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ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR DETERMINING THE HEIGHT, WIDTH, LENGTH AND VOLUME OF A CONTAINER

  • US 3,819,918 A
  • Filed: 03/19/1973
  • Issued: 06/25/1974
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/19/1973
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A device capable of sensing and recording the length, width, height and volume of a container as the container passes through said device on a conveyor system, said device comprising:

  • a rectangular frame member having a top, two sides and a bottom and being open at its ends;

    means for conveying a container through said frame member at a preset velocity;

    a first and second row of photo transistors with the first row of photo transistors mounted on the bottom or top of said frame member and the second row of photo transistors mounted on one of the side of said frame member;

    two elongate, parabolic mirrors with the first parabolic mirror mounted along the top or bottom of said frame opposite said first row of photo transistors and the second parabolic mirror mounted along the side of said frame opposite said second row of photo transistors;

    a first and second quartz light source and means for directing the light produced by said first quartz light source against the first parabolic mirror and means for directing the light produced by said second quartz light source against the second parabolic mirror whereby the light reflected by said parabolic mirrors is in equal length, parallel light rays;

    means for directing said equal length, parallel light rays from said first parabolic mirror against said first row of photo transistors and means for directing said equal length, parallel light rays from said second parabolic mirror against said second row of photo transistors;

    means for cooling said quartz light ources;

    a travel sensor and encoder means which produces recurring signals, each signal corresponding to a preset degree of advancement of said container through said frame;

    electronic circuitry means for testing each photo transistor in said first and second rows of photo transistors for its current conducting characteristics every time said encoder produces a signal;

    means for detecting and holding in memory the number of photo transistors in each of said first and second rows of photo transistors whIch will fail to conduct a test current during said testing, whereby the number of photo transistors in said first and second rows of photo transistors, respectively, which failed to conduct said test current are representative of the width and height respectively of the portion of the container directly over said first row of photo transistors at the time of each test;

    means for detecting and holding in memory the number of pulses produced by said encoder during which there were continuous detection of photo transistors which failed to conduct said test current, said number of pulses being representative of the length of the portion of said container which has passed over the first row of photo transistors;

    means for multiplying the signal representative of the instantaneous height of said container by the signal representative of the corresponding instantaneous width of said container and multiplying the product thereof by the signal representative of the distance advanced by said container between consecutive pulses of said encoder to produce a signal representative of the incremental volume of said container;

    means for adding the signals representative of the incremental volumes to produce a signal representative of the total volume of said container; and

    means to register or display the computed volume of said container.

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