Xerox Corporation

Charles P Coleman

George J Roller

Arthur M Gooray

Kathleen A Feinberg

Mark A Scheuer

Tracy Eugene Thieret

Meera Sampath

Ronald M Rockwell

Debbie S Wickham

Charles B Duke

Ashok V Godambe

An impending fault of a component operated within a closed-loop control system can be detected. The close-loop control system is disabled. An actuator of the closed-loop control system is operated at one or more test values. A sensor reading of the actuator is taken while that actuator is operated at the one or more test values. A warning is generated if an impending fault condition is detected. An impending fault condition may be detected if the component operates at a value exceeding a maximum defined operating value, if the component operates at a value below a minimum defined operating value, or if an operating range that is narrower than a defined full operating range for the component is detected.

Systems and methods for detecting impending faults within closed-loop control systems

By using monitoring data, feedback data, and pooling of failure data from a plurality of electronic devices, real-time failure prediction and diagnoses of electronic systems operating in a network environment can be achieved. First, the diagnostic system requests data on the state of a machine and/or its components and collections thereof as part of the machine's normal operation. Secondly, real-time processing of the data either at the machine site or elsewhere in the distributed network allows for predicting or diagnosing system failures. Having determined and/or predicted a system failure, a communication to one or more remote observers in the network allows the remote observers to view the diagnostic information and/or required action to repair the failure. Furthermore, interrogation of either the particular electronic system, or a database containing data on similar electronic systems by the diagnostic server allows the diagnostic server to refine original diagnoses based on this population data to achieve a comprehensive failure predication/diagnosing system.

Systems and methods for failure prediction, diagnosis and remediation using data acquisition and feedback for a distributed electronic system

The silicon fluid ejector of the present invention includes an electrostatically actuated micromachined positive displacement mechanism consisting of a piston, piston containment structure, piston retraction mechanism and an ejection orifice. These features provide for very low cost of production, high reliability and &ldquo;on demand&rdquo; drop size modulation. The fluid ejector mechanism can be easily produced via monolithic batch fabrication based on the common production technique of surface micromachining.

Fluid drop ejector

The silicon fluid ejector of the present invention includes an electrostatically actuated micromachined positive displacement mechanism consisting of a piston, piston containment structure, piston retraction mechanism and an ejection orifice. These features provide for very low cost of production, high reliability and 'on demand' drop size, modulation. The fluid ejector mechanism can be easily produced via monolithic batch fabrication based on the common production technique of surface micromachining.

Method of fabricating a fluid drop ejector

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Brighton, NY, United States of America

Charles P Coleman