US3589457A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Weight measurement
Assignee: INTERTEK CONTROLS Inc
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Filing: 1969-07-17
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Granted: 1971-06-29
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Expires: 1989-07-17
Abstract
Abstract Weight measurement apparatus and method, the apparatus having normally balanced resistance bridge which becomes unbalanced in an amount which is a function of the weight being measured. A voltage-to-frequency converter senses the imbalance in the bridge and generates a pulse. A digital-to-analog converter is activated by the pulse to cause an increment of resistance to be added or subtracted into the bridge, each resistance increment being proportional to one unit of weight. If the bridge is not balanced by the addition of the resistance increment, the voltage-tofrequency converter will sense the imbalance and serially cause other resistance increments to be added or subtracted until no imbalance in the bridge is sensed. A pulse counter counts each of the pulses which activates the digital-to-analog converter so that the accumulated counts of the counter represent the weight.
Inventors
- 👤 Dan S Joos
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 18:54
CPC Classifications
G; G01; G01G; G01G3/00; G01G3/12; G01G3/14; G01G3/142; G01G3/147
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 23
Claim 1
Independent Claim
114 words
A force measuring apparatus comprising: circuit means in an initial state of electrical balance and to which a force is thereafter applied creating an electrical imbalance; means including energy-to-pulse converting means to which the electrical state of the circuit means is conveyed and changing means which changes the force-induced electrical imbalance in successive increments to a plurality of substantially identical electrical resistances; means interconnecting the changing means and the circuit means to progressively restore the electrical balance to the circuit means as the electrical resistances are successively incremented; means in electrical communication with the changing means for sensing and displaying the number of resistances incremented to indicate an accurate measure of the force applied.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
114 words
A force measuring apparatus comprising: circuit means in an initial state of electrical balance and to which a force is thereafter applied creating an electrical imbalance; means including energy-to-pulse converting means to which the electrical state of the circuit means is conveyed and changing means which changes the force-induced electrical imbalance in successive increments to a plurality of substantially identical electrical resistances; means interconnecting the changing means and the circuit means to progressively restore the electrical balance to the circuit means as the electrical resistances are successively incremented; means in electrical communication with the changing means for sensing and displaying the number of resistances incremented to indicate an accurate measure of the force applied.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
93 words
Apparatus for measuring weight comprising: means for receiving a weight and unbalancing a resistance bridge, one side relative to the other, by an amount which is a function of the weight: means including energy-to-pulse converting means to which the electrical state of the resistance bridge is conveyed and means changing resistance at the one side of the bridge only in uniform incremental steps until relative balance in the bridge results; and means for counting and indicating the number of uniform incremental steps made by the changing means as a function of the weight.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
93 words
Apparatus for measuring weight comprising: means for receiving a weight and unbalancing a resistance bridge, one side relative to the other, by an amount which is a function of the weight: means including energy-to-pulse converting means to which the electrical state of the resistance bridge is conveyed and means changing resistance at the one side of the bridge only in uniform incremental steps until relative balance in the bridge results; and means for counting and indicating the number of uniform incremental steps made by the changing means as a function of the weight.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
154 words
Weight conversion apparatus comprising: a load cell comprising a balance bridge having at least four variable elements at least one of which is controlled by a force link, the resistance in the at least one element varying as a function of the force applied to the force link; resistance control means for bringing the load cell to a zero reference state; a voltage-to-frequency converter connected to the output of the load cell to sense resistance imbalance in the bridge due to the force on the force link and convert the imbalance to an electronic signal; a pulse counter responsive to the signal of the voltage-to-frequency converter to count each pulse of the signal; and means having a plurality of resistance units each representative of the same amount of weight, which means successively connects one resistance unit to the bridge in response to each sequential count of the pulse counter until the bridge is balanced.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
154 words
Weight conversion apparatus comprising: a load cell comprising a balance bridge having at least four variable elements at least one of which is controlled by a force link, the resistance in the at least one element varying as a function of the force applied to the force link; resistance control means for bringing the load cell to a zero reference state; a voltage-to-frequency converter connected to the output of the load cell to sense resistance imbalance in the bridge due to the force on the force link and convert the imbalance to an electronic signal; a pulse counter responsive to the signal of the voltage-to-frequency converter to count each pulse of the signal; and means having a plurality of resistance units each representative of the same amount of weight, which means successively connects one resistance unit to the bridge in response to each sequential count of the pulse counter until the bridge is balanced.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
150 words
Apparatus for measuring the weight of an object comprising: means for converting the weight of the object to an electrical resistance, said converting means comprising a balanced-resistance bridge which becomes imbalanced when subjected to the weight, the magnitude of the imbalance being a function of the weight of the object; means activated by the electrical imbalance in the bridge for generating a plurality of output pulses at spaced intervals, the number of pulses being proportional to the magnitude of the imbalance; means counting the output pulses from the generating means; means for successively communicating increments of resistance into or out of the bridge commensurate with the pulse count of the counting means until the bridge becomes balanced; and means governed by the counting means for outputting the counts made which counts represent the increments of resistance required to balance the bridge as a function of the weight of the object.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
150 words
Apparatus for measuring the weight of an object comprising: means for converting the weight of the object to an electrical resistance, said converting means comprising a balanced-resistance bridge which becomes imbalanced when subjected to the weight, the magnitude of the imbalance being a function of the weight of the object; means activated by the electrical imbalance in the bridge for generating a plurality of output pulses at spaced intervals, the number of pulses being proportional to the magnitude of the imbalance; means counting the output pulses from the generating means; means for successively communicating increments of resistance into or out of the bridge commensurate with the pulse count of the counting means until the bridge becomes balanced; and means governed by the counting means for outputting the counts made which counts represent the increments of resistance required to balance the bridge as a function of the weight of the object.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
24 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said converting means comprises potentiometer means for initially balancing the converting means to compensate for tare weight.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
39 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising potentiometer means interposed between a source of electrical power and the converting means to select a conversion range of force-to-resistance so that the governed means will output directly in weight units.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
50 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising control means comprising matrixing means for matrixing zeros or full scale nines and means associated with the matrixing means for remote display of the output when in excess of the maximum measuring level or below the minimum measuring level of the apparatus.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
35 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said outputting means comprises biquinary count means comprising twin decade counters and means receiving output from the biquinary count means for visually displaying the output in weight units.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
76 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising divider means into which the generating means output pulses comprising both count up and count down pulses are communicated for selectively adding the count up pulses and subtracting count down pulses and means for preventing activation of the communicating means until a predetermined number of consecutive pulses in the count up direction or until a predetermined number of consecutive pulses in the count down direction have been accumulated.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
46 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said communicating means comprises a plurality of resistance means of substantially identical value and means responsive to the generating means for selectively joining resistance means in seriatim into the bridge and removing resistance means in seriatim from the bridge.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
65 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 further comprising control means which separate pulses from the generating means into a plurality of diverse signals and means responsive to the diverse signals from the control means for communicating at least one increment of resistance out of the bridge to a balanced resistive state when the weight of the object is no longer imposed upon the converting means.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
42 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 11 wherein said responsive means further comprises print command means for holding the indicated output for a preselected time and means for recording the output from the counting means prior to the expiration of the preselected time.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
89 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said generating means comprises means for decreasing the strength of the output pulses of the generating means as the bridge approaches balance and for increasing the strength of the output pulses of the generating means as the bridge becomes more unbalanced so that the generating means is less sensitive when the apparatus is near the null point whereby count oscillation in the outputting means resulting from moving the object relative to the converting means is damped without adversely affecting the outputting means.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
15 words
Apparatus as defined in claim 13 wherein the last said means comprises a digital-to-analog converter.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
127 words
In a method of electronically converting a force to a detectable readout the steps of: converting a force exerted upon force-receiving structure to an electrical resistance in one circuit; determining the amount of force-induced electrical resistance and converting the energy thereof to a pulse; developing a complementary resistive imbalance in another circuit in response to the resistance of the one circuit, the complementary resistive imbalance being achieved by connecting a plurality of parallel resistors of identical value one after another to the force receiving structure until the resistive imbalance is essentially proportional to the force converted into the electrical resistance; combining the complementary resistive imbalance with the electrical resistance so as to effectively cancel the electrical resistance; and registering the amount of complementary resistive imbalance so developed.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
127 words
In a method of electronically converting a force to a detectable readout the steps of: converting a force exerted upon force-receiving structure to an electrical resistance in one circuit; determining the amount of force-induced electrical resistance and converting the energy thereof to a pulse; developing a complementary resistive imbalance in another circuit in response to the resistance of the one circuit, the complementary resistive imbalance being achieved by connecting a plurality of parallel resistors of identical value one after another to the force receiving structure until the resistive imbalance is essentially proportional to the force converted into the electrical resistance; combining the complementary resistive imbalance with the electrical resistance so as to effectively cancel the electrical resistance; and registering the amount of complementary resistive imbalance so developed.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
110 words
In a method of registering the weight of an object comprising the steps of: converting the weight of the object to an electrical resistance having a magnitude which is a function of the weight of the object; unbalancing a normally balanced resistance bridge by an amount essentially proportional to the force converted into an electrical resistance; generating pulses at spaced intervals, the pulses cumulatively representing the bridge imbalance; counting the pulses generated; changing the resistance in the bridge in uniform incremental amounts respectively in time relation with each count until the bridge becomes balanced; and registering the incremental changes in resistance as a function of the weight of the object.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
110 words
In a method of registering the weight of an object comprising the steps of: converting the weight of the object to an electrical resistance having a magnitude which is a function of the weight of the object; unbalancing a normally balanced resistance bridge by an amount essentially proportional to the force converted into an electrical resistance; generating pulses at spaced intervals, the pulses cumulatively representing the bridge imbalance; counting the pulses generated; changing the resistance in the bridge in uniform incremental amounts respectively in time relation with each count until the bridge becomes balanced; and registering the incremental changes in resistance as a function of the weight of the object.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
53 words
A method as defined in claim 16 further comprising matrixing zeros or full scale nines and the count direction and converting the matrix to a display of weight condition when the object has a weight in excess of a maximum level and when the object has a weight less than a minimum level.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1974-06-28 | 1974-12-28 | 1975-06-29 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1978-06-28 | 1978-12-28 | 1979-06-29 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1982-06-28 | 1982-12-28 | 1983-06-29 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |