Remote field fan balancing system
View Patent ↗Apparatus and associated methods relate to apparatus for balancing a fan. In an illustrative example, a fan balancing system may include a local device and a remote device. For example, the local device may include a sensing unit and a processing unit. The remote device may, for example, include a user interface and a controller wirelessly coupled to the local device. For example, the controller may receive a user input including a total number of blades of a fan from the user interface. When the fan is activated, a condensed imbalance profile may be received wirelessly from the local device releasably coupled to the fan. In some implementations, the controller may generate a balancing matrix including combinations of weights and positions of the weights along one or more blades of the fan. Various embodiments may advantageously generate a placement combination of weights to re-balance the fan remotely.
1. A fan balancing system comprising:
a local device comprising a sensing unit and a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is configured to generate a condensed imbalance profile as a function of measurements detected by the sensing unit; and
a remote device comprising a user interface and a controller, wherein the controller is wirelessly coupled to the local device, wherein the controller comprises:
a data store comprising a program of instructions; and,
a processor operably coupled to the data store such that, when the processor executes the program of instructions, the processor causes operations to be performed to remotely generate a placement combination of predefined balancing weights to be installed to rebalance a fan, the operations comprising:
receive, from the user interface, a user input corresponding to physical properties of the fan when rotating, wherein the physical properties comprise at least a total number of blades of the rotating fan, such that angular locations of the blades on a rotating plane of the rotating fan are determined by evening distributing the total number of the blades among 360 of the rotating plane;
receive the condensed imbalance profile from the local device, wherein the local device is releasably coupled to the rotating fan;
generate a balancing matrix comprising a weight and a position of the weight along a longitudinal axis of at least one of the blades on the rotating fan; and,
generate a balancing guidance to be displayed at the user interface based on the balancing matrix.
2. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein the physical properties of the rotating fan comprise a diameter of rotation of the rotating fan.
3. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein generate the condensed imbalance profile comprises, at each of the blades, determine a magnitude of vibration at each of the blades throughout a predetermined number of rotations as a function of the measurements received from the sensing unit.
4. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein the condensed imbalance profile is received via Bluetooth Low Energy signal.
5. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein the condensed imbalance profile comprises a magnitude of a highest vibrating blade corresponding to one of the blades having a highest vibration magnitude, a rotation per minute of the rotating fan, and an angular position of the highest vibrating blade.
6. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein the local device further comprises a rigid flex arm configured to releasably couple to a stationary base of the fan, such that a position and an orientation of the local device is selectively coupled to the rotating fan.
7. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein the sensing unit comprises a reed sensor.
8. The fan balancing system of claim 1 , wherein the sensing unit comprises an accelerometer.
9. The fan balancing system of claim 2 , further comprising a first correction weight and a second correction weight, wherein the balancing matrix comprises a combination of at least one balancing vector, wherein each of the at least one balancing vector comprises a weight combination of the first correction weight and the second correction weight, a selected blade of the rotating fan, and a distance along a diameter at the selected blade to place the weight combination.
10. The fan balancing system of claim 9 , wherein generate the balancing matrix comprises:
generate a correction weight and a correction angle as a function of the condensed imbalance profile;
determine possible split weights based on the first correction weight and the second correction weight, and the total number of blades;
determine possible placement locations of the possible split weights based on the angular locations of the blades; and,
generate the balancing matrix such that a combination of the at least one balancing vector compensates an imbalance of the rotating fan.