Patent ID: 7958916

Claim:
Powder dispensing and sensing apparatus comprising: a tray support structure to receive a cartridge tray holding an array of cartridges; a powder dispenser assembly including powder dispenser modules to dispense powder into respective cartridges of a batch of cartridges in the cartridge tray; a powder transport system to deliver powder to the powder dispenser modules; a sensor module including an array of sensor cells to sense respective fill states of each of the cartridges in the batch of cartridges, the array of sensor cells matching a configuration of cartridges in the batch of cartridges in the cartridge tray; and a control system to control the powder dispenser modules in response to the respective sensed fill states of each of the cartridges of the batch of cartridges, wherein the sensor cells in the array of sensor cells individually sense the fill states of respective cartridges during simultaneous filling of the cartridges in the batch of cartridges.