Filter element analysis system and associated methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11935337-B2
Application number	US-202217847697-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2022
Priority date	Nov 23, 2016
Publication date	Mar 19, 2024
Grant date	Mar 19, 2024

Abstract

A filter element analysis system for analyzing a filter element within a vehicle, the system including various filter sensors so as to provide information regarding various filter element parameters, a locator which configured provide vehicle position information such that conditions regarding the vehicle environment can be tracked and correlated to the location, as well as a means for transmitting information to a remote server for analysis and tracking of the filter element information with regard to environmental conditions such that a filter element status, remaining filter life, or particle load and replacement timeline can be calculated and updated so as to provide more accurate predictive models of the filter element conditions. As well as provide alerts regarding the need and scheduling of replacement or cleaning of a particular filter element.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A filter element analysis system, the filter element analysis system comprising:
a filter element being provided within a filter housing being provided on a vehicle, the filter housing having at least an inlet and an outlet, the inlet receiving a contaminated stream medium and the outlet providing a filtered stream medium;
one or more filter sensors being provided within the filter housing, each of the one or more filter sensors being configured to generate a signal correlating to filter element parameters;
one or more control units comprising at least one primary control unit comprising:
a processing unit being configured to receive the filter element parameters from the one or more filter sensors, and to obtain location information regarding the vehicle; and
a wireless communication mechanism being configured to transmit the filter element parameters over a wireless network; and

a remote server comprising:
a remote processing unit; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium;

wherein the remote server is configured to:
receive one or more environmental parameters correlating to an environment about the location information of the vehicle;
receive the filter element parameters from the control unit over the wireless network;
determine a particle load of the filter element, based on the filter element parameters and the one or more environmental parameters; and
transmit the particle load back to the one or more control units.

2. The filter element analysis system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more control units further comprises a secondary control unit comprising a display being configured to display information regarding the particle load of the filter element.

3. The filter element analysis system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one primary control unit is operatively connected to the secondary control unit utilizing wireless communication, and
the secondary control unit is configured to transmit the filter element parameters to the remote server.

4. The filter element analysis system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one primary control unit is operatively connected to the remote server utilizing wireless communication,
the secondary control unit is operatively connected to the remote server utilizing wireless communication, and
the secondary control unit is further configured to receive, from the remote server, the information regarding the particle load of the filter element.

5. The filter element analysis system of claim 2 , wherein the secondary control unit is provided as a mobile smart device.

6. The filter element analysis system of claim 1 , wherein the location information regarding the vehicle is obtained from a global positioning system or based on cell tower location information.

7. The filter element analysis system of claim 6 , wherein the remote server further configured to access the one or more environmental parameters from an online database, utilizing the location information regarding the vehicle.

8. The filter element analysis system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more control units further comprise a user input interface being configured to receive the one or more environmental parameters from a user.

9. The filter element analysis system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more environmental parameters received through the user input interface comprise any one or any combination of vehicle activity, crop type, soil type, soil water content, soil PH-levels, visual filter element state or particle load, sound, and vehicle responsiveness.

10. The filter element analysis system of claim 8 , wherein the at least one primary control unit further comprises a local non-transitory computer-readable medium being configured to store historical data regarding service life information of a plurality of alternative filter elements with associated filter element parameters correlated to each of the plurality of alternative filter elements.

11. The filter element analysis system of claim 1 , further comprising one or more environmental sensors being provided about the vehicle, the one or more environmental sensors being configured to provide a signal correlating to at least one among the one or more environmental parameters, to the remote server.

12. The filter element analysis system of claim 1 , wherein the particle load of the filter element comprises any one or any combination of a quantity of mass being disposed on or in the filter element, a restriction of air flow through the filter element, a uniformity or lack thereof of air flow transmitting the filter element, or a pressure drop below a threshold.

13. The filter element analysis system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more filters sensors comprise any one or any combination of pressure sensors, accelerometers, flow sensors, strain sensors, humidity sensors, air-mass flow, temperature, particle counter, turbulence sensor, spectrometry, sound, vehicle operation parameters, and optical sensors.

14. A method for of analyzing a filter element within a vehicle, the method comprising:
obtaining location information regarding the vehicle comprising one or more filter elements about which one or more filter sensors are provided;
receiving a signal from each of the one or more filter sensors, the signal correlating to one or more filter element parameters;
receiving information regarding one or more environmental parameters correlating to an environment about the location information of the vehicle;
determining a particle load of the filter element, based on the one or more filter element parameters and the one or more environmental parameters; and
transmitting the particle load.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the filter element or the filter housing comprises a scannable tag, and
the method further comprises:
scanning the scannable tag with a scanning and input device;
receiving data being retrieved from the scanned scannable tag from the scanning and input device via a wireless network; and
determining the particle load of the filter element, further based on the received data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the determining the particle load of the filter element is further based on user information input into the scanning and input device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the user information comprises any or any combination of a vehicle type, an engine type, a filter system type, a filter element type, and one or more operating conditions.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the scannable tag is comprised of one among a barcode, a QR code, a passive RFID tag, an active RFID tag, and an NFC tag.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the determining the particle load of the filter element is performed by a remote server, and
the method further comprises querying a third-party weather database to obtain the information regarding the one or more environmental parameters.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising sending filter element analysis and data from the scanned scannable tag to be added to an environmental parameter database.

Assignees

• Mann & Hummel Gmbh

Inventors

• Hukill Brandon
• Nichols Jon
• Vaillant Charles
• Chong Yew
• Penkar Arpan
• Nunn Matthew
• Scope Andreas
• Babb Kevin
• Muenkel Karlheinz
• Beylich Markus
• Payen Nicolas
• Kunze Stefan
• Plach Uwe
• Porschke Lars-Thorsten
• Braun Stephan

Classifications

• G07C5/008 Primary

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• G01S19/24

  Acquisition or tracking {or demodulation} of signals transmitted by the system {(synchronisation aspects of direct sequence spread spectrum modulation H04B1/7073)} · CPC title

• G07C5/0808

  Diagnosing performance data (testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005) · CPC title

• G07C2205/02

  using a vehicle scan tool · CPC title

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title