Paint sprayer distributed control and output volume monitoring architectures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10969805-B2
Application number	US-201916579424-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 23, 2019
Priority date	Feb 11, 2013
Publication date	Apr 6, 2021
Grant date	Apr 6, 2021

Abstract

A sprayer for spraying fluid includes a pump, a motor that drives the pump, a drive cycle indicator, a wireless module configured to send and receive information, and control circuitry. The drive cycle indicator outputs an indication of cycle status of the pump. The control circuitry is configured to receive the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, determine a plurality of output values representing paint spray fluid output volume over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, store the plurality of output values in memory, and cause the wireless module to transmit one or more of the stored plurality of output values externally from the sprayer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A spray system comprising:
a sprayer for spraying spray fluid, the sprayer comprising:
a pump that outputs spray paint under pressure for spraying;
a motor that drives the pump;
a drive cycle indicator configured to output a plurality of cycle status indications of the pump;
a wireless module configured to wirelessly send and receive information; and
control circuitry configured to receive the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, determine a plurality of output values representing paint spray fluid output volume over a plurality of time windows based on the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, store the plurality of output values in memory, and cause the wireless module to transmit one or more of the stored plurality of output values externally from the sprayer;
wherein the control circuitry is configured to:
determine a first fluid output value, associated with a first pressure, based on a first indication of the cycle status of the pump;
determine a second fluid output value, associated with a second pressure, based on a second indication of the cycle status of the pump;
determine that the first fluid output value is one of the output values representing spray fluid output volume based on the first pressure being greater than a threshold; and
determine that the second fluid output value is not one of the output values representing spray fluid output volume based on the second pressure being less than the threshold;
store the first fluid output value in a spray log tracking volume in the memory based on the determination that the first fluid output value is one of the output values representing spray fluid output volume; and
not store the second fluid output value in the spray log tracking volume in the memory based on the determination that the second fluid output value is not one of the output values representing spray fluid output volume.

2. The spray system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine whether pump cycles are associated with the sprayer operating in a fluid atomizing spray mode or a non-atomizing flushing mode, and wherein to determine the plurality of output values, the control circuitry is configured to, based on the pump cycles being associated with the fluid atomizing spray mode, determine the plurality of output values.

3. The spray system of claim 2 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine whether the sprayer is operating in the fluid atomizing spray mode or the non-atomizing flushing mode based on at least one of:
output from a pressure indicator to indicate the first pressure and the second pressure, or
user selected operation modes that are respectively associated with the first pressure and the second pressure.

4. The spray system of claim 1 , wherein to determine the plurality of output values, the control circuitry is configured to:
determine whether one or more indications of the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump are associated with the sprayer being in a fluid atomizing spray mode in which the sprayer operates above the threshold or a non-spraying flushing mode in which the sprayer operates below the threshold; and
determine one or more output values of the plurality of output value using the one or more indications of the plurality of cycle status indications associated with the sprayer being in the fluid atomizing spray mode.

5. The spray system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine a plurality of non-atomizing flushing output values, and wherein to determine the plurality of non-atomizing flushing output values, the control circuitry is configured to:
determine whether one or more of the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump are associated with the sprayer being in a fluid atomizing spray mode in which the sprayer operates above the threshold or a non-atomizing flushing mode in which the sprayer operates below the threshold; and
determine one or more non-atomizing flushing output values of the plurality of non-atomizing flushing output values, which includes the second fluid output value, using the one or more indications of the plurality of cycle status indications associated with the sprayer being in the non-spraying flushing mode.

6. The spray system of claim 5 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to store the plurality of non-atomizing flushing output values in a cleaning log tracking volume in the memory.

7. The spray system of claim 1 , wherein to store the plurality of output values in the memory, the control circuitry is configured to store the plurality of output values in the spray log tracking volume in the memory.

8. The sprayer system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to:
store the second fluid output value in a cleaning log tracking volume in the memory based on the determination that the second fluid output value is not one of the output values representing spray fluid output volume; and
not store the first fluid output value in the cleaning log tracking volume in the memory based on the determination that the first fluid output value is one of the output values representing spray fluid output volume.

9. The sprayer system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of output values comprises a plurality of spray volume values respectively representing the volumes of paint sprayed within the plurality of time windows, and wherein for each time window of the plurality of time windows, the control circuitry is configured to open the time window, calculate and recalculate the spray fluid output value as a running value for each increase in the plurality of cycle status indications received within the window, and close the window with the running value at close of the window being the spray fluid output value for the time window.

10. The sprayer system of claim 1 , wherein the pump is a piston pump, and wherein the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump output by the drive cycle indicator indicates one or both of a partial cycle or a full cycle of a piston of the piston pump.

11. The sprayer system of claim 1 , wherein to generate the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump, the drive cycle indicator is configured to, at least one of:
sense position of a reciprocating part of the pump to generate each cycle status indication of the pump, or
sense position of a component of a drive to generate each cycle status indication of the pump, wherein the drive converts rotational motion output by the motor to reciprocating motion which drives the pump.

12. The sprayer system of claim 1 , wherein the drive cycle indicator senses position of a component of the motor to generate the plurality of cycle status indications of the pump.

13. The sprayer system of claim 1 , further comprising a handheld computer, wherein the wireless module is configured to wirelessly communicate with the handheld computer, and wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive a request via the wireless module for the handheld computer to send one or more of the stored plurality of output values to the handheld computer, and in response to the request, send one or more of the stored plurality of output values to the handheld computer via the wireless module.

14. The sprayer system of claim 1 , further comprising a network server, the network server configured to receive and store in memory of the network server the plurality of output values.

15. The sprayer system of claim 3 , wherein the first pressure and the second pressure are based on indications of fluid press

Assignees

• Graco Minnesota Inc

Inventors

• Lange Christopher M
• Pagano Nicholas A
• Godding Benjamin R
• Weinberger Mark T
• Mansheim Michael J
• Reath Nicholas H
• Kopel Andrew J

Classifications

• B05B7/1693

  with means for heating the material to be sprayed or an atomizing fluid in a supply hose or the like · CPC title

• B05B9/0413

  with reciprocating pumps, e.g. membrane pump, piston pump, bellow pump (B05B9/0409 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04Q9/00 Primary

  Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom · CPC title

• F04B15/02

  the fluids being viscous or non-homogeneous · CPC title

• B05B9/0861

  the motor being electric · CPC title