FR2689279A1 - Monitoring and alarm device for control / command installation. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a monitoring and alarm system, in particular for an industrial equipment control / command installation, comprising at least one detector (5) for detecting a malfunction of the equipment (6) and producing a detection signal, and an audible indicator (1) emitting an audible alarm signal in response to the detection signal for warning an operator, characterized in that it further comprises a responsive control arrangement (2, 3, 4) to the detection signal to control the sound indicator so that it periodically emits said sound alarm signal, this periodically emitted sound signal having a different sound spectrum depending on whether or not the arrangement receives the detection signal. This control arrangement allows an operator to detect, on the one hand, a malfunction of the equipment to be monitored and, on the other hand, a failure of the monitoring system.

Description

MONITORING AND ALARM APPARATUS FOR INSTALLATION OF

REMOTE CONTROL

  The invention relates to a surveillance and alarm system, in particular for the installation of monitoring / control of industrial equipment. It is common for such an installation to provide a monitoring and alarm system which comprises at least one detector for detecting a malfunction of the equipment and producing a detection signal, and an audible indicator emitting an audible alarm signal in response to the detection signal to warn an operator of equipment malfunction. The disadvantage of such a monitoring and alarm system is that the audible alarm signal is emitted only in the event of detection of a malfunction of the equipment. A monitoring and alarm system is itself liable to be faulty and therefore unable to alert the operator when a detection of a malfunction of the equipment has occurred. Furthermore, an audible alarm signal emitted suddenly and

  only in the event of a malfunction of the equipment to be monitored tends to disturb the behavior of the operator, who is likely to react under the influence of panic.

  The object of the invention is to provide a solution to these various problems.

  To this end, the subject of the invention is a surveillance and alarm system, in particular for the installation of monitoring / control of industrial equipment, comprising at least one detector for detecting a malfunction of the equipment and producing a signal detection, and an audible indicator emitting an audible alarm signal in response to the detection signal to warn an operator, characterized in that it further comprises a control arrangement sensitive to the detection signal to control the audible indicator way that it emits periodically

  said sound alarm signal, this sound signal emitted periodically having a different sound spectrum depending on whether the arrangement receives the detection signal or not. 5 Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear even more clearly in the detailed description which

  follows an embodiment of the invention made with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically represents a mode of

  implementation of the monitoring and alarm system according to the invention.

  Figure 2 is a time diagram illustrating the characteristics of the alarm sound signal.

  Referring to Figure 1, there is shown an example of implementation of the monitoring and alarm system 7 according to the invention This monitoring system and

  alarm can be part of a larger set of equipment monitoring / control installation such as 6 to be monitored.

  The monitoring and alarm system firstly comprises one or more detectors 5 capable of each detecting a condition of malfunction of the equipment 6. They may, for example, be position, level, variation or other detectors. known per se In FIG. 25 1, five detectors are shown, but it is obvious that a larger number of detectors are usually used in industrial control / command installations. Each detector 5 produces a detection signal when it detects a condition of 30. equipment malfunction Each detector 5 is connected to a memory device 4 which firstly records alarm information in response to a detection signal supplied by the detector to which it is connected and secondly provides this information alarm to a processing unit35 3 The recorded alarm information can subsequently be modified or even erased by the action of an operator who will have validated the alarm information. In this figure, three processing or functional units have been represented, each connected to a group of memory organs. The grouping of memory organs by processing unit 5 may correspond to a grouping of detectors. by function or component of the equipment The memory components 4 can be inputs monitored by a program loaded in a computer. Each processing unit 3 which can be a program loaded into a computer, is arranged to assign to each alarm information item it receives a value representative of an alarm severity level. This severity level value can for example be between 0 and 255 It is also arranged to process the alarm information received and the severity level values associated with each information to provide general alarm information and a value of level of general severity This processing can consist, for example, in searching for the alarm information which has the highest level of severity. This processing results in a pair of data which is general alarm information obtained by processing the information of alarms received and a general severity level value obtained by processing the severity level values assigned to the alarm information The processing could also, as a variant, take account of acknowledgment information associated with the alarm information transmitted by memory organs. Each processing unit 3 supplies a pair of data (general alarm information, general severity level value) to a sequencer such as 2 The function of sequencer 2 is to control an audible indicator 1 so that the audible indicator periodically emits an audible alarm signal and whether this audible signal emitted periodically has a different sound spectrum depending on whether the equipment is faulty or not If no audible signal is emitted for a period greater than a period of emission of the audible signal, l operator will detect a failure of the monitoring and alarm system. The sound signal can be of the form: sin F 1 t + sin F 2 t where t is time, Fi is a first fixed frequency and F 2 is a second variable frequency fixed by the sequencer. As can be seen in FIG. 2, each sound emission period 8 includes a succession of sound emission sub-periods Sl, 52, 53, each relating to a particular processing unit 3 The sound signal during each sub-period Sl , 52, 53 has a sound spectrum made up of the frequency Fi and of a particular frequency F 2 The sequencer functions in the following way As long as the general severity is not significant of a fault, it fixes for each subperiod sound emission which follows, the value of the frequency F 2 equal to twice the value of the frequency F 1 As soon as it receives a pair of data coming from a particular processing unit 3, it fixes 20 for the sub- the following sound emission period concerned by this processing unit, the value of the frequency F 2 so that the ratio F 2 / F 1 is included in the set (1, l; 1.33; 1.5) This relationship can be determined by a table that matches e to a pair of data (general alarm information, general severity level value) a frequency ratio included in the previously mentioned set A ratio equal to 1.5 will preferably be chosen for high severity level values general (low severity) and a ratio equal to 1.1 for low values of level of general severity (high gravity) Consequently, the dissonance of the sound signal will be proportional to the severity of the malfunction of the equipment to be monitored At each period of sound emission, an operator can discriminate three or more types of malfunction of the equipment to be monitored according to the number of sub-periods that a sound emission period comprises Preferably, a sound emission period 8 of a duration included between 0.2 and 1 second and two consecutive sound emissions are separated by a time interval between 2 and 30 seconds The first era sub-period 5 If may have a duration ranging between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds The second sub-period 52 may have a duration ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 seconds The third sub-period 53 may have a duration ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 seconds. Of course, the invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and we can provide other variants without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (6)

  1.) A monitoring and alarm system, in particular for the installation of monitoring / control of industrial equipment, comprising at least one detector (5) for detecting a malfunction of the equipment (6) and producing a detection signal , and an audible indicator (1) emitting an audible alarm signal in response to the detection signal to warn an operator, characterized in that it further comprises a control arrangement (2, 3,4) sensitive to the signal detection to control the sound indicator of   so that it periodically emits said audible alarm signal, this audible signal emitted periodically having a different sound spectrum depending on whether or not the arrangement receives the detection signal.   2.) The system according to claim 1, in which the spectrum of the sound signal consists of a first frequency and a second frequency, the first frequency 20 F1 being fixed in time, the second frequency F 2 varying as a function of whether or not to receive said detection signal by the control arrangement.   3.) The system according to claim 2, in which: the sound signal is of the form sin Fl t + sin F 2 t o t is time; F 2 is equal to twice Fl during proper operation of the equipment; and the ratio F 2 / F 1 takes values in   the assembly (1.1; 1.33; 1.5) when the equipment malfunctions.   4.) the system according to claim 3 wherein the arrangement comprises: several detectors (5) for detecting malfunctions of the equipment which each produce a detection signal; a set of first means (4) each connected to a detector for supplying alarm information in response to detection signals; at least one second means (3) connected to said first means which receives the alarm information, assigns to each received alarm information a value representative of a level of alarm severity, processes the received alarm information and the severity level values for providing general alarm information and a general severity level value; and a third means (2) connected to the second means (3) for determining the value of the second frequency from the general alarm information and the level value   of general severity and control the sound indicator (1) from this second frequency.   5) The system according to claim 4, in which the arrangement comprises several second means (3) each associated with a group of first means and in which the third means (2) determines for the pairs (general alarm information, value level of general severity) 25 provided by the second means, second specific frequencies for controlling the sound indicator so that it emits in each sound emission period a succession of sound signals each having a sound spectrum   consisting of the first frequency and a particular second frequency.   6.) The system according to one of the preceding claims, in which a sound emission period at a   duration between 0.2 and 1 second and two consecutive sound emissions35 are separated by a time interval between 2 and 30 seconds. t