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. 11, 1989
Filed:
May. 29, 1987
Donald R Nixon, Murrysville, PA (US);
Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Abstract
In fossil boilers and steam generator of fossil boilers and nuclear power plants, a son-air detector using ultrasonic transducers is employed with a glandless motor pump which may have a vertical top vent pipe to ascertain with fast response if the vent pipe has liquid or not. In the glandless motor pump, the pumped primary liquid per se is used for lubricating the bearings of the motor, whereby, if the lubricating liquid is absent, the motor operation should not be continued. For redundancy, a second transducer may be used, whereby when both the transducers are connected to simultaneously indicate absence of liquid in the vent pipe, suitable corrective action is initiated. A vent pipe filled with liquid will transmit ultrasonic bursts (provided by the transducer) through the liquid, so that the ultrasonic waves are reflected back. An empty vent pipe will not reflect the ultrasonic waves which would simply be dissipated. The motor pump also uses a wrap around type heat exchanger cooler which takes in plain cool water from the outside to cool the outside of the stator. The motor pump optionally is provided with a bearing water thermometer and a purge line.