Patent ID: 8080742

Claim:
A weigh-in-motion scale for weighing traveling wheeled vehicles, comprising: a rectangular parallepiped frame for installation into the pavement of a roadway; and a thin, flexibly-deformable plate system having a rectangular parallepiped shape with edges thereof secured within the frame, wherein the thin, flexibly deformable plate system comprises: a) a flexibly-deformable metal plate having a thickness of about 0.604 inches to about 0.756 inches; b) said flexibly deformable metal plate including at least two parallel, longitudinally-extending strain gauge channels, each of said longitudinally-extending strain gauge channels being latitudinally spaced from a center line “C” of said flexibly deformable metal plate by a distance “B”, which is about 52% to 54% of a distance from the center line “C” of said flexibly deformable metal plate to a respective longitudinal edge of said flexibly deformable metal plate; c) a series of strain gauges positioned in each of the strain gauge channels; d) at least two transversely-extending cross-channels in said flexibly deformable metal plate to provide communication between the strain gauge channels; e) a first elastomeric material layer positioned within each of the strain gauge channels to encapsulate the strain gauges therein; f) wiring harnesses operatively associated with the strain gauges in the strain gauge channels, each said wiring harness including electrical communicative wires operatively connected to a respective one of the strain gauges in an electrical bridge circuit to provide input signals to the electrical bridge circuit, wherein the wiring harnesses are supported by the first layer of elastomeric material in the strain gauge channels and extend to a respective one of said transversely-extending cross-channels; g) a second elastomeric material layer which is positioned over the first elastomeric material layer to encapsulate the wiring harnesses supported thereby; wherein the flexibly-deformable metal plate elastically bends in response to weight being applied thereto to in turn cause the strain gauges to provide a changing resistive value indicative of the bending of said flexibly-deformable metal plate and the weight applied thereto, thereby generating input signals to the electrical bridge circuit, which in turn then generates output signals from the electrical bridge circuit which are indicative of the force applied to the flexibly-deformable metal plate and thereby provide numerical value of the weight applied.