Patent ID: 7481122

Claim:
Apparatus for measuring torque comprising: a hollow housing having top end and bottom ends and means closing off said top and bottom ends thereof; a torque-transmitting shaft rotatably mounted in said housing, said shaft having a top end and a bottom end with said top end thereof projecting out of said top end of said housing; first and second parallel beams mounted in cantilever fashion in said housing, with said shaft extending between said first and second beams; a force-transmitting arm having a first end attached to said shaft so as to rotate there with and a second end extending between and adjacent to said beams so that rotation of said arm will cause deflection of one or the other of said beams depending upon the door direction of rotation of said arm, each of said beams having the capability when bent of applying a restoring force to said arm and said shaft; an encoder having a rotatable input member coupled to said shaft so that rotation of said shaft will cause rotation of said encoder input member, said encoder being adapted to generate signals representative of the angle through which the rotatable input member of the encoder is rotated in response to rotation of said shaft; electronic means mounted within said housing and coupled to said encoder for receiving said signals and generating an electrical output representative of said signals; a wireless transmitter coupled to said electronic means for transmitting said in electrical output wirelessly to a remote receiver; and means on said top end of said shaft for supporting and securing a facsimile of the threaded mouth of a container, whereby when said apparatus is placed in a container capping machine in position for a screw cap to be rotatively applied to said facsimile, the torque with which the machine rotatively applies the screw cap to the facsimile will cause said shaft to rotate in accordance with said torque.