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:
Jul. 20, 1993
Filed:
Aug. 07, 1991
Stephen J Reinsch, Vista, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A hand held instrument for measuring roughness of a surface, such as 'orange peel', on a painted surface employs a scanning disc (58) which mounts a unique unfocused light source (60) to project a diverging light beam (12,68) at the surface (14,54) in a circular scan pattern. Light (16) reflected from the surface is received by a sensor (18,80) which produces an output electrical signal (20) having an amplitude and frequency that follow the amplitude and frequency of reflected light received by the sensor. Electrical signals representing amplitude (32) and frequency (36) are suitably combined (38) to provide an output display (40) of magnitude of orange peel. A point light source (106-116) is provided by removing part of the integral lens (108) of a conventional light emitting diode and roughening the surface (112) exposed by removal of the lens to provide a diffusing exit window for the diode. A plate (114) having an aperture (116) smaller than the size of the light emitting chip (96) of the diode is placed on the roughened surface and a lens (130) is employed to control divergence of light from the point source so as to provide an unfocused, slightly diverging light beam (134).