Ford Motor Company Limited

The Mead Corporation

Veeco Integrated Automation Inc.

Ganesh Rajagopal

Habil S Basrai

James G Harper

Robert B McJohnson

Louis G Bailey

Don R Walker

In an infrared communications link, a transmitter is connected to a plurality of infrared light emitting diodes disposed about an arcuate surface to illuminate a generally rectangular area with pulsed optical energy. When a receiver having a plurality of photodiodes is disposed within the generally rectangular area the information contained in the pulsed optical energy is recovered. The combination of the transmitter and receiver provide a transceiver that is ideally suited for providing two way communication between a fixed station and an automatically guided vehicle in an electromagnetically hostile environment such as a highly automated factory.

Vehicle to fixed station infrared communications link

A document handling machine which is capable of operating at two different fields of view, namely, a wide field of view and a narrow field, of view, incorporates a scanning carriage which moves generally parallel to the plane of a plurality of document copying platens. The scanner carriage incorporates a lens assembly which includes a lens and a CCD array, which assembly is movable within the carriage along the direction of scan and transverse to the direction of scan to define the two fields of view. Movement of the lens array between the respective fields of view is accomplished by interposing a relatively fixed stop which is engaged by the lens assembly while the carriage is being traversed along its main guideways by a scanning drive motor. The fixed stop is selectively engageable with the lens assembly while the carriage is moving, to cause the lens assembly to shift on the carriage between its respective fields of view. A centering roller mechanism on the carriage engages the lens assembly and detents the same in each of the fields of view while providing for guiding movement of the same, by a roller which moves within an inclined guideway on the lens assembly, between the fields of view.

Optical scanner for automatic document handler

A belt system of the type having a transparent belt entrained about a pair of support rollers which includes an improved alignment apparatus having a plurality of opaque flags positioned along an edge of the belt and shaped to taper in a transverse dimension, an encoder for detecting movement of the belt about the rollers and generating a signal proportional in frequency to the speed of the belt, a fixed photodetector which senses the passage of a portion of the flag through a narrow window so that the time of passage is determined by the position of the belt and flag relative to the sensor, an adjusting roller actuated by a stepper motor which laterally positions the belt relative to the support rollers, and a microprocessor which determines the position of the belt from the number of pulses generated during a period of time in which the sensor detects the passage of a flag and actuates the stepper motor to position the tracking roller to shift the belt laterally in response to the number of pulses counted. In a preferred embodiment, a timer introduces a time delay between successive counting periods, the time delay varying in duration inversely with the amount of lateral deviation of the belt from its desired position.

Belt system with alignment apparatus

An electro-hydraulic proportional actuator in which the actuator piston position is hydraulically controlled by fluid flow through solenoid valves operable by an electronic control system. An operator control provides an input voltage representing a desired piston position and a transducer generates a voltage representing the actual piston position. The difference between the input and output voltages generates a difference or error signal that is fed into a feedback system including a sample-and-hold circuit. A clock logic system is provided for transmitting the signal from the feedback system to the solenoid valves at predetermined intervals to activate either valve to move the actuator piston in either direction or to activate both valves to hold the piston at a desired position.

Electro-hydraulic proportional actuator

An application of the basic system of patent application Ser. No. 149,065 for operating a remote hydraulic valve. An electro-hydraulic actuator is mechanically linked to the control member of the remote valve. An input control signal is generated by multiplying a signal from a control handle position transducer by a scale factor constant produced by a full control setting with a gain control circuit. The gain control circuit also operates to set the constant to unity in case the signal from the handle position transducer exceeds a predetermined level corresponding to a maximum control handle setting. The control handle itself has four positions: Float, Lower, Neutral and Raise. The handle is biased so that if the handle is released from any position other than Neutral, the handle will go to the Neutral position provided a detent is off. The detent is put in the 'off' position by an electrical solenoid which is actuated whenever the supply pressure to the remote valve exceeds a set value. By this means the handle is released from either Raise or Lower position when conditions occur corresponding to the remote valve hitting the end of its stroke or its being overloaded.

Electro-hydraulic remote valve

A control system for a tractor hydraulical power lift system having an electrohydraulic actuator (22) coupled to a main hydraulic valve (21), comprising a feedback electronic control circuit including a circuit for mathematically combining a plurality of transducer generated signals into a command signal. The command signal comprises the output signal of a first differential summing device (32) receiving a first input signal for a control handle transducer (24) from which is substracted a second input signal produced as the output of a signal mixer that combines input signals from a rockshaft transducer (25), a draft selector transducer (26) and a draft load transducer (27). The command signal and a signal from a transducer (28) coupled to the electrohydraulic actuator are fed into a differential summing device (49) that has as its output an error signal representing the actual and desired positions of an implement to be positioned by the power lift system. The control circuit includes a sample-and-hold unit (51) adapted to receive the error signal. Clock logic transmits the error signal at predetermined times as determined by a sampling frequency clock (52) from the sample-and-hold unit (51) to the electrohydraulic actuator.

Growing community of inventors

Richardson, TX, United States of America

Ganesh Rajagopal