British Nuclear Fuels Plc

Bhalchandra V Jayawant

Raymond J Whorlow

John F Curtis

Transducer for providing distance information about a target relative to

An apparatus for monitoring the inductance of a coil (L1) which is not part of a resonant circuit including a second coil (L2) connected in series with the first mentioned coil and a resonant circuit which is formed by connection of a capacitor (C5) to the second coil, or optionally (C2) to a third coil (L3) which is in a mutually inductive relationship with the second coil so that the second and third coils act as the primary and secondary coils of a transformer (M), a device (1) for injecting into the circuit containing the first mentioned and second coils an a.c. signal of substantially constant peak voltage amplitude having a frequency within the resonance peak of the resonant circuit, and an amplitude detector (5) for measuring the amplitude of the voltage across a component of the resonant circuit. The apparatus may be employed as so-called integral control in closed loop control of the suspension of an object by the first mentioned coil. The output of the amplitude detector in such an arrangement may be applied successively to an error detector (7) and integrator (9).

Apparatus for monitoring inductance

An apparatus for the electromagnetic control of the suspension of an object including an electromagnet including an inductive coil, a source of electric power for the electromagnet which source includes a controllable electric supply device capable of delivering a controlled electric supply to the coil of the electromagnet, a control signal producer for producing an error control signal in response to an incremental change in a parameter related to the position of the object relative to the electromagnet and a negative feedback control loop for feeding an error control signal generated by the control signal producer to the electrical supply device to adjust the electrical supply to the coil so as to stabilise the suspension of the object relative to the electromagnet, wherein the control signal producer includes a detector for detecting the component V.sub.L of voltage across the coil which is due to pure inductance L of the coil, a detector for detecting the current i flowing through the coil, a device for deriving from the detected value of V.sub.L and the detected value of i opposing signals and a balances for balancing the opposing signals whereby an error control signal generated by the control signal producer represents a deviation from the perfect balance of the opposing signals and causes a correction signal to be applied by the electrical supply to restore the balance.

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Kingston, United Kingdom

Bhalchandra V Jayawant