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:
Sep. 10, 1985
Filed:
Oct. 29, 1981
Robert A Lapetina, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Howard P Jones, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Edo Western Corporation, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for detecting the presence of liquid in a container includes an elongate rod (or other vibratory element) which extends into the container to contact liquid when a certain amount of liquid is present, a piezo-electric element coupled to the rod on the exterior of the container to cause the rod to vibrate in response to electrical signals and to produce electrical signals indicative of the amplitude of vibration of the rod, and circuitry for producing a utilization signal when the electrical signals produced by the piezo-electric element indicate that the amplitude and duration of vibrations of the rod are below some threshold level. Such vibrations fall below the threshold level when the rod contacts liquid in the tank and so production of the utilization signal is an indication that liquid in the container has reached a certain level.