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:
Feb. 02, 1993
Filed:
Apr. 29, 1991
James M Thomas, Mt. Pleasant, SC (US);
James R Stolpmann, Charleston, SC (US);
William T Sutton, Charleston, SC (US);
James J Romano, Charleston, SC (US);
SSI Medical Services, Inc., Charleston, SC (US);
Abstract
A method for controlling the blower that supplies gas to the gas sacks of a patient support system uses a blower control circuit, a microprocessor, and a pressure sensor. The blower control circuit controls the power that is supplied to operate the blower. The microprocessor activates the blower control circuit with a control signal that causes the control circuit to supply power to the blower. A pressure sensor measures the pressure of the gas exiting the blower and supplies a signal indicative of this pressure, to the microprocessor. The microprocessor stores the measured pressure signal and calculates a reference pressure for the blower. The microprocessor compares the reference pressure to the measured pressure and determines any discrepancy resulting from this comparison. The microprocessor sends a signal to the blower control circuit, wherein the signal is indicative of the discrepancy from the compared pressure and the reference pressure of the blower. The second control signal is such as to enable the blower circuit to reduce the discrepancy calculated by the microprocessor between the reference pressure and the measured pressure. Only discrepencies of a certain magnitude will cause the microprocessor to send the second control signal to the blower control circuit. The time interval over which the microprocessor maintains storage of the measured pressure is chosen so as to reduce the possiblity of pressure instability in the gas sack.