Fluid level detection system for ink in a printing press

US5694974A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Goss Graphic Systems Limited · US

Inventors

• Thaddeus A. Niemiro · Lisle, US
• Frederick J. Whiting · Burr Ridge, US
• John W. Manser · Elgin, US
• Joseph Vucko · Lemont, US
• Frank Czajka · Libertyville, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 24, 1996
• Grant date: Dec 9, 1997
• Expiry date: Jan 24, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T137/7306
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A fluid level detection system (50) for ink in a printing press (10) having a vessel (58) having walls (60) defining a chamber (62), an elongated rotatable shaft (64) in the chamber (62), a motor (66) for rotating the shaft (64), an elongated flexible blade (68) affixed to the shaft 64 such that the motor (66) rotates the blade (68), and a proximity sensor (72) adjacent the walls (60) of the vessel (58) to detect the rotating blade (68) in the absence of ink at the level of the blade (68), with the blade (68) flexing in the presence of ink such that the sensor (72) does not detect the blade (68).