Liquid level indicator

General Information

Liquid level indicator for storage tank is a patent designed by Lary Wilkins, owner of ERL Performance , ERL inc, ERL Marine, Law Valve of Texas and other research and technology ventures. It has been registered with USPTO on May 4th, 1999 under the patent number 5,900,546. ?

Abstract

A railroad tank car containing liquid, has a tube through its top, with the closed lower end of the tube in the liquid. A float slidable along the tube exterior is magnetically coupled to an ultrasound reflector piston inside the tube so that, when the tube is in the liquid in the tank, the float determines the height of the piston inside the tube. An ultrasonic transducer atop the tube sends pulses down the tube and which are reflected by the piston to the transducer. A computer coupled to the transducer determines and displays the liquid level. The piston is cup-shaped with a known distance between reflecting surfaces for use in the computer to produce a display value corrected for temperature variations.

• Figure 1
  Figure 1
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  Figure 2
• Figure 2a
  Figure 2a
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  Figure 3
• Figure 4
  Figure 4

External links

Patent .pdf from USTPO