Design and Implementation of a Closed Loop Electronic Driver Circuit for the Air Curtains Used in Aspirators

Abstract

Although their low efficiency values, permanent split capacitor (PSC) motors are preferred especially for the aspirators used in household applications for their low cost and high durability. Those motors are the main components that provide the working of the air curtains. One of the most important characteristics of air curtains is that they work discretely with work levels. As the level is increased, noise level also increases along with energy consumption and heat. That undesired situation causes efficiency problems for energy consumption. Additionally, high noise values are disturbing for the house residents. The speed of the conventional PSC motors are adjusted in stages which allows to set only discrete speed values. In this study, a new electronic driver circuit that eliminates the discrete speed adjustment and allows to set a speed value in the interval of the PSC stages is designed for the devices that provide the air flow in aspirators. An automatic feedback system is developed in order to control the motor speed. For that feedback mechanism, a novel air flow sensor is designed. In addition, a fault detection and warning system is developed for possible errors. As a result of the experiments, the developed driver circuit and feedback system shows less heat and noise values along with higher energy efficiency.