US 2026/0092836 A1Published application

Platform balance with a tare assembly having a compression strut

AssigneeIllinois Tool Works Inc.

InventorsJohn W. Murray, Victor Senft, Glenn Lucachick, Sloan Smith

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Abstract

A platform balance suitable for transmitting forces and moments in a plurality of directions includes a lower and upper frame supporting a platform. At least one tare assembly attaches the two frames, where the tare assembly includes an arm attached to the lower frame with a pivot. A counterweight is attached to the arm on one side of the pivot, and the first end of a compression strut is attached to the arm on a second side of the pivot, with a second end of the compression strut attached to the upper frame. The compression strut includes a set of spaced-apart flexures, each compliant about a horizontal direction, such that the compression strut is configured to be rigid in a vertical direction and compliant in the horizontal direction. The flexure stiffness is tuned, considering the vertical load on the strut, to achieve zero horizontal stiffness of the loaded strut.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A platform balance suitable for transmitting forces and moments in a plurality of directions, the platform balance comprising:

a lower frame;
an upper frame supporting a platform;
and
at least one tare assembly connected to the upper frame and the lower frame, the tare assembly comprising:
an arm attached to the lower frame with a pivot;
a counterweight attached to the arm on a first side of the pivot;
and
a compression strut having a first end attached to the arm on a second side of the pivot and a second end attached to the upper frame, the compression strut comprising:
a first set of spaced apart aligned flexure areas between the first end and the second end along a vertical direction, each flexure area configured to flex such that the compression strut is configured to be rigid in the vertical direction and compliant to rotation about a first horizontal direction orthogonal to the vertical direction and translation in a second horizontal direction orthogonal to the vertical direction, and rotation about the vertical direction.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.