FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to an automated system and method for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of an automobile vehicle using a lubrication system. Particularly, the present invention provides a novel system and method capable of measuring and monitoring wear levels of various components of the vehicle by sensing the variation in the pressure of the lubricant injected into the components through a centralized lubrication system. The system of the present invention is also configured to generate multiple alarms and/or alerts to indicate the worn out components.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The lubrication of sub-parts and sub-assemblies in an automobile is a critical action which determines the life of the entire assembly. The wear out of a particular part/component leads to further wear out of the major assembly components rendering it unusable and requires costly replacements apart from affecting the productivity adversely.

While the present ways of lubrication of automobile mostly focus on manual operation, there are few central / automated lubrication systems which reduce manual effort and improve reliability. Although a centralized lubrication system increases the life of the greased components, still there are unforeseen major/minor breakdowns because the point of failure/service requirement of the greased parts cannot be diagnosed for preventive maintenance. Further, such lubrication systems are now used for circulation of lubricant only. These systems cannot measure or monitor the wear level of the components. In view of this, even a worn out component will be lubricated without being detected which could affect the conditions of the other parts/components of the vehicle. Failure to detect and replace the worn out component at an appropriate time might lead to serious problems. Therefore, there is a need to provide a system and a method that can measure as well as monitor the wear level of various components using the lubricant so that worn out components can be replaced as and when required.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an automated system for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of a vehicle using a lubricant.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system which is capable of measuring the variation in the pressure of the lubricant injected into the component and translating the pressure variation to indicate the wear level of the component.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a system capable of generating alarm and/or alert to indicate the worn out component.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of a vehicle by measuring the variation in the pressure of the lubricant injected into the component and translating the pressure variation to indicate the wear level of the component.

The invented system monitors the health of the parts and triggers remote and/or onboard alerts to indicate the requirement of change of the part when its critical wear limit is reached. The benefits of the system can be summarized as follows:

1. Improved revenue due to increased vehicle uptime.

2. Improved life of aggregates/components

3. Reduced maintenance cost due to reduced failures.

4. Reduced operating cost through optimizing grease requirement.

5. Reduced operating cost by eliminating manual greasing time & cost.

6. A centralized system of monitoring the vehicle health of the entire fleet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and a method to use automated lubrication system for wear prognostics of aggregates in the vehicle and to trigger alerts indicating different levels of wear out of the component.

Accordingly the present invention provides an automated system for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of an automobile vehicle, said system comprising storing means for storing the lubricant;

pumping means for pumping the lubricant from the storing means to a multi port distributor valve through a pipe line;

a plurality of lubricant lines each connected between one port of the distributor valve to a lubricating point of a particular component;

a nipple fitted to each of the lubricating points for delivering the lubricant
to the components;

pressure sensor installed at each of the nipple for sensing the pressure of the lubricant injected into a clearance provided in each of the components; said sensor having mechanism to translate the sensed pressure to indicate the wear level of the components;
alerting means for generating alerts based on the wear level of the components indicating the worn out components;

a timer for controlling the operating time of the pump; and

a power supply for supplying power to the timer and alerting means.

The present invention also provides an automated method for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of an automobile vehicle using a lubricant, said method comprising the steps of:

storing the lubricant in a storage means;

pumping the lubricant from the storage means to a distributor valve having multiple ports;

distributing the lubricant from the distributor valve to each lubricating point through individual nipple located in the lubricant lines;

measuring the pressure of the lubricant injected by the nipple located at the lubricating point into the component;

calculating the wear level of the component based on the sensed pressure of the lubricant; and generating an alarm if the wear level of any of the component is higher than a permitted level.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the system according to the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the preferred sensor employed in the system of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the system according to the invention. For simplicity figure 1 shows a system with lubricating point of only one component. Generally the system delivers lubrication to lubricating point of all the components of the vehicle. The preferred lubricant is grease. The system comprises a grease can (1) which stores the grease for lubrication. A pump (2) is provided to pump a finite amount of grease from the grease can (1) to a multi port distributor valve (3). Each port of the valve is connected to a lubricating point of a component (8) through individual grease lines (9). The distributor valve (3) delivers the grease to all lubrication points through grease delivery lines. The grease lines (9) are fitted to the lubrication points through grease nipples (17) as shown in figure 2. A wear sensor (4) is installed at the grease nipple point of the lubrication system.

The principle of sensing and construction of the sensor is explained herein below:-

When grease flows continuously, a constant pressure is developed at the grease nipple (17). At the grease nipple, the pressure is formed mainly due to the constrained faced by the grease flow due to the small clearance in the greased component (8) through which the grease has to pass (at the lubrication point). When this clearance increases due to wear out of the component, the pressure at the grease nipple drops. The sensor (4) of the present invention is adapted to measure the pressure variation in lubrication line due to change in the size of clearance caused by wear.

The key component which translates the variation in the grease pressure into measure of the wear of the component is the pressure sensor (4). Any method of pressure measurement e.g. MEMS transducers etc. can be used to sense the pressure, but the key to translating the measured pressure to wear is the wear vs pressure variation characteristics. In the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 2 a sensor with a spring is used for this purpose. The variation of the pressure at the grease nipple corresponding to various levels of wear was established through laboratory test. The free length and the extended length of the springs were determined based on the housing dimensions.

Combining the values of the pressure vs wear characteristics and the elongation requirement of the spring, the spring constant and the number of coils of the spring were calculated. The material preferred for the design of the spring is Spring Steel.

The sensor (4) shown in figure 2 is essentially a pressure sensor designed to sense the pressure at the grease nipple and translate it to a mechanical and/or electrical signal. The sensor is mounted at the grease nipple point and comprises a housing (11), a spring (12) loaded spool (13) and two terminals (15,16). One end of the housing is open. A sealing member (14) is fixed at one end of the spool and placed to seal the open end of the housing (11). The first terminal (15) is located at the other end of the spool (13) and the second terminal (16) is located at the other end of the housing (11).

A timer circuit (6) is provided to control the operation time of the pump (2). The timer preferably has the following three functions:

a. To run the pump for 3 minutes every 3 hours for lubrication of
parts.

b. To run the pump for 15 minutes every 150 hours for scheduled
wear level monitoring.

c. To provide manual override function for manual wear level monitoring. The vehicle owner or administrator can vary the setting of the timer depending upon their need and circumstances.

When the lubrication cycle is run, every part will be lubricated by delivering grease at the lubricating point through the grease nipple.

When the wear monitoring cycle is run, the pressure in the grease nipple causes the
spring loaded spool (13) to move. If there is no wear of the aggregates, the pressure of grease delivered at the grease nipple will be more than the force applied by the spring (12) and hence the spool (13) will be pushed. When there is a wear out of the aggregate, the pressure of grease delivered at the grease nipple will be less than the force exerted by the spring (12) and hence the spool (13) will be retracted.

The use of the spring/sensor is defined by the clearance characteristics of the greased component. All components which have the same initial and critical clearance limits can use the same spring. The sensor can be modified by just changing the spring to the suitable characteristics and can be deployed for other applications.

The position of the spool (13) can be monitored either by visual inspection at the grease nipple point or through the electrical contact switch. When the spool (13) is pushed outwards, both terminals (15,16) make contact and the circuit gets completed indicating, no wear. When the spool (13) is pulled inwards, the contact between the terminals (15,16) breaks indicating worn out condition of the component. The alert for worn out component is generated based on the feedback of the electrical lines attached to the terminals (15,16) of the sensor. The electric feedback line for each sensor is checked for OPEN / CLOSED state during the wear monitoring cycle. This set of data is then used to trigger an alarm if there is a condition of wear. The different types of alarm which are generated include but is not limited to are:

1. An onboard driver's alarm - This system takes all the sensor electrical signal outputs as its input. A visual / audible alert for the driver when a wear is sensed through one of the electrical signals.

2. A remote alert through an onboard data communication unit - This system takes all the sensor electrical signal outputs as its input. It transmits the state of each of these signal outputs to a remote server through its compatible communication protocol. Hence it automatically creates a log of the state of each of the signals at the remote server database.

Advantages of a wear monitoring system

The wear monitoring system of the present invention provides a simple and effective way to continuously monitor the level of wear of each of the greased components. This allows the vehicle owner to replace/service the worn out part before it leads to major breakdowns. The wear monitoring system also allows the service engineer to zero in on the exact components to be changed or serviced rather than servicing all the components which is the common practice now. Hence it is a profitable solution which can be adapted by both the vehicle operators and the maintenance contractors.

The above description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the claimed invention. Various modifications and alterations to these embodiments particularly to the construction of the sensor will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the claimed invention. Thus, the claimed invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

We claim:

1. An automated system for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of an automobile vehicle, said system comprising storing means (1) for storing the lubricant;

pumping means (2) for pumping the lubricant from the storing means to a multi port distributor valve (3)through a pipe line (10);

a plurality of lubricant lines (9) each connected between one port of the
distributor valve (3) to a lubricating point of a particular component (8);

a nipple (17) fitted to each of the lubricating points for delivering the
lubricant to the components (8);

pressure sensor (4) installed at each of the nipple (17) for sensing the
pressure of the lubricant injected into a clearance provided in each of
the components; said sensor having mechanism to translate the sensed
pressure to indicate the wear level of the components;

alerting means (5) for generating alerts based on the wear level of the
components indicating the worn out components;

a timer (6) for controlling the operating time of the pump; and

a power supply (7) for supplying power to the timer and alerting means.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lubricant is grease.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storing means is grease can and pumping means is a pump.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor (4) comprises a housing (11) open at one end, a spool (13) housed inside the housing, a calibrated spring (12) loaded on the spool (13) and held between two fixed members (18), a seal (14) fixed to one end of the spool (13) for closing the open end of the housing (11) thereby preventing the grease entering into the housing.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a pair of terminals (15,16) for supplying inputs to the alert means (5), the first terminal (15) is fixed at the free end of the spool (13) and the second terminal (16) is located at the closed end of the housing (11)

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spring (12) of the sensor is designed in such a manner that the terminals (15,16) will be in contact position when the pressure of the grease injected through the nipple (17) into the component is higher than the pressure exerted by the spring (12) and the terminals (15,16) will be in open position when the pressure of the grease injected through the nipple (17) into the component is lower than the pressure exerted by the spring (12).

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the alert means (5) is located onboard of the vehicle and comprises an audio and/or visual indications.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the alert means (5) is located in a remote location and comprises an audio and/or visual indications.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper part of the housing (11) of the sensor is made transparent to manually visualize the wear level of the components.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power supply (7) is 24V battery.

11. An automated method for measuring and monitoring wear level of various components of an automobile vehicle using a lubricant, said method comprising the steps of:

storing the lubricant in a storage means;

pumping the lubricant from the storage means to a distributor valve having multiple ports;

distributing the lubricant from the distributor valve to each lubricating point through individual nipple located in the lubricant lines;

measuring the pressure of the lubricant injected by the nipple located at the lubricating point into the component;

calculating the wear level of the component based on the sensed pressure of the lubricant; and generating an alarm if the wear level of any of the component is higher than a permitted level.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein wear level of the component is calculated by determining the variation of pressure of the lubricant injected into the component by the nipple.