The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 04, 1977
Filed:
Mar. 20, 1975
Ellery P Snyder, Norwalk, CT (US);
Bindicator Company, Port Huron, MI (US);
Abstract
Ultrasonic pulses are transmitted from the top of a tank or bin by a transducer and reflected by the material contained therein and received by the same transducer. In the short range mode, two millisecond pulses at sixty second intervals provide a measurment of from two to twenty one feet. Failure to detect a reflected pulse in the short range mode automatically switches the device to the long range mode utilizing ten millisecond pulses at three hundred millisecond intervals. After a pulse is transmitted the energy received by the receiver is converted to a digital value each millisecond and compared to the highest previously converted digital value so that the time of the largest received reflection signal and consequently the distance to the material surface may be determined. The echo signals from eight successive long range pulses are digitized and then integrated according to apparent object distance so that the sum of the true echo signals returned from the material surface is substantially greater than the sum of random noise signals for each transmitted pulse. After each eight-pulse long-range sequence, apparatus electronics automatically return to the short-range measurement mode to start a subsequent measurement sequence.