Level sensor with parabolic reflector
AssigneeAds
InventorJames S. Schutzbach
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A level sensor and housing therefor, the level sensor provides a measurement of the depth in a sewer manhole or chamber. The level sensor includes an ultrasonic transducer that emits a signal to measure the liquid below and may use an additional transducer or it is used by itself to detect the signal reflected from the surface. A parabolic reflector is designed and arranged to direct the emitted ultrasonic signal from the transducer to the surface with a linear beam while minimizing the beam spread. The return echo may either be measured directly or with the same transducer that was used to transmit the ultrasonic signal. The narrow ultrasonic beam with limited spread will allow measuring level in a sewer manhole or confined chamber or any sewer where the level is measured close to a vertical wall.
Claims11
A liquid level sensor system for operation in vertically confined spaces, comprising:
- an ultrasonic transmitter and a first ultrasonic transducer coupled to said ultrasonic transmitter for transmitting ultrasonic signals acoustically through an air medium;
- an ultrasonic receiver configured for receiving reflected ultrasonic signals resulting from said transmitted ultrasonic signals;
- a unitary system housing forming a circuit compartment and a parabolic acoustic reflector;
- said ultrasonic transmitter and said ultrasonic receiver housed in said circuit compartment in said unitary system housing;
- said first ultrasonic transducer disposed on a lateral side of said circuit compartment and directed to said parabolic acoustic reflector at a focus producing a downward directed beam from said parabolic acoustic reflector;
- wherein said parabolic acoustic reflector comprises an outer edge of said unitary system housing, said outer edge defined by an intersection of a conical pattern with a paraboloid, said conical pattern having a vertex at said first ultrasonic transducer and a conical angle from center to edge of the cone, based on a sensing characteristic of said first ultrasonic transducer, said paraboloid having a vertical axis of symmetry directed in a desired beam direction and a focus at a center of said first ultrasonic transducer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.