Black Decker Inc.

Balck & Decker Inc.

Provision Entertainment, Inc.

Michael Kenneth Forster

John Charles Vanko

Matthew J Velderman

Bhanuprasad V Gorti

Jason K Leh

Tal Gottesman

John D Cox

Samuel G Woods

Daniel Joseph White

Daniele C Brotto

Robert Alan Usselman

Daniel Puzio

Craig Alan Schell

Scott J Eshleman

Jeffrey P Grant

Robert S Gehret

Nathan J Cruise

Stephen P Osborne

Joao Norona

Wing Lin

Joseph Patrick Kelleher

David Beers

Robert J Marcinkowski

Michael C Doyle

Garrett Patrick McCormick

William F Gallagher

Gabriel E Concari

Jason F Busschaert

Richard Thomas Walter

Brian E Friedman

Pradeep M Pant

James B Watson

Daniel N Lopano

Andrew E Seman, Jr

Stuart E Garber

Paul Gerard Gross

Geoffrey Stephen Howard

Paul S White

Qiang J Zhang

Christine H Potter

Zollie W Privett, Jr

Mark T Cherry

Ryan Klee

Joerg Zellerhoff

John Howson

Brian R Crowell

Girish Yajurvedi

Levent Gokdere

Timothy J Seeley

Stephen A Debelius

James Dunlap Hays

Mehdi Ramezani

Anatoliy Nosov

Sam Woods

William G Kalbfleisch

Daniel R Beers

Michael Varipatis

David C Tomayko

Shailesh P Waikar

Erik A Ekstrom

Aris C Cleanthous

Sankarshan N Murthy

Nathan J Osborne

Charles L Bradenbaugh

Curtis L Thornton

Michael A Zemlock

Jeffrey L Vrachan

Brian C Sterling

Nicholas J Garibaldi

Christopher R Held

Jesse P Hill

Ralphy A Louis

Daniel Fitzgerald

Paul J Wisniewski

Jeffrey D Delcamp

Larry T Albert

Kevin M Hogan

Philip Gilde

Kenneth David Long

Eric J Samuelsen

Peter Zhao

Garrett P Mccormick

Bhanu V Gorti

Jeffery D Delcamp

Kyle J Wheaton

Kachi Ukeje-Eloagu

Zoran Mihailovic

Edward-Bruce Baker

Alfred M Irungu

Tony J Agro

Larrry T Albert

Wing W Lin

Tai Gottesman

Daniel P Fitzgerald

Samuel George Woods

Rouse Roby Bailey

Michael Roberts

Andrew E Semen

A power tool is provided including a power supply interface receiving a removable battery pack, a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor including a rotor and a stator, and a multi-phase inverter bridge circuit. A controller is provided to output drive signals to the inverter bridge circuit to control flow of current from to the motor, where each drive signal is activated within each corresponding phase of the motor within a conduction band. The controller is configured to control a length of the conduction band at a variable value within a first torque range below a torque threshold and at a substantially constant value within a second torque range above the torque threshold. The torque threshold is greater than approximately 1 Newton-meters and the motor produces a maximum power output of at least approximately 1250 watts at the torque of approximately 1 Newton-meters.

High-power battery-operated power tool

A power tool comprising a housing and a brushless direct-current (BLDC) motor disposed within the housing. The motor includes a stator and a rotor rotatable relative to the stator. The power tool is configured to generate a power output from the motor that is greater than 1200 continuous hot Watts out such that a quotient obtained by the power output measured in Watts (Wout), divided by an input measured in Volt-Amperes (Vain), and further divided by a volume of the power tool measured in cubic centimeters (cc), is greater than 600 Wout/Vain/cc.

Handheld power tool with a brushless electric motor

A power tool is provided including a power supply interface receiving a medium-voltage-rated removable battery pack having a maximum rated voltage in the range of 40 to 80 volts, and a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor. The motor includes a rotor and a stator having at least three stator windings corresponding to at least three phases of the motor, the rotor being moveable by the stator when the stator windings are appropriately energized within the corresponding phases. A multi-phase inverter bridge circuit is disposed between the power supply interface and the motor, and a controller is configured to output drive signals to the inverter bridge circuit to control flow of current from the battery pack to the motor such that the motor produces a maximum power output of at least approximately 1750 watts at a torque of approximately 1.5 to 2 Newton-meters.

A power tool comprising a housing and a brushless direct-current (BLDC) motor disposed within the housing. The motor includes a stator and a rotor rotatable relative to the stator. The power tool is configured to generate a power output from the motor such that a quotient obtained by the power output measured in Watts (Wout), divided by an input measured in Volt-Amperes (Vain), and further divided by a diameter of the motor measured in meters (m), is greater than 10 Wout/Vain/m.

A power tool is provided including a housing, a brushless motor disposed within the housing, a power switch circuit that supplies power from a power source to the brushless motor, and a controller configured to apply a drive signal to the power switch circuit to control the supply of power to the brushless motor. The controller is configured to receive at least one signal associated with a phase current of the motor, detect an angular position of the rotor based on the phase current of the motor within a variable speed range of zero to at least 15,000 rotations-per-minute (RPM), and control the drive signal based on the detected angular position of the rotor to electronically commutate the motor within a torque range of zero to at least 15 newton-meters (N.m.) and a power output of zero to at least 1500 watts.

Field-oriented sensorless brushless motor control in a power tool

A power tool is provided including a housing, a brushless motor disposed within the housing, a power switch circuit that supplies power from a power source to the brushless motor, and a controller configured to receive at least one signal associated with a phase current of the motor, detect an angular position of the rotor based on the phase current of the motor, and apply a drive signal to the power switch circuit to control a commutation of the motor based on the detected angular position of the rotor. If the supply of power to the motor is turned OFF to cause the motor to slow down and is turned back ON while the rotor speed exceeds a speed threshold, the controller electronically brakes the motor for a time interval to measure the phase current of the motor and detects the angular position of the rotor based on the measured phase current.

A power tool is provided including a housing, a brushless motor disposed within the housing, a power switch circuit that supplies power from a power source to the brushless motor, and a controller configured to receive at least one signal associated with a phase current of the motor, detect an angular position of the rotor based on the phase current of the motor, and apply a drive signal to the power switch circuit to control a commutation of the motor based on the detected angular position of the rotor. The controller detects an initial sector within which the rotor is located at start-up, apply the drive signal so as to rotate the motor to a parking angle associated with the detected initial sector, and control a commutation sequence to drive the motor beginning at the parking angle.

Conduction band control schemes are presented for reducing noise and/or lower harmonics in power tools. A controller in the tool is interfaced with a plurality of motor switches and, for each phase, operates to output a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal to one or more of the motor switches to control power supplied to the electric motor. The controller is also configured to monitor a parameter indicative of the load on the motor. In response to detecting a load greater than a threshold, the controller controls power output of the motor by setting conduction band of the motor switches and the advance angle to baseline values predetermined values. In response to detecting a load less than the threshold, the controller reduces at least one of the conduction band and the advance angle to a value less than the baseline values.

Reducing noise and lowering harmonics in power tools using conduction band control schemes

A power tool comprising a housing, a motor, and a circuit board residing in the housing is provided. A rectifier that receives an alternating current and converts the alternating current to a direct current, a switching arrangement having a plurality of motor switches connected electrically between the rectifier and the motor, and a capacitor connected electrically between the rectifier and the switching arrangement, are mounted on a rear portion of a planar surface of the circuit board. A switching arrangement and at least one heat sink in thermal communication therewith are mounted on a front portion of the planar surface of the circuit board.

A power tool is provided with a multi-phase brushless motor including a rotor and a stator having stator windings corresponding to at least three phases of the motor. A power switch circuit is provided including high-side and low-side power switches. A power supply interface receives alternating-current (AC) power from an AC power supply or battery direct-current (DC) power from one or more battery packs. A rectifier converts the AC power to a rectified DC voltage on a bus line. A capacitor is disposed across the bus line such that, within each half cycle of the AC power voltage waveform, the power switch circuit draws current from the AC power supply within a first time period and from the capacitor within a second time period, the capacitor having a capacitance value such that the first time period is greater than the second time period.

AC/DC power tool

A power tool is provided including a power supply interface receiving a medium-voltage-rated removable battery pack having a maximum rated voltage in the range of 40 to 80 volts, and a brushless direct current (BLDC) motor. The motor includes a rotor and a stator having at least three stator windings corresponding to at least three phases of the motor, the rotor being moveable by the stator when the stator windings are appropriately energized within the corresponding phases, each phase being characterized by a corresponding voltage waveform energizing the corresponding stator winding. A multi-phase inverter bridge circuit is disposed between the power supply interface and the motor, and a controller is configured to output drive signals to the inverter bridge circuit to control flow of current from the battery pack to the motor such that the motor produces a maximum power output of at least 2500 watts.

A power tool is provided including a brushless electric motor, a switching arrangement having motor switches and interposed between the electric motor and a power supply, and a controller configured to control a switching operation of the motor switches for driving the electric motor and enforce a current limit on the current delivered to the electric motor. The controller receives a measure of current passing from the power supply to the switching arrangement and takes corrective action to reduce current delivered to the electric motor if the measured current exceeds the current limit. The controller further receives a signal corresponding to at least one of a type and/or a nominal voltage of the power supply and sets the current limit based on the received signal.

Current limit for a power tool powered by different power supplies

A power tool is provided including a tool housing, an electric motor disposed inside the tool housing, a power interface facilitating a connection to a power source, a plurality of power components arranged to modulate a supply of power from the power interface to the electric motor, a user-actuated input unit providing an analog signal corresponding to a desired rotational speed of the electric motor, and a control unit is receiving the analog signal from the user-actuated input unit. The control unit includes a controller configured to control a switching operation of the power components based on the analog signal to regulate an amount of electric power being supplied to the electric motor, and an input detection unit configured to generate an ON/OFF signal to turn on the controller based on detection of a prescribed change in the analog signal indicative of an initial actuation of the user-actuation unit.

Control unit for a power tool

A power tool is provided including a brushless motor. A power supply interface is arranged to receive at least one of AC power from an AC power supply having a first nominal voltage or DC power from a DC power supply having a second nominal voltage, where the first and second nominal voltages both fall approximately within the operating voltage range of the motor. A motor control circuit is provided including a rectifier circuit converting the AC power to a rectified voltage signal, a power switch circuit having power switches to supply electric power from at least one of the DC power or the rectified voltage signal to the motor, and a controller controlling a switching operation of the power switches to regulate the supply of electric power to the motor at a level corresponding to the operating voltage range of the motor.

Power tool having a brushless motor capable of being powered by AC or DC power supplies

A power tool includes a tool body including a motor having an output member that drives an accessory. A chuck is coupled for rotation with the output member relative to the tool body and configured to retain the accessory. The chuck has a chuck body that defines at least one light pipe formed therethrough. A light source disposed on a light ring coupled to the tool body and includes at least one light. Each at least one light source aligns with each of the at least one light pipe intermittently during rotation of the chuck.

Lighted power tool

Growing community of inventors

White Hall, MD, United States of America

Michael Kenneth Forster