Apparatus for measuring a dimension of an object
AssigneeRCA Corporation
InventorWilliam Anthony Borgese
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A beam of light angularly directed relative to a surface of an object having a dimension to be measured is intercepted by the object, which is moving at a known speed. By knowing the beam angle, the object speed, and the time lapse between the passage of the object past a reference point and the point of beam interception, the dimension of the object is readily determined.
Claims2
Apparatus for measuring the height dimension of a linearly moving right parallelepiped object positioned oblique relative to its direction of movement, where said dimension is in a direction normal to the direction of movement and said movement is at a known velocity, comprising in combination,
- means for directing a narrow beam of electromagnetic wave energy at an acute angle relative to the direction of said dimension and for scanning said beam back and forth in a plane which forms said acute angle said beam being oriented such that is is intercepted by said object during the course of its movement;
- transducer means positioned to sense said beam for producing a signal indicative of any interruption of said beam by said object;
- reference means positioned to detect an edge of said object having said dimension to produce a signal indicative thereof;
- and
- timing means responsive to said edge detecting signal and to said transducer signal for producing a further signal the characteristic of which is determined by the time lapse between the two received signals which time lapse corresponds directly to said height dimension to be measured.
Apparatus for measuring the height dimension of a linearly moving right parallelepiped object, where said dimension is in a direction normal to the direction of movement and said movement is at a known velocity, comprising in combination;
- means directing a narrow beam of electromagnetic wave energy at an acute angle relative to the direction of said dimension;
- said beam being oriented such that it is intercepted by said object during the course of its movement;
- transducer means positioned to sense said beam for producing a signal indicative of interruption of said beam by said object;
- reference means positioned to detect an edge of said object having said dimension to produce a signal indicative thereof;
- timing means comprising a source of spaced pulses synchronized to the speed of movement of said object and a decrementing counter means receptive of said spaced pulses and responsive to said edge detecting signal and to said transducer signal for counting spaced pulses received between the time said transducer means signal and said reference means signal are received, the resultant count in said counter means being related to said height dimension of said object;
- and
- means for initializing said counter to a value which corresponds to the number of spaced pulses occurring between the time said edge detecting signal is received by said counter to begin its count and the time an object having said height dimension equal to zero interrupts said beam and stops said counter from counting whereby a larger dimensioned object stops said counter relatively earlier while containing a relatively larger count than a smaller dimensioned object which stops said counter later when it contains a relatively smaller count.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.