Satcon Technology Corporation

Ibp, Inc.

James R Downer

Richard L Hockney

David B Eisenhaure

Edward M Kolvek

Timothy J Mason

Andrew Courier

Stephen N Forti

Larry W Fallin

James F Dill

Barbara J Scalia

Carl Brian Candiloro

Ronald D Smith

Roland H Estey, Iii

Vijay M Gondhalekar

Bruce G Johnson

Stephen B Nichols

William E Stanton

Shankar Jagannathan

Kevin Leary

Timothy J Hawkey

An autonomous remote controlled vehicle for use in the automation of an existing refrigerated flow through storage facility food processing application. The remote vehicle is specifically designed to operate within a network of centrally controlled remote vehicles that are adapted to receive selectable items from production and temporarily store them for later retrieval. The system is adapted to minimize travel time for the remote vehicle and optimize cycle time. The system is specifically adapted to handle cardboard shipping boxes containing meat products.

Method of automation for flow through storage

Skid handling system for flow through storage

Item handler and method for flow through storage

A rotary motor and a rotary magnetic bearing are integrated in a compact assembly that is contact-less. A stator assembly surrounds a ferromagnetic rotor with an annular air gap which can accommodate a cylindrical wall, e.g. of a chamber for semiconductor wafer processing. The stator assembly has a permanent magnet or magnets sandwiched between vertically spaced magnetic stator plates with plural pole segments. The rotor is preferably a ring of a magnetic stainless steel with complementary pole teeth. The stator assembly (i) levitates and passively centers the rotor along a vertical axis and against tilt about either horizontal axis, (ii) provides a radial position bias for the rotor, and (iii) establishes a motor flux field at the rotor poles. Polyphase coils wound on the stator plates produce a rotating flux field that drives the rotor as a synchronous homopolar motor. A rotor without pole teeth allows operation with an asynchronous inductive drive. A controller energizes control coils wound on each stator pole segment in response to a sensed physical position of the rotor. The control coils provide active radial position control and can actively damp tip and tilt oscillations that may overcome the passive centering.

Integrated magnetic levitation and rotation system

A fixed gain electromagnetic actuator for controlling the position of a body including at least two pair of a magnetically permeable pole spaced from the body, bias coils about each pole, separate control coils about each pole, a bias source for the bias coils providing a current in the bias coils producing a steady-state equal strength magnetic field on opposing sides of a body, and a control source for the control coils providing a current in the control coils for producing an increase in the magnetic field on one side of the body and a corresponding equivalent decrease in the magnetic field on the opposing side of the body to compensate for any external upsetting forces acting on the body.

Fixed gain electromagnetic actuator and electromagnetic bearing

A magnetic rotor suspension system including a magnetic rotor having a spin axis, and a generally spherical housing spaced from the rotor. The system includes means attached to the housing for applying magnetic fields to the rotor to fix its lateral and axial position relative to the housing and to adjust the angular orientation of the spin axis of the rotor relative to the housing.

Magnetic bearing and suspension system

A magnetic bearing system for enabling translational motion includes a carriage and a shaft for movably supporting the carriage; a first magnetic bearing fixed to one of the carriage and shaft and slidably received in a first channel of the other of the carriage and shaft. The first channel is generally 'U' shaped with two side walls and a back wall. The magnetic bearing includes a pair of spaced magnetic pole pieces, each pole piece having a pair of electromagnetic coils mounted on poles on opposite ends of the pole piece proximate the side walls, and a third electromagnetic coil mounted on a pole of the pole piece proximate the backwall; a motion sensor for sensing translational motion along two axes and rotationally about three axes of the carriage and shaft relative to each other; and a correction circuit responsive to the sensor for generating a correction signal to drive the coils to compensate for any misalignment sensed between the carriage and the shaft.

Magnetic translator bearings

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Canton, MA, United States of America

James R Downer