Hydraulic Valve Pilot Control with Remote Parameterized Actuation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hydraulic valve systems face challenges in efficiently distributing tasks between pilot control devices and valve drives, leading to high demands on logistics, spare parts management, and increased susceptibility to mechanical stress and failure.
Innovation Solution
A pilot control device is configured to supply electronics and power output stages for valve drives, incorporating a parameterization module to store operating parameters, and implementing control loops for remote operation of valve actuators, thereby shifting intelligence from valve actuators to pilot control units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If parameterization and control tasks are distributed to individual valve actuators, then each valve can be individually configured for specific applications, but the electronics become susceptible to mechanical stress and failure, and logistics and spare parts management become complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the parameterization module and control logic from the valve actuator electronics and relocates them to a separate, protected pilot control device. This separation allows the valve actuator to contain only simple switching electronics, making it robust against mechanical stress while maintaining individual configuration capability through the external parameterization module.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a pilot control device as an intermediary between the higher-level control system and the valve actuators. This intermediary handles all complex parameterization and control tasks, while the valve actuators receive simple on/off commands, thereby protecting the intelligence from mechanical stress.
2Adaptability or versatility
If different electronics are used for each individual application in valve actuators, then specific valve specifications can be met, but logistics and spare parts management demands increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the valve actuator universal by removing application-specific electronics from it. The same actuator hardware can be used across multiple applications by simply changing the parameterization data stored in the external parameterization module, eliminating the need for different electronics per application.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses data copying instead of physical customization. Application-specific parameters are stored as data in the parameterization module, allowing virtual copying of configurations without any physical modification to the valve actuator hardware, thereby simplifying logistics and spare parts management.
3Strength
If valve actuators are subject to greater mechanical stress, then they must be designed with very robust electronics, but this increases susceptibility to failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts all sensitive electronics from the mechanically stressed valve actuator environment and places them in a protected pilot control device. This separation ensures that no electronics are exposed to mechanical stress, eliminating the failure susceptibility while still meeting mechanical robustness requirements through the protected location of the parameterization module.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to a pilot control unit (20) for at least one valve drive (2) of a hydraulic valve (1) with a valve slide (5), wherein the valve slide (5) can be adjusted by way of the valve drive (2), in order to supply hydraulic lines (22) with hydraulic fluid through the hydraulic valve (1), wherein the pilot control unit (20) is configured to supply an electronic system (26) and a power output stage (27) for actuating an electric actuator (3) of the valve drive (2) with electrical power and operating commands, and there is a parameterization module (28) to this end in the pilot control unit (20), in which parameterization module (28) operating parameters for the operation of the at least one hydraulic valve (1) by way of its valve drive (2) are stored.