Power conditioner and backup for security scanning equipment

Abstract

Disclosed herein are power conditioning systems for providing filtered, clean and reliable power to sensitive electrical or electronic loads and further to provide battery backed power to those loads. Further disclosed herein are such power conditioning systems for supplying clean power to security scanning equipment and to infant life support devices. One of the systems disclosed herein supports a 30 kVA combined load and includes a cabinet, a passive input circuit receiving three phase AC power, an AC to DC converter including a 12 pulse rectifier, a regulating DC to DC converter, a high frequency DC to AC inverter utilizing PWM at 50 kHz, an output passive filter, two banks of batteries permitting hot-swappable battery replacement and capable of supplying power for at least 10 minutes at full capacity load.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 441,609 filed Jan. 22, 2003, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety.BACKGROUND [0002] Ordinary utility power is subject to a number of problems. The first of these problems is outages, in which power is entirely interrupted to a customer for a period of minutes to days. Another problem is termed “brownouts”, in which power is supplied to a customer at a lower voltage than specifications would normally permit. [0003] A customer may provide an auxilliary short-term power source to mitigate these problems. A common auxilliary power source is a generator, for example powered by a diesel fuel engine, which can be stared in the event of an outage or brownout. Another auxilliary power source that has become common in recent years is the Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS. UPS systems, rather than having a generator, typically utilize a solid-state inverter power...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent is about a power conditioner that can filter and condition utility power to provide clean and reliable power to sensitive loads. It includes an AC to DC converter, two banks of batteries, an internal battery charger, a high frequency DC to AC power inverter, and passive filters for filtering input and output power. The power conditioner can also provide battery-backed power to sensitive loads and can be used for supplying clean power to security scanning equipment and infant life support devices. The technical effects of the invention include improved power quality, reliability, and protection of sensitive loads from power fluctuations."

Problems solved by technology

Ordinary utility power is subject to a number of problems.

The first of these problems is outages, in which power is entirely interrupted to a customer for a period of minutes to days.

Another problem is termed “brownouts”, in which power is supplied to a customer at a lower voltage than specifications would normally permit.

Other problems may exist with ordinary utility power.

Electronic equipment may be supplied with overvoltage as well, which may lead to premature equipment failure.

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