Instantaneous torque determining apparatus

Abstract

An instantaneous torque determining apparatus for obtaining the instantaneous torque value continuously of a shaft rotating at a high speed. The apparatus includes a pair of spaced gears mounted on the shaft, a torque detector having a pickup for each gear, a set of voltage comparators, a gate control circuit, an AND circuit, and a clock pulse generator. Further, the apparatus also includes a delay circuit for receiving pulses from a voltage comparator, a subtraction counter which receives a delayed pulse as a subtractor starting instruction, and a set of first and second ratio multipliers forming a counting circuit loop with the counter. First and second latch circuits store the counted value outputs and apply such outputs as an input to another counter and to a Digital-Analogue transducer. The pick-ups of the torque detectors are respectively arranged to face the gear to provide voltage signals in pulse form when the shaft rotates and each tooth of the gear passes in front of its respective pick-up. The phase difference in each period of the voltage signals is proportional to the instantaneous value of torque applied to the shaft and an inverse value of the period of these voltage signals is proportional to the instantaneous rotating speed of the shaft.