Estimating the consumption of a fluid by sensing displacement of a coupling device
AssigneeColder Products Company
InventorWilliam John Rankin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An assembly for estimating consumption of a fluid includes a coupling device enabling fluid flow, a carrier assembly slidingly coupled to the coupling device, a biasing mechanism positioned between the coupling device and the carrier assembly, and a displacement sensing mechanism including a sensor coupled to one of the coupling device and the carrier assembly, and a magnet coupled to the other of the coupling device and the carrier assembly. The displacement sensing mechanism is configured to sense a displacement of the magnet relative to the sensor due to coupling of a fluid source to the coupling device.
Claims9
A system for estimating consumption of a fluid, the system comprising:
- a coupling device;
- a carrier assembly slidingly coupled to the coupling device;
- a biasing mechanism positioned between the coupling device and the carrier assembly;
- a displacement sensing mechanism coupled to the carrier assembly;
- and
- a data communications module coupled to the carrier assembly;
- a fluid from a fluid source flows through the coupling device, and the fluid in the fluid source applies a load to the coupling device;
- wherein the displacement sensing mechanism is configured to sense a displacement of the coupling device relative to the carrier assembly due to the load associated with the fluid source;
- and
- wherein the data communications module is programmed to estimate a volume of fluid in the fluid source based on the displacement.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.