Methods and apparatus for determining the location of a shaft within a vessel
First Claim
1. An apparatus mountable to a shaft disposed within a vessel and adapted for measuring the magnitude by which the centerline of the shaft is offset from the central axis of the vessel, comprising:
- (a) a housing comprising a coupling component for coupling the housing to the shaft;
(b) a plunger slidably mounted to the housing, the plunger having an outer section extending radially outwardly beyond a wall of the housing, and having means for biasing the plunger radially outwardly;
(c) a transducer operatively mounted to the housing and adapted to encode positions of the plunger and to produce an electrical signal proportional to a change in position resulting from displacement of the plunger; and
(d) means for transferring the signal away from the housing.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for measuring the amount by which the centerline of a shaft disposed in a vessel is offset from the central vertical axis of the vessel, and for measuring the height of such shaft above the inside bottom of the vessel. Apparatus includes a shaft centerline offset measurement device, a shaft height measurement device, and a control/display console. Each measurement device includes a transducer or optical encoder for sensing a displaced position of a biased plunger to which a code strip is mounted. The devices may be combined into a single shaft offset and height measurement device. Improved methods include calculating shaft offset based on a plurality of readings from the transducer, and applying trigonometric relationships. The apparatus and methods are particularly useful in the verification of paddle or basket shafts utilized in dissolution testing stations, so that the dissolution testing protocol complies with government agency guidelines.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. An apparatus mountable to a shaft disposed within a vessel and adapted for measuring the magnitude by which the centerline of the shaft is offset from the central axis of the vessel, comprising:
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(a) a housing comprising a coupling component for coupling the housing to the shaft;
(b) a plunger slidably mounted to the housing, the plunger having an outer section extending radially outwardly beyond a wall of the housing, and having means for biasing the plunger radially outwardly;
(c) a transducer operatively mounted to the housing and adapted to encode positions of the plunger and to produce an electrical signal proportional to a change in position resulting from displacement of the plunger; and
(d) means for transferring the signal away from the housing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus mountable to a shaft disposed within a vessel and adapted for measuring the magnitude by which the centerline of the shaft is offset from the central axis of the vessel, comprising:
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(a) a housing comprising a rear face, a top face, a longitudinal recess, and a clip, the longitudinal recess defined by a recess wall extending inwardly toward an interior of the housing, the longitudinal recess comprising an upper section extending downwardly from the top face, the upper section having a width greater than a width of an adjacent section of the longitudinal recess, the clip extending outwardly from the recess wall within the upper section and comprising a pair of resilient prongs;
(b) a plunger slidably mounted to the housing, the plunger having an outer section biased to extend radially outwardly beyond a wall of the housing;
(c) a transducer operatively mounted to the housing and adapted to encode positions of the plunger and to produce an electrical signal proportional to a change in position resulting from displacement of the plunger; and
(d) means for transferring the signal away from the housing. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An apparatus mountable to a shaft disposed within a vessel and adapted for measuring the magnitude by which the centerline of the shaft is offset from the central axis of the vessel, comprising:
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(a) a housing;
(b) a plunger slidably mounted to the housing, the plunger having an outer section biased to extend radially outwardly beyond a wall of the housing;
(c) a transducer operatively mounted to the housing and adapted to encode positions of the plunger and to produce an electrical signal proportional to a change in position resulting from displacement of the plunger;
(d) means for transferring the signal away from the housing; and
(e) a device for interpreting the signal, the device disposed remotely in relation to the housing and communicating with the signal transferring means. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification