Weighing scales – With casing closure or shield
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2001-06-12
Gibson, Randy W. (Department: 2859)
Weighing scales
With casing closure or shield
C177S240000, C177S243000, C177S181000, C700S028000, C700S084000, C700S302000, C706S014000, C708S144000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246018
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Precision scales with wind guards
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to balances or scales, with an enclosed weighing area which surrounds this balance scale on all sides and which can be opened and closed along at least part of one side by shifting a moveable wall element and with control electronics for the moveable wall element and with control electronics for the drive motor.
Balances with wind guards are known. For example, DE-OS 37 41 313 describes such a balance which comprises a cylindrical wind guard, and EP 0 234 008 describes a balance with a boxlike wind guard.
A disadvantage of these known balances is the fact that the time required for a complete opening and closing of the weighing area by the motor is relatively long and additional time must pass before air turbulence in the weighing area has completely subsided after the closing of the wind guard.
Other balances or scales with wind guards with at least two moveable wall elements, which can be opened or closed either by hand or by a motor, with a display unit, an electronic control, and an opening control buttons, whereby at least two of the opening keys are assigned to the motor-operation of the wind guard.
A balance of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,692 to Melcher et. al. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,692 a learning phase is described, which is activated by the operation of a key or a combination of keys and by which the desired end position of the wind guard at opening will be stored.
A disadvantage of this known balance is the fact that the assignment of the moveable wall elements to the operating keys is not very flexible and that the activation of the learning phase requires an additional key or the remembering of a specific combination of keys.
The invention has the object of designing a balance with a motor driven wind guard in such a manner that the opening and closing of the weighing area is faster and there is diminished subsequent air turbulence.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to give the operator a flexible arrangement of the moveable wall elements using the operating or control element and to enable the synchronous opening of various wall elements, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,793 to provide slidable connecting bars between the individual wall elements and the operating element, which will connect the wall elements with each other and with the operating element. However, this mechanical solution is costly to manufacture and again requires a conscious intervention of the operator to engage or disengage the corresponding connecting bars. Furthermore, only a single combination of wall elements can be entered; any other combination requires a new sliding of connecting bars.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a flexible arrangement between the individual moveable wall elements and the pressed keys, without the use of hand-operated connecting bars, with the fewest keystrokes and where the learning phase completes practically unnoticed by the operator.
In accordance with the present invention this is achieved by assigning a memory to each operating key, in which the wall element(s) to be opened or closed by this key is/are stored, by providing a detector for each movable wall element, which will detect the manual operation of the corresponding wall element effected by the operator of the balance and by the activation of a learning phase as the response to at least one of the detectors.
Furthermore, the operation of a key in this learning phase stores the moveable wall element(s) that is/are open at the moment and is/are herewith assigned to the pressed key(s) and the learning phase is herewith finalized.
Therefore, the assignment of the operating keys to the individual moveable wall elements is not preprogrammed, but stored during a learning phase in a storage. The learning phase is started automatically when either one or more moveable wall elements is/are pushed open by hand, and it is switched off automatically when this/these wall element(s) is/are closed by pressing an operating key.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4700793 (1987-10-01), Luechinger
patent: 4789034 (1988-12-01), Lüchinger et al.
patent: 4798250 (1989-01-01), Knothe et al.
patent: 4862401 (1989-08-01), Kibli et al.
patent: 5058692 (1991-10-01), Melcher et al.
patent: 5152356 (1992-10-01), Strickler et al.
patent: 5567918 (1996-10-01), Bachmann et al.
patent: 5589670 (1996-12-01), Berli
patent: 5841076 (1998-11-01), Schwartz et al.
patent: 3741 313 (1988-07-01), None
patent: 0 234 008 (1987-09-01), None
Gibson Randy W.
Sartorius AG
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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