Apparatus and methods for controlling fluid dispensing

Abstract

Devices and methods are disclosed for controlling the dispensing of fluid, particularly hazardous or flammable fluids, such as automobile gasoline. A recurring problem is the dispensing, particularly by untrained members of the public, into unsuitable or unapproved containers or into no container at all, which can cause leakage, fire, damage to the container, or environmental or health hazards. The invention detects the presence of a container closely adjacent to the outlet of the pump or other dispenser and attempts to determine whether a detected container is of a suitable type by generating a field, such as an electromagnetic field, and measuring the reaction of the container to the field, thus identifying information about selected physical characteristics of the container, such as its metallic or non-metallic material composition. Unless a suitable container is detected in a predetermined position, the invention will block dispensing of the fluid. More complex embodiments can determine several attributes, by measuring several types of response to a number of different tests or fields, and permitting more refined discrimination among containers, or recognize as suitable containers that have been tagged with passive elements having a known response to a field.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.