Talk:Ball transfer unit

Autoset Production Ltd patented the 'Ball transfer unit' from 1909 worldwide.

Thanks for linking to the patent information, good information. Your facts are a bit wrong though, the earliest of those patents is Italy 1958. The Omnitrack website does say 1954 for Britain, but actual British patent says 1962. I corrected this and moved the patent information to read better. --Yugyug (talk) 19:51, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I haven't done exhaustive searching but it looks like there are much earlier patents -- e.g., this one from 1931 references ball transfers as a well known concept: https://patents.google.com/patent/US1963956A/en?oq=1%2c963%2c956 --AlecRivers (talk) 19:31, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Not identical to ball mouse
The ball in a mouse is not supported from above using bearing surfaces. It rests loosely on a table and is only held in place by the ring below the ball encircling it. There is often a pressure roller in a corner but it only provides firm lateral/horizontal friction contact for the sensor wheels.

Trackball is a more accurate association with the ball transfer unit, since a trackball is exposed from above and rests on the bearing supports due to gravity.

DMahalko (talk) 17:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I thought exactly the same thing on both counts, after seeing your comment here I removed the computer mouse comparison, and also the redundant "except there is an array of them side-by-side" since it is mentioned later in the article.


 * Looking now, I see that trackballs usually rest on 3 rollers, which is not how the usual ball transfer unit operates as far as I know (uses frictionless recirculating balls?), so perhaps I should have removed that too. It would be nice if this article explained how a ball transfer unit actually worked and what "transfer" means (materials transfer or recirculating balls), this confusion with the computer mouse and trackball would seem to support my wish. Adx (talk) 22:37, 18 November 2014 (UTC)