Vehicle wheel weighing system
AssigneeJerry L. McCauley
InventorsDavid C. English, Godfrey A. Holmstrom
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A weight sensing pad includes two spaced apart load cells, each including a fixed end bending beam deflectable by vertical loads applied to the pad by the wheel of a vehicle and electrical strain gages for sensing beam deflection. The pad includes electronic control circuitry connecting the strain gages in a wheatstone bridge circuit, and providing calibration, zero, output, and bridge sensitivity adjustments. Two or more pads can be serially interconnected electrically with a remote electronic weight indicator.
Claims12
A weight sensing pad for sensing the weight of a vehicle transmitted by one wheel of the vehicle, comprising:
- first and second elongated bending beams spaced apart from each other in substantially parallel relationship, each of said beams having two ends and a midsection, means fixedly securing the ends of said bending beams such that their midsections can deflect upon application of downward load to their midsections, first and second strain sensing means associated, respectively, with said first and second bending beams providing electrical signals proportional to loads applied to each of said bending beam midsections, web means interconnecting said first and second bending beams for transferring load therebetween, and plate means positionable in load-bearing contact with the one wheel of the vehicle for transferring load applied to said plate means by said wheel to said bending beam midsections, said plate means being secured to and extending between said first and second bending beam midsections such that they are deflected downwardly substantially simultaneously when downward load is applied to said plate means by the one wheel of the vehicle.
A weight sensing pad comprising:
- three superimposedly interengaged generally flat members, the intermediate of which provides two spaced apart load cells, each load cell including an elongated bending beam having two ends and a midsection, the lower of said three members being fixedly secured to the ends of said two bending beams such that their mid-sections can deflect upon application of downward loads to their mid-sections, and strain sensing means secured to said bending beams for providing electrical signals proportional to loads applied to their mid-sections, the upper and intermediate of said three members being interengaged such that downward loads applied to the upper of said three members are transmitted to the mid-sections of said two bending beams such that they are deflected downwardly substantially simultaneously.
A weighing system for sensing the weight of a vehicle transmitted by one wheel of the vehicle, comprising:
- a quadrilaterally outlined weight sensing pad having two ends and positionable underneath the one wheel in load-bearing contact therewith;
- the pad including fixed end band means having four bendable portions, two of which are adjacent one end of the pad, and the other two of which are adjacent the other end of the pad;
- electrical strain gauges respectively secured to said bendable portions;
- connecting means mounted in the pad for electrically connecting the strain gauges in a wheatstone bridge circuit having four arms, two of which include strain gauges associated with the one end of the pad and interconnected at one bridge output, and the other two of which include strain gauges associated with the other end of the pad and interconnected at the other bridge output;
- and amplifier means protectively mounted in a recess in the pad intermediate said end beam means and electrically connected with said bridge circuit outputs providing output signals indicative of load applied to the pad by the one wheel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.