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:
Jan. 02, 2007
Filed:
Oct. 14, 2004
Martin Arnold, Hufingen, DE;
Norbert Irmer, Villingen-Schwenningen, DE;
Martin Arnold, Hufingen, DE;
Norbert Irmer, Villingen-Schwenningen, DE;
Minebea Co., Ltd., Nagano-ken, JP;
Abstract
The invention relates to a method to determine the volume of small, spherical moving objects in which the objects move through the optical path of a photo electric sensor that comprises at least one light beam transmitter and one light beam receiver, and the change in the light intensity at the light beam receiver caused by objects passing through the optical path is registered and converted into an electrical measurement signal by means of an evaluation unit. The invention is distinguished by the fact that before a measurement process, the amplitude of the electric measurement signal is calibrated to a previously determined average standard volume of the objects and during the measurement process, the volume of each measured object is determined using the change in amplitude of the measurement signal.