Inclination detecting method and apparatus for the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12345561-B2
Application number	US-202017914665-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2020
Priority date	Apr 15, 2020
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

An inclination of a weighing apparatus is automatically detected by the apparatus itself while preventing an increase in the number of components. In order to achieve the object described above, a weighing apparatus includes a weight sensor, a built-in weight to be loaded on the weight sensor, an adding/removing unit for adding/removing the built-in weight, a memory storing a theoretical value of the built-in weight, and an arithmetic processing unit, wherein the arithmetic processing unit includes an inclination angle computing unit configured to obtain an apparatus inclination angle from an arc-cosine of a weighing value of the built-in weight and the theoretical value of the built-in weight.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A weighing apparatus comprising:
a weight sensor;
a built-in weight to be loaded on the weight sensor;
an adding/removing unit for adding/removing the built-in weight;
a memory storing a theoretical value of the built-in weight; and
an arithmetic processing unit, wherein
the arithmetic processing unit includes
an inclination angle computing unit configured to obtain an apparatus inclination angle from an arc-cosine of a weighing value of the built-in weight and the theoretical value of the built-in weight.

2. The weighing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit further includes an inclination angle determining unit configured to compare the apparatus inclination angle with an allowable inclination threshold, and a warning unit configured to issue a warning to prompt leveling when the inclination angle determining unit determines that there is a problem.

3. The weighing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a temperature sensor, wherein
a specification value of sensitivity drift caused by a temperature change and a temperature measurement value of the temperature sensor are stored in the memory,
the arithmetic processing unit includes a sensitivity drift computing unit configured to compute a sensitivity drift value by multiplying the theoretical value of the built-in weight by the specification value of the sensitivity drift and a difference between a current temperature measurement value of the temperature sensor and a temperature measurement value acquired at the time of execution of a previous calibration, and
the inclination angle computing unit obtains the apparatus inclination angle after subtracting the sensitivity drift value from the theoretical value of the built-in weight.

4. The weighing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the arithmetic processing unit further includes an inclination angle determining unit configured to compare the apparatus inclination angle with an allowable inclination threshold, a sensitivity drift determining unit configured to compare the sensitivity drift value with an allowable drift threshold when the inclination angle determining unit determines that there is a problem, and a warning unit configured to issue a warning to prompt leveling when the inclination angle determining unit determines that there is a problem, and issue a warning to prompt a calibration when the sensitivity drift determining unit determines that there is a problem.

5. The weighing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
an inclination abnormality threshold for suspecting a change in gravitational acceleration caused by an installation location change is further stored in the memory,
the arithmetic processing unit includes an inclination angle additional determining unit configured to compare the apparatus inclination angle with the inclination abnormality threshold, and
the warning unit issues a warning to prompt a calibration for correcting a change in gravitational acceleration when the inclination angle additional determining unit determines that there is a problem.

6. An inclination detecting method comprising:
a step (A) of adding/removing a built-in weight to/from a weight sensor;
a step (B) of calculating a weighing value of the built-in weight; and
a step (C) of obtaining an apparatus inclination angle from an arc-cosine of the weighing value of the built-in weight and a theoretical value of the built-in weight.

7. The inclination detecting method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
a step (D) of issuing a warning to prompt leveling when the apparatus inclination angle exceeds an allowable inclination threshold.

8. The inclination detecting method according to claim 6 , comprising:
before the step (C), a step (E) of computing a sensitivity drift value by multiplying the theoretical value of the built-in weight by a specification value of the sensitivity drift and a difference between a current temperature measurement value of the temperature sensor and a temperature measurement value acquired at the time of execution of a previous calibration, wherein
in the step (C), the apparatus inclination angle is obtained after subtracting the sensitivity drift value from the theoretical value of the built-in weight.

9. The inclination detecting method according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a step (F) of issuing a warning to prompt a calibration when the sensitivity drift value in the step (E) exceeds an allowable drift threshold.

10. The inclination detecting method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
after the step (C), a step (G) of prompting a calibration for correcting a change in gravitational acceleration when the apparatus inclination angle exceeds an inclination abnormality threshold for suspecting a change in gravitational acceleration caused by an installation location change.

11. The weighing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
an inclination abnormality threshold for suspecting a change in gravitational acceleration caused by an installation location change is further stored in the memory,
the arithmetic processing unit includes an inclination angle additional determining unit configured to compare the apparatus inclination angle with the inclination abnormality threshold, and
the warning unit issues a warning to prompt a calibration for correcting a change in gravitational acceleration when the inclination angle additional determining unit determines that there is a problem.

12. The inclination detecting method according to claim 9 , further comprising:
after the step (C), a step (G) of prompting a calibration for correcting a change in gravitational acceleration when the apparatus inclination angle exceeds an inclination abnormality threshold for suspecting a change in gravitational acceleration caused by an installation location change.

13. The weighing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the inclination angle computing unit is configured to obtain an apparatus inclination angle from an arc-cosine determined by a difference between a weighing value of the built-in weight and the theoretical value of the built-in weight.

14. The inclination detecting method of claim 6 , wherein the apparatus inclination angle from an arc-cosine is determined by calculating a difference between a weighing value of the built-in weight and the theoretical value of the built-in weight.

Assignees

• A&D Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sato Yoshikuni
• Nagane Yoshikazu
• Suzaki Satoshi

Classifications

• G01G23/002 Primary

  Means for correcting for obliquity of mounting (for pendulum-weight apparatus G01G1/16) · CPC title

• G01G23/10

  by electric or magnetic means · CPC title

• G01G23/012

  with load cells comprising in-build calibration weights · CPC title

• G06F7/026

  Magnitude comparison, i.e. determining the relative order of operands based on their numerical value, e.g. window comparator · CPC title

• G01G23/48

  Temperature-compensating arrangements (G01G1/14, G01G1/42, G01G3/18 take precedence) · CPC title