Component failure detection system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly having a series of flexible elements stacked in juxtaposed engagement, for transmitting power from one component to another, the assembly having a cyclic operating speed frequency, said apparatus comprising;
- at least one sensor mounted in proximity to said assembly for receiving airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly, the sensor providing an analog signal corresponding to said airborne acoustic signal in the frequency range of 25 kHz to 90 kHz, emitted by the assembly;
means for amplifying the analog signal;
filter means to reduce background noise in the analog signal;
an analog to digital converter for converting the analog signal to a digital signal;
means for splitting the digital signal into two sets;
means for sampling one of the sets of the digital signals to calculate the frequency components of the signal and provide a frequency domain signal; and
means for analysing the frequency domain signal and the other set of digital signals and providing an output upon the occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns in an operating cycle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly having a single flexible element or a series of flexible elements stacked in juxtaposed engagement, for transmitting power from one component to another, the assembly having a cyclic operating speed frequency that includes at least one sensor mounted in proximity to said assembly, the sensor providing an analog signal corresponding to an airborne acoustic signal emitted by the assembly, means for amplifying the analog signal, filter means to reduce background noise from the analog signal, an analog to digital converter for converting the analog signals to a digital signal, means for sampling the digital signals in respect of the operating speed frequency of the assembly and means for analyzing the digital signals and providing an output upon the occurrence of one or more digital signal spikes in an operating cycle.
19 Citations
37 Claims
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1. An apparatus for detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly having a series of flexible elements stacked in juxtaposed engagement, for transmitting power from one component to another, the assembly having a cyclic operating speed frequency, said apparatus comprising;
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at least one sensor mounted in proximity to said assembly for receiving airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly, the sensor providing an analog signal corresponding to said airborne acoustic signal in the frequency range of 25 kHz to 90 kHz, emitted by the assembly; means for amplifying the analog signal; filter means to reduce background noise in the analog signal; an analog to digital converter for converting the analog signal to a digital signal; means for splitting the digital signal into two sets; means for sampling one of the sets of the digital signals to calculate the frequency components of the signal and provide a frequency domain signal; and means for analysing the frequency domain signal and the other set of digital signals and providing an output upon the occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns in an operating cycle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method of detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly having a series of flexible elements stacked in juxtaposed engagement, for transmitting power from one component to another, the power transmission assembly having a cyclic operating speed frequency, said method comprising;
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providing a sensor for monitoring the airborne acoustic emissions of said assembly, said sensor converting acoustic signals in the frequency range of 25 kHz to 90 kHz emitted by the assembly into analog signals; passing the analog signal through amplifying means; passing the analog signal through filter means to reduce background noise; passing the filtered analog signal through an analog to digital converter to produce a digital signal; passing the digital signal through means for splitting the digital signal into two sets; passing one set of the digital signal through means of sampling the digital signal to calculate the frequency components of the signal and provide a frequency domain signal; and passing the frequency domain signal and the other set of the digital signal to means analyzing the digital signals to determine the occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns in an operating cycle, said occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns indicating a failure of one or more of the flexible elements of the assembly. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly having a series of flexible elements stacked in juxtaposed engagement, for transmitting power from one component to another, the assembly having a cyclic operating speed frequency, said apparatus comprising;
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at least one sensor mounted in proximity to said assembly for receiving airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly, the sensor providing an analog signal corresponding to said airborne acoustic signal emitted by the assembly; means for amplifying the analog signal; filter means to reduce background noise in the analog signal, said filter means comprising an envelope demodulator which averages the peak analog signals over a time frame and replaces them with mean value analog signals; an analog to digital converter for converting the analog signal to a digital signal; means for sampling the digital signals in respect of the operating speed frequency of the assembly; and means for analyzing the digital signals and providing an output upon the occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns in an operating cycle.
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12. A method of detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly having a series of flexible elements stacked in juxtaposed engagement, for transmitting power from one component to another, the power transmission assembly having a cyclic operating speed frequency, said method comprising;
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providing a sensor for monitoring the airborne acoustic emissions of said assembly, said sensor converting acoustic signals emitted by the assembly into analog signals; amplifying the analog signal; filtering the analog signal to reduce background noise by passing it through an envelope demodulator which averages the peak analog signals over a time frame and replaces them with mean value analog signals; converting the analog signals to digital signals; sampling the digital signals in respect of the operating speed frequency of the assembly; and analyzing the digital signals to determine the occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns in an operating cycle, said occurrence of one or more specific signal patterns indicating a failure of one or more of the flexible elements of the assembly.
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13. An apparatus for detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly for transmitting power from one component to another, the assembly having one or more flexible elements and having a cyclic operating speed frequency determined by a rotational speed of the assembly, the apparatus comprising:
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at least one sensor mounted in proximity to said assembly for receiving airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly, the at least one sensor providing a signal output corresponding to the airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly; a data acquisition module, configured to sample the signal output to generate a time domain representation of the signal output; a signal processor, configured to calculate a frequency domain representation of the signal output; and a diagnostic module configured to determine the occurrence of one or more signal characteristics based on the time domain representation of the signal output and the frequency domain representation of the signal output; whereby a condition of at least one of the one or more flexible elements is detected if at least one of the one or more signal characteristics is related to the cyclic operating speed frequency. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method for detecting fatigue induced failure of an assembly for transmitting power from one component to another, the assembly having one or more flexible elements and having a cyclic operating speed frequency determined by a rotational speed of the assembly, said method comprising:
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providing at least one sensor for receiving airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly, the at least one sensor providing a signal output corresponding to said airborne acoustic signals emitted by the assembly; sampling the signal output to generate a time domain representation of the signal output; calculating a frequency domain representation of the signal output; determining the occurrence of one or more signal characteristics based on the time domain representation of the signal output and the frequency domain representation of the signal output; and detecting a condition of at least one or more of the flexible elements if at least one of the one or more signal characteristics is related to the cyclic operating speed frequency. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification