Curve length measuring apparatus

Abstract: A handy type curve length measuring apparatus comprises a pen-holder like body (1), a castor (3) rotatably connected with the body so as to rotate around a rotation axis (C) and having a disk (2) including slits (S), light emitting means (11), light detecting means (10) and an indicator (5) when the disk (2) rolls on a curved line, the slits (S) provided on the disk cross the beam of light emitted from the light emitting means (11) so as to generate pulses. The light detecting means (10) count the number of these pulses and the indicator (5) displays a length of the curve based on the number of detected pulses. Since the apparatus can trace curved lines without rotating the body due to the castor mechanism, an accurate and easy measurement of length can be attained.

Description: The present invention relates to a curve length measuring apparatus and particularly to a pen-holder type curve length measuring apparatus having a castor mechanism so as to be able to trace an object curved line correctly and easily. There are curve length measuring apparatuses used for measuring length of curves on maps, drawings and the like. Generally, these apparatuses are characterized in being used readily like drawing with a pencil. Therefore, most of the apparatuses have such a simple construction as comprising a'pen-holder like body, a rolling disk provided at the tip of the body and an indicator mounted on the body. The rolling disk is for detecting a length of a curved or straight line by rolling the disk along the curve or the line. Since an axis of the rolling disk is rigidly connected with the body, while an operator trace curves with the rolling disk, the operator has to continue to rotate the body in the tangential direction of the curve, so it is difficult to trace curves correctly whose direction changes in a complicated manner. Further, it is hard to read the indicator due to the ever rotating body. These difficulties lead to incorrect or erroneous measurement of the curve length. Reference is also made to Patent Abstracts of Japan Vol. 012, No. 271 (p-736), 28 July 1988 (JP63-053412) and US-A- 5,161,313, each of which discloses a hand-held curve length measuring instrument having a tracking wheel rotatably mounted on a support which is itself rotatable with respect to the body of the instrument. Accordingly, it is an aim of present invention to obviate the disadvantages of the prior art and it is an object of the present invention to provide a handy type curve length measuring apparatus capable of tracing curves correctly without rotating the body, i.e., with the body directed towards the operator so as to read the indicator easily. In order to achieve the object, a curve length measuring apparatus of the present invention comprises: a castor rotatably connected with a body so as to rotate around a first axis of the caster; a rolling disk rotatably connected with the caster so as to rotate around a second axis of the rolling disk; a plurality of slits provided on the rolling disk along the outer periphery thereof; light emitting means for emitting a light; a condenser provided in the body for converging the light into a beam; a light guide element fixed to the castor with a centre: axis common to the first axis of the castor for transmitting the beam supplied from the condenser towards the front end thereof, the light guide element divided into a first front end portion and a second front end portion at the front end thereof; a first mirror provided in the first front end portion of the light guide element for receiving the beam transmitted through the light guide element and for reflecting the beam in the direction of the rolling disk; a second mirror provided in the second front end portion of the light guide element for receiving the beam passing through one of the slits and for reflecting the beam towards the rear end of the light guide element; a first light guide tube built in the light guide element with a rear end portion thereof provided on the centre axis of the light guide element and with a front end portion thereof disposed in the second front end portion of the light guide element for collecting the beam reflected by the second mirror and for guiding the beam until the rear end portion of the first light guide tube; an air gap provided between the rear end of the light guide element and the first light guide tube and the condenser; a second light guide tube provided on a center axis of the condenser for receiving the beam through the air gap and for guiding the beam in the rear direction of the body; light detecting means for detecting a pulse generated when the rolling disk rotates; pulse counting means for counting a number of the pulse and curve length indicating means for indicating a curve length based on the number of the pulse. By way of example only, a specific embodiment of the present invention will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 is an overall view of a curve length measuring apparatus having a castor mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view showing a primary portion of a curve length measuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing a primary portion of a curve length measuring apparatus. Referring now to Fig. 1, numeral 1 denotes a body having a pen-holder like configuration, numeral 3 denotes a castor rotatably connected with the tip (front end) of the body 1 so as to rotate around a centre axis c thereof, numeral 2 denotes a rolling disk rotatably connected with the castor 3, numeral 4 denotes a power switch and numeral 5 is a liquid crystal display. The axis of the rolling disk 2 is connected with the castor 3 and is offset from the centre axis c of the body 1 by a length approximately equal to the radius of the rolling disk 2. Referring to Fig. 2, numeral 11 denotes a LED (light emitting diode), numeral 9 denotes a condenser for converging a light emitted from the LED 11 into a beam, numeral 6 denotes a light guide element fixed to the castor 3 with a centre axis thereof common to the centre axis c of the castor 3 for guiding the beam received from the condenser 9 and numeral 10 denotes a photo-cell for detecting the pulse which will be described hereinafter. The rolling disk 2 is made of a hard material such as bronze, iron and the like and has a plurality of slits s equally spaced along the outer periphery thereof. The distance between two adjacent slits is approximately equal to the width of the slit s. The diameter of the rolling disk 2 is preferably 5 to 8 millimetres and its thickness is around 0.5 to 0.8 millimetres. Further, the light guide element 6 has a cylindrical configuration whose diameter is preferably 2 to 3 millimetres. Referring to Fig. 3, numeral 7 denotes a first optical fibretube 7 provided on the centre axis of the light guide 6 for transmitting a light signal to the photo-cell 10 and reference b: denotes a light shutter provided on the light guide element for preventing surrounding light from entering into the first optical fiber 7. The tip portion (front end) of the light guide element 6 is split into two tip portions 6a and 6b and the rolling disk 2 is disposed so as to rotate in a gap formed by the tip portions 6a and 6b. Further, the front end of the first optical fibre tube 7 is inserted into the tip portion 6b. Further, the first optical fibre tube 7 is partly exposed to the outside at the light shutter b. Further, a concave mirror m1 is provided at the tip portion 6a and a a plane mirror m2 is provided at the tip portion 6b. As shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, light emitted from the LED 11 is converged by the condenser 9. The converged beam is projected to the light guide element 6 through an air gap d formed by the front end of the condenser 9 and the rear end of the light guide element 6. Further, the beam is projected through the light guide element 6 and is reflected by the concave mirror m1 orthogonally. The beam furthermore converged by the concave mirror m1 passes through one of slits s of the rolling disk 2 and is reflected by the plane mirror m2 again in the rear direction of the body 1. The beam is gathered at the end of the first optical fibre tube 7 and travels in the first optical fibre tube 7. The light shutter b acts so as to shut off the light flowing from the light guide element 6 into the optical fiber tube 7 and preventing an irregular reflection of the beam. When the rolling disk 2 rotates, the slit s moves and the beam is shut off by the rolling disk 2 between the mirrors m1 and m2. When the rolling disk 2 rotates further, the slit s appears to pass the beam. Thus, the rotation of the rolling disk 2 generates light pulses. That is to say, the number of pulses correlates to the travelling length of the rolling disk 2. Further, there is provided a second optical fiber tube 8 on the centre axis of the condenser 9 which coincides with the centre axis c of the body 1. Accordingly, the front end of the second fibre tube 8 and the rear end of the first fibre tube 7 face each other across the air gap d. Hence, the light signal is transmitted from the first optical fibre tube 7 to the second optical fibre tube 8. That is, the first optical fibre tube 7 is mechanically disconnected but optically coupled with the second optical fibre tube 8. The second optical fibre tube 8 is connected at the rear end thereof with the photo-cell 10 so as to output the pulse signal to a counter (not shown) of the liquid crystal display 5. The number of pulse signals is counted in the counter and indicated on the liquid crystal display 5. In this embodiment, one pulse corresponds to one millimetre in the travelling length of the rolling disk 2. Alternatively, it is possible to display other numbers, for example, a distance between two points on a map calculated based on the scale factor. In this embodiment, the mirror m1 is a concave mirror and the mirror m2 is a plane mirror. However, the mirror m1 may be a plane mirror, for example where the beam is strong enough. On the other hand, the mirror m2 may be a concave mirror, for example in the case where the beam is not sufficiently strong. In summary, according to the present invention, since it is possible to trace curves without rotating the body of the curve length measuring apparatus in the traveling direction, an easy and fast measurement of curve length can be achieved. Further, the curve length measuring apparatus employs light transmitting means without using mechanical transmitting means or electrical wiring means, whereby the construction becomes simple and therefore malfunctions can be greatly reduced. While the presently preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, it is to be understood that this disclosure is for the purpose of illustration and that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.

Claims: A curve length measuring apparatus having a pen-holder shaped body (1) and a curve tracing mechanism connected with said body for measuring a length of a curve by tracing said curve, comprising: a castor (3) rotatably connected with said body so as to rotate around a first axis (c) of said castor; a rolling disk (2) rotatably connected with said castor so as to rotate around a second axis of said rolling disk, a plurality of slits (5) provided on said rolling disk (2) along the outer periphery thereof; light emitting means (11) for emitting a light; a condenser (9) provided in said body for converging said light into a beam; a light guide element (6) fixed to said castor (3) with a centre axis common to said first axis (c) of said castor for transmitting said beam supplied from said condenser towards the front end thereof, said light guide element divided into a first front end portion (6a) and a second front end portion (6b) at the front end thereof; a first mirror (m1) provided in said first front end portion (6a) of said light guide element for receiving said beam transmitted through said light guide element and for reflecting said beam in the direction of said rolling disk; a second mirror (m2) provided in said second front end portion (6b) of said light guide element for receiving said beam passing through one of said slits and for reflecting said beam towards the rear end of said light guide element; a first light guide tube (7) built in said light guiding element (6) with a rear end portion thereof provided on said centre axis of said light guide element and with a front end portion thereof disposed in said second front end portion of said light guide element for collecting said beam reflected by said second mirror and for guiding said beam until said rear end portion of said first light guide tube; an air gap (d) provided between the rear end of said light guide element (6) and said first light guide tube (7) and said condenser (9); a second light guide tube (8) provided on a centre axis of said condenser for receiving said beam through said air gap (d) and for guiding said beam in the rear direction of said body; light detecting means (10) for detecting a pulse generated when said rolling disk rotates; pulse counting means for counting a number of said pulse and curve length indicating means for indicating a curve length based on said number of said pulse. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a light shutter (b) provided in said light guide element for preventing said first light guide tube from being exposed to irregular reflection of light. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said rolling disk (2) has a diameter ranging from 5 millimetres to 8 millimetres. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein said rolling disk (2) has a thickness ranging from 0.5 millimetres to 0.8 millimetres. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the distance between said first axis of said castor and said second axis of said rolling disk is approximately half of a diameter of said rolling disk. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, wherein said first mirror (m1) comprises a concave mirror. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6, wherein said second mirror (m2) comprises a plane mirror. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5 or 7, wherein said first mirror (m1) comprises a plane mirror. A curve length measuring apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6 or 8 wherein said second mirror (m2) comprises a concave mirror.

Inventors: KONDO RIE, KONDO, RIE
Applicants: KONDO RIE, KONDO, RIE
Application year: 1997
Main classification: G01B3
IPC codes: G09B29, G01B3, G01B21, G01D5