main circuit breaker or said remotely located shunt trip main circuit breaker to trip removing power from said enclosure, said proximity sensors selected from the group consisting of inductive probes, capacitance probes, optical sensors such as photocells, LVDT sensors (linear variable differential transformer), microwave sensors, absolute position encoders, eddy current sensors, Hall effect devices, piezoresistive accelerometers, servo accelerometers, force gages, laser Doppler vibrometers, tilt and vibration sensors, linear potentiometers, optical triangulation, ultrasonic sensors and limit switch sensors.
Specification