Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Yoji Shimojima

Ichiro Tokunaga

Hiroshi Matsunaga

Kosei Obata

Hiraku Abe

Yoshihiro Takahashi

Yukihiko Yasuhara

A code wheel for use with a reflective type optical rotary encoder which can be produced easily and optically read efficiently. The code wheel includes a non-reflective plate, and a reflective plate having a suitable number of notches formed along a periphery thereof and mounted in an overlapping relationship on the non-reflective plate whereby a reflective portion of the code wheel is formed by a face of the reflective plate between each two adjacent notches while a non-reflective portion is formed by a face of the non-reflective plate exposed through the corresponding notch of the reflective plate.

Code wheel for a reflective type optical rotary encoder

An optical rotary encoder is formed by a control pulse generator portion and a selector switch portion which are of the unitary construction. The control pulse generator portion is formed by a code plate having a plurality of alternately formed reflecting and non-reflecting areas, a plurality of light emitting and receiving elements facing the code plate and an inner shaft for rotating the code plate. The selector switch portion is formed by a second code plate having a plurality of light transmitting apertures, a plurality of light emitting elements facing the second code plate, a plurality of light receiving elements provided on the opposite side of the second code plate from those light emitting elements and an outer shaft for rotating the second code plate. The inner and outer shafts are connected to each other and have a common axis of rotation.

Optical rotary encoder

An optical rotary encoder comprises reflecting portions and nonreflecting portions provided alternately on a peripheral surface of a measured body freely rotatable, a light emitting diode for projecting light onto the measured body, a number of light receiving elements each delivering an output pulse signal upon reception of the light reflected from the reflecting portions of the measured body, and a counter for counting the number of pulses of the output signal obtained from the light receiving element for providing an output corresponding to a rotating angle of the measured body. A monitoring light receiving element is further provided near the light emitting diode, and the light output of the light emitting diode is controlled based on the output signal obtained from the monitoring light receiving element.

Optical rotary encoder with light monitoring and control

An optical switch comprising an optical fiber member having its light sending end surface and light receiving surface bound closely in contact along a flat side of their ends, and a reflecting surface which is provided at the end surface of a swinging lever for switching ON and OFF the light reflecting condition where the light sent from the sending end surface is guided or not guided to the receiving end surface.

Optical switch

Discloded is a light transmission device in which a plug is elastically urged toward an E-O converter element by a plug urging means provided between the plug and a receptacle of a light transfer device and in which a spacer is provided between the plug and the E-O converter element so that the end surface of the plug and the E-O converter element are separated from each other by a predetermined distance.

Light transmission device

In a reflecting type optical rotary encoder capable of detecting a number of rotation and rotating direction of a code wheel by projecting light emitted from a light emitting element onto reflecting portions provided on the code wheel through a first optical fiber, and by guiding light reflected from the reflecting portions into light receiving elements through second optical fibers, end portions adjacent to the code wheel of the first and second optical fibers are brought into abutment with each other, and an angle substantially equal to 90.degree. is formed between an end surface and a side surface of each of the second optical fibers.

Reflection type optical rotary encoder

A rotary encoder has a rotor with reflector sections applied to its peripheral edge. The reflector sections are formed on a belt as a laminate of a lacquer layer, a metal foil layer, and an adhesive layer and are transferred to the edge of the rotor at selected intervals.

Method of fabricating rotor of optical rotary encoder

In an optical fiber sensor comprising an optical fiber coupled with a light emission element and another optical fiber coupled with a light receiving element, end portions of the optical fibers other than those coupled with the aforementioned elements being arranged side by side and joined together in a closely contacting relation with the end surfaces of the optical fibers placed in opposition to a slit member to be detected such that the arranged direction of the optical fibers is aligned with a shifting direction of the slit member; the end portions of the optical fibers are formed into a flat configuration and joined together such that the flat side surfaces of the two fibers are brought into a surface contacting relation.

Optical fiber sensor having shaped ends

A device for detecting rotating speed of a thin shape motor including a vertical shaft rotatably supported on a base plate, a rotor of a planar shape secured to the vertical shaft in a spaced apart relation from the base plate, and a stator provided downwardly from the rotor on the base plate, comprises a rotatable disc of a diameter smaller than that of the rotor secured to the vertical shaft and having speed detecting indices on a peripheral surface thereof, and a luminous element and a light-receiving element provided outwardly of the rotor. A light-projecting optical fiber and a light-receiving optical fiber are further provided to extend along the base plate such that one end of the light-projecting optical fiber is located to oppose the luminous element, while one end of the light-receiving optical fiber is located to oppose the light-receiving element, and that the other ends of the two optical fibers are placed in opposition to the peripheral surface of the rotatable disc.

Device for detecting rotating speed of thin shape motor

A light-reflective type rotary encoder used to measure the rotational frequency of a rotating shaft, the distance travelled by a sliding body, or other physical quantity has a casing body in which a rotor is rotatably held. Two input optical fibers laid parallel to each other and an output optical fiber laid between the input fibers are held in the casing body in such a way that each one end of these fibers is arranged in line and opposed to the fringe of the rotor on which reflective areas and non-reflective areas are alternately formed at regular intervals circumferentially. The other ends of the fibers which are disposed on the open end side of the casing body are surrounded and covered by a device-mounting case which is detachably mounted to the casing body and which holds a light-emitting device and light-receiving devices therein.

Rotary encoder

A rotary encoder used for measuring the rotational velocity, for example, of a rotating disk provided with reflecting surfaces and non-reflecting surfaces which are formed alternately on its periphery with a pitch l. The encoder includes one output optical fiber and two input optical fibers. All of the fibers have their one end surfaces opposed to the periphery of the disk. The input fibers are attached to the opposite sides of the output fiber in side-by-side relation. The interval between the end surfaces of the input fibers is set equal to l (n.+-.1/4), where n is a positive integer. Light-emitting devices connected to the input fibers produce output waveforms that are 90 degrees out of phase.

Growing community of inventors

Furukawa, Japan

Yoji Shimojima