Timothy J Cunningham
Engineers at Maxwell, Boulder, CO

6230104, May 8, 2001

Sep 30, 1997

8/940580

Stuart J. Shelley - Cincinnati OH
Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 160

702 56

An oscillatory vibration driver is operably connected to a Coriolis flowmeter for use in vibrating the meter flow tubes. The meter electronics contain a mimetic circuit that permits use of the driver as a signal pickoff which provides a measurement of back electromotive force for use in calculating mass flow rate and density from the Coriolis flowmeter. The mimetic circuit contains an analog coil and magnet that facilitate the measurement of back electromotive force, or the mimetic circuit may comprise digital means.

6092429, Jul 25, 2000

Dec 4, 1997

8/984927

Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO
Stuart J. Shelley - Cincinnati OH

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 178

73861356

A process parameter measurement device, and in particular a Coriolis mass flowmeter or vibrating tube densimeter, having a driver or drivers for inducing oscillation of at least one conduit. The drivers are attached at locations along the vibrating conduit selected to influence certain modes of interest. A driver is located near an area of maximum amplitude of a desired vibration mode and near an area of minimum amplitude of an undesired vibration mode. Various known experimental modal analysis or modeling techniques are used to determine the appropriate locations for one or more drivers. Multiple drivers located according to the present invention are used to influence, i. e. , excite or suppress, multiple modes. In addition, multiple, separate drive circuits produce multiple, electronically isolated drive signals for delivering greater total power to the vibrating conduit.

6347293, Feb 12, 2002

Jul 9, 1999

09/350844

Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO
Stuart J. Shelley - Cincinnati OH

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 100

702189, 702100, 702 45, 73861355, 73861356

A self-characterizing vibrating conduit sensor for measuring a process parameter in a material processing system includes a conduit configured to contain material from the material processing system and a plurality of motion transducers operative to produce a plurality of motion signals representing motion at a plurality of locations on the conduit. A modal parameter estimator is configured to receive the plurality of motion signals and operative to estimate a modal parameter from the received plurality of motion signals. The modal parameter, e. g. , a modal filter parameter or a force projection parameter, relates behavior of the conduit to behavior of a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system. A process parameter estimator is configured to receive the plurality of motion signals, responsive to the modal parameter estimator and operative to estimate a process parameter associated with a material in the conduit from the received plurality of motion signals according to the estimated modal parameter. Techniques for estimating a modal parameter include a modified reciprocal modal vector (MRMV) estimation technique and an adaptive modal filtering technique.

6694279, Feb 17, 2004

Feb 16, 2001

09/788194

Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO
David Lee Campbell - Boulder CO
Thomas Dean Sharp - Terrace Park OH

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G06F 1700

702106, 702 45, 702 54, 702190, 73861356

Movement of a structure, such a conduit of a Coriolis mass flowmeter, is estimated. A plurality of motion signals representing motion of the structure are mode selective filtered to generate a plurality of mode selective filtered motion signals such that the mode selective filtered motion signals preferentially represent motion associated with a vibrational mode of the structure. A plurality of phase estimates is generated from the plurality of mode selective filtered motion signals. The plurality of phase estimates may be generated using a phase reference derived from a mode selective filtered motion signal of the plurality of mode selective filtered motion signals. According to some embodiments, a frequency of a mode selective filtered motion signal is estimated, and quadrature first and second reference signals are generated based on the estimated frequency. The plurality of phase estimates is generated from the mode selective filtered motion signals and the reference signals.

6249752, Jun 19, 2001

Jul 16, 1998

9/116410

Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO
David F. Normen - Louisville CO
Gary E. Pawlas - Louisville CO
Stuart J. Shelley - Cincinatti OH

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 2500

702100

A plurality of motion signals is received representing motion at a plurality of locations of a vibrating conduit containing material. The received plurality of motion signals is processed to resolve the motion into a plurality of real normal modal components. A process parameter is estimated from a real normal modal component of the plurality of real normal modal components. According to one aspect, the motion signals may be processed by applying a mode pass filter to produce an output that preferentially represents a component of the motion associated with a real normal mode of the vibrating conduit. A process parameter may be estimated from the filtered output using, for example, conventional phase difference techniques. According to another aspect, real normal modal motion is estimated from the received plurality of motion signals, and a process parameter is estimated from the estimated real normal modal motion. For example, motion may be estimated in respective first and second real normal modes, the second real normal mode being preferentially correlated with a Coriolis force.

8260562, Sep 4, 2012

Mar 16, 2011

13/049646

Timothy J Cunningham - Boulder CO, US
William M Mansfield - Boulder CO, US
Craig B McAnally - Thornton CO, US

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 15/00, G01F 5/00, G01F 1/00, G01F 1/20, G01N 11/00

702 45, 702 48, 702 50, 702 54, 7386118

A meter electronics () for generating a drive signal for a vibratory flowmeter () is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The meter electronics includes an interface () and a processing system (). The processing system is configured to receive the sensor signal () through the interface, phase-shift the sensor signal () substantially 90 degrees to create a phase-shifted sensor signal, determine a phase shift value from a frequency response of the vibratory flowmeter, and combine the phase shift value with the sensor signal () and the phase-shifted sensor signal in order to generate a drive signal phase (). The processing system is further configured to determine a sensor signal amplitude () from the sensor signal () and the phase-shifted sensor signal, and generate a drive signal amplitude () based on the sensor signal amplitude (), wherein the drive signal phase () is substantially identical to a sensor signal phase ().

6233526, May 15, 2001

Jul 16, 1998

9/116845

Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 100, G01F 184, G06F 1900

702 45

A process parameter sensor for a material processing system includes a conduit configured to contain material from the material processing system. A plurality of motion transducers is operative to produce a plurality of motion signals representing motion at a number of locations on the conduit. An overdetermined process parameter estimator is responsive to the plurality of motion transducers and configured to receive the plurality of motion signals. The overdetermined process parameter estimator is operative to resolve conduit motion into motion attributable to each of a predetermined number of forces and to estimate a process parameter associated with a material in the conduit according to the resolved motion, wherein the number of locations exceeds the number of forces such that the plurality of motion signals provides an overdetermined information set for resolution of conduit motion into motion attributable to the predetermined number of forces. According to one aspect, a process parameter is estimated from a spatially averaged motion signal using, for example, a conventional Coriolis measuring circuit. According to another aspect, a plurality of motion signals is produced representing motion at a number of locations exceeding a predetermined number of real or complex modes such that the plurality of motion signals represent an overdetermined information source for resolution of motion of the conduit into motion in each of the modes.

8280651, Oct 2, 2012

Nov 17, 2010

12/948141

Matthew Joseph Rensing - Cincinnati OH, US
Andrew Timothy Patten - Boulder CO, US
Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO, US
Mark James Bell - Longmont CO, US

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01N 11/00

702 56

Meter electronics () for a flow meter () is provided according to an embodiment of the invention. The meter electronics () includes an interface () for receiving a vibrational response from the flow meter () and a processing system () in communication with the interface (). The vibrational response is a response to a vibration of the flow meter () at a substantially resonant frequency. The processing system () is configured to receive the vibrational response from the interface (), determine a frequency (ω) of the vibrational response, determine a response voltage (V) and a drive current (I) of the vibrational response, measure a decay characteristic (ζ) of the flow meter (), and determine the stiffness parameter (K) from the frequency (ω), the response voltage (V), the drive current (I), and the decay characteristic (ζ).

6199022, Mar 6, 2001

Jul 11, 1997

8/890785

Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 158

702 54

A drive system for a vibrating tube-based measurement instrument employing a spatial filter to produce a drive signal having modal content only at a desired vibration mode. Multiple feedback sensors located at different locations along a vibrating tube produce multiple feedback sensors. Each feedback signal has applied to it a weighting or gain factor. All of the weighted feedback signals are then summed to produce a drive signal, or a signal proportional to a drive signal, having improved modal content as compared to any of the feedback signals by themselves. The weighting factors are selected by any of several means. One method is to build the eigenvector matrix for the vibrating flow tube by extracting the eigenvectors from a finite element model of the vibrating structure. The inverse or psuedo-inverse of the eigenvector matrix is calculated to obtain the modal filter vector. The appropriate set of weighting coefficients are selected from the modal filter vector.

5301557, Apr 12, 1994

Jan 16, 1992

7/820648

Donald R. Cage - Longmont CO
James R. Ruesch - Boulder CO
Timothy J. Cunningham - Boulder CO

Micro Motion, Inc. - Boulder CO

G01F 184

7386138

An optimized Coriolis mass flow meter is disclosed which has improved stability to excitations caused by external influences. A primary source of improvement involves determining by modal analysis of the flow conduit a location for the sensor means that minimizes the influence of external excitation of one or more of the first in phase bending mode, the first out of phase bending mode, the first out of phase twist mode, the second out of phase twist mode, the second out of phase bending mode and the third out of phase bending mode.