Electro-optical counting device for counting products arranged in shingle-like fashion

Claim 1

A counting apparatus for counting articles which comprises: (a) a housing (b) attached to said housing a combination of a light emitting source and a light receiving device in which (1) said light receiving device is adapted to detect light along a certain detection pathway, and (2) said light emitting source is adapted to direct a beam of light along a light pathway and wherein (3) said detection pathway and said light pathway cooperate to form a vertex at a predetermined point which coincides with the surface of an article to be counted when said counting apparatus is in use; and are so adapted relative to each other that light from the light emitting source incident upon said surface is detected by said light receiving device but is not detected when said surface is not substantially located at said vertex, and (c) means attached to said light receiving device for differentiating between the detected light and the absence of detected light and means for converting the differentiation into a recordable event, wherein said housing is a cylindrical body having two ends, a wheel rotatably mounted on each end, the circumference of each of said wheels defining a riding surface adapted to contact the surface of an article to be counted when said apparatus is in use, said riding surfaces lying in a plane which includes said vertex.