Richard L Burrington

US Patent:

20110187545, Aug 4, 2011

Filed:

Sep 17, 2010

Appl. No.:

12/884372

Inventors:

Richard L. Burrington - Westfield MA, US
William K. Montuori - Simsbury CT, US
William F. Rice - West Simsbury CT, US
Thomas W. Sambor - Granby MA, US
Lloyd E. Steen - Canton CT, US

Assignee:

ALSTOM Technology Ltd - Baden

International Classification:

G08B 21/00
G01G 9/00
G06F 19/00

US Classification:

340666, 73865, 702 41

Abstract:

A system of monitoring mass in a furnace is described having a number of hanger rods used to support at least a portion of the furnace. The system has at least one pressure sensor that may be a load washer operatively engaging a hanger rod that provides a signal indicative of an amount of tension on the hanger rod . A pivoting unit distributes the force over the surface of the pressure sensor . A processor monitors the signals from the pressure sensors to set alarms when there is a mass overload, or adjust the operation of the furnace. The processor may also predict when an overload will occur by extrapolating pressure sensor readings forward into the future.