Patent ID: 9389130
Filing Date: 2016-07-12
CPC Classification: G01L

Claim Text:
1. A tension measurement assembly for measuring and monitoring a tension force in a cable being deployed from a spooling device on which the cable is spooled, comprising: a spooling device comprising: a cable operatively disposed on the drum; a pair of force sensors, wherein one of the force sensors of the pair of force sensors is adjacent one end of the shaft and the other force sensors of the pair of force sensors is disposed adjacent the other end of the shaft, and wherein the pair of sensors are operatively positioned to measure the force between the shaft and bearings, and wherein the pairs of force sensors generate force signals representing the measured force between the shaft and bearings; a cable sensor operatively disposed to measure spooling/unspooling characteristics of the cable and generate a spooling signal representing the measured spooling/unspooling characteristics; and a processor for computing and monitoring the tension force in the cable in response to the force signals and the spooling signal, wherein the processor is in communication with a data storage, and wherein the data storage has an initial drum weight stored therein, wherein the initial drum weight equals the weight of the drum with a predetermined length of cable spooled thereon, and wherein the processor calculates an instantaneous weight of the drum using the spooling signal, and wherein the processor calculates tension on the cable using the force signals and calculated instantaneous weight.