Weight controller for canned food and the like

Claim 1

In an apparatus for determining weight of a container moving along a path past a weighing zone, the combination of: a radioactive source; a radiation detector; means for mounting said source and detector at said weighing zone on opposite sides of said path for directing radiation along an axis from said source to said detector through a container moving through said weighing zone; pulse discriminator means having the output of said radiation detector as an input and producing as an output, pulses corresponding to input pulses of a predetermined energy range; a first counter for counting pulses and having the output of said pulse discriminator means as an input; an oscillator providing a train of timing pulses as an output; a second counter for counting pulses and having said oscillator output as an input; means for turning said first and second counters on while a container is at said weighing zone to provide first and second counts as outputs, said means for turning on said first and second counters including first and second position sensing means spaced from each other on opposite sides of said axis along said path at said weighing zone, with one of said position sensing means providing an on signal for starting said counters and the other of said position sensing means providing an off signal for stopping said counters; and divider means having the outputs of said counters as inputs and providing the quotient as an output as a measure of the weight of the container, so that said weight determination is independent of the velocity of the container past said source and detector.