US3469775A - Registering device - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 30 1969 KEI-CH T REGISTERING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 12, 1968 Ila/7s Z/MMKRMANN By dazed Ike/r ATTOR/V/E Sept. 30, 1969 KELC" 3,469,775

REGISTERING DEVICE Filed Jan. 12, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,469,775 REGISTERING DEVICE Heinz Kelch, Villingen, and Hans Zimmermann, Schwenningen, Germany, assignors t0 Kienzle Apparate G.m.b.H., Villingen, Black Forest, Germany Filed Jan. 12, 1968, Ser. No. 697,437 Claims priority, applicatioir 2(iirmany, Jan. 20, 1967,

US. Cl. 235-1 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In a counter the housing thereof is provided with an observation window. A plurality of counting wheels or number wheels are arranged inwardly spaced from the observation window so as to be observable therethrough. An opaque shield, provided with a plurality of cutouts through which respective ones of the number wheels may be observed, is interposed between the number wheels and the observation window and is movable into and out of such position from the exterior of the housing without necessitating opening of the latter.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to registering devices in general and more particularly to registering devices of the type wherein rotating number wheels are observed through a window in the housing of the device. More specifically, the present invention relates to the shield member which is interposed between the observation window of such devices and the registering assembly thereof.

Registering devices are well known which consist of registering assemblies comprising a plurality of number wheels, arranged within a housing in such a manner that the number wheels are visible through an observation window provided in the housing. Devices of this type are most frequently used as counters, in which case the rotatable wheels are number wheels and each carry a series of numbers. However, such devices can also be used in other applications and the wheels may carry indicia other than numbers, for instance symbols, pictorial representations or the like. For the sake of expediency these arrangements will hereafter be designated as counters, and the wheels be designated as number wheels, although it is to be understood that no limitation is to be inferred from this.

The number wheels in such counters may have different diameters, for instance a diameter of 70-80 centimeters or more, and they, together with the entire registering or counter assembly are shielded from direct observation through the observation window by a shield member which is interposed between the latter and the counting assembly. The shield member is provided with a plurality of openings through each of which there is normally visible a portion of the circumferential face of the respective number Wheel, and thus it is possible to observe through each such opening that number or symbol which is provided on the aforementioned portion of the circumferential face of the respective wheel. Of course, such counting devices may be used in a great variety of applications, for instance to meter gasoline in a gasoline station, to count particles in scientific applications, or the like. To allow for the different applications it is necessary that the shield member be provided on that side thereof which faces the observation window with designations of the units being measured, to indicate for instance whether liters are being measured, particles are being counted, gallons are being registered, or the like. It is to be understood that one and the same counter can be usually used for any one of these various applications. Furthermore, the purchaser of such counters usually wishes to affix his companys name, address, symbol or similar information on the shield member for purposes of identification and/or advertising.

All such information could, of course, be provided on the observation window at the exterior thereof. However, many of these counters are employed in exposed locations where they are subject to weathering, or where the data could be accidentally erased from the outer side of the observation window by careless wiping with abrasive substances, or in other manner. For this reason, it is standard practice to provide all such data on the shield member which is protected within the housing.

The housing, in turn, must be sealed against certain undesirable influences. Firstly, if the housing is to be exposed to the elements, then it must be as weather-tight as possible and strong so as to withstand the influence of the elements. Furthermore, and regardless of where the counter is to be employed, it is essential that the housing provide protection against unauthorized access to the counting assembly, that is against tampering. It is therefore customary in counting devices of the type here under discussion to provide a strong and tight housing usually a cast housing, which has only such openings as are absolutely essential, for instance for passage of the drive shaft which is connected with the counting assembly and for pasage of the zero-setting shaft. The shield member was mounted in place within the housing and the observation window was then mounted in the housing and provided with a lead seal which was so afiixed that the observation window could not be removed without damaging the lead seal and thereby indicating the fact that tampering had taken place. This, however, has proven to be rather disadvantageous because it obviously precluded individual afiixing of symbols, letterings, emblems, or the like to the shield member which was sealed within the housing. Evidently, it is not possible for the manufacturer of such counting devices to have on hand stocks of shield members which would cover all contingencies as to the information which is provided on them. Furthermore, even if it were possible it would be economically highly disadvantageous to rely on such a system, because it would then be necessary to custom install the required shield members in accordance with the wishes of an individual customer. Thus, if a customer purchases only a small number of counting devices, the expenses involved in withdrawing the partly assembled devices from the general manufacturing series, and custom-finishing their assembly with the required shield members, would make such counters almost prohibitively expensive. Furthermore, the customer frequently wishes to make last-minute changes for which no provision could of course be made at all, by the manufacturer.

Under these circumstances, it has heretofore been necessary for the manufacturer to deliver the counting devices without afiixing the lead seal, thus giving the customer the opportunity to insert the shield member of his choice. This, of course, made it necessary for the customer to open the housing, insert the shield member, and again close the housing and it is evident that such manipulations by personnel not skilled in the handling of these counting devices will always bring with it the danger of damage to the counting assembly. This, in turn, made it impossible for the manufacturer to provide a meaningful guarantee of quality. Furthermore, it was necessary for the customer to return the counting devices, into which he has inserted his own shield members, to a service station of the manufacturer for affixing of his lead seal.

All of this is highly complicated and expensive, and

adversely influences the quality and integrity of such counting devices.

It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a solution which will overcome the aforementioned disadvantages.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide a solution which will make it possible for the counting device to be closed and-sealed by the manufacturer against any access to the registering assembly within the housing, while enabling inserting and withdrawal of the shield member from the exterior of the housing so that the customer himself may insert his own shield member, or may affix or change lettering, numbering, indicia, symbols or the like on the shield member at will and insert the shield member into the housing without having the possibility of access to components of the counter which are arranged within the housing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one feature of our invention we provide, in a registering device of the type here under discussion, wherein a registering assembly including at least one rotatable indicia-bearing wheel is arranged within a closed housing whose peripheral wall means includes a transparent wall portion, and wherein an opaque shield member or element is located in the housing in a plane in which it is interposed between the transparent wall portion and the registering assembly, a slot which is provided in the peripheral wall means and is elongated in the aforementioned plane, such slot being dimensioned for enabling insertion of the shield element into, and the withdrawal of the shield element from the housing therethrough, while the housing remains sealed against tampering, with the registering assembly.

The construction according to our invention meets the requirements made by the purchasers of counters as to accessibility of the shield member and at the same time provides the possibility of factory sealing the housing against tampering. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for the manufacturer to maintain the shield element in stock in a great variety of different types, and reduces the assembly costs significantly because the necessity for special assembly of small quantities of counters is eliminated and all counters of one type, regardless of how many counters are included in a series, can now be assembled in identical manner.

The invention itself, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front-elevational view of a counter embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a section taken on the line A-B of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective detail view illustrating the shield element employed in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the drawing in detail it will be seen that the housing of a counter is generally identified with reference numeral 1 and will here be assumed to constitute a box of rectangular configuration. A lid 2 closes the upper side of the housing, and a bottom plate 3 closes the lower side of the housing. Both the lid 2 and the bottom plate 3 are suitably secured to the housing 1 so that they cannot be removed from the exterior thereof.

Arranged within the housing are a plurality of number wheels 5 (one visible in FIG. 2) all of which are mounted on a common shaft a portion of which extends outwardly through a side wall of the housing 1 and carries the setting knob 4. The number wheels are provided on their circumferential faces with numbers in the conventional manner. A stud shaft 6 extends downwardly through the bottom plate 3 of the housing and is adapted to be connected to the device whose operations are to be registered by the counter.

The front face 7 of the housing 1 is provided with an opening 8 within which there is secured a transparent member 9, inclined with reference to the lid 2 and bottom 3 constituting part of the peripheral housing wall, as shown in FIG. 2, and which member 9 may be of glass or other suitable material and constitutes an observation window. The number wheels 5, and a so-called control counter 10 are located between the end plates 11 in the conventional manner. With these end plates 11, the number wheels 5 and the control counter 10 form the registering assembly.

Interposed between the registering assembly and the window member 9 is an opaque shield element 12, which in the illustrated embodiment is provided with two cutouts 13 and 14. The number wheels 5 are visible through the cutout 13 and the control counter 10 is visible in the cutout 14. This is illustrated in FIG. 1. Again, this arrangement is conventional. It is to be noted that the window member 9 cannot be removed from the exterior of the housing so that the housing is for intended purposes closed against undesired tampering once it has been sealed with a lead seal, in a manner which is still to be described.

The shield element 12 is mounted on a strip-shaped support member 17 with two screws 15 and 16, although it is to be understood that this mounting arrangement is shown only by way of example. In accordance with the invention, the bottom plate 3 of the housing is provided with an elongated slot 18, which is so configurated that the support member 17 is receivable therewithin as shown in FIG. 2, and that the shield element 12 can be inserted into and removed from the interior of the housing through this slot 18. Screws 19 and 20 serve to secure the support member 17 to the bottom plate 3 of the housing, as is seen most clearly in FIG. 1. For this purpose, the support member 17, which as illustrated in FIG. 3 consists of a strip-shaped first portion 21 and an upright portion 22, which extends upwardly from the strip-shaped portion 21 and is provided with a cutout 23 in which the shield element 12 is received, is provided with bores or holes 24 and 25. It will be noticed that the bore 24 in this embodiment is countersunk so as to accept a recessed screw 19, whereas the bore 25 is cylindrical throughout and accepts a screw 20 whose head projects outwardly beyond the bore 25. The head of the screw 20 is provided with a bore 26 therethrough, and when the separate member 17 carrying the shield element 12 is received in the slot 18 and the screws 19 and 20 have been affixed in the respective bores a wire or wirelike element 27 is passed through the bore 26 and through a bore provided in a projection 28 on the bottom wall 3 of the housing and a lead seal 29 or similar element then connects the free ends of the element 27 to one another so that the screw 20 can be removed only if the element 27 or the seal 29 are destroyed thus providing evidence of tampering.

It is clear that with this arrangement the housing can be completely closed at the factory except for the provision of the slot 18, and wherever the connection of housing portions to one another by means of such connecting elements as screws, bolts or the like is necessary, a lead seal of the type just described can be affixed, so that such connections cannot be separated without providing evidence of tampering. The shield member 12, carried by the support member 17, can be either supplied in a standard blank version by the factory or it can be supplied by the customer. If it is supplied in a blank version by the factory, than the customer can remove it, provide any desired information thereon and reinsert it in the manner just described. Regardless of which approach is chosen, however, the counting assembly or registering assembly within the housing will be protected against tampering because access to it is impossible. This makes it possible for the manufacturer to provide a quality guarantee which is not jeopardized by the possibility of unauthorized intentional or unintentional tampering. The seal provided by passing the element 27 through the bore 26 and a complementary bore in the member 28, and by afiixing the free ends of the element 27 with a lead or other seal 29, is not absolutely necessary because it does not serve to protect the registering assembly within the housing, but only provide protection against unauthorized removal of the shield element 12. For this reason, this particular seal can be afiixed by the customer, rather than by the manufacturer.

It will be evident that various modifications of the illustrated embodiment are possible without deviating from the concept of the invention. Thus, the supporting element 17 could be omitted and the shield element 12 be downwardly extended and directly connected to the bottom wall 3 of the housing, or for that matter, to any other wall of the housing in which the slot 18 is provided. In this case, the slot 18 could be considerably narrower than illustrated, and it would be advantageous to angle the lower edge portion of the shield element 12 so that it overlies a portion of the housing wall in which the slot is provided, and could be secured thereto by means of screws passing into this wall through the angled portion of the shield element 12.

It is clear that the slots 18 need not be provided in the bottom wall 3 of the housing, although this will ordinarily be preferable because it is usually the bottom Wall which is best protected from the elements. It is also clear that, if desired, a suitable seal can be provided to seal the slot 18 against the intrusion of dust, moisture or the like, and this could be in form of elastomeric material or other suitable sealing material which would effect a seal upon introduction of the supporting element 17 into the slot 18. Similar arrangement is of course also possible if the supporting element 17 is omitted and the shield element 12 downwardly extended as already discussed.

It will be understood that each of the elements de scribed above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions difiering from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a registering device, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a registering device of the type comprising a registering assembly including at least one rotatable indicia-bearing wheel, a closed housing surrounding said assembly and being sealed against tampering with the latter, said housing comprising peripheral wall means including a transparent wall portion, and an opaque shield element located in said housing in a plane in' which it is interposed between said transparent wall portion and said assembly and having aperture means through which the indica of said wheel may be viewed in response to rotation of said wheel, the improvement consisting in providing said peripheral wall means with a slot elongated in said plane and dimensioned for enabling insertion of said shield element into, and withdrawal thereof from said housing through said slot while said housing remains protected against tampering with said registering assembly because access to the registering assembly is impossible.

2. In a device of the type defined in claim 1, wherein said peripheral wall means of said housing comprises two spaced substantially parallel peripheral wall portions both inclined with reference to said transparent wall portion, said slot being provided in one of said peripheral wall portions.

3. In a device of the type defined in claim 2, wherein said one peripheral wall portion constitutes the bottom wall of said housing.

4. In a device of the type defined in claim 2, wherein said shield element comprises an elongated supporting member, and a sheet member extending along said supporting member carried thereby and projecting therefrom, said sheet member being provided with said aperture means, said supporting member and said sheet member being respectively adapted to overlie said slot closing the same 'and to be interposed between said transparent wall portion and said assembly when said shield element is inserted into said housing.

5. In a device of the type defined in claim 4, and further comprising mounting means releasably mounting said sheet member on said supporting member.

6. In a device of the type defined in claim 4, wherein said supporting member is an elongated supporting bar.

7. In a device of the type defined in claim 6, wherein said slot is of stepped inwardly converging cross-section and comprises a wider outer portion dimensioned to accommodate said supporting bar therewithin, and a narrower inner section dimensioned for passage of said sheet member therethrough into and out of said housing.

8. In a device of the type defined in claim 7, and further comprising connecting means operative for connecting said supporting bar to said one peripheral wall portion of said housing.

9. In a device of the type defined in claim 8, wherein said one peripheral wall portion and said supporting bar are each provided with pairs of bores which register with one another when said shield element is inserted into said housing; and further comprising screw means adapted to be threaded into the registering bores.

10. In a device of the type defined in claim 1, and further comprising connecting means releasably connecting said shield element to said housing ext'eriorly of the latter.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 1,151,672 8/1957 France.

847,899 9/1960 Great Britain.

RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner S. A. WAL, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 116-129

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