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. 05, 2006
Filed:
May. 18, 2005
Nobukazu Kondo, Tokyo, JP;
Nobukazu Kondo, Tokyo, JP;
Tok Engineering Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A metallic contaminant detecting method and apparatus according to the present invention detect metallic contaminants mixed in objects under inspection, such as food products, pharmaceuticals, and materials for industrial use, which are wrapped in electrically conductive packaging materials, e.g. aluminum. A small magnetic field is generated by applying a voltage to coils () or supplying an electric current to the coils. A detection magnetic field generated from a metallic contaminant in response to the small magnetic field is detected as a detection voltage or a detection current of the coils (), and a detection signal is output. The detection signal is analyzed to detect the metallic contaminant. The small magnetic field is created by applying a small voltage or supplying a small electric current to the coils () and using a non-linear portion of the magnetic field characteristics of cores constituting the coils ().