Patent ID: 7182339

Claim:
A system for measuring the thickness dimension of an article being conveyed along a predetermined conveyor path, wherein the article has a thickness dimension and a length dimension, comprising: an article conveyor for conveying a plurality of articles along a predetermined conveyor path, wherein each one of the conveyed articles has a thickness dimension and a length dimension; a mounting bracket; a rotary encoder mounted upon said mounting bracket and comprising a rotary shaft; a lever arm movably mounted upon said rotary shaft of said rotary encoder and having a first end portion thereof disposed in contact with said article conveyor so as to operatively engage each one of the articles being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor, whereupon said first end portion of said lever arm encounters an article, which is being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor and which has a sufficiently large thickness dimension to cause said lever arm to undergo bounce deflections, said lever arm will repetitively move away from and back toward said article conveyor, as the article is conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor, between first positions which are indicative of first false positive thickness dimensions of the article being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor, and a second position which is indicative of a second true thickness dimension of the article being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor, as determined by corresponding rotations of said rotary shaft of said rotary encoder wherein said rotary encoder will emit correlated thickness dimension data as a function of the length of the article being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor; and means for determining the second true thickness dimension of the article being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor by effectively eliminating the first false positive thickness dimensions of the article being conveyed along said predetermined conveyor path by said article conveyor.