Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE OF T~E INVENTION:
STE~M TRAP OPERATION JUDGING DEVICE
B~CKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
1. Field of -the Invention:
The present invention relates to a steam trap
operation judging device which judges -the operating
condition of steam traps, that is, whether or not the
steam traps are leaking steam, or measures the leakage of
steam.
The steam trap is mounted on steam lines or
equipment using steam and permits only the au-tomatic
removal of collected water without the leakage of steam.
More and more strict observation of steam leaks has come
to be required as a result of a rise in fuel-cost.
Leaking no steam has now become a prerequisite for the
adoption o~ the steam trap. Steam-pipe lines, after
ins-tallation, are strictly monitored; and a steam trap
which is leaking steam is repaired or replaced
positively.
There have been developed and put to practical
use various types of steam trap leakage detec-tors.
For ins-tance, a sight window is provided in the
pipe line on -the outlet side of the steam trap to allow
the visual observation of the sta-te of a fluid inside,
and al50 a temperature gauge and vibrometer are employed
to measure the surface temperature of the steam trap and
the sound of flow of the fluid.
In either case, only the qualitative observation
was made on the leaking state of the steam trap and the
quantitative measuremenk of leakage could not be made.
Therefore, the judgment of the degree of leakage had to
be dependent on man's sense.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
This applicant, therefore, developed simple
steam trap leakage detectors.
One of the detectors is described in Canadian
Patent Application Ser. No. 531,724 filed March 11, 1987
(see also U.S. Patent No. 4,727,750). This is an inven-
tion for determining steam leakage on the basis of a
correlation between vibrations by using a steam pressure
as a parameter and the steam leakage that have been
measured and stored in advance by applying a detector
including a vibration sensor and a temperature sensor
that are built in, to the outside surface of a casing
of the steam trap.
The other device proposed âS Japanese Patent
Publication No. 62 212525 is disposed between the steam
supply side and the steam trap, and -the steam leakage is
determined from a correlation between the quantity of
steam passing through an orifice and a water level on
its primary side.
The aforementioned device is capable of judging
the operation of each steam trap and measuring steam leakage,
but troublesome manual operation is required for the prepara-
tion of a list of results of operation judgment and leakage
measurement, and for the summation of leakage and the totali-
zation and analysis of leakage in terms of the amount of
money or rejection rate. In addition, repair or replacement
of a trap which leaks steam is carried out after checkups,
and accordingly could not be positive maintenance of the
steam traps.
According to a broad aspect of the present inven-
tion there is provided a steam trap operation sensing device
which comprises steam leakage detector means for measuring
and storing data representing the operation of steam traps,
and host computer means to which said data are transferred
for storing the data. The host computer means operates to
record and display the summation of leakage in a plurality
of steam traps, the totalization and analysis of leakage in
terms of at least one of monetary cost and a rejectïon rate.
The changes in each of the steam traps with time is also
recorded. The steam leakage detector means comprises an
operating detecting section for sensing parameters of a
plurality of steam traps to generate analog signals. An
analog-to-digital converter is connected to the operation
detecting section for converting the analog signals to
digital signals. A microcomputer is connected to the analog-
to-digital converter for receiving the digital signals and
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for analyzing the digital signals to detect the presence of
steam leaks in each steam trap based on the parameters
sensed for each steam trap. Storage means is connected to
the microcomputer for storing data concerning the condition
and change in condition of each steam trap with regard to
steam leakage.
The invention also envisages means for correlating
the digital signals for each steam trap with a code repre-
senting each of the steam traps.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
The technical task of the present invention, there-
fore, is to enable the automatic totalization and analysis
of checkup data and the prediction of a repair or replacement
period.
A technological means of the present invention
disclosed for the solution of the aforementioned problem is
such a device that the operation of each trap is judged and
the steam leakage is measured and stored by means of a steam
leakage detector; the aforesaid data stored are transmitted
to a host computer, which records and displays a result of
the judgment of operation and leakage of each trap, summation
and analysis of total leakage at all traps and the leakage
in terms of the amount of money or a rejection rate, and a
change in each
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steam trap with time.
The function of the aforementioned
technological means is as described below.
The judgement of operation of each steam trap
and the measurement of steam leakage are performed by the
steam leakage detector. A result of this judyement of
operation and measurement of leakage is once stored in
the storage section of the steam leakage detector, and
after the check of all steam traps, the data stored are
transmitted -to the host computer.
The host computer records and displays a result
of judgement of operation of, and leakage at, each steam
trap, necessary totalization and analysis of the total
leakage a-t all traps and leakage in terms of the amount
of money and rejection rate, and a change in the leakage
at each steam trap with time.
ThereEore, printing, totalization and analysis
of a resul-t of checkups can automatically and correctly
be carried out and accordingly the main-tenance control of
steam traps can easily be performed. Also, as -the change
of leakage with time is recorded and displayed, the time
of repair or replacement can automatically be known by
predetermining the time of repair or replacement on the
basis of leakage.
Manual labour for inputting into the computer
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can be saved by reading, with a bar-code reading, the
trap number and type oE each steam trap printed on a bar-
code attached on each steam trap.
The present invention has the following
peculiar effec-t.
Since a result of checkups is automatically
recorded, totalized and printed by -the host computer,
manual work can be dispensed with, enabling work saving
and standardization.
Furthermore, since changes in steam leakage at
-the steam trap with time are recorded and displayed,
early finding defective parts and repairing or replacing
them can prevent the waste of production cost,
contributing toward energy saving.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE l)RAWING:
Fig. 1 is a schema-tic drawing showing the
cons-titution of a steam -trap operation judging device of
the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFFERED EMBODIMENT:
An example showing an embodiment of the
aforesaid -technological means is described below. (See
Fig. 1.)
The steam trap operation judging device of the
present invention cornprises a steam leakage detector 1,
an arithmetic display device 2 and a host computer 3.
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A trap operation detecting section 10 is formed
at one end of the detector 1 and a bar-code reader 11 at
the other end.
The bar-code reader 11 reads the trap number
and type an inputs them into a microcomputer 6 of the
arithmetic d.isplay device 2. A signal received by the
operation detecting section 10 is transmitted to the
arithmetic display device through a cable 12, ampliied
by an amplifier 4, digitally converted by an
analog/digital con~erter 5, and then fed into the
microcomputer 6.
The microcomputer 6 computes the presence or
absence of leaks and the leakage, displays on the display
sec-tion 7 and, at the same time, s-tores in a storage
section 8 the data regarding the judgement of the number
and type, operation, and leakage of each trap. After the
check of all steam traps, the da-ta of measurement stored
in -the storage section 8 are sent to the host computer 3
from a data transmitter section 9 through a cable 13.
The host computer 3 records and displays a
result of judgement of operation and leakage of each
trap, summation and analysis of total leakage of all
traps and leakage in -terms o~ the amount of money or
rejection rate, and changes.in each steam -trap with time.
Although the present inven-tion has been fully
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described by way of examples with reference to the-
accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that varivus
changes and modifications will be apparent to those
skilled in -the art. ThereEore, unless otherwise such
changes and modifications depar-t from the scope of the
present invention, they should be construed as included
therein.
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