Four roller peristaltic pump

Abstract

A peristaltic pump for supplying liquid color to a process machine, comprising a stepper motor including an output shaft, a drive roller mounted on the output shaft, and a collection of planetary rollers positioned about and frictionally contacting driven by the output shaft, for sequentially compressing a flexible tube carrying the liquid color thereby dispensing liquid color from the tube.

I claim the following: 
     
         1 . A peristaltic pump for supplying liquid color to a process machine, comprising:
 a. a stepper motor;   b. a plurality of rollers frictionally contactingly driven by the stepper motor, for compressing a tube carrying liquid color to dispense liquid color from the tube.   
     
     
         2 . A peristaltic pump, comprising:
 a. a stepper motor;   b. a plurality of manually actuated switches for entering numbers;   c. a plurality of screens for displaying the manually entered numbers;   d. a microprocessor using the manually entered numbers to regulate speed of the stepper motor to furnish liquid color at a preselected rate.   
     
     
         3 . The pump of  claim 2  further comprising rollers, driven by the stepper motor, for squeezing a tube to output pumped liquid color. 
     
     
         4 . The pump of  claim 3  wherein the rollers are frictionally driven by the stepper motor. 
     
     
         5 . The pump of  claim 3  wherein the rollers are planetary rollers. 
     
     
         6 . The pump of  claim 2  wherein the switches are pushbuttons. 
     
     
         7 . The pump of  claim 2  wherein the switches are thumbwheels. 
     
     
         8 . The pump of  claim 6  wherein the thumbwheels are digital thumbwheels. 
     
     
         9 . The pump of  claim 2  wherein the numbers are (i) output rate in pounds per hour of a process machine receiving the pumped liquid color; (ii) percentage by weight of the pumped liquid color to be used by the process machine; and (iii) density of the liquid color. 
     
     
         10 . A peristaltic pump for supplying liquid color to a process machine, comprising:
 a. a stepper motor;   b. a pump head having a groove therein for receiving a liquid color tube;   c. a plurality of rollers frictionally driven by the stepper motor, for compressing the tube carrying liquid color while in the groove to dispense liquid color from the tube.   
     
     
         11 . The pump of  claim 10  wherein the pump head has upper and lower portions, the upper portion being movable vertically to expose the rollers for positioning of the tube thereon. 
     
     
         12 . The pump of  claim 11  further comprising:
 a. an on/off switch for controlling flow of electricity to the stepper motor; 
 b. a trip for moving the on/off switch to the “off” position whenever the pump head upper portion is raised. 
 
     
     
         13 . The pump of  claim 11  wherein the rollers are planetary rollers. 
     
     
         14 . The pump of  claim 12  wherein the rollers are planetary rollers. 
     
     
         15 . A peristaltic pump for supplying liquid color to a process machine, comprising:
 a. a stepper motor frictionally driving planetary gears squeezing a tube to output pumped liquid color;   b. a plurality of switches for manually entering (i) output rate in pounds per hour of product to be furnished by a process machine receiving the pumped liquid color; (ii) percentage by weight of the pumped liquid to be added to the materials to be consumed by the process machine in the course of producing the product; and (iii) density of the liquid color;   c. a plurality of screens for displaying the manually entered data recited in claim element “b”;   d. a microprocessor regulating speed of the stepper motor in response to the manually entered data to furnish a preselected amount of liquid color to be dispensed.   
     
     
         16 . The pump of  claim 1  wherein the rollers are planetary rollers. 
     
     
         17 . A peristaltic pump for supplying liquid color to a process machine, comprising:
 a. a stepper motor;   b. a plurality of planetary rollers frictionally driven by the stepper motor, for compressing the tube carrying liquid color while in the groove to dispense liquid color from the tube.