Patent · US Expired

Method and device for monitoring the operational state of a reservoir, for example an ink reservoir

US6164744A · kind A · utility

31Cited by
7References
30Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 25, 1998
Grant dateDec 26, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 25, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01F23/802
  • WIPO fieldTextile and paper machines
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

In order to monitor the state of a reservoir made of electrically insulating material containing a normally electrically conductive product, ink for example, the free end of the outlet channel of the reservoir is connected to a predetermined potential and two measurement procedures are defined, the first of which results in a first measurement signal, a characteristic of which varies mainly with the quantity of product contained in the storage cavity of the reservoir, and the second of which results in a second measurement signal, a characteristic of which varies mainly with the electrical conductivity of the channel between its ends. During the measurements, an abnormality correction procedure (or a simple alarm procedure) is triggered when the characteristic of the second measurement signal indicates a low electrical conductivity of the channel (absence of product) whilst the characteristic of the first signal indicates that there is still product in the storage cavity.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.