Did You Know...
...that power steering was invented by independent inventor Francis W. Davis? As chief engineer in the 1920s of the truck division of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company, he saw how hard it was to steer heavy vehicles. So that he would be able to keep the profits from his future invention, Davis left his job, rented a small engineering shop in Waltham, Mass., and developed a hydraulic power steering system that led to power steering.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8188420 | High resolution optical encoder systems having a set of light detecting elements each comprising a pair of complementary detectors (as amended) Disclosed are various embodiments of front-end analog circuitry for use in conjunction with optical encoders. Highly accurate analog output signals are provided by front-end analog circuitry in incremental or absolute motion encoders to interpolation circuitry, whic... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8158925 | Rotor type orientation sensor having plural emitters and two receivers A rotor type orientation sensor includes a housing, a plurality of light emitters, two light receivers and a rotor. The housing has a circular tunnel and a plurality of first openings connecting to the tunnel and two second openings located on two sides of the first... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8158924 | Optical encoder assembly with a flexible beam An optical encoder assembly has an encoder sensor, a code strip, and a base having a first portion and a second portion, wherein the encoder sensor is mounted on one of either the first portion or the second portion and the code strip is mounted on the other portion... | 04/17/2012 |
| 8148674 | Optical encoder for detecting relative rotation angle for two members An optical encoder, with a simple structure, that can output a high-precision origin signal is provided. Rotary origin phase slits (112), which are formed into a pattern of linear slits arranged in parallel at equal pitches, are prepared for a rotary d... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8138468 | Rotary disk eccentricity measurement method, rotary encoder, and image forming apparatus including the rotary encoder An eccentricity measurement method of measuring the eccentricity of a rotary disk of a rotary encoder includes forming, on the rotary disk, at least one first straight-line pattern group in a different radial direction including a plurality of straight-line patterns... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8124928 | Optical encoder comprising two pattern arrays and several bell shaped light guides An optical encoder for measuring the rotary angle of a rotating shaft comprising an electronic board with light emitter and light sensor means disposed between a pair of overlying light guides having a common symmetry axis that coincides with the shaft rotation axis... | 02/28/2012 |
| 8115163 | Encoder having oil mist prevention structure An encoder having an oil mist prevention structure includes: an encoding body including a cylindrical base, a light emitter and a secondary encoding piece; an oil-containing bearing received and fixed in the cylindrical base; a shaft penetrating the oil-containing b... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8097842 | High resolution single track optical encoder Disclosed are various embodiments of a single track reflective optical encoder featuring increased spatial resolution, reduced cross-talk between adjoining photodiodes, and increased amplitude output signals from individual photodiodes. With respect to prior art sin... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8093546 | Out-of-round coder An angle sensor for detecting an out-of-round condition includes a disc supporting angle coder rigidly attached to a rotating shaft and at least one fixed optical system including a coherent light source emitting a beam interfering with the angle coder of the suppor... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8089040 | Encoder assembly An encoder assembly includes an encoder, a fixing cover for receiving the encoder, and a protecting cover for receiving the fixing cover. The encoder includes a main body, and a trumpet-shaped rubber collar extending from a first end of the main body. The fixing cov... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8044338 | Electronic device for counting and storing the number of rotations of an object and the number of counter resets A device for counting the number of rotations of an object in a system, in which a storage means carries counting data designed to represent the number of rotations counted. The counting data is used for conditionally resetting the storage means if and only if two s... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8039786 | Absolute position encoder obtains signals corresponding to individual imaging ranges of imaging optical systems In an absolute position detection type photoelectric encoder devised so as to detect a pseudorandom pattern disposed on a main scale by means of a plurality of imaging optical systems, assembling of the absolute position detection type photoelectric encoder is facil... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8035079 | Optical encoder An optical encoder includes a scale, and a detecting head which is disposed facing the scale. The scale is provided with a grating which has a predetermined optical pattern with respect to a direction of relative movement, and the detecting head is provided with a l... | 10/11/2011 |
| 8026474 | Device for transferring light signals between two elements relatively movable to one another To ensure an energy-efficient transfer of light signals between two elements of a machine which are movable relative to one another, a device and a method for transferring light signals between such elements is provided. A first element has a plurality of light sour... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8022354 | Absolute position length measurement type encoder The absolute position length measurement type encoder is provided with a scale for forming bright and dark patterns by the ABS pattern based on a pseudorandom code; an edge position detection circuit for obtaining a position, at which an after-differentiated absolut... | 09/20/2011 |
| 7994470 | Photoelectric encoder The present invention relates to a photoelectric encoder including a scale having a grating (incremental pattern) of a predetermined pitch formed thereon and a light source (light-emitting element) and a light-receiving unit, which are relatively displaceable with r... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7982175 | Miniaturized single track optical encoder system with integrated index channel(s) Disclosed are various embodiments of a reflective optical encoder system having at least three channels—two data channels and at least one index channel. The various configurations of reflective optical encoders disclosed herein permits very high resolution reflec... | 07/19/2011 |
| 7977623 | Optical encoder with code wheel misalignment detection and automatic gain control According to one embodiment, there is provided a device and method for correcting code wheel misalignment which employs upper and lower code wheel misalignment photodetectors positioned above and below at least first and second motion detection photodetectors. Accor... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7952065 | Position detector and a detected element having a pattern for generating a position signal formed thereon As shown in FIG. 1, a position detector (10) includes: an object to be detected having a pattern (2) formed for generating a position signal; and a sensor (3) for detecting the position signal according to the pattern (2) by receiv... | 05/31/2011 |
| 7943897 | Optical encoder and electronic equipment This optical encoder includes a light emitting section and a plurality of light receiving elements placed so as to be aligned in one direction in an area where a light beam from the light emitting section may reach. A moving object includes a light-ON section, a lig... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7939795 | Encoder device and gapping and centering device for an encoder device An encoder device includes: a housing; a hub arranged in the housing, the hub arranged to carry an encoder disk, the hub rotatable in the housing; a cover that is axially movable between a first position and a second position; and a gapping and centering device arra... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7939796 | Electronic device housing An electronic device housing includes a metallic base part 101; a resin part 402 fixed to the base part 101; and a printed circuit board 104 coming into contact with the resin part 402; wherein bonding of the base part 101 t... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7902493 | Rotation angle transmitter and method of scanning a code disc of a rotation angle transmitter An optical rotation angle transmitter includes a code disc that has a digital coding and an analog coding. The digital coding has multiple tracks and is configured so as to be secure against error. A current angle interval can be determined from a plurality of possi... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7888627 | Optical encoder having a stray-light reduction element for reducing strat-light An optical encoder includes a scale which is installed on one member of which, displacement is detected, and a detecting head which is installed on the other member which moves relatively with respect to the one member, and is disposed facing the scale. A predetermi... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7858922 | Position-measuring device A position-measuring device includes a scanning unit and a measuring graduation that is displaceable thereto in at least one measuring direction. The measuring graduation includes two incremental-graduation tracks extending in parallel in the measuring direction, be... | 12/28/2010 |
| 7842913 | Method for determining the position of a first moving component relative to a second component and device for applying said method A method for determining the position of one of two components in relative motion with respect to each other, using optical means, comprises: directing at least one light beam emitted by a light source attached to one component tow... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7838815 | Rotary encoder having a support body rotatable with a rotator, apparatus and system for detecting a rotational movement of a rotator using the rotary encoder A rotary encoder capable of detecting a rotational movement of a rotator with high accuracy, and an apparatus and system for detecting the rotational movement of the rotator using the rotary encoder. ... | 11/23/2010 |
| 7825367 | Rotary encoder [Problems to be Solved] To provide a rotary encoder capable of carrying out self-calibration for a horizontal encoder as well as a vertical encoder without requiring special equipment and simply and inexpensively with a high degree of accuracy while reducing the bur... | 11/02/2010 |
| 7820956 | Optical position transducer systems and methods employing reflected illumination for limited rotation motor systems A position transducer system is disclosed for a limited rotation motor that includes an illumination source that directs illumination toward an illumination reflector that rotates with a rotor of the limited rotation motor, and a plurality of detector areas adjacent... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7795576 | Single dome lens reflective optical encoder Disclosed are various embodiments of high-speed, high-performance, low-noise optical encoders having various means for preventing undesired stray light from reaching light detectors incorporated therein. Structures employed to block stray light in the optical encode... | 09/14/2010 |
| 7781726 | Encoder including a light detecting device having two signal processing sections for pixels in a first and second direction An encoder calculates an absolute value of an operating angle of a scale plate. The scale plate includes light relay portions formed along an operational direction α in the scale plate with a pattern of a one-dimensional array of optically transparent portions and ... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7759634 | Position detecting device capable of improving detection accuracy A position detecting device includes an optical position detecting element and a position information portion which are disposed so as to be opposed to each other. One of the optical position detecting element and the position information portion is mounted on the m... | 07/20/2010 |
| 7732755 | Absolute encoder utilizing light of different wavelengths to reduce cross talk An encoder having a code scale, an illumination system, and a plurality of photodetectors is disclosed. The code scale has a plurality of tracks that are illuminated by the illumination system. Each photodetector receives light from a corresponding one of the tracks... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7732754 | Optical encoder with amplitude correction According to one embodiment, there is provided an optical encoder having a photodetector array comprising motion detection photodetectors and at least one reference photodetector vertically offset from the motion detection photodetectors. The output signal generated... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7723671 | Positional information detecting device A light via first and second index scales is split by a beam splitter, and one of the split lights is received by a first light-receiving element via a movable scale and also the other of the split lights is received by a second light-receiving element via a referen... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7718951 | Encoder arrangement on a direct current motor An encoder arrangement of a direct current motor, having an encoder housing, an encoder disk, a circuit board arranged perpendicular in reference to an motor shaft with an optic sensor encompassing the encoder disk in a U-shaped manner, and a connection plug aligned... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7714273 | Position-measuring device A position-measuring device for generating a reference-pulse signal at at least one reference position includes a scanning unit and also a reflection-measuring graduation displaceable relative thereto in at least one measuring direction. The scanning unit for genera... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7714272 | Optical absolute rotary encoder An optical absolute rotary encoder can have a simple and small structure, for determining the absolute values of rotational positions with high accuracy. The encoder can include an optical scale having an absolute pattern representing a code corresponding to a singl... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7709784 | Optical encoder with code wheel misalignment detection and automatic gain control According to one embodiment, there is provided a device and method for correcting code wheel misalignment which employs upper and lower code wheel misalignment photodetectors positioned above and below at least first and second motion detection photodetectors. Accor... | 05/04/2010 |
| 7705289 | Scanning unit for an optical position-measuring device A scanning unit for an optical position-measuring device includes a semiconductor light source and at least one downstream reflector element that has a defined optical effect on the beams of rays emitted by the semiconductor light source. The optically active surfac... | 04/27/2010 |
