The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 17, 1984
Filed:
Feb. 08, 1982
Daniel A Thomas, Scotia, NY (US);
Paul E Malone, Schenectady, NY (US);
Gary F Goth, Pleasant Valley, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
This invention provides a method and apparatus for early detection of wiping contact between a rotating shaft and bearing metal in a flow lubricated bearing. In one form of the invention, a temperature sensor is provided to monitor bearing temperature at a location on the bearing in proximity to the maximum loading position. The sensor signal is sampled periodically by a plurality of sample and hold circuits so that present and immediately past values of the bearing temperature are always on hand. The sampled values are applied to a set of subtracters, each one of which provides a signal representing the difference between two consecutively sampled temperature values. Selected ones of the temperature differences are applied to summers and the largest sum is selected by a high-value selector and compared with a preselected setpoint value representing an excessive temperature change for a given time period. Based on the comparison, a decision is automatically made as to whether the bearing temperature at the sensed location is increasing at an excessively rapid rate, found to be indicative of a temperature 'spike' which in turn is evidence of metal-to-metal contact in the bearing.