EP0537094A1 - Electronic process and installation for filling liquefied-gas bottles - Google Patents

Abstract

The subject of the present invention is a method and an electronic installation for filling liquefied-gas bottles comprising a carousel (1) including, at its periphery, juxtaposed filling stations (7), characterised in that the filling of the said bottles (8) is managed by means of a controlling automatic machine (32) interacting with a filling automatic machine (30) mounted on the said carousel (1) so as to turn with it, which filling automatic machine (30) is connected to the said filling station (7) and the said automatic machines (30/32) are interconnected through a turning connector (34) by data-transfer means comprising a limited number of conductors. <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to a method and an electronic installation for filling bottles of liquefied gas.

The technical sector of the invention is that of installations and materials for filling and conditioning bottles of liquefied gas such as liquid air, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or other similar gas ...

There are known installations for filling gas cylinders comprising a continuous filling carousel. Such carousels include filling means which distribute, for example, a quantity of gas determined in advance by the total weight: tare + net weight, without looking for the weight of gas remaining in the bottles.

In an earlier patent, the applicant has described an installation and a method for filling bottles of liquid gas comprising a carousel on which are mounted filling stations comprising electronic scales and filling valves. The installation notably includes a continuous weighing unit comprising an electronic scale located upstream of the carousel, as well as a programmable automaton connected on the one hand to said weighing unit and on the other hand to the filling stations of the carousel .

Said automaton is placed away from the installation, therefore from the carousel, in a non-dangerous zone, more particularly in the case where the gas transported is LPG. Said automaton can thus be placed in a protected room in the safety zone, or in a pressurized cabinet.

• on stocke dans la mémoire dudit automate les valeurs de référence relatives au poids de gaz d'une bouteille pleine et/ou au poids d'une bouteille pleine de gaz ;
• on pèse au moyen de ladite unité de pesage les bouteilles à remplir et pour chaque bouteille passant par ladite unité de pesage, on saisit la valeur résultante de pesage qui est prise en compte par ledit automate programmable, lequel compare cette valeur à ladite valeur de référence stockée dans sa mémoire, fait la différence entre les deux valeurs et commande, à travers une des bascules électroniques du carrousel, le remplissage de ladite bouteille arrivée sur ladite bascule électronique, en fonction du poids de gaz défini par ledit automate programmable.

According to the process implemented by said installation:

• the reference values relating to the weight of gas of a full cylinder and / or the weight of a cylinder full of gas are stored in the memory of said controller;
• the bottles to be filled are weighed by means of said weighing unit and for each bottle passing through said weighing unit, the resulting weighing value is entered which is taken into account by said programmable controller, which compares this value with said reference value stored in its memory, makes the difference between the two values and controls, through one of the electronic scales of the carousel, filling of said bottle arriving on said electronic scale, according to the weight of gas defined by said programmable controller.

Taking into account the relatively high number of filling stations that the carousel comprises, for example between six and thirty stations, and the fact that each station requires several connections with said automaton, for example fifteen conductors making the connection with the injection head of gas, the filling scale calculator, the remote-controlled valve of said head, the system for ejecting the bottle after filling and the bottle presence sensors, and other sensors, the number of conductors connecting the automaton to the carousel can therefore vary between ninety and four hundred and fifty.

Because the carousel is driven in continuous rotation, it is understandable that the transfer of the data transmitted by the automaton to said filling stations through a rotary connector, the use of which is essential, generates difficulties inherent in the design of a rotating connector to allow a large number of connections.

The present invention aims to provide a reliable solution to the transmission of orders from the machine to said filling station.

The objective to be achieved is therefore to transfer data exchanges between the automaton and the organs and components of the carousel filling stations in the best possible conditions.

This objective is achieved by the electronic installation for filling liquefied gas bottles, comprising a circular carousel arranged horizontally and mounted rotating on a central pivot and on guide means extending parallel to its peripheral edge, which carousel comprises electronic flip-flops juxtaposed at its periphery and a general gas inlet leading to the center of the carousel structure, from which branch leads extend each leading to one of said flip-flops to constitute a filling station comprising a gas injection head with its remote-controlled valve connected to one of said branches, means for ejecting the bottle after filling and a programmable control automaton located outside the carousel and connected to that -this through a rotary connector, of which said flip-flops include a computer, characterized in that said carousel further comprises in its part delimited by the belt formed by said filling stations, at least one filling automaton fixed to the structure of the carousel to turn with it, which filling automaton is connected on the one hand, to said filling stations and on the other hand, to said piloting automaton, the connection of said automatons being carried out by data exchange means comprising a limited number of conductors through said rotary connector, which control automaton manages in cooperation with ledi t automatic filling machine, and not limited to, the metering of gas injected into the bottles placed on said filling stations by acting on the scales' computers, controls the descent and rise of said gas injection head and the opening and closing its remote-controlled valve and ejecting the bottle after filling.

In one embodiment, said filling machine is fixed to the central part of the carousel structure. The rotary connector is mounted at the top of said automaton coaxially with the axis of rotation of said carousel.

In another embodiment, said installation comprises several filling automatons connected on the one hand to said filling stations and on the other hand, to said control automaton, through said rotary joint.

Thus, each of said filling stations is connected to one of said filling machines, which machine is also connected to said control machine, for example each filling machine is fixed to one of said electronic scales which make up said filling stations.

In one embodiment, the connection between said filling automaton and said piloting automaton is carried out by at most fifteen conductors.

In another embodiment, the link between said automaton filling and said control automaton is made by four conductors plus two ground wires.

In another embodiment, the connection between said filling automaton and said piloting automaton is carried out by six conductors plus two ground wires.

The conductors making the connection of said automata are passed through a tubular cable tray leading to said rotating connector from above, which cable tray takes the form of a bent arm whose end which ends in the center of the carousel holds the rotating connector. coaxial with the axis of rotation of the carousel, which arm is fixed to the ground by its other end through which pass said conductors which connect said automata.

The invention also extends to a method for filling bottles with liquid gas in an installation comprising a carousel arranged horizontally and mounted to rotate on guide means connecting it to the ground, which carousel comprising at its periphery filling stations juxtaposed on which are placed the gas cylinders and a general gas inlet connected by branches to said filling stations, which installation further comprising a programmable control automaton located outside the carousel and connected thereto through a rotating connector , characterized by the fact that the filling of said bottles is managed by means of said control automaton in cooperation with at least one filling automaton which is mounted on said carousel to turn with it and said filling automaton is connected to said filling stations, and the interconnection of said automata is carried out through ledi t connector rotating by data exchange means comprising a limited number of conductors.

In one embodiment, said filling automaton is fixed in the central part of the carousel structure and said rotating connector is fixed coaxially to the carousel and to the upper part of said automaton.

In another embodiment, each of said filling stations is connected to a filling machine which is connected to said control machine.

In one embodiment, the interconnection of said automata is carried out by data exchange means comprising at most fifteen conductors.

In another embodiment, the interconnection of said automata is carried out by data exchange means comprising four conductors and two ground wires.

In a preferred embodiment, the interconnection of said automata is carried out by data exchange means comprising six conductors plus two ground wires.

The applications of the invention relate to the filling of bottles with all liquefied gases, such as air, petroleum gases or any other similar gas.

• l'amélioration de la gestion de production par la visualisation et la mémorisation des différentes étapes mises en oeuvre par l'installation, la supervision traitée par ordinateur,
• l'amélioration et la maintenance de l'installation en vue de la détection des pannes, l'aide au dépannage et la gestion des pièces de rechange,
• l'augmentation de la sécurité en cours d'exploitation par une plus grande précision,
• le contrôle permanent et systématique de l'installation,
• la réalisation du transfert des données issues de l'automate de pilotage jusqu'aux postes de remplissage, avec un minimum de conducteurs, afin de réaliser la liaison par connecteur tournant, de façon fiable et exempte de parasitage.

The advantages of the invention lie in particular in:

• improvement of production management by viewing and memorizing the different stages implemented by the installation, supervision processed by computer,
• improvement and maintenance of the installation with a view to detecting faults, helping with troubleshooting and managing spare parts,
• increased safety during operation by greater precision,
• permanent and systematic control of the installation,
• the transfer of data from the control automaton to the filling stations, with a minimum of conductors, in order to make the connection by rotary connector, in a reliable manner and free from interference.

• la figure 1 est une vue de dessus schématique partielle de l'installation selon l'invention et concernant plus particulièrement le carrousel avec son automate embarqué, connecté audit automate de pilotage ;
• la figure 2 est une vue suivant la flèche F de la partie d'installation de la figure précédente ;
• la figure 3 est une vue de dessus schématique partielle de l'installation selon l'invention, où chaque automate de remplissage est connecté à une des bascules électroniques ;
• la figure 4 est une vue suivant la flèche F₁ de la partie d'installation de la figure précédente.

Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will emerge further on reading the following description with reference to the appended drawings in which:

• Figure 1 is a partial schematic top view of the installation according to the invention and relating more particularly to the carousel with its on-board controller, connected to said control controller;
• Figure 2 is a view along arrow F of the installation part of the previous figure;
• Figure 3 is a partial schematic top view of the installation according to the invention, where each filling machine is connected to one of the electronic scales;
• Figure 4 is a view along arrow F₁ of the installation part of the previous figure.

We first refer to Figures 1 and 2.

Said installation comprises a gas bottle conveyor (not shown) forming an open loop and the ends of which end in a carousel 1.

It is circular and consists of a mechanically welded metal structure arranged horizontally and rotatably mounted on a central pivot 2 and on a circular track 1a located below said structure, which track extends parallel to the peripheral edge of the carousel and on which roll wheels 3 with elastomeric bandage, which wheels are mounted in yokes 3a fixed to the ground 4.

The track 1a and said wheels are located, for example, about six-sevenths of the radius of the carousel.

The continuous rotation drive of the carousel is obtained by a gear motor 5 and a friction wheel 6 bearing on the periphery of the structure. Said carousel has at its periphery and in known manner, a series of juxtaposed filling stations 7 on which are placed the bottles 8 coming from said conveyor and transferred to said stations 7 by an ejection cylinder (not shown) which equips said conveyor.

The gas introduced into the bottles 8 is brought to said stations 7 by a supply network comprising a tube 9 of general arrival, ending in the carousel from below. This tubing coming from a gas reserve is placed in a civil engineering channel 10 reserved in the ground. Said tubing 9 is connected to a barrel 11 coaxial with the axis of rotation of the carousel and in a conventional manner by means of a rotary joint 12. Each filling station 7 consists of a frame 13 comprising, at its part lower, a roller range 14 on which the bottle 8 is placed.

This comprises, at its upper part, a valve 8a. Said roller track 14 is mounted on an electronic rocker 15 integrated into the structure of said carousel 1, which rocker comprises an electronic computer.

Station 7 also includes means for maintaining momentarily the bottle 8 on the rocker 15, these means being for example a permanent magnet 16 connected to the frame 1 by a lug 17. At its upper part and, coaxially with the bottle 8, said station comprises a gas injection head 18 , which is mounted at the free end of the movable rod 19a of a double-acting pneumatic cylinder 19, fixed to a support 20, for example welded to said frame 13.

Said station 7 further comprises at its lower part an ejector 21 for the bottles after filling, comprising a pusher 21a fixed to the free end of the rod 21b of a pneumatic ejection cylinder, said cylinder and said pusher constituting the ejector 21.

The compressed air supplied to the carousel and in particular to the cylinders 19/21 is brought by the air circuits 22/23 coming from a motor-compressor unit ensuring the general supply of compressed air to the workshop in which is mounted said filling installation.

The gas injection head 18 has two positions: a retracted position, retracted cylinder rod (in strong lines in FIG. 2), an injection position (in dashed lines in FIG. 2), where it covers the valve 8a of the bottle 8. Presence sensors not shown, make it possible to adjust the stroke of the jack 19 as a function of the height of the bottle 8. The gas injection head 18 is connected by a flexible armored hose 24, to a manifold 25, by means of a remote-controlled valve 26. Said manifold 25 is coaxial with the axis of rotation of the carousel 1 and is connected to the gas supply barrel 11 by bypass pipes 27. At the manifold 25 also lead to other pipes 28 which they connect to said barrel 11, which has at its upper part a closing flange 29. The return of the excess gas to said reserve, because the supply of filling stations 7 is operated by saturation with excess gas, es t made upstream of the carousel by means of a differential valve (not shown).

The cylinders 19/21, the gas injection head 18, the computer and the electronic scale 15, the remote-controlled valve 26 and the presence / bottle sensors and other sensors of each filling station 7 of the carousel, are connected to a filling machine 30 by a line 31 composed for example of fifteen links, two of which are RS 232 type. Said automaton 30 is located in the central part of the carousel 1 delimited by the belt formed by said filling stations 7 and is fixed to the structure of the carousel. The automaton 30 includes a pressurized cabinet especially in the case where the installation is intended for filling LPG. Thus, the box 30a into which the conductors coming from the connector 34 penetrate, is offset relative to the cabinet and overhangs the center of the carousel where said central pivot 2 is located.

The filling machine 30 is connected to a control machine 32 by a line 33 comprising a limited number of connections, for example of the RS 485 type and the number of six conductors plus two ground wires. This line 33 coming from the piloting machine 32 connects the filling machine 30 by means of a rotating connector 34 located on the axis of rotation of the carousel. The interconnection of said 30/32 PLCs carried out with a minimum of conductors makes it possible to obtain a connection by rotating connector, of high reliability.

Said rotary connector 34 is held in position in the axis of the carousel by a hollow arm 35, through which said conductors have passed. Said arm 35 is bent and produced by means of tubular elements. It comprises a part 35a parallel to the carousel 1 and a part 35b substantially perpendicular to the ground and connected to said part 35a by an elbow 35c. The part 35b is thus on the side of the carousel and comprises at its lower end a sole 36 allowing the anchoring to the ground of the arm 35. The connection of the automata 30/32, between the said arm 35 and the control automaton 32, is carried out underground, for example in a gutter or in a reinforced sheath fixed to the ground surface.

The filling machine 30 may include a supervision screen 37, on which information from the components of the installation is displayed, in particular those from the filling stations.

The control automaton 32 controls the filling of the bottles 8 through said filling automaton 30. It manages, in cooperation with the filling automaton, the communication and transmits the filling instructions to the calculators of the flip-flops 15, simultaneously with their setting to zero. He pilots, in cooperation with said filling machine, the descent of the gas injection head 18 when a bottle 8 is admitted to the carousel, and the rise of said head 18, when the quantity of gas defined by the machine 32 has been injected into the bottle by end of filling information sent by the scale computer. Finally, in cooperation with the automaton 30, it actuates the ejectors 21 to transfer the bottles 8, after filling them, onto a conveyor of the filling chain.

The filling stations 7 are standard, interconnectable, interchangeable. In the event of the failure of one of them, the station is frozen, but the carousel continues to operate with the other stations.

In order to obtain a filling accuracy of around 100 grams, it is operated at two speeds: high flow - small flow.

Referring now to Figures 3 and 4. The installation shown in said figures generally takes the structure of the carousel and the various devices which have already been described previously with reference to Figures 1 and 2. Thus, the homologous parts are assigned same reference signs and will not be described.

In order to limit the number of connections between the stations 7 and the filling machine, as described above, each filling station 7 is connected to a programmable controller 301 which is fixed to the frame 13 of the electronic scale 15 Thus each of the automata 301 is directly connected to said jacks 19/21 to the gas injection head 18, to the electronic rocker 15, to the remote-controlled valve 26 and to the presence / bottle and other sensors which equip each station. filling 7.

Each automaton 301 is connected by a connection 302 to a multi-conductor belt 303 disposed coaxially with the carousel, close to the crown formed by said filling stations 7 and inside the space delimited by said stations. Said belt 302 is itself connected to a rotating joint 304 coaxial with said carousel 1, and fixed and suspended to said hollow arm 35, through which the conductors which make up line 33 have passed which connect the rotating joint 304 to the control automaton 32. As in the device described above, line 33 has a limited number of links, which line is for example of the RS 485 type and comprises six conductors plus two ground wires. Each filling station 7 equipped with its own automaton 301 constituted for example by a microprocessor, is thus capable of establishing an extremely fast electronic dialogue of a minimum of 9600 bits per second, which allows permanent and uninterrupted management of said stations 7 from the piloting machine 32. Each filling station 7 has an electronic address and the piloting machine 32 requests and receives permanently and continuously, the operating state of said stations.

• l'identification et le suivi des bouteilles de gaz 8 au cours du processus de remplissage ;
• le suivi des cycles de fonctionnement ;
• la gestion des anomalies, arrêt d'urgence ;
• la gestion de la sécurité ;
• la visualisation et la gestion de l'installation complète à partir de l'ordinateur de supervision.

This allows, as previously described with reference to Figures 1 and 2, to obtain:

• identification and monitoring of gas cylinders 8 during the filling process;
• monitoring of operating cycles;
• management of anomalies, emergency stop;
• security management;
• viewing and management of the complete installation from the supervision computer.

Of course, without departing from the scope of the invention, the parts which have just been described by way of example may be replaced by a person skilled in the art by equivalent parts fulfilling the same function.

Claims (16)

Electronic installation for filling liquefied gas bottles (8) comprising a circular carousel (1) arranged horizontally and rotatably mounted on a central pivot (2) and on guide means (1a / 3) extending parallel to its edge peripheral, which carousel (1) comprises electronic scales (15) juxtaposed at its periphery and a general gas inlet (9) ending at the center of the structure of the carousel from which extend branches (27) each leading to one of said rockers (15) to constitute a filling station (7) comprising a gas injection head (18) with its remote-controlled valve (26) connected to one of said branches, means (21) for ejecting the bottle (8 ) after filling and a programmable control automaton (32) located outside the carousel (1) and connected to the latter through a rotary connector (34/304), of which said rockers (15) include a cal culateur, characterized in that said carousel (1) further comprises in its part delimited by the belt formed by said filling stations (7) at least one filling automat (30/301) fixed to the structure of the carousel (1) to turn with it, which filling machine (30/301) is connected on the one hand to said filling stations (7) and on the other hand, to said control machine (32), the connection of said machines (30/301 / 32) being produced by data exchange means (33) comprising a limited number of conductors through said rotary connector (34/304), which control automaton (32) manages, in cooperation with said filling automaton (30 / 301), and not limited to, the metering of gas injected into the bottles (8) placed on said filling stations (7) by acting on the rocker computers (15), controls the descent and the rise of said head. gas injection (18) and the opening and closing of its valve t (26) and ejects the bottle (8) after filling. Installation according to claim 1, characterized in that said filling machine (30) is fixed to the central part of the carousel structure (1) and that the rotary connector (34) is mounted on the upper part of said machine (30) coaxial with the axis of rotation of said carousel. Installation according to claim 1, characterized in that that it comprises several filling machines (303) connected on the one hand to said filling stations (7) and on the other hand, to said control machine (32), through said rotary joint (304). Installation according to claim 3, characterized in that each of said filling stations (7) is connected to one of said filling machines (301), which machine is connected on the other hand to said control machine (32). Installation according to any one of claims 3 and 4, characterized in that each filling machine (301) is fixed to the frame (13) of said electronic scales (15) which make up said filling stations (7). Installation according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the conductors which carry out the connection of said automata (30/301/32) are passed through a tubular cable tray (35) leading to the rotary connector (34/304 ) from above. Installation according to claim 6 characterized in that said cable tray (35) takes the form of a bent arm, the end of which terminates in the center of the carousel (1) keeps the rotary connector (34/304) coaxially with the axis of rotation of the carousel (1), which arm (35) is fixed to the ground by its other end through which pass said conductors which connect said automata (30/301/32). Installation according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the connection between said filling machine (30/301) and said control machine (32) is carried out by at most fifteen conductors. Installation according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the connection between said filling machine (30/301) and said control machine (32) is made by four conductors plus two ground wires. Installation according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the connection between said filling machine (30/301) and said control machine (32) is made by six conductors plus two ground wires. Method for filling bottles with liquid gas (8) in an installation comprising a carousel (1) arranged horizontally and mounted to rotate on guide means (2 / 1a / 3) connecting it to the ground, which carousel (1) comprising at its periphery juxtaposed filling stations (7) on which the gas bottles (8) are placed and a general gas inlet (9) connected by branches (27) to said filling stations (7), which installation further comprising a programmable control automaton (32) located outside the carousel (1) and connected to it ci through a rotary connector (34/304), characterized in that the filling of said bottles (8) is managed by means of said control automaton (32) in cooperation with at least one filling automat (30/301) that one goes up on said carousel (1) to turn with it and one connects said automatic filling machine (30) to said filling stations (7), and one realizes the interconnection of said automatic machines (30/301/32) through said rotary connector (34/304) by data exchange means includes nt a limited number of conductors. Method according to claim 11, characterized in that said filling machine (30) is fixed in the central part of the carousel structure (1) and that said rotary connector (34) is fixed coaxially to the carousel and to the upper part of said automaton (30). Method according to claim 11, characterized in that each of said filling stations (7) is connected to a filling machine (301) which is connected to said control machine (32). Method according to any one of claims 12 or 13, characterized in that the interconnection of said automata (30/301/32) is carried out by data exchange means comprising at most fifteen conductors. Method according to any one of claims 12 or 13, characterized in that the interconnection of said automata (30/304/32) is carried out by data exchange means comprising four conductors and two ground wires. Method according to any one of claims 12 or 13, characterized in that the interconnection of said automata (30/301/32) is carried out by data exchange means comprising six conductors plus two ground wires.

Images