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. 11, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1997
Youe-Tsyr Chu, Knoxville, TN (US);
Joseph M Yankey, Loudon, TN (US);
Michael H Reynolds, Knoxville, TN (US);
Ian F Oxley, Knoxville, TN (US);
Stefan Weidmann, Knoxville, TN (US);
Hossein M Ghorashi, Knoxville, TN (US);
Zellweger Uster, Inc., , NC (US);
Abstract
A device for measuring properties of fiber in a sliver is constructed with a first and second curved aluminum guide piece that is coated with either Teflon or ceramic. The guides compress the sliver of fiber. A Xenon bulb provides light which passes through a first transparent window located in the first guide piece. The light then passes through the sliver of fiber and out of a second transparent window located in the second curved guide piece. The light is then focused by optics upon a charge coupled device camera. The charge coupled device camera uses an array of pixels to create an image of the compressed sliver of fiber. A pulse generator provides simultaneous trigger signals to the Xenon bulb and the camera so that the image of the sliver of fiber is created at the same time as the light is produced. Processing means identify patterns of dark pixels in the array as trash, neps, seed coat neps, and other impurities in the fiber by comparing the patterns of pixels in the array with patterns in a lookup table.