BAG WITH WEIGHING DEVICE

Abstract: A bag for luggage, documents, instruments and corresponding comprising a stiff body (1) and several, mostly four legs (2) on which the bag is placed to stand. The defect of such a conventional bag is that it is impossible to tell even its approximately accurate weight without a separate weighing. In order to eliminate this problem means for measuring and displaying its gross or net weight is adjusted to the bag according to the invention. Preferably the means for measuring the weight comprises strain-gauge transducers which are adapted between each leg (2) and the body (1) of the bag.

Description: "Bag with weighing device." The object of this invention is a bag for luggage, documents, instruments or corresponding comprising a stiff body and several, mostly four legs on which the bag can be placed to stand. Even if bags similar to as described above well fill the functions conventionally attributed to them, it has nowadays, especially as travelling by air is increas- ing, been noticed some defects in them. Without separate weighing it is impossible to give, for a conventional bag, even the approximately accurate weight of its contents or the total weight of the bag, for which travelling by air sometimes has even strict limits. To solve this problem a spring scale equipment adapted between the handle of the bag and the body of it is known from e.g. the British Patent Specification 957,360 and the French Patent Specification 2,155,544. These spring scales give a reading of the bag weight when the bag is lifted by its handle. Thus the scales are subjected to either a continuous load when the bag is carried or alternatively the weighing functions only when the handle alone is set in a weighing position. Thus the handle has to be constructed in a manner differ¬ ing from the conventional and the fitting of the spring scale equipment into the handle is also difficult and expensive. In order to eliminate the aforementioned disadvan- tages it is characteristic for the bag according to the invention, that to the bag strain-gauge transducers are attached for measuring and displaying its net or gross weight, which strain-gauge transducers are adapted bet¬ ween each leg and the body of the bag. in the following the bag according to the invention is described more in detail referring to the enclosed OMPI drawing, where Figure 1 is a perspective view of the ' bag according to the invention, and Figure 2 shows partly a circuit diagram and partly schematically means for measuring and displaying the bag weight. Figure 1 shows a bag according to the invention, which bag comprises a stiff body 1 and four legs 2 (only two are seen in the Figure) on which the bag is placed to stand. Between each leg 2 and the body 1 of the bag strain- gauge transducers (not shown) are adapted so that the bag weight is transmitted through them to the supporting under¬ laying. These strain-gauge transducers are of the type the resistance value of which changes as a function of the pressure they are subjected to. To the bag in Figure 1 is attached a numeral display 3 which shows the bag weight. Beside the display a contact button 10 is set by means of which the display 3 can when desired be switched on. Figure 2 shows more in detail the circuit measuring the bag weight. The actual measuring part consists of the measuring bridge, which comprises a series of strain- gauge transducers 6 (which are shown as one unit for the sake of clarity), the regulation resistance 7 and two balancing resistances 8 and a direct-current supply 9 connected over the bridge. By means of the regulation resistance 7 the measuring bridge can be adjusted to show either the net or gross weight of the bag. The direct-current supply 9 can be e.g. a 5 V dry battery. The direct-current signal given by the measuring bridge is summed up and amplified with an operational amplifier 5. After this the signal is transformed into a digital signal with a A/D transformer 4, which also comprises a control unit for the display 3, which is preferably a liquid crystal display. When pressing the contact button, which is not shown in Figure 2, the display 3, which can preferably be a 3|-number display, is made to show the bag weight measured by the strain-gauge transducers. It is to be understood that the idea according to the invention ' of attaching the measuring means to be a constructional part of the travel and other bags can be varied considerably within the scope of the enclosed claim from what is described in the embodiment example above. The invention can be adjusted to all objects standing on legs or rolls or other corresponding supports.

Claims: Claims: A bag for luggage, documents, instruments or corresponding comprising a stiff body (1) and several, mostly four legs (2) on which the bag is placed to stand, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that to the bag strain-gauge transducers are attached for measuring and displaying its net or gross weight, which strain- gauge transducers are adapted between each leg (2) and the body (1 ) of the bag. _OlΛPI

Inventors: KANTOLA RISTO OLAVI, KOIVISTO VESA, KANTOLA, RISTO, OLAVI, KOIVISTO, VESA
Applicants: KANTOLA RISTO OLAVI, KOIVISTO VESA, KANTOLA, RISTO, OLAVI, KOIVISTO, VESA
Application year: 1984
Main classification: A45C13
IPC codes: A45C15, G01G19