The Torrington Company

Clark Equipment Compnay

A John Santos

Mark E LaCroix

Pascal Desbiolles

Michael C Brauer

Kenneth R Weber

Jason A Osborn

Arnold M Terrill

Neil A Fuchs

Stephen J Lyle

Stephen T Podhajecki

Corey L Fornes

Mark E La Croix

Francis Travostino

John C Hanson

A bearing provided with an annular means generating magnetic pulses and with a device for detecting these pulses, wherein the detection device comprises a plurality of aligned sensitive elements. The sensitive elements are placed equidistantly from one another and the detection device comprises an even number 2N of sensitive elements.

Bearing equipped with magnetic encoder and sensor including aligned sensing elements

A sensor of position and/or of displacement of a moving member generating magnetic pulses. The sensor comprises a plurality of aligned sensitive elements that are divided into at least two subassemblies. The signals emanating from the subassemblies are processed by an electronic circuit able to deliver two analog signals in substantially perfect quadrature.

Position and/or displacement sensor including a plurality of aligned sensor elements

An angle sensor is used for determining the relative position of a steerable wheel hub, relative to a fixed wheel mounting hub. The angle sensor has a portion mounted on the fixed hub, but received in a recess in the kingpin. The kingpin has a central bore that receives a movable shaft of the sensor which is driven by the kingpin. As the steerable wheel hub is steered, it rotates about the axis of the kingpin and rotates the kingpin. The kingpin drives the shaft of the sensor to provide for an indication of the amount of pivotal movement between the wheel hub and the wheel mounting hub.

Kingpin angle mounted sensor

Two lines of magnets have the same length and are aligned side by side. The lines of magnets have different numbers of magnetic pole pairs and have equal line lengths. A first sensor determines a relative position between poles of a pole pair of the first line of magnets, and a second sensor determines a relative position between poles of a pole pair of the second line of magnets. A circuit compares the relative positions determined by the sensors to determine an absolute position of the first line of magnets.

Absolute position hall string sensor

A sensor for sensing the rotation of an output shaft of a motor used for driving a vehicle includes a disc on the output shaft that carries magnets facing toward a motor carrier and the motor. The motor carrier has an annular recess open on a side facing away from the motor, and a Hall effect sensor is placed in this recess and held with a T-shaped bracket having a tang that supports the Hall effect sensor partially in this annular recess for protecting it and positioning it adjacent the magnets on the disc.

Mounting arrangement for a wheel speed sensor

A drawn cup wheel bearing is mounted within an axle tube and supports an axle shaft mounted in the drawn cup wheel bearing with a vehicle mounting flange of the axle shaft positioned axially outwardly of the axle tube. An annular target is supported from the vehicle mounting flange of the axle shaft such that the target is positioned axially inwardly of the vehicle mounting flange and is positioned over the axle tube. A sensor is supported from the axle tube over the annular target for sensing rotation of the annular target.

Sensor system for sensing axle speed

The invention relates to a digital sensor of relative position, which has a circular multipolar magnetic ring which is mobile in rotation opposite a stationary magnetic sensor comprised of at least two sensitive elements, respectively positioned facing a main track and a &ldquo;revolution tick&rdquo; reference track, and a device for processing of the output signals, such that on the magnetic ring, a magnetic pattern is produced from a pair of north and south poles whose transition is different from the transition between the other north and south poles of the magnetic ring, and of which the angular width of the north pole is different at the site of the &ldquo;revolution tick&rdquo; reference track. The sensitive elements can be three in number, the first of which faces reference track and of which the other two face the main track, or they can be produced in the form of two parallel bars.

Digital sensor of relative position

A method for determining position and/or direction of a target, where the target has a series of magnetic poles with a magnetic pole spacing d. The method includes the steps of: (A) providing an array of an even number N of magnetic sensors with a sensor spacing x, the sensor array having an initial effective sensor array length (N&plus;1)x, where the initial effective sensor array length is greater than the pole spacing d; (B) deactivating an equal number of magnetic sensors such that the magnetic sensors of the array remaining active are adjacent to each other and provide a new effective sensor array length that is closer to the pole spacing d than the initial effective sensor array length; (C) dividing the magnetic sensors of the array remaining active into two equal groups A and B of at least one adjacent magnetic sensor for signal processing; (D) summing the signals from group A and summing the signals from group B; (E) adding the summation of signals from group B to the summation of signals from group A to obtain a sine wave; and (F) subtracting the summation of signals from group B from the summation of signals from group A to obtain a cosine wave.

Method of determining position and/or direction of a magnetic target

An outer ring has a spherically convex outer surface mounted within a bore of a housing such that the outer ring may be misaligned with respect to the axis of the bore. A sensor target is mounted on an inner ring that is rotatable with respect to the outer ring, and a seal is mounted on the outer ring. A sensor is mounted on the seal in proximity to the sensor target, and a flexible electrical conductor is connected to the sensor for transmitting signals from the sensor. A portion of the flexible electrical conductor is fixed with respect to the housing. Circuitry may be electrically connected to the flexible electrical conductor. The flexible conductor and circuitry may be provided by a flexible circuit board.

Housed bearing with integral sensor

Magnetic poles are regularly spaced along a path to form a magnetic track. Some of the magnetic poles are separated by regular pole junctions aligned uniformly with respect to the path of the magnetic track. At least two of the magnetic poles are separated by a skewed irregular pole junction aligned such that a sensor near an edge of the magnetic track will sense a wide pole and a narrow pole to allow an index signal to be produced.

Magnetic encoder for producing an index signal

A sensor senses a reference signal having a reference pulse characterizing angular position of a rotating member and an angular clock pulse characterizing the rotational speed of the rotating member and having an angular clock pulse frequency greater than the reference pulse frequency. An output signal is produced having an output pulse delayed with respect to the reference pulse of the reference signal by an integral number of angular clock pulses to provide a coarse adjustment. The output signal may be delayed by an additional fraction of a subsequent angular clock pulse to provide a fine adjustment. A circuit to effect this method is also disclosed.

Circuit and method for synchronizing a fuel pump or the like

Peak and valley voltages of signals from at least two analog sensors are held by the circuit. A plurality of threshold voltages is generated from the previous peak and valley voltages of the respective analog sensors. The signal of each sensor is compared to the respective threshold voltages to produce a sequences of output transitions for each sensor. The output transitions are combined such that each sequence of output transitions from each analog sensor occurs between sequences of the other analog sensor (or sensors). An optional peak and valley reset is also disclosed.

Resolution multiplying circuit

A high resolution encoder having a relatively high number of magnetic pole pairs with a magnetic flux strength sufficient for use in high resolution applications. Magnetic pole pair spacing varies from about 0.01 inch to about 0.1 inch with each magnetic pole pair having a magnetic flux in the range of about 2 gauss to about 700 gauss at a distance of 0.036 inch at a temperature of +20 degrees centigrade. This high resolution encoder is especially well-suited for use with magnetically encoded targets in sensor bearings.

High resolution encoder

A high resolution encoder having a relatively high number of magnetic pole pairs with a magnetic flux strength sufficient for use in high resolution applications. Magnetic pole pair spacing varies from about 0.010 inch to about 0.050 inch with each magnetic pole pair having a magnetic flux in the range of about 2 gauss to about 700 gauss at a distance of 0.036 inch at a temperature of +20 degrees centigrade. This high resolution encoder is especially well-suited for use with magnetically encoded targets in sensor bearings.

A magnetic sensor bearing utilizes an adaptive threshold circuit for signal processing in order to compensate for external factors such as temperature, stress, aging, and external magnetic fields which all affect a fixed reference signal used with a comparator. As the magnetic sensor's output signal drifts due to these external factors, the adaptive threshold circuit causes the reference signals to drift in a complementary manner so that the magnetic sensor bearing continues to function properly in spite of the external factors.

Growing community of inventors

Farmington, CT, United States of America

A John Santos