Russ
Lifetime Supporting Member
Wow.. it seems to have taken on a life of its own. 
I guess that's a good thing... here's a quick summary response..
They're Allen Bradley SLC processors. My former employer can still access the code, and does. Up until very recently they were calling the RTO modems on a weekly basis to generate the weekly 'Temperature Averaging Reports' which is something that I came up with. It's a plc based way of averaging temperature, recording unit states, and any faults, over a three hour period of time.
My basic approach has always been 'What will benefit the plant without jeopardizing the integrity of the equipment?'
There are fairly standard ways field guys would approach things like: bringing a unit online quickly, shutting one down quickly. More unique things would be self correcting faults, and setting up a standard set of remote cell phone codes to start up/shutdown/reset faults.
What I recently did (on my own) was to automate (using a key switch) the rapid cooling of the unit. I call it 'Accelerated Cool Down.' Yep, originality is my strong suit.
Basically these units have an isolation damper that I 'open' during shutdown. With this additional air source I can then ramp the VFD to approximately 70%. Then I set it to 'complete shutdown' 20 minutes after the combustion chamber temp drops below a safe temperature, right around 498F. There are safeties for the isolation damper (timers to help maintain position in case of a fault, so that there aren't excessive static pressure in the manifold).
Rapid Recovery was a way to bring an RTO online extremely fast. Units with ceramic block media have a standard ramp rate of 7F/min. If the block can be proven hot then the ramp rate can be safely adjusted. The key is proving that the block had reached that certain threshold temperature. There were two ways I'd do this: 1) using the temperature averaging program I'd check against the previous three hour reading to make sure it was above around 1398F 2) Have a 1hr timer initiate once the unit goes online, which would latch a bit upon completion. This bit unlatches when the temp falls below around 1001F.
If a short term shut down were to occur (power outage/fault/etc), rapid recovery would look to see if the block was warm, and also that the current chamber temp was above a critical temp (like 1002F for instance). If both conditions were true it would ramp between 50-70F/min, and also bypass other things (like soak timers, etc) in order to get the unit online asap.
Neither of these are earth shattering, nor very original. The idea seemed to have been the most important aspect. The code would vary and would be integrated with the original code that was already on the unit. No need to re-create the wheel.
I like the idea of protecting some of my ideas, but it seems that unless I create a stand alone device that performs a specific function. And if this device can be proven to be wholly original, then and only then can I look at something like a patent. Of course competitors can't have access to the program, or any patent wouldn't be worth the cost of the postage needed to send in the forms.
Thanks everyone for your advice. It is greatly appreciated.
I just am fortunate to be able to do what I like and make a living at it. That, to me, is a dream come true.
I guess that's a good thing... here's a quick summary response.. They're Allen Bradley SLC processors. My former employer can still access the code, and does. Up until very recently they were calling the RTO modems on a weekly basis to generate the weekly 'Temperature Averaging Reports' which is something that I came up with. It's a plc based way of averaging temperature, recording unit states, and any faults, over a three hour period of time.
My basic approach has always been 'What will benefit the plant without jeopardizing the integrity of the equipment?'
There are fairly standard ways field guys would approach things like: bringing a unit online quickly, shutting one down quickly. More unique things would be self correcting faults, and setting up a standard set of remote cell phone codes to start up/shutdown/reset faults.
What I recently did (on my own) was to automate (using a key switch) the rapid cooling of the unit. I call it 'Accelerated Cool Down.' Yep, originality is my strong suit.
Basically these units have an isolation damper that I 'open' during shutdown. With this additional air source I can then ramp the VFD to approximately 70%. Then I set it to 'complete shutdown' 20 minutes after the combustion chamber temp drops below a safe temperature, right around 498F. There are safeties for the isolation damper (timers to help maintain position in case of a fault, so that there aren't excessive static pressure in the manifold).
Rapid Recovery was a way to bring an RTO online extremely fast. Units with ceramic block media have a standard ramp rate of 7F/min. If the block can be proven hot then the ramp rate can be safely adjusted. The key is proving that the block had reached that certain threshold temperature. There were two ways I'd do this: 1) using the temperature averaging program I'd check against the previous three hour reading to make sure it was above around 1398F 2) Have a 1hr timer initiate once the unit goes online, which would latch a bit upon completion. This bit unlatches when the temp falls below around 1001F.
If a short term shut down were to occur (power outage/fault/etc), rapid recovery would look to see if the block was warm, and also that the current chamber temp was above a critical temp (like 1002F for instance). If both conditions were true it would ramp between 50-70F/min, and also bypass other things (like soak timers, etc) in order to get the unit online asap.
Neither of these are earth shattering, nor very original. The idea seemed to have been the most important aspect. The code would vary and would be integrated with the original code that was already on the unit. No need to re-create the wheel.
I like the idea of protecting some of my ideas, but it seems that unless I create a stand alone device that performs a specific function. And if this device can be proven to be wholly original, then and only then can I look at something like a patent. Of course competitors can't have access to the program, or any patent wouldn't be worth the cost of the postage needed to send in the forms.
Thanks everyone for your advice. It is greatly appreciated.
I just am fortunate to be able to do what I like and make a living at it. That, to me, is a dream come true.
