Patent ID: 7777871
Filing Date: 2010-08-17
Classification: G01B,G01G,G01N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for the automated testing of physical properties of golf balls or cores, the apparatus comprising: an on-load magazine for holding a multitude of balls or cores; a rotary indexing table having a plurality of removable holding nests, each nest having multiple ball sizing accommodations; means for transferring a ball or core from the on-load magazine to one of the plurality of removable holding nests; a computer controlled diameter measuring station comprising an optical measuring system using multiple high pixel count cameras, collimated back lighting, telecentric lenses that capture edge images of the golf ball or core in two perpendicular planes that segments about 4800 edge points on a golf ball perimeter wherein four sub-regions are segmented on the ball or core and he ball or core is measured by an algorithm comprising the following steps: a) establishing an approximate global estimate of the center location and size of the ball or core; b) copying into an image buffer an imaged sub-region of a left edge from a first local coordinate system of the ball or core from information in step (a); c) copying into an image buffer an imaged sub-region of a right edge from a second local coordinate system of the ball or core from information in step (a); d) copying into an image buffer an imaged sub-region of a top edge from a third local coordinate system of the ball or core from knowledge of information in step (a); e) copying into an image buffer an imaged sub-region of a bottom edge from a fourth local coordinate system of the ball or core from information in step (a); f) transforming the local coordinate measurements back to the global coordinate system; g) fitting global edge coordinates to a circle to find the center point of the ball or core; and h) measuring average size of the ball or core at four regions from coordinates of edge points and the center point contained in step (g); a compression measuring station; a weight measuring station; and a rotation device to position a ball or core into one of the measuring stations; and an offload magazine for collecting balls or cores that pass the testing and a rejection chute for balls or cores that do not.