Electrical pulse counters – pulse dividers – or shift registers: c – Applications – Counting animate or inanimate entities
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-03
2001-03-13
Wambach, Margaret R. (Department: 2816)
Electrical pulse counters, pulse dividers, or shift registers: c
Applications
Counting animate or inanimate entities
C377S008000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06201848
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to an article counter, and, more particularly, to such an article counter designed for use by a commercial laundry. As articles to be laundered pass through a pneumatic chute, they drop through a special chamber in which a light beam is internally reflected within a five sided chamber to form a star shaped pattern and then directed to a light beam receiver. The star shaped pattern offers much improved light beam coverage of the chamber such that any article passing through any part of the chamber will pass through at least one of the reflected beams, thus reliably breaking the beam and toggling a counter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Counters for counting articles, such as laundry articles, passing through a chute are well known. Many such counters operate by the use of a light beam emitter positioned on one side of the chute directing light to a light beam receiver on the opposite side of the chute. An electronic counter is triggered by each interruption of the beam by an article of laundry passing through the chute.
A problem with these prior art arrangements is the limited beam coverage of the chute. In other words, a single beam of light passing through the center of the chute can be missed by a small article of laundry, such as a napkin, handkerchief or the like, dropping through the chute along one side thereof. This results in inaccurate article counts and a consequent loss of revenue to the laundry since charges are typically made based upon counted numbers of laundered articles.
It is clear then, that a need exists for an improved commercial laundry article counter. Such a counter should insure that even small laundry items passing through a chute are guaranteed to break a portion of the light beam and thus toggle the counter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In the practice of the present invention, a special, five sided chamber is placed in a laundry chute such that any laundry article passing through the chute must also pass through the chamber. Four of the five sides of the chamber are mirrored on the inside surface thereof and a light beam emitter and a light beam receiver are positioned along the remaining side of the chamber, which is transparent to allow light beams to enter and exit the chamber. The light beam emitter is directed at the center of one of the four mirrored sides and the light beam receiver is directed at the center of an adjacent one of the four mirrored sides. Reflection of the light beam internally within the five sided chamber is such that the light beam forms a star pattern before returning to the light beam receiver. This star pattern gives much greater light beam coverage to the chamber than with prior art light beam counters and insures that any article of laundry passing through the chute will block at least a portion of the star shaped light beam. An electronic counter is connected to the light beam receiver and is responsive to any breaking of the light beam to register a count with each passage of an article of laundry.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
The principle objects and advantages of the present invention include: to provide an improved article counter; to provide such an article counter which is designed especially for commercial laundries; to provide such an article counter in which a five sided chamber is internally mirrored along four sides thereof, with the internal mirrors being positioned to reflect a light beam from a light beam emitter to a light beam receiver; to provide such an article counter in which the fifth side is transparent to allow light from the emitter to enter the chamber and reflected light to exit the chamber; to provide such an article counter which has greatly improved beam coverage, and thus counter accuracy when compared to prior art counters; and to provide such an article counter which is reliable and economical to manufacture and which is particularly well suited for its intended purpose.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4484066 (1984-11-01), DeBlieux et al.
patent: 4849999 (1989-07-01), Humphreys et al.
Count On Us, Corporation
Shughart Thomson & Kilroy P.C.
Wambach Margaret R.
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