Method for allocating electrical power to crane equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12116246-B2
Application number	US-202217692166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2022
Priority date	Mar 10, 2021
Publication date	Oct 15, 2024
Grant date	Oct 15, 2024

Abstract

An allocation method for allocating an available maximum power from at least one power supply source to electrical equipment of a crane, in which the electrical equipment are powered with the available maximum power, includes selecting between: a raw mode in which the available maximum power is allocated over predefined actuation equipment and on accessory equipment predefined among the electrical equipment, the actuation equipment being defined according to a configuration of the crane, and an optimized mode in which the available maximum power is allocated over the predefined actuation equipment, and also over the accessory equipment but according to the cut-off conditions of the accessory equipment, so that according to the cut-off conditions the actuation equipment are powered or not.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A crane comprising electrical equipment intended to be electrically powered from at least one power supply source capable of providing an available maximum power which corresponds to a maximum power that can be delivered by the at least one power supply source, said electrical equipment comprising actuation equipment defined according to a configuration of the crane and accessory equipment, wherein said crane comprises a control/command unit configured for the implementation of an allocation method for allocating the available maximum power from the at least one power supply source to the electrical equipment of a crane, wherein said allocation method being implemented by said control/command unit comprises a step of selecting between:
a raw mode in which the available maximum power is allocated over predefined actuation equipment and over predefined accessory equipment among the electrical equipment, the actuation equipment being defined according to a configuration of the crane; and
an optimized mode in which the available maximum power is allocated over the predefined actuation equipment, and also over the accessory equipment but according to cut-off conditions associated to the accessory equipment, so that according to their respective cut-off conditions the accessory equipment are powered or not,
wherein said control/command unit is connected, on the one hand, to an interface allowing a selection between the raw mode and the optimized mode and, on the other hand, to an electrical circuit connecting the at least one power supply source to the electrical equipment to control an allocation of the available maximum power according to the selected mode among the raw mode and the optimized mode.

2. The crane according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one power supply source designates a primary power supply source and/or a rechargeable secondary power supply source.

3. The crane according to claim 1 , wherein the actuation equipment comprise mounting equipment which participate in a mounting of the crane by acting on a displacement of part(s) of the crane when the crane is in a mounting configuration.

4. The crane according to claim 3 , wherein the mounting equipment comprise at least one of the following equipment: a hydraulic folding/unfolding unit allowing to fold/unfold a mast and a jib, a hydraulic wedging unit allowing to wedge the crane on a ground, a hydraulic orientation unit allowing an orientation of a base of the crane, a hydraulic bracket unit allowing an actuation of a mounting bracket.

5. The crane according to claim 1 , wherein the actuation equipment comprise working equipment that participate in displacing a load when the crane is in a working configuration.

6. The crane according to claim 5 , wherein the working equipment comprise at least one of the following equipment: a motorized lifting system allowing to lift/lower a load, a motorized distribution system allowing a distribution of a load along a jib, an orientation motorized system allowing an orientation of a jib, a translation motorized system allowing a translation of the crane, a motorized lifting system allowing a lifting of a luffing jib.

7. The crane according to claim 1 , wherein the accessory equipment comprises at least one of the following system accessory equipment: a heating system to heat a space of the crane, a ventilation or cooling system to ventilate/cool a space of the crane; and
the cut-off conditions depend on at least one environmental parameter which is a physical parameter representative of the space of the crane.

8. The crane according to claim 7 , wherein the environmental parameter is an internal temperature of the space of the crane.

9. The crane according to claim 7 , wherein the space of the crane is an electrical cabinet internally grouping all or part of the organs participating in the electrical power supply of the crane, or a cockpit.

10. The crane according to claim 1 , in which the accessory equipment comprise at least one of the following user accessory equipment: a lighting system, an electrical socket; and
the cut-off conditions depend on a selection of a classification performed by a user for the or each of the user accessory equipment, amongst the following classifications:
a non-essential classification which corresponds to an authorization not to power the corresponding user accessory equipment in the optimized mode in favor of the actuation equipment; and
an essential classification which corresponds to a prohibition not to power the corresponding user accessory equipment in the optimized mode.

11. The crane according to claim 1 , wherein, in the optimized mode, the actuation equipment are powered by an actuation power which is equivalent to the available maximum power or to the available maximum power minus an accessory power necessary to power the accessory equipment according to the cut-off conditions,
and this actuation power is allocated over the actuation equipment according to an allocation scheme selected from the following two allocation schemes:
a first scheme in which the actuation equipment are sequentially activated and therefore sequentially powered, so that each actuation equipment is powered, when activated, by the actuation power; and
a second scheme in which the actuation equipment are simultaneously activated and therefore simultaneously powered, so that all the actuation equipment are powered together by the actuation power.

12. The crane according to claim 11 , wherein a storage is implemented in a memory to store of a plurality of preferential allocation modes, each preferential allocation mode being associated with percentages of allocation of the actuation power over the different actuation equipment in the second scheme, and the allocation method implements a selection of a preferential allocation mode to provide an allocation of the actuation power in accordance with said selected preferential allocation mode when the second scheme is selected.

Assignees

• Manitowoc Crane Group France

Inventors

• Roni-Damond Bruno
• Veillerot Vincent

Classifications

• B66C13/54

  Operator's stands or cabins · CPC title

• B66C13/42

  Hydraulic transmitters · CPC title

• B66C13/30

  Circuits for braking, traversing, or slewing motors · CPC title

• B66C13/26

  by AC motors · CPC title

• B66C13/12 Primary

  Arrangements of means for transmitting pneumatic, hydraulic, or electric power to movable parts of devices · CPC title