Vacuum pressure regulation system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9329603-B2
Application number	US-201314054965-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2013
Priority date	Nov 13, 2012
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

A valve main body including a valve member that opens and closes a valve seat is associated with a fluid pressure driving unit including a pressure-receiving member (piston) that drives the valve member, a valve aperture adjusting unit that sets the aperture of the valve member, an electromagnetic valve unit that supplies and discharges a pilot fluid to and from the fluid pressure driving unit, and a controller that controls the aperture of the valve member. The controller controls the aperture of the valve member by controlling the position of the pressure-receiving member, such that the vacuum chamber attains a predetermined target pressure, and monitors a difference between an actual pressure in the vacuum chamber obtained from the pressure sensor and the target pressure, and announces abnormality in the case where the difference deviates from a tolerance range.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vacuum pressure regulation system comprising:
a vacuum pressure regulating valve including
a valve main body including, inside a valve housing in which a valve seat is provided in a flow path connecting between a vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump,
a valve member configured to abut and separate from the valve seat so as to close and open the flow path,
a valve shaft connected to the valve member and extending in an axial direction thereof from the valve housing such that a distal end portion reaches a fluid pressure driving unit, and
a return spring that biases the valve member in a direction to close the valve seat;

a pressure-receiving chamber configured to supply a fluid pressure acting in a direction to open the valve member and including a pressure-receiving member attached to the distal end portion of the valve shaft; and
the fluid pressure driving unit including a pilot port for supplying and discharging a pilot fluid to and from the pressure-receiving chamber,
the system also comprising:
an electromagnetic valve unit connected to the vacuum pressure regulating valve and configured to supply and discharge the pilot fluid through the pilot port of the pressure-receiving chamber; and
a controller that controls operation of the electromagnetic valve unit on the basis of an output signal from a position sensor that detects a position of the valve member, an output signal from a pressure sensor in the vacuum chamber that detects the vacuum pressure, and a control command inputted from outside,
wherein the controller possesses a preset value of pressure in the vacuum chamber evacuated by the vacuum pump and velocity information of the evacuation,
the controller executes feedback control of the aperture of the valve member by controlling the position of the pressure-receiving member, such that the vacuum chamber attains a target pressure determined on the basis of the preset value of pressure and the velocity information of the evacuation in each period of the evacuation control, and
the controller detects a difference between an actual pressure in the vacuum chamber obtained by the pressure sensor and the target pressure in each control period, to thereby announce abnormality in the case where the difference deviates from a tolerance range specified with respect to the target pressure.

2. The vacuum pressure regulation system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller is configured to start each period of the evacuation control after a monitoring period for confirming a pressure transition in the vacuum chamber caused by the evacuation of the vacuum chamber has elapsed.

3. The vacuum pressure regulation system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller possesses information of a preset velocity and preset acceleration as part of the velocity information of the evacuation by the vacuum pump, and is configured to slowly increase a transition velocity of the vacuum pressure in each control period according to the preset acceleration after the start of the evacuation control, and to maintain the preset velocity after the transition velocity of the vacuum pressure reaches the preset velocity through an acceleration control period in which the evacuation of the vacuum chamber is gently started.

4. The vacuum pressure regulation system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the vacuum pressure regulating valve further includes a valve aperture adjusting unit including an adjuster to be made to abut a back face of the pressure-receiving member to determine a stopping position of the pressure-receiving member, and an electric motor that steplessly moves the adjuster back and forth to a desired position by using a rotary-to-linear motion conversion mechanism, and
the controller is configured to control a position of the adjuster by supplying a necessary driving current to the electric motor according to the control command, and controlling operations of the electric motor and the electromagnetic valve unit such that the position of the adjuster determined by an output of an encoder that detects a rotation amount of the electric motor agrees with a designated position.

5. The vacuum pressure regulation system according to claim 4 ,
wherein the electric motor includes a load detector that detects a rotational load of the electric motor, and
the controller is configured to perform a pilot fluid pressure control including detecting, when controlling the position of the adjuster, whether the rotational load of the electric motor according to a pressing force between the adjuster and the pressure-receiving member obtained from the output of the load detector is between a predetermined upper limit and a lower limit, and outputting a control signal to the electromagnetic valve unit so as to supply a pilot fluid pressure to the pressure-receiving chamber for pressing the pressure-receiving member against the adjuster with a force between the upper and the lower limits in the case where the rotational load deviates from the range between the upper and the lower limits, thereby allowing the electric motor to operate while keeping the pressure-receiving member and the adjuster pressed against each other with the force between the upper and the lower limits.

6. The vacuum pressure regulation system according to claim 5 ,
wherein the pilot fluid pressure in the pilot fluid pressure control is determined so as to generate a pressing force corresponding to the total sum of an acting force of the return spring, an acting force based on the pressure in the vacuum chamber exerted on the valve member, and an biasing force constantly exerted between the adjuster and the pressure-receiving member.

7. The vacuum pressure regulation system according to claim 4 ,
wherein the controller possesses predetermined values of an acting force of the return spring, an acting force based on the pressure in the vacuum chamber exerted on the valve member, and a biasing force constantly exerted between the adjuster and the pressure-receiving member, the values being functionized on the basis of a correlation with the position of the pressure-receiving member, and
the controller is configured to output, when controlling the position of the adjuster, a control signal to the electromagnetic valve unit so as to cause the electromagnetic valve unit to output the fluid pressure according to the position of the pressure-receiving member obtained through the functionization, to the pressure-receiving chamber of the fluid pressure driving unit as pilot fluid pressure.

Assignees

• Smc Corp

Inventors

• Watanabe Tadao
• Hirabayashi Yu

Classifications

• Y10T137/7761

  Electrically actuated valve · CPC title

• G05D16/2093 Primary

  with combination of electric and non-electric auxiliary power · CPC title

• G05D16/2086 Primary

  without direct action of electric energy on the controlling means (combination of electric and non-electric auxiliary G05D16/2093) · CPC title

• G05D16/024 Primary

  Controlling the inlet pressure, e.g. back-pressure regulator · CPC title

• F16K31/04 Primary

  using a motor · CPC title