Brush holder assembly monitoring apparatus, assembly, system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9590376-B2
Application number	US-201414450481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 4, 2014
Priority date	May 24, 2007
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for monitoring a brush holder assembly and/or detecting wear of a brush in a brush holder assembly are disclosed. One method includes sending data from a plurality of remote monitoring locations to a central control unit, where the data may be evaluated in order to monitor states of brushes at a plurality of remote electrical facilities. For example, multiple images of a marker tracking longitudinal movement of the brush may be acquired. A comparison of the images, for example, a comparative imaging technique, such as pixel-by-pixel comparison, may then be performed in order to evaluate a condition of the brush, such as the wear rate, wear state, or life expectancy of the brush.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of monitoring a brush holder assembly of an electrical device including a carbon brush at a remote monitoring location, the carbon brush of the brush holder assembly being in contact with a rotating conductive surface, the brush holder assembly permitting linear movement of the carbon brush toward the rotating conductive surface as the carbon brush wears, the method comprising:
acquiring data indicative of linear displacement of the carbon brush relative to the brush holder assembly; and
evaluating the data to predict an estimated projection of a future condition of the carbon brush at a future date.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
receiving the data at a central control unit off-site from the remote monitoring location.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of evaluating the data is performed at the central control unit.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
alerting personnel of an anomalous or threshold condition of the carbon brush at the remote monitoring location.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
scheduling maintenance at the remote monitoring location.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
routing personnel to the remote monitoring location.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
scheduling distribution or delivery of a replacement brush to the remote monitoring location.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the future condition of the carbon brush is a wear state in which the carbon brush needs to be replaced.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the future condition of the carbon brush is a wear state in which the carbon brush has worn beyond a threshold amount.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of evaluating the data includes comparing actual acquired data with modeled data.

11. A method of monitoring a brush holder assembly of an electrical device at a plurality of remote monitoring locations, the brush holder assembly at each of the plurality of remote monitoring locations including a carbon brush in contact with a rotating conductive surface, the brush holder assembly permitting linear movement of the carbon brush toward the rotating conductive surface as the carbon brush wears, the method comprising:
acquiring data indicative of linear displacement of each of the carbon brushes relative to the respective brush holder assembly at each of the plurality of remote monitoring locations;
evaluating the data to predict an estimated projection of a future condition of the carbon brush at a future date; and
receiving the data at a central control unit in communication with the plurality of remote monitoring locations.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of evaluating the data is performed with a processing unit at each of the plurality of remote monitoring locations.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of evaluating the data is performed with a processing unit at the central control unit.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of:
alerting personnel of an anomalous or threshold condition at one of the plurality of remote monitoring locations.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of scheduling maintenance at one of the plurality of remote monitoring locations.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of routing personnel to one of the plurality of remote monitoring locations.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of scheduling distribution or delivery of a replacement brush to one of the plurality of remote monitoring locations.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of remote monitoring locations are networked with the central control unit.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of evaluating the data includes comparing actual acquired data with modeled data.

Assignees

• Cutsforth Inc

Inventors

• Cutsforth Robert S

Classifications

• G05B23/0218

  characterised by the fault detection method dealing with either existing or incipient faults · CPC title

• H04L43/04

  Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation · CPC title

• G05B23/0208

  characterized by the configuration of the monitoring system · CPC title

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title

• G06Q10/083

  Shipping · CPC title