Patents Assigned to Flintab
  • Patent number: 5308933
    Abstract: A truck scale has a weighbridge built with two parallel beams for carrying the wheels of a truck. The beams are laterally interconnected, and are each narrower than half the width of the weighbridge, so there is a gap at the center between the beams. Each beam rests directly on load cell devices supported by foundation members. In very long scales each beam is composed of shorter sections, each supported by a pair of load cell devices. The gap in the center of the weighbridge is covered by removable cover plates or blocks, which may have side walls extending above the beams to limit the lateral travel of truck wheels on the scale.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1992
    Date of Patent: May 3, 1994
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventor: Nils G. Ahl
  • Patent number: 5224561
    Abstract: Weighing of railway cars is accomplished by replacing a short section of fixed rail with a weigh-rail, and supporting the weigh-rail as well as sections of the fixed rail near the weigh-rail on an added foundation structure. The weigh-rail has a weigh-rail body for supporting the wheels of the railway car, and two dual shear beam load cells arranged transverse to the weigh-rail body. The weigh-rail is supported on the foundation structure solely by the four ends of the two dual shear beam load cells, and bumpers are arranged adjacent the ends of the load cells for maintaining the weigh-rail body aligned with the fixed rail ends. Bumpers are also arranged to prevent one end of the weigh-rail from flipping upwards when a railway car wheel enters the other end of the weigh-rail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 6, 1993
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventor: Nils G. Ahl
  • Patent number: 5135062
    Abstract: A strain gage transducer system, such as a load cell based weighing system, is protected against moisture related errors by an electrically conducting guard circuit for terminals and other parts subject to wet or humid conditions. The guard circuit is connected to an electrical potential close to a potential of signal terminals in a strain gage bridge, for instance to a center tap in a power supply for the strain gage bridge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 1991
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1992
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventors: Harry E. Lockery, Rolf P. Haggstrom
  • Patent number: 5086856
    Abstract: A weighing method for a wheel supported load, such as a hospital bed, uses a weighing device having a base with a flat bottom surface, and a track surface for a wheel arranged parallel to the bottom surface. The track surface is supported on an arrangement for sensing weight which includes a pair of cantilever bending beams with strain gages, and one end of the track surface extends beyond the end of the flat bottom surface. To start weighing, the weighing device is first tilted, so the track surface can be wedged between a wheel and the floor. In this position the track surface acts as a ramp for the wheel. The wheel is next rolled up onto the track surface until it is above the front edge of the flat bottom surface. At this point the weighing device will flip over by gravity to rest on the flat bottom surface, and the weighing of the load can be done without risk for force shunting to the floor. A weighing device suitable for use with the method is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 1990
    Date of Patent: February 11, 1992
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventor: Rolf P. Haggstrom
  • Patent number: 4979580
    Abstract: A force or weight measuring load cell arrangement of the planar gaged plate load cell type with bending beam members is made insensitive to the point of load application by bonding strain gages alternately on the top surfaces and on the bottom surfaces of bending beam members and shunting half-bridges by pairs of substantially equal resistors to reduce the errors caused by corner loading.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1989
    Date of Patent: December 25, 1990
    Assignee: Flintab
    Inventor: Harry E. Lockery
  • Patent number: 4958526
    Abstract: A strain gage load cell is adjusted to zero output signal at no load or a fixed tare load on the load cell independent of the load cell temperature by shunting a pair of opposing arms of the strain gage bridge by equal resistors, and connecting a pair of equal resistors between opposite terminals of the power supply for the strain gage bridge and opposite corners of the output terminals of the strain gage bridge. The zero adjustment according to the invention is especially useful with load cell arrangements where individual strain gage elements must have equalized sensitivities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1989
    Date of Patent: September 25, 1990
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventor: Rolf P. Haggstrom
  • Patent number: 4804053
    Abstract: A compression type load cell is provided consisting of a self-stabilizing rocker pin symmetrical about a primary longitudinal axis for measuring a load force applied to the load cell. Strain gages mounted circumferentially around a center section of the rocker pin measure the compressive force corresponding to the load force. Also provided is a weighing apparatus comprising a weighbridge with horizontal load transmitting surfaces resting on a plurality of self-stabilizing rocker pin load cells supported by horizontal base surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 1987
    Date of Patent: February 14, 1989
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventor: Kjell H. Nordstrom
  • Patent number: 4529982
    Abstract: Location-representative signals are communicated to vehicles (12, 14, 16) by modifying existing traffic detector stations of the type utilizing an inductive coil (20) embedded in the roadway (22). Circuitry (44-52) is provided for generating a carrier signal modulated in accordance with a modulating signal representative of the location of an associated traffic detector station. A transformer (56) couples the modulated carrier signal into the existing inductive coil such that the coil establishes a magnetic field above the roadway which is modulated by the location representative signals. The vehicles have inductive coils (70) mounted thereon for sensing the modulated magnetic fields, and circuitry (72, 74, 76) for extracting the location-representative signals therefrom. The location-representative signals may then be, e.g., automatically transmitted to a central dispatching station (18).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1982
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1985
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventors: Krister Karlstrom, Rolf Fabricius-Hansen
  • Patent number: 4346771
    Abstract: A device, particularly suited for weighing loads carried on pallets, featuring a low-profile, non-platform, U-shaped, shear-beam load cell scale adapted to receive a load moved by a pallet mover. The forks on the pallet mover can be lowered to the point where they are free of contact with the loaded pallet, so that the pallet mover is being supported by the floor in an opening defined by horizontally-extending legs of the U-shaped frame while the pallet and its load are supported by the legs of the U-shaped scale frame. This allows the weighing operation to be accomplished without moving the pallet mover away from the scale.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1981
    Date of Patent: August 31, 1982
    Assignee: Flintab Vagsystem AB
    Inventors: Per-olof G. Persson, Gote A. Goterdal
  • Patent number: 4170268
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining the weight of a railway supported vehicle. A pair of spaced apart rails which are engageable with wheels of the vehicle are supported by a longitudinally extending sleeper or tie member which extends transversely to the rails and which is disposed beneath the rails and extends outwardly of both sides of the rails. The longitudinal end portions of the sleeper member which are disposed outwardly of the pair of spaced apart rails are supported in a manner which allows deflection of the sleeper member in response to forces applied thereto by the rails. A means is provided for providing a signal which varies as a function of the strain in the sleeper, which means preferably measures either the shear strain or the bending strain in the sleeper. The signal is then processed to provide an indication of the weight of the vehicle supported on the rails.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1977
    Date of Patent: October 9, 1979
    Assignee: Flintab AB
    Inventors: Kjell H. Nordstrom, Rune N. A. Flinth