Graco Inc.

Donovan Harold Lumby

Joop Frans Hoekstra

William D Vork

A system and method for automatically metering and dispensing a plurality of fluids such as paint components is disclosed, including an operator input station for selecting the desired combination of metered fluids, a scanner drive subsystem for positioning a metering unit at appropriate fluid component storage stations, an automatic valving subsystem for controlling the flow of the selected metered component, a metering subsystem having a unit for measuring the proper volume of fluid component to be dispensed, and a dispensing subsystem for feeding the metered quantity into a receptacle. The apparatus may be operated automatically under electrical control of a control subsystem with pre-stored fluid formulations, wherein the desired mixture is identified and the pre-stored formulations enable precise metering of fluid components, or manually where each of the fluid components is manually selected and proportioned by the operator. The respective fluid component storage stations are aligned along a circular arc, and a centrally positioned scanner is rotated so as to contact each of the fluid component storage stations in a pre-selected order, and the fluid at the selected storage station is then metered and dispensed according to the desired formulation. A secondary feature of the invention includes an automatic receptacle positioning apparatus for controlling the positional alignment of the receptacle in correspondence with the fluid component selected.

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Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Donovan Harold Lumby