A displacement measuring apparatus

Abstract: A displacement measuring apparatus including a variable inductance coil having a pair of coils (A, B) each being wound by a predetermined length on a core (11) made of a material having high magnetic permeability, the pair of coils (A, B) ebeing disposed adjacent to each other in their axial directions and a metal sleeve (13) of substantially the same length of the coil to movably cover the coils, and a detecting circuit including a high frequency oscillator and a rectifier and being connected to the variable inductance coil, wherein when the metal sleeve (13) is slidably moved, the detecting circuit generates a direct current voltage in correspondence with the moving amount of the metal sleeve.

Description: The present invention relates generally to displacement measuring apparatus and, more particularly, is directed to a displacement measuring apparatus for detecting and measuring a displacement amount in a machine apparatus, an inspection apparatus and the like. A number of prior art displacement measuring apparatus are known from WO-A-86/07144, GB-A-1559091 and DE-A-3528811. WO-A-86/07144 discloses a displacement measuring apparatus comprising a coil and a metal tube, the tube being arranged to move along the outside of the coil. In this apparatus, the coil density varies along the coil. GB-1559091 discloses a position-voltage transducer in which a long coil is provided and a cylinder, made of electrically-conducting material and having a length shorter than that of the coil, is moved along and outside the coil to change the inductance of the coil. In this case, the winding pitch of the coil is changed continuously. DE-A-3528811 discloses a so-called differential transformer (LVDT) that has two induction coils and a displacing core supported therebetween. In the apparatus of this document, compensation coils, constructed as a double coil, are inserted between the two induction coils. A machine apparatus utilizes various kinds of scales to electrically measure a displacement amount of an object. The prior-art scale is large in size and is expensive, which limits the application field thereof. When a displacement amount to be measured is relatively small, a displacement measuring apparatus that makes effective use of a differential transformer as shown in Fig. 1 is frequently used. The displacement measuring apparatus using the differential transformer cannot overcome the following three shortcomings. According to the first problem, coils 1 and 2 are coaxially disposed and a core 3 is made movable through the inside of the coils 1 and 2, which makes the full length of the apparatus long as compared with the length of the coils 1 and 2 forming the differential transformer. Thus, the displacement measuring apparatus is not suitable in the measurement of a large or long displacement amount. According to the second problem, the differential transformer is formed of the two coils 1 and 2 disposed in the axial direction thereof so that the total length of the two coils 1 and 2 is increased to be about three times the length of the displacement measuring range. According to the third problem, the core 3 is movable through the insides of the two coils 1 and 2, and the core 3 is supported in a cantilever-fashion. Thus, the displacement measuring apparatus is not strong for vibration. Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention to provide an improved displacement measuring apparatus that can remove the above-mentioned defects inherent in the prior art. Specifically, an aim of the present invention is to provide a displacement measuring apparatus which can be made small in size. Another aim of the present invention is to provide a displacement measuring apparatus which is firm in construction and which is strong against vibration. A further aim of the present invention is to provide a displacement measuring apparatus which can keep a coil and a metal sleeve in a non-contact relation with ease. Yet a further aim of the present invention is to provide a displacement measuring apparatus which can maintain desired output voltage with good linearity and stability. Still a further aim of the present invention is to provide a displacement measuring apparatus which can be applied to a wide variety of application fields such as a level meter, a flow meter and the like. Still another aim of the present invention is to provide a displacement measuring apparatus which is suitably applied to apparatus such as a cylinder, a robot and an automatic machine having a small space to mount the displacement measuring apparatus. In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a displacement measuring apparatus including: a first variable inductance element comprising a coil (A) of a predetermined length wound around a core made of a material having high magnetic permeability, said coil (A) being covered with a slidable metal sleeve of substantially the same length as that of said coil (A); characterised by a second inductance element comprising a second coil (B) wound around a core made of a material having high magnetic permeability; the first variable inductance element and the second inductance element being coaxially disposed, the second coil (B) being either disposed adjacent to the first coil (A) or incorporated within a housing of the measuring apparatus; and a detecting circuit including a high frequency oscillator (OSC) and a rectifier (ReA, ReB) and being connected to said first variable inductance element and to said second inductance element, wherein when said metal sleeve is slidably moved, said detecting circuit generates a direct current voltage in correspondence with the amount of movement of said metal sleeve. The above, and other aims, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to designate the same or similar elements and parts in the several views, in which:- Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a prior-art displacement measuring apparatus that utilizes a differential transformer; Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a fundamental structure of a variable inductance coil used in the present invention; Fig. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an electrical connection of the variable inductance coils shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a graphical representation of a variable inductance characteristic of the coils shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a detecting circuit used in the present invention; Fig. 6 is a graphical representation of an output characteristic presented by a combination of the coils of Fig. 2 and the detecting circuit of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a plan view of a first embodiment of a displacement measuring apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 8 is a plan view of a second embodiment of a displacement measuring apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 9 is a graphical representation of an output characteristic presented by the displacement measuring apparatus shown in Fig. 8; Fig. 10 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a third embodiment of a displacement measuring apparatus according to the present invention; Figs. 11 and 12 are, respectively, cross-sectional views illustrating examples that the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention are applied to hydraulic cylinders; Figs. 13A and 13B are, respectively, diagrams schematically showing variable inductance coils according to the present invention; Each of Figs. 14A and 14B is a schematic diagram showing a main portion of the variable inductance coils shown in Figs. 13A and 13B; Fig. 15 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a further embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 16 is a graphical representation of a displacement detecting characteristic according to the embodiment shown in Fig. 15; Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram showing yet a further embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 18 is a graphical representation of a displacement detecting characteristic versus an output voltage according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Fig. 2 is cross-sectional view illustrating a fundamental structure of a variable inductance coil used in the present invention. Referring to Fig. 2, it will be seen that an insulating copper wire having a diameter of 0.2 mm is uniformly wound around a quartz tube 10 having a full length of, for example, 110 mm and an outer diameter of 2.4 mm over the length of 50 mm except the end of 10 mm to form a coil A. In this case, the winding number is 210. The same insulating copper wire is similarly wound around the quartz tube 10 over a length of 50 mm so as to become adjacent to the coil A, thereby forming a coil B. In the quartz tube 10, a core 11 of the same length as that of the quartz tube 10, i.e., 110 mm long and made of a material having high magnetic permeability is inserted and is then secured. The core 11 is a thin permalloy tube having, for example, an outer diameter of 1.2 mm and an inner diameter of 0.7 mm. This permalloy tube undergoes the heat treatment and the electrostatic painting using epoxy powders so that it may be protected from aging change and the like. A shrink tube covers the outside of the coils A and B to form a protecting tube 12. The protecting tube 12 may be made of a quartz tube or an epoxy glass tube. A metal sleeve 13 is made by, for example, a brass tube having the same length (50 mm) as that of the coil A or B. The outer diameter of the metal sleeve 13 is 6 mm or 5 mm, whereas the inner diameter thereof is 5 mm or 4 mm in the following description. As shown in Fig. 3, one ends of the coils A and B are connected together to form a junction, and three lead wires are lead out of the junction and the other ends of the coils A and B so as to be connected to terminals 14, 15 and 16 provided at one end of the quartz tube 10 (see Fig. 2). Fig. 4 is a graphical representation showing how inductances (L) of the coils A and B are varied when the metal sleeve 13 shown in Fig. 2 is displaced in a range of 50 mm. In Fig. 4, a cross mark plots the above-mentioned inductances in a case that the inner diameter of the metal sleeve 13 is 5 mm, while an open circle plots the same in a case that the inner diameter of the metal sleeve 13 is 4 mm. When the displacement of the metal sleeve 13 exceeds 50 mm, then the metal sleeve 13 disengages from the coil A, resulting in the maximal constant inductance of the coil A. As is apparent from Fig. 4, the inductances of the coils A and B are symmetrically varied in the opposite direction, making it possible to use a detecting circuit of a differential type as a detecting circuit for inductances. A schematic diagram forming Fig. 5 shows an example of a detecting circuit that is generally designated by reference numeral 17. In the detecting circuit 17, a high frequency voltage from a high frequency oscillator OSC is applied to the coils A and B in the opposite direction and alternate current voltages across resistors R SA and R SB varied with the change of the inductances of the coils A and B are converted to direct current voltages by rectifiers ReA and ReB each including a smoothing circuit and a difference voltage therebetween is generated as an output voltage across a capacitor C₃. In this case, the rectifier ReA comprises a diode D₁, a resistor r₁ and a capacitor C₁, whereas the rectifier ReB comprises a diode D₂, a resistor r₂ and a capacitor C₂, as shown in Fig. 5. The detecting circuit 17 is not limited to the above-noted differential type but the differential type detecting circuit is used in the present invention because it is excellent in linearity and temperature characteristic. Fig. 6 is a graphical representation of a voltage versus displacement, wherein output voltages from the detecting circuit 17 shown in Fig. 5 are plotted in accordance with the displacement of the metal sleeve 13 while the two coils A and B are fixed. This graph of Fig. 6 demonstrates characteristics of the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention. In Fig. 6, curves 13A and 13B respectively represent characteristics in cases where the inner diameters of the metal sleeve 13 are selected to be 5 mm and 4 mm. A plan view forming Fig. 7 illustrates a first embodiment of a displacement measuring apparatus according to this invention. In the embodiment of Fig. 7, the coil protectin tube (or cover), coil attaching metal fittings and the like are not shown for simplicity. Referring to Fig. 7, it will be seen that the coils A and B and a guide rod 19 are secured to a base plate 18 in parallel to each other. A sliding member or slider 20 made of a metal (for example, brass) is attached to the guide rod 19 so as to become freely slidable. The slider 20 is formed of a thick metal plate that is square in cross section, and the slidable length of the slider 20 is the same as the length of the coil A or B. The slider 20 has an opening 21 (for example, 5mm in inner diameter) formed therethrough to introduce the coils A and B therein and also has an opening 22 formed therethrough to accept a metal bearing 23 of the guide rod 19. While the metal sleeve 13 is formed as the tube in the example of Fig. 2, it may be an opening so long as the inner surface thereof is tubular or its outer shape has no relation. The detecting circuit 17 is assembled as a part of the base plate 18. The prior-art differential transformer is constructed such that as shown in Fig. 1 the coils 1 and 2 of substantially the same length are disposed in series in the ceramic cylinder on which the winding is made, which is the same as the arrangement of the present invention. In this conventional differential transformer, the length of the core 3 movable through the inside of the coils 1 and 2 is substantially equal to the length of the coil 1 or 2. However, the core 3 is slidably moved through the inside of the coils 1 and 2 by a thin linkage rod 5 so that the full length of the differential transformer becomes very longer than the displacement amount. Further, one end of the core 3 is fixed to the linkage rod 5 and the other end thereof is made free so that the core 3 suffers from the vibration from a mechanical standpoint. Therefore, the prior-art differential transformer cannot be used in a large vibration circumstance. This problem becomes serious particularly when the displacement amount is more than 100 mm. On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention shown in Fig. 7, the coils A and B are secured to the base plate 18 at their respective free ends, the slider 20 is engaged with the guide rod 19 so as to become freely slidable without contacting the coils A and B and the maximal displacement of the slider 20 is not only equal to the length of the coil A or B but also falls within a range of the full length of the coils A and B so that the full length of the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention is substantially equal to the full length of the coil A or B. In addition, the apparatus has a firm structure and is strong against the vibration. Furthermore, according to the prior-art differential transformer, when the core 3 is disengaged from the coil 1 or 2, this results in the minimal inductance and the inductance is increased in proportion to the insertion length of the core 3 to the coil 1 or 2 and the change of the inductance becomes substantially the same as that shown in Fig. 4. According to the present invention, however, as shown in Fig. 2, the core 11 having the length longer than the length of the coil including the coils A and B is previously secured within the coils A and B, which is covered with the metal sleeve 13 and the metal sleeve 13 is displaced so that the metal sleeve 13 acts as a short-circuiting secondary coil provided outside the coils A and B, thus the inductance of the coil covered with the metal sleeve 13 being decreased considerably. When the metal sleeve 13 covers the whole of coil A or B, the inductance of the coil A or B demonstrates the minimal value. The metal sleeve 13 used in the present invention may be made of proper metals such as brass, aluminum, copper or the like. From a characteristic standpoint, any metal has conductivity and presents very small difference when applied to the metal sleeve 13. If the metal sleeve 13 is made of iron, there is achieved an effect that the inductance of the coil is increased by the influence of magnetic permeability. In the high frequency coil whose frequency is several 100s of kilo hertz, the effect of the short-circuiting secondary coil is so powerful as to vary the inductance of the coil in a substantially similar manner to that of Fig. 4. Further, the decreasing degree of inductance depends on a relationship between the size of the coils A, B and the size of the opening 21 as the metal sleeve 13 because a coupling coefficient between the windings of the coils A, B and the opening 21 acting as the short-circuiting secondary coil is changed with the size of the opening 21. While the inner diameter of the opening 21 is selected to be 4 mm and 5mm as represented by the open circle and the cross mark in Fig. 4, the size of the opening 21 of the metal sleeve 13 is important but the outer form of the metal sleeve 13 is not so important. When the length of the coils A and B is sufficiently large as compared with the diameter of the coils A and B and the inner diameter of the opening 21 of the metal sleeve 13, the inductance of the coils A and B is linearly changed. At the respective end portions of the coils A and B, the linearity of the inductance is deteriorated in a range wide about twice the inner diameter of the opening 21 of the metal sleeve 13. A so-called end effect cannot be avoided but the range of end effect can be narrowed by reducing the diameter of the coils A and B and the inner diameter of the metal sleeve 13. In order to prevent the range in which the linearity of the inductance is deteriorated from being widened by the above-noted end effect, the density of the winding of the coils A and B is partly changed and the length of the metal sleeve 13 is made longer than that of the coil A or B, which can improve the characteristic at the respective end portions of the coils A and B to some extent. In the detecting circuit 17 shown in Fig. 5, the high frequency oscillator 0SC is designed as a pulse oscillator that generates a pulse (pulse width thereof is about 1 microsecond) having a recursive frequency of 20 kHz. If the high frequency oscillator OSC is designed as a sinusoidal wave oscillator instead of the pulse oscillator, then the apparatus of the invention is similarly operated. If on the other hand the high frequency oscillator OSC is formed as the pulse oscillator, then a current to be consumed can be considerably reduced and a peak voltage can be increased. In a case of the differential transformer, the oscillation frequency of the detecting circuit 17 is generally 50 Hz or 1 kHz. If the oscillation frequency is increased as described in the present invention, then the winding number of the coils A and B can be reduced (satisfactory result is brought about by one layer coil according to the experiments), the cross area of the core can be reduced and the response speed as the displacement measuring apparatus can be increased. Fig. 8 is a plan view illustrating a second embodiment of a displacement measuring apparatus according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a lid is removed from the apparatus to provide a better understanding of the present invention. The apparatus shown in Fig. 8 looks like a dial gauge externally. As shown in Fig. 8, there is provided a housing 38 in which a spindle 30, supported to a bearing 31, is moved therein. The slidable length of spindle 30 is, for example, 12 mm. The spindle 30 is restricted in rotation by a pin 32 that is slidably provided for the housing 38 and is returned to the original position by a spring force of a spring 33 extended between the housing 38 and the pin 32. The spindle 30 is engaged with a sliding member or slider 34 that is connected to the pin 32. The slider 34 is fixed to the spindle 30 by a screw 35. The slider 34 has an opening of 4 mm in inner diameter formed therethrough as a metal sleeve 36. A coil 37 (formed of coils A and B shown in Fig. 2) is fixed to the housing 38 through this opening 36. The coil 37 is 3 mm in outer diameter and is located within the opening 36 of the slider 34 so as not to come in contact with the opening 36. A detecting circuit 39, similar to the detecting circuit 17 shown in Fig. 5, is provided within other portion of the housing 38 by means of the molding process of epoxy resin. The detecting circuit 39 is connected with the coil 37 and a cable 40, from which is derived an output voltage of about ±4 Volts. In this embodiment of the present invention, the winding width of the coil 37 and the length of the slider 34 demonstrate various characteristics whose sensitivities are different. Fig. 9 illustrates an example thereof. This type of displacement measuring apparatus suitably utilizes a metal sleeve slide system of the present invention. In this case, when the position of the slider 34 is displaced by turning the screw 35 loose, a midpoint of the output curve in Fig. 9 can be shifted easily. Fig. 10 is a cross sectional view illustrating a third embodiment of the present invention in which the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention is applied to a level meter. Referring to Fig. 10, it will be seen that end fittings 51 and 52 are attached to respective upper and lower ends of an outer tube 50 made of glass or metal, and a coil 53 (formed of coils A and B shown in Fig. 2) is inserted into the outer tube 50 and is fixed at the upper and lower ends thereof by the upper and lower fittings 51 and 52. A float 54 through which the coil 53 passes is provided within the outer tube 50 so as to become freely slidable. The float 54 is made of a metal and is a double hollow cylinder in construction whose both ends are sealed and has an opening 55 having an inner diameter of, for example, 5 mm formed therethrough, the opening 55 forming the above-mentioned metal sleeve. An inlet 56 is formed through the lower end fitting 52, through which there is supplied a fluid to the inside of the outer tube 50. A detecting circuit 57 similar to the detecting circuit 17 shown in Fig. 5 is disposed in the upper end fitting 51, whereby a direct current voltage is generated in a cable 58 connected to the coil 53. The displacement measuring apparatus of this embodiment utilizes the coil of 100 mm long (each of the coils A and B is 50 mm long) shown in Fig. 2 to demonstrate the characteristics shown in Fig. 6. In this embodiment, if the outer tube 50 is tapered, the apparatus can be applied to a flow meter. According to the present invention, as set forth above, there are achieved the following large effects. Since the displacement amount of the metal sleeve falls within a range of the length of the coil, the full length of the apparatus can be reduced to be substantially the same as the length of the coil. The displacement measuring apparatus of the invention is firm in construction and is strong against the vibration. Further, according to the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention, the coil and the metal sleeve can easily be arranged so as not to come in contact with each other. Furthermore, the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention can be applied to the level meter and the flow meter, so the present invention is usefull in a wide variety of application fields. Fig. 11 is a cross sectional view illustrating a further embodiment of the present invention, in which the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention is applied to, for example, a hydraulic cylinder. In Fig. 11, reference numeral 60A designates a cylinder, 60 a piston rod, 61 a rod cover, 62 a head cover, 63 a piston and 64 an oil. The piston rod 60 has at its center formed an opening 66 of more than 100 mm long, into which there are inserted the coils A and B similar to those shown in Fig. 2 and which are secured to a detector casing 65 that includes the above-mentioned detecting circuit 17. The metal sleeve 13 is fixed to the piston rod 60 within the opening 65 so as to enclose the coils A and B. The inevitable problem is then presented that the depth of the opening 66 formed through the piston rod 60 must be about 2.5 times as long as the stroke of the piston 63. Further, it is frequently observed that in the cylinder in which the stroke of the piston 63 is more than 100 mm, the required depth of the opening 66 exceeds the full length of the piston rod 60. Fig. 12 is a cross-sectional view illustrating another example of the invention in which the displacement measuring apparatus of the invention is also applied to the hydraulic cylinder. In this example, the hydraulic cylinder is designed to remove the defect that is provided such as when the coils A and B are too long. In Fig. 12, like parts corresponding to those of Fig. 11 are marked with the same references and therefore need not be described in detail. In this case, referring to Fig. 12, it will be seen that a flange 67 is provided between the head cover 62 and the detector casing 65. The flange 67, however, provides a cumbersome assembly and a complicated arrangement. A further embodiment of a displacement measuring apparatus according to the present invention, which can solve the above-mentioned problems, will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to Figs. 13 to 17. Figs. 13A and 13B are schematic diagrams illustrating examples of a variable inductance coil A and a fixed inductance coil B, respectively. The variable inductance coil A and the fixed inductance coil B respectively correspond to the coils A and B shown in Fig. 2. Referring to Fig. 13A, it will be seen that the variable inductance coil A is formed of a coil 71 that is directly wound by a predetermined length around a ferrite core that will be described later. A metal sleeve 72 of substantially the same length as that of the coil A covers the coil A so as to become slidable therealong. Referring to Fig. 13B, it will be seen that the fixed inductance coil B is formed of a coil 73 that is directly wound by a predetermined length around a ferrite core that will be described later. A metal sleeve 74 having a length substantially the same or shorter than that of the coil B covers the coil B in a fixed fashion. In accordance with this embodiment, the cores incorporated within the coils A and B are beads 75 of sintered ferrite instead of permalloy of high magnetic permeability as shown in Fig. 14. Each of the sintered ferrite beads 75 is formed as a tube of 5 mm long and which has an outer diameter of 1.7 mm and an inner diameter of 0.7 mm as, for example, shown in Fig. 14A. The magnetic permeability thereof is selected to be 35 H/m, which is the minimal value of the sintered bead that is available on the market. As shown in Fig. 14B, a plurality of beads 75 are inserted with a wire 76 made of phosphate bronze having an outer diameter of, for example, 0.68 mm and are then fixed to become a predetermined length by a bonding agent, thus resulting in the ferrite core 77 being produced. The coil 71 or 73 is directly wound around the ferrite core 77. Since the ferrite core 77 is made by the ferrite having low magnetic permeability, if the external magnetic field less than 10 Gauss, influence exerted by the external magnetic field can be substantially neglected and particularly influence of geomagnetism can be neglected. Further, the coil can be directly wound around the ferrite core 77 so that the quartz tube 10 employed in Fig. 2 becomes unnecessary. Fig. 15 is a cross sectional view illustrating the assembled states of the coils A and B as another embodiment of the displacement measuring apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to Fig. 15, it will be seen that the coil A is protruded from a detector casing 79 so as to oppose the object to be measured, while the coil B is incorporated within the detector casing 79 as a kind of dummy coil together with a detector 80 that includes the above-mentioned detecting circuit. The metal sleeve 72 covers the coil A so as to become slidable therealong and the metal sleeve 74 is fixed so as to cover a part of the coil B. In the embodiment of Fig. 15, the length of the coil A is selected to be 175 mm and the length of the metal sleeve 72 is 170 mm because linear range (linearity of ± 1%) of a displacement detecting characteristic is 150 mm. Incidentally, the detecting circuit in the detector 80 used in the above-mentioned embodiment may be the same as the detecting circuit 17 shown in Fig. 5. According to this embodiment, the detecting circuit 17 of differential type shown in Fig. 5 is used and the coil B is fixed as the dummy coil so that the change of inductance takes place only in the coil A to generate a half of the output voltage as compared with the foregoing examples. However, even after the half of the output voltage is generated, the output voltage becomes more than ±2V and reaches ±3V as will become apparent from the displacement detecting characteristic of Fig. 16. Thus, no problem occurs particularly in the output voltage. Although the coil B is fixed as the dummy coil and hence the linearity of the output voltage is poor, if a correction coil of a certain length is wound around the coil B, there is achieved a linearity similar to that provided by the arrangement shown in Fig. 2, thus removing the problem of poor linearity. In the winding of the correction coil, the correction coil is wound around the coil B and then the linearity is examined several times in a so-called cut-and-try fashion. Further, stability of the output voltage relates to the coil B provided as the dummy coil so that in this embodiment the following coil is formed as an example of the coil B. Specifically, a conductive wire having a diameter of 0.1 mm is wound around the ferrite core 77 (15 mm long), shown in Fig. 14, 160 times to provide a coil. Then, this coil is covered with the metal sleeve 74 (made of SUS-304) having an inner diameter of 2.5 mm and a length of 10 mm. Although the thus made coil is short in length, this coil has the same structure and is made by the same material as that of the coil A used as the main coil. The adjustment of the inductance is effected by slidably moving the coil B from and into the metal sleeve 74 and, the coil B is fixed by a resin when best inductance is provided. The above-mentioned coil B is incorporated within the detector casing 79 together with the detector 80. As a result, temperature coefficient becomes about 2 x 10⁻⁴/°C and the stability of output voltage becomes satisfactory. In addition, instead of the dummy coil B, it is possible to use an element that has a temperature characteristic substantially similar to that of the coil A as well as a proper inductance. While the present invention is applied to the cylinder by way of example in the above-noted embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment but may be applied to such a variation thereof as follows. As, for example, shown in Fig. 17, if an object to be measured is a movable member 90, an opening 91 is formed through the movable member 90, into which there is inserted the coil A to measure the displacement amount of the movable member 90. In this case, if the movable member 90 is made of copper, aluminum or bronze, the opening 91 itself can be formed as the metal sleeve 72 that is substantially movable. If the movable member 90 is made of iron, the metal sleeve 92 is pressed into and fixed to the opening 91. In Fig. 17, reference numeral 92 designates a detector similar to the detector 80 in Fig. 15. According to the above embodiment of the present invention, as described above, since the pair of coils are wound around the cores by the predetermnined length, one of them is covered with the slidable metal sleeve to provide the variable inductance coil, the other is covered fixedly with the metal sleeve to provide the fixed inductance coil, the fixed inductance coil is spaced apart from the variable inductance coil provided opposing the side of the object to be measured and the variable inductance coil is substantially disposed at the side of the object to be measured, the length of the coil used in the displacement measuring apparatus can be reduced substantially by a half while a desired output voltage, linearity and stability can be maintained, which makes the apparatus small in size. Therefore, the displacement measuring apparatus of the above embodiment according to the present invention is very useful for being applied to a cylinder, a robot, an automatic machine or the like that has a small mounting space for the apparatus. The output voltage of the detecting circuit 17 of the differential type shown in Fig. 5 is proportional to a difference between the inductances of the coils A and B. Thus, when the metal sleeve 72 is fully inserted into the coil A (up to the detector casing 79 side in Fig. 15) as, for example, shown in Fig. 15, if the inductance values of the coils A and B are made equal, the output of the detecting circuit, for example, 17 becomes zero, which is plotted at 0V (original point) of Fig. 18 which shows a similar characteristic to that shown in Fig. 16. Since the coil B is fixed as the dummy coil in the example shown in Fig. 15, the change of the inductance depends only on the coil A. Thus, when the metal sleeve 72 is gradually pulled out from the condition that it is fully insertd into the coil A, the inductance of the coil A is increased in proportion to the movement amount of the metal sleeve 72 so as to increase the difference relative to the inductance of the coil B. Therefore, the output voltage of the detecting circuit 17 presents a characteristic which is gradually increased to the plus side from a 0V provided substantially as the original point as shown in Fig. 18. In this case, as is apparent from Fig. 18, the output voltage reaches more than + 4V so that no problem takes place particularly in the output voltage. Further, although the linearity of the output voltage at that time is slightly degraded because the coil B is fixed as the dummy coil, if the coil B is modified by a correction coil of a suitable length, the linearity of the output voltage can be improved. The winding of the correction coil may be effected proper times in a cut-and-try fashion as described above. Furthermore, since the inductance value of the inductance coil A is selected to be equal to that of the coil B when the metal sleeve 72 is fully inserted into the coil A, the original point of the characteristic curve can be determined substantially at the end of stroke, or one end (0V) of the characteristic curve as shown in Fig. 18. Therefore, the displacement measuring apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful as an absolute scale for measuring the length. Having described preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: A displacement measuring apparatus including: a first variable inductance element comprising a coil (A) of a predetermined length wound around a core (11, 77) made of a material having high magnetic permeability, said coil (A) being covered with a slidable metal sleeve (13, 34, 54, 72, 90) of substantially the same length as that of said coil (A); characterised by a second inductance element comprising a second coil (B) wound around a core (11, 77) made of a material having high magnetic permeability; the first variable inductance element and the second inductance element being coaxially disposed, the second coil (B) being either disposed adjacent to the first coil (A) or incorporated within a housing of the measuring apparatus; and a detecting circuit (17, 39, 57, 80) including a high frequency oscillator (OSC) and a rectifier (ReA, ReB) and being connected to said first variable inductance element and to said second inductance element, wherein when said metal sleeve (13, 34, 54, 72, 90) is slidably moved, said detecting circuit (17, 39, 57, 80) generates a direct current voltage in correspondence with the amount of movement of said metal sleeve (13, 34, 54, 72, 90). A displacement measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lengths of said coils (A, B) are selected to be equal to each other. A displacement measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second inductance element has a fixed inductance, the coil (B) of the second inductance element being fixedly covered with a second metal sleeve (74) of substantially the same or shorter length than that of said second coil (B). A displacement measuring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said fixed inductance coil (B) is located distant from said first variable inductance coil (A) so that when said first metal sleeve (72) is moved, said detecting circuit (80) generates a direct current voltage corresponding to the amount of displacement of said first metal sleeve (72). A displacement measuring apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the inductance value of said fixed inductance element is selected to be equal to the inductance value of said first variable inductance element when said first metal sleeve (72) fully covers said coil (A) so that when said first metal sleeve (72) is slidably moved, said detecting circuit (80) generates at its output side a direct current output corresponding to the displacement of said first metal sleeve (72). A displacement measuring apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the or each of said cores (11, 77) is formed of a metal wire (76) and a plurality of ferrite beads (75) connected in series and covering said metal wire (76).

Inventors: UEMURA SABURO, UEMURA, SABURO
Applicants: MACOME CORP, MACOME CORPORATION
Application year: 1989
Main classification: G01B7
IPC codes: G01B7, G01D5