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:
Dec. 19, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 24, 2005
Shoji Itomi, Kuwana, JP;
Shoji Itomi, Kuwana, JP;
NTN Corporation, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An oil condition sensor is proposed which can accurately determine the degree to which oil is contaminated with metallic powder. It includes a permanent magnet and a sensor head provided around the permanent magnet. The sensor head includes a cup-shaped electrode and a plurality of rod-shaped conductors that are axially spaced from the cup-shaped electrode. The conductors are connected to a power supply through separate resistors. When the amount of metallic powder in the oil increases, a greater number of conductors are electrically connected to the cup-shaped electrode. Thus, by finding the number of conductors electrically connected to the cup-shaped electrode, it is possible to determine the degree to which the oil is contaminated with metallic powder. Since the resistors need not be immersed in the oil, their specific resistivities will scarcely change, so that the degree of contamination of the oil can be determined with high accuracy.