Remote Gas Cylinder Measurement System and Methods

摘要

The present invention relates to a system and method of remotely sensing the fill level of liquefied gas within containers. There are many gas types which are compressed into liquid form to fit into many sizes of cylinders for many purposes. Principal gas types are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium, and acetylene. More specifically, this invention relates to an apparatus and method of remotely determining the remaining liquefied gas which is present in the cylinder and reporting it through an internet website or messaging system to the business responsible for keeping the cylinder filled. The chief benefit of the system is to eliminate two situations; 1) a replacement tank is dispatched when none is needed, and 2) the user of the tank, i.e. a restaurant, runs out of gas and there is no replacement gas available for some time. Both situations cause customer aggravation or increased costs.

主权项

1. A system to determine the amount of liquified gas remaining inside a container, the system comprising:
a. a housing configured to support the entire weight of said container; b. a substantially rigid weigh plate supporting the weight of said container and said housing; c. a plurality of load cells coupled between said weigh plate and a weigh scale base, the plurality of strain gauges operative to collectively support substantially all of the weight resting on said weigh plate, including the weight of said container; d. the system further characterized in that the plurality of strain gauges are disposed with respect to the weigh plate such that each load cell weighs a portion of the weight of said container; e. said plurality of strain gauges each operative to produce an analog voltage in a known proportion to the weight supported by each load cell; f. a microprocessor controlled electronic circuit board operative to: sample said analog voltages produced by said plurality of strain gauges; and, produce a digitized weight value that is representative of the weight of said container; g. said microprocessor controlled electronic circuit board interacts with an on board memory and is operative to send and receive data to and from, respectively, a communication network; h. said microprocessor controlled electronic circuit board being further operative to respond to data received from said communication network by: sampling said analog voltages, producing said digitized weight value, and sending said digitized weight value to said communication network.