EP0131088A2 — Eddy current brakes, loading devices and ergomete…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 65 words

An eddy current brake characterised by: a rotor assembly (5,6); a stator (7) provided inside said rotor assembly (5,6); a plurality of exciting coils (8) provided on said stator (7); and a power source (9,15,22) for energizing said exciting coils (8), said rotor assembly (5,6) including an iron material having a carbon content of 0.12% or less and a silicon content of 0.35% or less.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 65 words

An eddy current brake characterised by: a rotor assembly (5,6); a stator (7) provided inside said rotor assembly (5,6); a plurality of exciting coils (8) provided on said stator (7); and a power source (9,15,22) for energizing said exciting coils (8), said rotor assembly (5,6) including an iron material having a carbon content of 0.12% or less and a silicon content of 0.35% or less.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 79 words

An eddy current brake according to claim 1, characterised in that said rotor assembly (5,6) is of a concentric circular structure including an outer rotor (5) of one kind of material and an inner rotor (6) of another kind of material inserted into said outer rotor (5), said inner rotor (6) being made of a material selected from the group consisting of structural carbon steel with carbon content of 0.12% or less and silicon content of 0.35% or less.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 19 words

An eddy current brake according to claim 2 characterised in that said another kind of material is cast iron.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 33 words

An eddy current brake according to claim 2 or 3 characterised in that said outer rotor (5) is made of a non-ferrous material to give a flywheel effect to said inner rotor (6).

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 16 words

An eddy current brake according to claim 4 characterised in that said non-ferrous material is concrete.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 108 words

A loading device for use with a bicycle ergometer characterised by: a rotor assembly (5,6); a stator (7) provided inside said rotor assembly (5,6): a plurality of exciting coils (8) provided on said stator (7); a power source (22) for energizing said exciting coils (8); indicating means (11) for indicating a desired load value; a square root characteristic signal generating circuit (24) for generating a current instruction signal corresponding to said desired load value; and a constant current drive circuit (23) provided between said exciting coils (8) and said power source (22) for controlling the current supplied to said coils (8) in response to said current instruction signal.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 108 words

A loading device for use with a bicycle ergometer characterised by: a rotor assembly (5,6); a stator (7) provided inside said rotor assembly (5,6): a plurality of exciting coils (8) provided on said stator (7); a power source (22) for energizing said exciting coils (8); indicating means (11) for indicating a desired load value; a square root characteristic signal generating circuit (24) for generating a current instruction signal corresponding to said desired load value; and a constant current drive circuit (23) provided between said exciting coils (8) and said power source (22) for controlling the current supplied to said coils (8) in response to said current instruction signal.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 32 words

A loading device according to claim 6 characterised in that said rotor assembly (5,6) includes an iron material with carbon content of 0.12% or less and silicon content of 0.35% or less.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 74 words

A loading device according to claim 6 or 7 characterised in that said rotor assembly (5,6) is of a concentric circular structure and includes an outer rotor (5) of a first material and an inner rotor (6) of a second material inserted into said outer rotor, said first material being one selected from the group consisting of structural carbon steel with carbon content of 0.12% or less and silicon content of 0.35% or less.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 16 words

A loading device according to claim 8 characterised in that said second material comprises cast iron.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 32 words

A loading device according to claim 8 or 9 characterised in that said outer rotor (5) is made of a non-ferrous material to give a flywheel effect to said inner rotor (6).

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 54 words

A loading device according to any one of claims 6 to 10 characterised by: a current control circuit for controlling said constant current drive circuit (23); and torque detecting means for correcting the output of said square root characteristic signal generating circuit (24) and for applying said corrected output to said current control circuit.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 142 words

An ergometer characterised by: an exercise device (10) for use by a user; inputting means (11) for inputting physical attributes of said user; a pulse sensor (12) for measuring the pulse rate (heart rate) of said user; an arithmetic control means (19) for calculating a training range defined by a control upper limit pulse rate and a control lower limit pulse rate corresponding to said inputted physical attributes according to a program to provide a training range, and for producing a load changing signal when the output of said pulse sensor (12) during continuous exercise by said user is outside of said training range to maintain the pulse rate of said user in said tranining range; and a loading device coupled to said exercise device (10) for varying a load applied to said exercise device in accordance with said load changing signal.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 142 words

An ergometer characterised by: an exercise device (10) for use by a user; inputting means (11) for inputting physical attributes of said user; a pulse sensor (12) for measuring the pulse rate (heart rate) of said user; an arithmetic control means (19) for calculating a training range defined by a control upper limit pulse rate and a control lower limit pulse rate corresponding to said inputted physical attributes according to a program to provide a training range, and for producing a load changing signal when the output of said pulse sensor (12) during continuous exercise by said user is outside of said training range to maintain the pulse rate of said user in said tranining range; and a loading device coupled to said exercise device (10) for varying a load applied to said exercise device in accordance with said load changing signal.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 95 words

An ergometer according to claim 12 characterised in that said loading device comprises: a rotor assembly (5,6) including an iron material with carbon content of 0.12% or less and silicon content of 0.35% or less; a stator (7) provided inside said rotor assembly (5,6), said stator (7) having a plurality of exciting coils (8) arranged radially; a characteristic signal generating circuit (24) for generating a square root signal in response to an output of said arithmetic control circuit; and a power source (22) for exciting said coils (8) in response to said square root signal.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 55 words

An ergometer according to claim 13 characterised in that said rotor assembly (5,6) is of a concentric circular structure including an outer rotor (5) and an inner rotor (6) inserted into said outer rotor, said inner rotor (6) being made of a material selected from those used for structural carbon steel pipes (STK and STKM).

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 18 words

An ergometer according to claim 14 characterised in that said outer rotor (5) is made of cast iron.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 29 words

An ergometer according to claim 14 characterised in that said outer rotor (5) is made of a non-ferrous material to give a flywheel effect to said inner rotor (6).

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 69 words

An ergometer according to any one of claims 12 to 16 characterised by: current control circuit (23) for controlling current supplied to said exciting coils (8); and torque detecting means coupled to said rotor assembly (5,6) for correcting the output of said characteristic signal generating circuit (24) in response to the torque of said rotor assembly (5,6) and for applying said corrected output to said current control circuit (23).

Claim 21

Independent Claim 300 words

A method of obtaining an optimum load value for a user of an exercise device in which the legs of the user are bent and stretched to rotate a rotary unit having a variable load applied thereto during continuous exercise by the user, the athletic load value being increased stepwise and in each step a load value and a steady pulse rate of the user being measured to provide a linear load versus pulse rate correlation graph, the method being characterised by the steps of: measuring the pulse rate of the user when the user is at rest to produce first data; measuring the steady pulse rate of the user under a first load to produce second data; comparing said second data with a first reference value which is the steady pulse rate under the first load on a load versus pulse rate correlation graph which is computed by a minimum square law average statistically obtained to determine a second load value; measuring the steady pulse rate of the user under the second load value to produce third data; comparing said third data with a second reference value which is the steady pulse rate under the second load on a load versus pulse rate graph which is computed by a minimum square law average which is statistically obtained to determine a third load value; measuring the steady pulse rate of the user under the third load value to produce fourth data, the upper limit of the measured steady state pulse rate being limited by an athletic safety pulse rate for the user; and determining the optimum load value for the user according to the second through said fourth data or the first through said third data if the athletic safety pulse rate was reached before the fourth data was obtained.

Claim 22

Independent Claim 300 words

A method of obtaining an optimum load value for a user of an exercise device in which the legs of the user are bent and stretched to rotate a rotary unit having a variable load applied thereto during continuous exercise by the user, the athletic load value being increased stepwise and in each step a load value and a steady pulse rate of the user being measured to provide a linear load versus pulse rate correlation graph, the method being characterised by the steps of: measuring the pulse rate of the user when the user is at rest to produce first data; measuring the steady pulse rate of the user under a first load to produce second data; comparing said second data with a first reference value which is the steady pulse rate under the first load on a load versus pulse rate correlation graph which is computed by a minimum square law average statistically obtained to determine a second load value; measuring the steady pulse rate of the user under the second load value to produce third data; comparing said third data with a second reference value which is the steady pulse rate under the second load on a load versus pulse rate graph which is computed by a minimum square law average which is statistically obtained to determine a third load value; measuring the steady pulse rate of the user under the third load value to produce fourth data, the upper limit of the measured steady state pulse rate being limited by an athletic safety pulse rate for the user; and determining the optimum load value for the user according to the second through said fourth data or the first through said third data if the athletic safety pulse rate was reached before the fourth data was obtained.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 46 words

A method according to claim 18 further characterised by the steps of storing said first, second, third, and optimum load values in a memory means (RAM) whereby said stored load values can be read from the memory means in accordance with the instructions of a program.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 34 words

A method according to claim 18 or 19 further characterised by the step of selecting said first reference value and said second reference value in accordance with the age and sex of the user.

Eddy current brakes, loading devices and ergometers

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