US 12,352,684 B2
Damper torque or valve force testing device
Guy P. Caliendo, Algonquin, IL (US); Gary Eiklor, Elgin, IL (US); Dean B. Anderson, Wonder Lake, IL (US); and Marco Marder, Ebikon (CH)
Assigned to Siemens Industry, Inc., Alpharetta, GA (US)
Filed by Siemens Industry, Inc., Alpharetta, GA (US)
Filed on Aug. 25, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/411,311.
Prior Publication US 2023/0061984 A1, Mar. 2, 2023
Int. Cl. G01N 19/00 (2006.01); B60H 1/00 (2006.01); G01L 3/00 (2006.01); G01L 5/00 (2006.01); G01M 13/003 (2019.01)
CPC G01N 19/00 (2013.01) [B60H 1/00835 (2013.01); B60H 1/00857 (2013.01); G01L 3/00 (2013.01); G01L 5/0042 (2013.01); G01M 13/003 (2019.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A testing device to characterize a damper in situ in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, the testing device comprising:
a controller including a processor and a memory;
circuitry,
wherein the testing device is configured to be mounted on a damper assembly having a control shaft and a damper rotatably coupled to the control shaft such that the control shaft is activated by the circuitry of the testing device; and
computer-readable logic code stored in the memory which, when executed by the processor, causes the controller to:
open and close the damper by actuating the control shaft,
detect a rotational position of the damper and a torque required to move the damper to the rotational position,
characterize a plurality of torques required to drive the damper to a plurality of pre-determined rotational positions of the damper when subjected to a fluid flow to generate damper rotational position data vs. torque data, and
store the damper rotational position data vs. torque data on a data storage device; and
a damper manufacturing database and a look-up table including performance metrics, wherein the controller determines an optimal actuator having performance metrics that meet damper characteristics depicted by the damper rotational position data vs. torque data on the data storage device.