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:
Dec. 09, 1986
Filed:
May. 21, 1984
William L Thompson, Montville, OH (US);
The Babcock & Wilcox Company, New Orleans, LA (US);
Abstract
An optical sensor arrangement comprises a light-emitting diode which is connected to a light detector over a light connection such as a fiber optics fiber. The fiber may be provided in the vicinity of a vortex shedding flow meter and is bent by the passage of vortices past the fiber. Bending the fiber causes attenuation of the light signal from the light-emitting diode to the light detector. The light-emitting diode is powered by a pulse generator which supplies the diode with low duty cycle high-current pulses. The resulting detected pulses are amplified, sampled and held to obtain peak values for each pulse. The detected pulse is suppressed by a feedback circuit portion which is activated only after each low duty cycle high current pulse. The detected peaks are utilized to generate a square wave which is used as a measurement of the variable, in particular the passage of vortices in a vortex shedding flow meter.