i1-SCALE

摘要

il-Scale is capable of measuring all axle loads of semi-tractor trailers and other heavy duty vehicles. The electronic data is formatted into a certified electronic document that may be transmitted by wire or wireless to email, cell phone text message, and other telecommunication devices, facsimile, or printer for hard copy. The document includes: a time and date stamp, the time zone where the loads were measured, a GPS location of where the loads were measured, and a record of all axle loads and gross vehicle weight. The il-Scale is portable and may be used in a stationary environment. The il-Scale is comprised of a: light weight frame, piloted vertical stiffening plate, a detachable sensing element containing electro-mechanical or mechanical sensors, fasteners, a rechargeable battery pack, a bulkhead and access panels, and an on off switch. An auxiliary wire or wireless indicator light, with standalone battery pack, aids in axle alignment relative to the scale.

主权项

1. The electro-mechanical design and methods for axle load measuring, certification, and displaying axle weight data for transportation vehicles and transportation containers as it applies to the il-Scale. Said electro-mechanical design includes: shaped components, piloted features, materials, configurations, sensors and sensor elements. Said term certification means that the measured weight is traceable to standards set by local or global governing authorities. Said term display includes the measured axle weight quantity, the date, the time and time zone when the axle weight was measured, and the location of where the axle weight was measured. Said shaped components include but are not limited to pluralities of: tubular section designs and stiffeners of circular, elliptical, square, rectangular, oval, and triangular sections and truncations thereof. Said section designs may be hollow or solid, plates and shells of any developed surface with or without lightening holes with uniform, tapered, or stepped thickness prescriptions and pluralities thereof. The assemblage of said shaped components may be such that the system is retractable, along the forward and aft direction and perpendicular to that, using guided collars and linkages—and any other retracting mechanism know to those of ordinary skill in the art. Said retractable mechanism may have pin and hole settings, and pluralities thereof, for sizing platform distance along the forward and aft direction substantially. Said piloted features may span the whole length of the sensing element or may pilot the vertical stiffening plate to the sensor element in 1, 2, 3 or a plurality of contact locations. Said piloted features may be shaped as but not limited to a plurality of: bumps, ridges, flats, rounds or any other shape known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Said features may have any possible associated dimensions. Said materials may be aluminum, alloys, steel, and composites: metal matrix or epoxy or other material combinations and—or—a plurality of hybrid combinations of said materials. Said sensors may be purely mechanical or electro-mechanical in nature. Said sensors may be a plurality mounted in any orientation in order to measure the axle loads; and may be detachable for calibration and or replacement. Said sensors may be housed in any shaped containment including but not limited to the following primitive shapes: spheroids, ellipsoids, trapezoids, triangular forms, pseudo-circular, pseudo-ellipsoids and combinations thereof in plurality. Said sensors may be tamper resistant. Said shaped containments may be made of any material such as but not limited to aluminum, aluminum alloys, composites and hybrid combinations thereof in plurality—or—may be discarded from the configuration with the electronic sensors mounted directly to the frame or stiffening plate. Adhesives, coatings, plating, and other manufacturing enhancements for the mechanical design of this invention also are claimed under the electro-mechanical design of the il-Scale.A routine for calculating the optimal location of the individual pallets on a container floor. Said routine depends on, but is not limited to: pallet load from sensors, center of mass coordinates of material on pallet, and container geometry. Said routine may be an algorithm programmed into the measurement system central processing unit with the aim of optimizing substantially where the pallet load should be placed to minimize the unbalance of the total payload. Output of said routine may be relayed to the fork truck operator by audio or a display screen identifying where the pallet load should be place on the floor of the container. Said sensors 0001 may be mechanical, electronic, or electro-mechanical. Usage of shallow inclines in combination with stationary or portable scales such as the preferred embodiment and other techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art are essential to the calculation of center of gravity coordinates. The overall center of gravity of the loaded container can be determined with the same approach. Said routine may leverage stochastic methods and statistical processes along with a plurality of sensors and inclines sufficient to accurately determine weight distribution along the length of said transportation vehicles and said transportation containers. Said stochastic methods used in optimizing the pallet locations may be those which model random processes: discrete time, continuous time, both discrete and continuous time, fields and other modeling schemes, time series models, queuing models, and other known models to those skilled in the art.A method for weighing, certifying, and displaying weigh data for transportation vehicles and transportation containers. Said method is a plurality of weighing devices sufficient to accurately determine weight distribution along the length of said transportation vehicles and said transportation containers where said weighing devices are analog or digital devices.A plurality of data transmission devices connected by wire or wireless to said weighing devices 0003A means of data collection from each said data transmission device 0004. Said data collection is electronically stored.A means of data computation on data from said data collection 0005 means.The data computation of claim 0006 wherein said data computation is done by electronic computationA means of displaying results to a machine or human electronically or by hardcopy, whereby, a human or machine can weigh transportation vehicles or transportation containers and receive accurate information on weight.