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. 11, 1990
Filed:
May. 30, 1989
Joseph A Volk, Jr, Creve Coeur, MO (US);
Beta Raven Inc., Earth City, MO (US);
Abstract
A dry flow sensor for detecting the flow rate of a stream of granular material through a chute includes a force transducer mounted inside an enclosure, the enclosure being mounted by a bracket assembly to the chute with a plate assembly cantilever mounted in the chute from the force transducer and a thermoelectric heat pump to maintain the temperature of the force transducer at a desired value. A temperature sensor is mounted on the force transducer and a computer compares actual with desired temperature to control the heat pump. The cantilever mount comprises a pair of beam members, each beam including a central threaded rod with a hollow tube surrounding the rod and held in place between the force transducer and plate assembly by compression. A collar member surrounds one beam member and has a plurality of adjustment screws to limit radial torquing of the beam and plate assembly with respect to the force transducer. A second force transducer is loaded with a counterweight substantially equal to the dynamic load on the first transducer, their outputs being summed to cancel out the effect of vibrational forces in the chute from the detected force.