Accurate, Inc.

Schenck Accurate, Inc.

Moksnes Manufacturing Co., Inc.

Ronald S Tump

Jayant Sharma

Stephen L Moksnes

Ronald D Olson

Terrance J Pausch

James M Kocher

A system and method of measuring and dispensing material in a container is disclosed. The system may comprise a container, a feeder, a frame, a first sensor, and a second sensor. The container is configured to contain the material. The feeder receives and conveys material from the container. The frame is pivotal about a pivot and supports at least the container. The first sensor produces a signal representative of at least a weight of a portion of the material in the container. The second sensor produces a signal representative of the weight being applied to the pivot or fulcrum, which may be a portion of the weight within the container. A device sums the weights detected by the first sensor and the second sensor.

Counterbalanced dispensing system

A material feeder for dispensing batches of material which includes a refrigerated enclosure, a material feeder, a feeder drive arrangement, a scale and a controller. The feeder is housed within the refrigerated enclosure, and is removably coupled to the drive arrangement such that the complete feeder arrangement which is exposed to the material (e.g., foodstuffs such as shredded cheese) may be removed from the enclosure for cleaning at a location separate from the enclosure such as a dishwasher. The scale is connected to a container which catches the material dispensed by the feeder and produces a weight signal such is applied to the control unit. The control unit operates the drive unit which rotates a plurality of feed screws in the feeder at two speeds. In particular, the feed screws are driven at a first speed to dispense material at a high rate until a first weight of material is dispensed into the container, and a second speed is used to rotate the feed screws just prior to obtaining the desired weight in the container. This two speed arrangement prevents undesirably overshooting the desired weight for the material to be dispensed in the container. Upon reaching the set point weight, the drive unit is turned off by the control unit.

Apparatus for dispensing a flavorable material

A loss-in-weight feeder for discharging a flowable material from a reservoir through a controllable discharge member, including a closed loop controller configured to compare the actual rate at which material is discharged from the reservoir to a desired discharge rate. During operation, a racheting process is used to avoid the use of spurious weight signals to determine the material weight in the feeder for purposes of properly controlling the discharge rate.

Loss-in-weight feeder system

A loss-in-weight feeder for discharging a flowable material from a reservoir through a controllable discharge member, including a closed loop controller configured to compare the actual rate at which material is discharged from the reservoir to a desired discharge rate. During the 'refill' mode of operation, the desired discharge rate is adjusted as a function of both the density of the incoming material and the current weight of material in the reservoir. During steady-state operation, the discharge rate is adjusted in accordance with, inter alia, short term changes in the actual discharge rate which exceed a predetermined threshold value.

A loss-in-weight feeder for discharging a flowable substance from a reservoir through a controllable discharge member under regulated conditions is comprised of a scale for producing signals representative of the weight of material in the feeder, such weight signals being digitized by a digital converter, the output of which accumulated and fed into a computer and storage device for establishing the actual rate of the feeder, comparing the actual feed rate with a desired feed rate input into the storage device, and developing a correction signal based on any deviation between the actual and desired feed rates and applied to the feeder to adjust the actual feed rate through the discharge member.

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Whitewater, WI, United States of America

Ronald S Tump