Device for aligning a laser leveling instrument along a building line
AssigneeLeica Heerbrugg AG
InventorsWilfried Piske, Martin Koeppel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for aligning a laser leveling instrument along a building line can remain standing unchanged on its base throughout both horizontal and vertical leveling operations. The light source is located in the base of the instrument. The instrument head can be swung through 90.degree. and houses a rotating prism which generates the vertical plane, and an adaptor. The adaptor includes a prism for deflecting the light from the source into the rotating prism and a triple prism which, when brought into the light path, deflects the light coming from the base perpendicular to the generated vertical plane, projecting it onto the building line.
Claims10
A device for aligning a laser leveling instrument along a building line comprising:
- an instrument base;
- a laser light source, arranged in said instrument base, outputting a laser beam;
- and
- an instrument head tiltable by 90.degree. and has arranged therein;
- a rotating prism for generating a vertical plane when said head is tilted, and
- an adaptor for use when said head is tilted having a prism positioned in a path of said laser beam between said light source and said rotating prism for deflecting said laser beam from said base onto said rotating prism in said instrument head, wherein said adaptor additionally has a triple reflector selectively brought into said path of said laser beam and to deflect said laser beam coming from said base in a direction perpendicular to said generated vertical plane to project it onto said building line.
A method for leveling an instrument along a building line, comprising the steps of:
- generating, via a light source, a collimated light beam in a base of said instrument along an axis;
- redirecting said light beam along a path orthogonal to said axis via a rotating prism in a head of said instrument;
- aligning said orthogonal beam path with said building line;
- swiveling said head by 90.degree. so that said rotating prism is offset by 90.degree.;
- passing said light beam through said rotating prism thereby generating a vertical reference plane;
- positioning a triple prism in a path of said light beam between said light source and said rotating prism while said head is rotated by 90.degree.;
- reflecting said light beam output from said triple prism through a hollow spindle;
- and
- outputting said light beam from said instrument orthogonal to said vertical reference plane.
A leveling device, comprising:
- a light source outputting a light beam along a beam path;
- a rotating prism positioned in said beam path, said rotating prism generating a vertical light plane when said light beam is incident upon said rotating prism;
- and
- an adapter positioned in said beam path between said light source and said rotating prism, said adapter having a first position and a second position;
- wherein
- said light beam passes through said adapter and is incident upon said rotating prism which generates said vertical light plane when said adapter is in said first position;
- and
- said light beam is deflected by said adapter in a direction perpendicular to said vertical light plane as a reference light beam when said adapter is in said second position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.