US 12,006,935 B2
Pump speed controlling method and apparatus, a computer program and a computer readable medium having stored thereon the computer program applied thereby and a pump
Simon Candries, Antwerp (BE); and Yun Shi, Cologne (DE)
Assigned to ATLAS COPCO AIRPOWER N.V., Wilrijk (BE)
Appl. No. 17/905,998
Filed by Atlas Copco Airpower N.V., Antwerp (BE)
PCT Filed Mar. 9, 2021, PCT No. PCT/EP2021/055889
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 9, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/180703, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 16, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2020/5166 (BE), filed on Mar. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0167824 A1, Jun. 1, 2023
Int. Cl. F04C 25/02 (2006.01); F04B 35/04 (2006.01); F04B 37/14 (2006.01); F04B 49/06 (2006.01); F04C 28/06 (2006.01); F04C 28/08 (2006.01); F04D 19/04 (2006.01); F04D 27/00 (2006.01); F04D 27/02 (2006.01)
CPC F04C 25/02 (2013.01) [F04B 35/04 (2013.01); F04B 37/14 (2013.01); F04B 49/065 (2013.01); F04C 28/06 (2013.01); F04C 28/08 (2013.01); F04D 19/04 (2013.01); F04D 27/001 (2013.01); F04D 27/004 (2013.01); F04D 27/0261 (2013.01); F04B 2203/0209 (2013.01); F04C 2220/10 (2013.01); F04C 2270/051 (2013.01); F04C 2270/23 (2013.01); F05D 2270/3011 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for controlling a speed of a Variable Speed Drive, (VSD) vacuum pump employed in a cyclic application, comprising:
controlling the pump to operate in repeated cycles, each cycle comprising a pump down phase and a holding phase, wherein each cycle starts at a time point when a rise in an inlet pressure of the pump reaches a preset threshold and the time between two consecutive cycle starts is a cycle time;
determining, during a present cycle, a start of a next cycle, wherein the present cycle directly precedes the next cycle;
estimating pre-speeding time of the next cycle based on an estimation of the pre-speeding time determined for the present cycle and an observation of the pre-speeding time of the present cycle, each pre-speeding time referring to a length of time since a respective start of a respective cycle until a time point in the holding phase of the respective cycle when the pump is controlled to speed up; and
controlling the pump to speed up to a maximum speed during the holding phase of the next cycle at the end of the estimate of the pre-speeding time of the next cycle before the start of a cycle after the next cycle such that at the start of the cycle after the next cycle full pump capacity is available.