Electrical pulse counters – pulse dividers – or shift registers: c – Electromechanical counter – With resetting
Patent
1987-05-20
1989-04-11
Heyman, John S.
Electrical pulse counters, pulse dividers, or shift registers: c
Electromechanical counter
With resetting
377 92, 235103, 235144PN, 235144SP, G06M 136
Patent
active
048213004
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
b 1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to roller counters including at least two digit rollers arranged on a common axis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Roller counters are in particular used as kilometer counters or mileage counters for vehicles but are also used as counters in sound recorders, video recorders and so on. In a known construction of such a roller counter, the leaf spring provided for each roller is maintained on the digit roller by means of protrusions designed like pins, some of the pins facing the inner side of the spring and some of the pins facing the outer side of the spring. It has been found that this provides for a secure positioning of the leaf spring but not for a definite predetermined position of the spring in all counters. As a consequence, the initial stress by which the legs of the leaf spring make contact with the pestle and, respectively, the lock pawl, is subject to wide variations from digit roll to digit roll. The result is that the stepping procedure and, respectively, the zero stepping procedure is inexact, resulting in reading errors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to improve the mounting of the leaf spring on the digit roller of a roller counter such that the leaf spring contacts the lock pawl and the pestle with a predetermined initial force so that both these component parts are loaded with a predetermined pre-load and, thus, experience the same pre-load conditions for all digit rollers of the roller counter as well as for roller counters of the same construction.
This object of the invention is achieved by forming the protrusions into walls contacting the leaf spring and accompanying both legs of the leaf spring at its outer side as well as its inner side. A further wall is also provided at the outer surface of the bent area of the leaf spring and accompanies the bend of the leaf spring. In the construction according to the invention, there is, thus, always a surface in contact between the wall protrusions and the leaf spring, whereas contact is always only a line contact in the initially described known prior art construction. During assembly, the leaf spring is brought into a definite predetermined position, so that the leaf spring contacts with its legs the pestle and, respectively, the lock pawl with a definite predetermined pre-load even if the leaf spring has a varying angular aperture of both legs due to production tolerances. The walls accompanying the inner surface and the outer surface, respectively, of the leaf spring provide for a definite mounted position of the leaf spring so that any mis-assembling is prevented.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, both legs of the leaf spring are, up to the beginning of the bent area, accompanied by two equal wall pairs and the outer walls of these wall pairs are joined together in a manner arcuately extending around the bent area. In this manner, there results a pocket-like seat for the leaf spring which facilitates assembly of the leaf spring, on the one hand, and maintains the leaf spring in position in an optimum manner, on the other hand. A symmetrical design of both wall pairs is particularly suitable for leaf springs of symmetric design, i.e., leaf springs having legs of equal length, because in this case each leg of the leaf spring can be put into each slot formed of both wall pairs, so that the leaf spring can be inserted into its mounting at the digit roller in each of both possible positions.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the arrangement is such that, within the area of the apex of the bent area, the wall facing the inner side of the leaf spring is relieved relative to the leaf spring, so that within this area the leaf spring is not contacted at its inner side by a wall. It has in some cases been found that the leaf spring tends to experience an uprising movement if the wall pairs continuously follow the curvature of the leaf spring.
According to the invention, the walls maintaining the leaf spr
REFERENCES:
patent: 2673685 (1954-03-01), Hoffmann
patent: 2966301 (1960-12-01), Fowlie
Heyman John S.
VanOphem Remy J.
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