SUNPOWER, INC. Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20140353891 | COMPACT FLEXURE BEARING SPRING FOR SPRINGING MULTIPLE BODIES - A flexure bearing “planar” spring that can spring multiple, independently reciprocating bodies, such as springing each body to a third body or springing a first body to a second body and springing the second body to a third body. A primary arm set of primary spring arms are separated from each other by openings and extend inwardly from a peripheral frame along a non-radial primary path progressing inwardly toward a central axis and angularly about the central axis. A secondary arm set of at least one secondary spring arm extends along a non-radial secondary path progressing radially and angularly about the central axis. Each secondary arm is interposed in an opening between the primary arms allowing the primary arms and the secondary arms to pass by each other through the openings without interfering with each other. | 12-04-2014 |
20140202172 | Cold Finger For Cryocoolers - Method for fabricating a cold finger for attachment to a base assembly of a cold head of a Stirling cycle or pulse tube cryocooler. The exterior of a titanium alloy workpiece is machined to form a cylindrical outer surface. The exterior surface of the titanium workpiece is nickel plated and then brazed to a stainless steel workpiece to form an integral body. The brazed stainless steel workpiece is machined to form it into an adapter ring for attachment to the base assembly. An intermediate segment of the titanium workpiece is machined into a cylindrical surface including removing all of the nickel plating from the intermediate segment and removing a portion of underlying titanium alloy to reduce the diameter of the titanium alloy workpiece in order to reduce the thickness of the cold finger wall. The interior of the integral body is machined to form a cylindrical interior surface. | 07-24-2014 |
20140015497 | Balancing Vibrations At Harmonic Frequencies By Injecting Harmonic Balancing Signals Into The Armature Of A Linear Motor/Alternator Coupled To A Stirling Machine - Vibrations at harmonic frequencies are reduced by injecting harmonic balancing signals into the armature of a linear motor/alternator coupled to a Stirling machine. The vibrations are sensed to provide a signal representing the mechanical vibrations. A harmonic balancing signal is generated for selected harmonics of the operating frequency by processing the sensed vibration signal with adaptive filter algorithms of adaptive filters for each harmonic. Reference inputs for each harmonic are applied to the adaptive filter algorithms at the frequency of the selected harmonic. The harmonic balancing signals for all of the harmonics are summed with a principal control signal. The harmonic balancing signals modify the principal electrical drive voltage and drive the motor/alternator with a drive voltage component in opposition to the vibration at each harmonic. | 01-16-2014 |
20140013842 | Driving An Active Vibration Balancer To Minimize Vibrations At The Fundamental And Harmonic Frequencies - Vibrations of a principal machine are reduced at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies by driving the drive motor of an active balancer with balancing signals at the fundamental and selected harmonics. Vibrations are sensed to provide a signal representing the mechanical vibrations. A balancing signal generator for the fundamental and for each selected harmonic processes the sensed vibration signal with adaptive filter algorithms of adaptive filters for each frequency to generate a balancing signal for each frequency. Reference inputs for each frequency are applied to the adaptive filter algorithms of each balancing signal generator at the frequency assigned to the generator. The harmonic balancing signals for all of the frequencies are summed and applied to drive the drive motor. The harmonic balancing signals drive the drive motor with a drive voltage component in opposition to the vibration at each frequency. | 01-16-2014 |
20130180239 | Two Piston, Concentric Cylinder, Alpha Free Piston Stirling Machine - A two piston, free piston, alpha Stirling cycle machine has a compression piston with a cylindrical bore that is coaxial with the cylinders in which the pistons reciprocate. An expansion piston sealingly extends into both an expansion cylinder and into the cylindrical bore in the compression piston. The expansion piston has the same diameter within both the expansion cylinder and the cylindrical bore. A spring, preferably a gas spring, drivingly connects the pistons. The reciprocation of the expansion piston varies only the volume of the expansion space and the reciprocation of the compression piston varies only the volume of the compression space. The spring that drivingly connects the pistons allows the two pistons to be properly phased without a mechanical linkage so that they can operate in a thermodynamically effective phase over a range of strokes. | 07-18-2013 |
20130180238 | Beta Free Piston Stirling Engine In Free Casing Configuration Having Power Output Controlled By Controlling Casing Amplitude Of Reciprocation - The power output of a free piston Stirling engine mounted in a free casing configuration is controlled by having a spring drivingly linking the displacer to the casing and controllably varying the amplitude of reciprocation of the casing. A variable casing reciprocation restraint is linked to the casing for applying a variable restraining force to the casing. The restraining force is increased for decreasing the displacer amplitude of reciprocation and thereby decreasing the power output from the Stirling engine and the restraining force is decreased for increasing the displacer amplitude of reciprocation and thereby increasing the power output from the Stirling engine. | 07-18-2013 |
20120144821 | Free-Piston Stirling Machine For Extreme Temperatures - A free piston Stirling machine including a thermal buffer tube extending from the machine's expansion space and surrounded by its heat rejector and its regenerator, a displacer cylinder extending from the thermal buffer tube to the compression space and surrounded by the heat rejecting heat exchanger, and a displacer that reciprocates within an excursion limit that extends into the regenerator by no more than 20% of the length of the regenerator during normal operation and preferably within excursion limits that are substantially the length of the heat rejector. | 06-14-2012 |
20110203360 | Internal Position And Limit Sensor For Free Piston Machines - A sensor for sensing the position of a reciprocating free piston in a free piston Stirling machine. The sensor has a disk mounted to an end face of the power piston coaxially with its cylinder and reciprocating with the piston The disk includes a rim around its outer perimeter formed of an electrically conductive material A coil is wound coaxially with the cylinder, spaced outwardly from the outer perimeter of the disk and mounted in fixed position relative to the pressure vessel, preferably on the exterior of the pressure vessel wall. | 08-25-2011 |
20100299924 | Involute Foil Regenerator - A regenerator having a plurality of involute foils disposed in an annular gap between an inner cylindrical tube and an outer cylindrical tube. The involute shape of the foils provides uniform spacing throughout the entire regenerator and substantial surface area for fluid contact. | 12-02-2010 |
20100109450 | MULTIPLE ARMATURE LINEAR MOTOR/ALTERNATOR HAVING MAGNETIC SPRING WITH NO FRINGE FIELDS AND INCREASED POWER OUTPUT - An electromagnetic, reciprocating linear motor or alternator having at least two armatures that are adjacent along an axis of reciprocation. The armatures have gaps that are linearly aligned along a gap path parallel to the axis. Field magnets reciprocate within the gap path. The field magnets include a main field magnet associated with each armature, each main field magnet having a magnetic polarization in the same direction across the gap path. A secondary magnet provides a centering spring force and is interposed between the main magnets. The secondary magnet extends in an axial direction from within a gap of one armature core to within an adjacent gap of an adjacent armature core. The secondary magnet is magnetically polarized in a direction opposite the polarization of the main magnets. | 05-06-2010 |
20100095668 | BALANCED MULTIPLE GROUPINGS OF BETA STIRLING MACHINES - Multiple free-piston Stirling (FPS) machines are arranged in a group and connected for preventing or minimizing vibration. A first set of identical beta FPS machines are rigidly connected together, arranged in a mechanically co-directional orientation and configured to reciprocate in thermodynamically synchronous reciprocation with each other. The first set has axes of reciprocation intersecting a first point, which may be a point at infinity. The axes of the first FPS machines make the same angle with a central axis of motion and are equi-angularly spaced around the central axis. A second set of beta FPS machines are rigidly connected together and rigidly connected to the first set of machines. The second set of machines are arranged in a mechanically co-directional orientation that is the same as the mechanical orientation of the first set of beta FPS machines. The second set of machines are configured to reciprocate in thermodynamically synchronous reciprocation with each other but in thermodynamically opposed reciprocation to the first set. The FPS machines of the second set are identical to the FPS machines of the first set and have axes of reciprocation intersecting a point, which may be a point at infinity. The axes of the second set of FPS machines all make the same angle with the central axis of motion and are equi-angularly spaced around the central axis of motion. | 04-22-2010 |
20090206667 | HYBRID ELECTRICAL POWER SOURCE COMBINING STIRLING ENGINE DRIVEN ALTERNATOR WITH SUPPLEMENTING ELECTRICAL ENERGY STORAGE - An electrical power source including a free-piston Stirling engine driving an alternator to supply power through a bus to a user load and controlled by an engine/alternator controller. A bidirectional DC/DC converter is connected between a battery and the bus. The stroke of the engine piston is modulated between a maximum and a minimum stroke to maintain the bus voltage at a design nominal bus voltage (V | 08-20-2009 |
20080309095 | Electronic Controller Matching Engine Power To Alternator Power And Maintaining Engine Frequency For A Free-Piston Stirling Engine Driving A Linear Alternator - A feedback control method and circuit for inclusion in a control system of an electrical power generating source that comprises a free piston Stirling engine driving a linear alternator. An instantaneous value of a variable, V | 12-18-2008 |
20080303289 | CONTROLLER COMPUTING A VIRTUAL TUNING CAPACITOR FOR CONTROLLING A FREE-PISTON STIRLING ENGINE DRIVING A LINEAR ALTERNATOR - A feedback control circuit and method for a control system used to control an electrical power generating source that comprises a free piston Stirling engine driving a linear alternator. A switching mode rectifier connects the alternator winding to an output circuit that includes an electrical energy storage means and is controlled by a pulse width modulator that controls the rectifier switching duty cycle and phase. The control system controls the pulse width modulator. The improvement computes a voltage across a virtual tuning capacitor and uses the computed voltage to control the switching mode rectifier so that the switching mode rectifier is switched in a manner that makes the alternator circuit operate as if a tuning capacitor were actually present and so that the control system controls the piston of the Stirling engine to maintain balance of the mechanical power generated by the Stirling engine and the electrical power absorbed from the engine by the alternator. | 12-11-2008 |
20080295511 | Connection Of A Free-Piston Stirling Machine And A Load Or Prime Mover Permitting Differing Amplitudes Of Reciprocation - The reciprocatable power piston of a free-piston Stirling machine is drivingly linked to a reciprocatable component body of an associated apparatus by at least one spring with no rigid connection linking the piston to the component body. The spring drive linkage allows the power piston and the reciprocatable component body of the associated apparatus to reciprocate at different amplitudes of oscillation. Therefore, the Stirling machine and the associated apparatus can be optimized at different amplitudes of piston and the component body oscillation thereby improving the optimization of two very different dynamic systems that are drivingly connected together. | 12-04-2008 |
20080250784 | MULTI-PIECE PISTON FOR A FREE PISTON MACHINE - The concentricity and coaxiality of a central bore through a piston for a free piston Stirling machine is improved with a piston that has a sleeve with a core constructed from at least two, separate, axially-engaging core components sealed within the sleeve. During fabrication, a central bore is machined through each of the core components. The piston is assembled by heating the sleeve and cooling the core components, inserting the core components into the sleeve and then allowing the sleeve to cool and the core components to warm. This drives the core components into sealed engagement with each other and with the sleeve and aligns the central bore coaxially with the outer cylindrical surface of the sleeve. | 10-16-2008 |
20080203678 | Jointed head with temporary clamp for stirling machine allowing head access during testing and facilitating subsequent close-out welding - A clamping apparatus for allowing pre-close-out access to the head of a Stirling machine and facilitating subsequent close-out welding of the head. The head is axially separable into removable and fixed portions, each portion having an end that engages the other. Each portion has an annular flange extending radially outwardly at its engaging end, and each flange has an annular groove. O-rings are seated in the grooves. A temporary sealing ring surrounds and engages the O-rings. Clamping rings, having axially facing end surfaces along their interfacing axial edges, seat against axially opposite sides of the abutting annular flanges. The clamping rings have a plurality of holes spaced annularly around the rings and the holes of one ring are axially aligned with the holes in the other. Fasteners pass through each pair of holes and draw the rings together when tightened, thereby drawing the fixed and removable portions of the head together and securing them against relative axial movement. For close-out of the machine, the clamping rings, temporary sealing ring, and O-rings are removed and the grooved annular flanges serve as weld reliefs for final hermetic close-out welding. | 08-28-2008 |