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:
Aug. 28, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 22, 1999
Gary W. Walters, Escondido, CA (US);
Central Purchasing, Inc., Camarillo, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is embodied in a hand held caliper with a hand movable slide, whose motion is transformed into rotation of an apertured multi-row encoder disk, a radiation source and a radiation detector. The present invention accurately measures a linear dimension using a simple, efficient, and durable digital measuring system. Accuracy of 0.0001″ is attained, greater than the 0.0005″ of the prior art, without encountering greater manufacturing costs, by utilizing well known fabrication techniques when producing the multi-row encoder disk, and otherwise using well known and inexpensive technology. The present invention does not require a motion dampening device, as errors may be determined and signal jitter are compensated for in the invention electronically or through the use of software, which adds little or no additional cost to the system and does not add mechanical complexity. Further, the present invention only requires a single rotatable disk to determine the direction of rotation, and no phase offset circuitry, through the use of dual rows of light emitting slots in the disk, the slots being offset between rows by 90° (in quadrature), but may be offset by as little as 10°.