US 12,454,948 B2
Bellows pump device
Daisuke Urata, Osaka (JP); and Katsuhiko Fukui, Osaka (JP)
Assigned to PILLAR CORPORATION, Osaka (JP)
Appl. No. 18/854,054
Filed by PILLAR CORPORATION, Osaka (JP)
PCT Filed Jan. 13, 2023, PCT No. PCT/JP2023/000830
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 3, 2024,
PCT Pub. No. WO2023/223603, PCT Pub. Date Nov. 23, 2023.
Claims priority of application No. 2022-081492 (JP), filed on May 18, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2025/0223955 A1, Jul. 10, 2025
Int. Cl. F04B 45/02 (2006.01); F04B 43/00 (2006.01); F04B 43/113 (2006.01); F04B 49/08 (2006.01)
CPC F04B 45/022 (2013.01) [F04B 43/0081 (2013.01); F04B 43/1136 (2013.01); F04B 49/08 (2013.01)] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A bellows pump device comprising:
a pair of bellows expandable/contractible independently of each other and configured to suck a transport fluid thereinto by expansion thereof and to discharge the transport fluid therefrom by contraction thereof;
a pair of driving units each having a suction-side fluid chamber and a discharge-side fluid chamber and configured to cause the respective bellows to expand to a predetermined expanded state by supplying a pressurized fluid to the suction-side fluid chambers and to cause the respective bellows to contract to a predetermined contracted state by supplying the pressurized fluid to the discharge-side fluid chambers;
a pair of fluid pressure adjustment units configured to adjust fluid pressures of a pressurized fluid to be supplied to the suction-side fluid chambers of the respective driving units;
a pair of detection units configured to detect expanded/contracted states of the respective bellows; and
a control unit configured to control the pair of driving units and the pair of fluid pressure adjustment units on the basis of respective detection signals of the pair of detection units, wherein
the control unit performs drive control of controlling the pair of driving units such that, before one bellows out of the pair of bellows comes into the contracted state, the other bellows is caused to contract from the expanded state,
the control unit performs pressure increase control of performing a pressure increase determination of determining whether or not the other bellows is in the middle of expansion when the one bellows contracts to a mid-contraction state before the contracted state, and when a determination result of the pressure increase determination is positive, outputting a pressure increase command to the fluid pressure adjustment unit corresponding to the driving unit for causing the other bellows to expand, such that the fluid pressure at next expansion of the other bellows is increased, and
the control unit counts a number of times the pressure increase control has been consecutively performed, and when the counted number of times has exceeded a predetermined number of times, the control unit determines that the fluid pressure adjustment unit is abnormal.