Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Ryuji Iwamoto

Hajime Miyata

Youichi Itou

Daisuke Bessyo

Mitsuo Yokohata

Kenichi Kamon

Yasuo Koba

Kouichi Ueki

Kazutaka Asano

Takuhisa Ootani

Yuji Fujii

Kenji Yasuda

Mitsunobu Enomoto

Kazuki Shiota

Kenji Nagatomo

Gas meter includes shutoff valve, return unit, flow rate measurer, display, communication unit that communicates with an outside, controller, area information setting unit, and area information comparator. The gas meter compares, by area information comparator, a preset area information held in area information setting unit with a specified value of area information added to a remote shutoff instruction received by communication unit, and when the preset area information and the specified value of the added area information match, shutoff valve is closed.

Gas meter

Flow rate measurement is performed with a propagation time by using a pair of ultrasonic wave oscillators which is provided in flow path through which a fluid to be measured flows, and is disposed so as to transmit and receive an ultrasonic wave signal by causing the ultrasonic wave signal to be reflected on an inner wall of flow path at least once. In addition, adjustment of an amplification rate is periodically performed by amplifier, which amplifies the ultrasonic wave signal received by each of the ultrasonic wave oscillators to a predetermined amplitude, and a difference between a previous amplification rate and a current amplification rate is a predetermined value or more, and the instantaneous flow rate calculated by flow rate calculation unit is a predetermined flow rate or less, the reference voltage is adjusted by reference voltage setting unit. With the configuration, the propagation time can be stably measured and deterioration of the maximum amplitude is prevented.

Flow rate measurement device

When an appliance identification art is provided, the computing speed and the identification accuracy are improved while the required memory amount, etc., is decreased. In a gas meter, an ultrasonic flowmetermeasures the flow rate of gas flowing into a flow pathat a given time interval, and a computation sectioncomputes a difference value of the predetermined time period between the measured flow rates. A difference value conversion sectionconverts the computed difference value into a code with reference to a flow rate class table by which classes of difference values corresponding to a size of the difference value and codes representing the classes are associated with each other. Further, a flow rate change history generation sectiongenerates a flow rate change history approximately representing flow rate change of gas based on a set of the codes of the predetermined time period.

Method of recording physical quantity change history, program thereof, flow rate measurement apparatus and fluid supplying system

On occasion of provision of a technique for identifying an appliance, an attempt can be made to enhance computing speed and the accuracy of identification of an appliance while the amount of memory required for an apparatus is reduced. In a gas meter, an ultrasonic flowmetermeasures the quantity of a gas flowing through a flow pathat a given time interval, and a computation sectioncomputes a difference value of the measured flow at each given time. A difference value conversion sectionconverts a computed difference value into a code with reference to a flow rate class tableby which a plurality of difference value classes corresponding to a size of the difference value and codes representing the respective classes are associated with each other. A code sequence generation sectionfurther generates a measurement code sequence from an aggregation of codes at each given time, and an appliance identification sectioncompares the measurement code sequence with an appliance characteristic code sequence showing a characteristic code sequence of each gas appliance, thereby identifying a gas appliance that uses a gas.

Flow rate measurement apparatus and fluid supply system

Detecting a leak, or the like, with high accuracy on the basis of pressure and a flow volume acquired during use of fluid is made possible. A volume of gas flowing through a flow pathis measured by a flow volume measurement unit, and pressure is measured by a pressure measurement unit. Measured flow data and measured pressure data are input to an analysis unit, to thus analyze following of a pressure change by a flow volume change. An amount of flow volume change responsive to an amount of pressure change of a predetermined level or more is classified into a plurality of ranges by means of a predetermined threshold value, and a following flow value change is determined on the basis of determination conditions of the respective ranges of amounts of flow volume changes.

Flowmeter

A flow rate measuring device simplifies calculation, reduces memory required for calculation, absorbs variations due to manual operation and, depending on the state of ignition, improves the accuracy of appliance identification by extracting features of appliances. The flow rate measuring device includes: a difference value conversion unit that converts into codes difference values of the flow rate measured at constant time intervals by an ultrasonic flowmeter; an appliance feature extraction unit creates an appliance feature code string indicating a feature of each appliance by, for example, making comparison and judgment using a third last code, a second last code, a last code and a current code of the codes obtained at constant time intervals, and by performing code deletion; and an identification unit performs appliance identification by comparing the appliance feature code string with an appliance inherent feature code string indicating the feature code string inherent in each appliance.

Flow rate measuring device

A newly-purchased gas appliance is detected and reported to a gas administrator. There are provided a flow rate detection portion, a flow rate calculation portion, a code extraction portion, an initial code learning portion, a code maintaining portion, a code judging portion, an additional code learning portion, and an external communication portion. The code extraction portion extracts a code pattern E. The initial code learning portion gathers similar code patterns E as a gas appliance code pattern F. The code judging portion judges whether or not the code pattern E matches any of gas appliance code patterns F held by the code maintaining portion within a predetermined range. The code patterns E that have failed to match are subjected to additional identification of a gas appliance in the additional code learning portion. The gas cut-off device can thereby let the additional code learning portion detect whether or not a new gas appliance has emerged and the external communication portion send a report to the gas administrator.

Gas blocking device

Detecting a leak, or the like, with high accuracy on the basis of pressure and a flow volume acquired during use of fluid is made possible. A volume of gas flowing through a flow pathis measured by a flow volume measurement unit, and pressure is measured by a pressure measurement unit. Measured flow data and measured pressure data are input to an analysis unit, to thus analyze following of a pressure change by a flow volume change. A determination showing that a following flow volume change is present, that a following flow volume change is not present, or that a following flow volume change is uncertain is made according to a magnitude correlation between an amount of pressure change of a predetermined level or more and an amount of flow volume change.

Growing community of inventors

Nara, Japan

Ryuji Iwamoto