Air conditioner provided with means for predicting and detecting failure in compressor and method for predicting and detecting the failure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11280530-B2
Application number	US-201515757779-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2015
Priority date	Sep 11, 2015
Publication date	Mar 22, 2022
Grant date	Mar 22, 2022

Abstract

To predict and detect a failure in a compressor provided in an air conditioner, the air conditioner is provided with: a heat exchanger; the compressor; piping connecting the heat exchanger and the compressor with each other; and a control unit controlling the compressor and having a compressor failure predicting and detecting means, and in this air conditioner, the compressor failure predicting and detecting means of the control unit includes: a current detecting part detecting a driving current driving the compressor; a pulsation detecting part detecting pulsation in a driving current detected by the current detecting part; and an anomaly determining part predicting or detecting any failure in the compressor based on a magnitude and a duration of pulsation in a driving current detected by the pulsation detecting part.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An air conditioner, comprising:
a heat exchanger;
a compressor driven by a motor;
piping connecting the heat exchanger and the compressor; and
a controller connected to the compressor, the controller configured to:
detect a driving current for driving the motor of the compressor;
obtain a mechanical angle phase of the motor from the detected driving current;
detect a pulsation in the detected driving current based on a q-axis current feedback value of the detected driving current and the obtained mechanical angle phase; and
predict or detect a compressor failure based on a magnitude and a duration of the detected pulsation in the detected driving current.

2. The air conditioner according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller is further configured to predict the compressor failure based on a magnitude of the pulsation in the detected driving current exceeding a first threshold value for a first predetermined period of time and detect the compressor failure based on a magnitude of the pulsation in the detected driving current exceeding a second threshold value, which is different than the first threshold, for a second predetermined period of time, which is different than the first predetermined period of time.

3. The air conditioner according to claim 2 ,
wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value, and
wherein the second predetermined period of time is less than the first predetermined period of time.

4. A method for predicting and detecting a failure in a compressor in an air conditioner including a heat exchanger, the compressor having a motor, piping connecting the heat exchanger and the compressor, and a controller connected to the compressor, the method comprising the steps of:
detecting a driving current for driving the motor of the compressor;
obtain a mechanical angle phase of the motor from the detected driving current; and
detecting a pulsation in the detected driving current based on a q-axis current feedback value of the detected driving current and the obtained mechanical angle phase; and
predicting or detecting a failure in the compressor based on a magnitude and a duration of the detected pulsation in the detected driving current.

5. The method for predicting and detecting a failure in the compressor according to claim 4 ,
wherein a failure in the compressor is predicted based on a magnitude of the pulsation in the detected driving current exceeding a first threshold value for a first predetermined period of time and a failure in the compressor is detected based on a magnitude of the pulsation in the detected driving current exceeding a second threshold value, which is different than the first threshold, for a second predetermined period of time, which is different than the first predetermined period of time.

6. The method for predicting and detecting a failure in the compressor according to claim 5 ,
wherein the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value, and
wherein the second predetermined period of time is less than the first predetermined period of time.

Assignees

• Hitachi Johnson Controls Air Conditioning Inc

Inventors

• TADA Shuuhei
• Nagahashi Katsuaki
• Naito Koji

Classifications

• F04B49/10 Primary

  Other safety measures · CPC title

• F04B35/04

  the means being electric · CPC title

• F04B2203/0201

  Current · CPC title

• F04C28/28

  Safety arrangements; Monitoring · CPC title

• F04B2207/70

  Warnings · CPC title