Container Scale Signal Summation With Cell-Level Diagnostics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial container and platform scales lack diagnostic and monitoring functions, leading to increased commissioning and maintenance times, and potential errors due to off-center loads, force shunts, and external influences, which can result in inaccurate weight measurements and operational inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A set of container or platform scales with a summing facility that combines individual analog weighing cell signals without reaction, an evaluation facility with an analog/digital converter for digitized signal processing, and a diagnostic facility to monitor and correct for off-center loads, force shunts, and cell malfunctions, providing diagnostic information and automatic adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If diagnostic and monitoring functions are added to container scales or platform scales, then reliability and operational efficiency are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The evaluation facility is designed to perform multiple functions: it not only determines weight values from the complete signal but also digitizes individual weighing cell signals and evaluates them for diagnostic purposes. This multi-functionality allows the system to provide diagnostic information about weighing cell status, center of gravity detection, and error monitoring without adding separate dedicated diagnostic hardware, thereby improving reliability while limiting complexity increase.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediate processing stage where individual weighing cell signals are digitized before being summed. The analog/digital converter acts as an intermediary that enables both the summing facility to receive analog signals for weight measurement and the diagnostic facility to access digitized signals for monitoring. This intermediary approach allows diagnostic functions to be added without fundamentally redesigning the signal summation path.
2Measurement precision
If individual weighing cell signals are summed without reaction to form a complete signal, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of information occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the signal processing into two parallel paths: one path sums the individual weighing cell signals analogously to form the complete signal for weight measurement, while the other path digitizes each individual signal separately for diagnostic evaluation. This segmentation allows the system to maintain measurement precision through analog summing while preserving individual cell information through separate digitization, preventing information loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The individual weighing cell signals are digitized in advance before being summed analogously. This preliminary digitization action ensures that individual cell information is captured and stored in digital form, making it available for later diagnostic evaluation without affecting the analog summing process that determines the final weight measurement.
3Reliability
If diagnostic evaluation of digitized individual signals is implemented, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The evaluation facility is designed as a multi-functional unit that combines weight determination, signal digitization, and diagnostic evaluation capabilities within a single integrated system. The same evaluation facility that determines weight values from the complete signal also performs diagnostic functions by evaluating digitized individual signals, thereby improving reliability without requiring entirely separate diagnostic hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-diagnosis by automatically evaluating its own operational status. The diagnostic facility monitors the individual weighing cell signals, detects errors such as off-center loads or force shunts, and provides diagnostic information about the system's own health, reducing the need for external monitoring equipment and simplifying the overall system architecture.
4Manufacturing precision
If center of gravity determination and automatic adjustments are implemented, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback control by determining the center of gravity from the distribution of weights on individual weighing cells and using this information to automatically adjust the scale's operation. The diagnostic facility provides feedback about the center of gravity position, and the system can automatically compensate for off-center loads by adjusting the summing weights or providing correction factors, thereby improving measurement accuracy without requiring manual recalibration.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary determination of the center of gravity during normal operation to identify potential measurement errors before they affect weight measurements. By continuously monitoring the distribution of forces on individual weighing cells and calculating the center of gravity position, the system can proactively detect and correct for off-center loads, force shunts, or external influences before they compromise measurement precision.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate weight measurements by detecting and correcting for off-center loads and cell malfunctions, reducing maintenance times, and enhancing operational reliability by providing real-time diagnostic information and automatic adjustments.
Implementation Method 1
analog weighing cells with expansion measuring strips (EMS) are used in a bridge circuit
Data Source
AI summary
A set of container or platform scales of which the weighing platform or weighing container is placed on three or four analogous weighing cells, wherein individual signals of the weighing cells are added up in a summing device to form a total signal from which an evaluation device determines a weight value and outputs said weight value, where the summing device is configured to add the individual signals without reaction, where the evaluation device contains an analog/digital converter for digitizing the individual signals and a diagnosis device that evaluates the digitized individual signals to form diagnosis information and outputs the diagnosis information.