Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Francis C. Hand, Esq.
  • Patent number: 6523904
    Abstract: An outdoor furniture frame construction is provided with a pair of fixedly mounted rails across which and into which a plurality of plastic straps are mounted in tensioned manner. Each rail is provided with a slot to receive an enlarged end of a strap as well as a lip defined by the slot and against which a folded over end of each strap abuts. The straps are heated before being mounted in the rails to permit stretching of the strap and placement in the rails. When in place, the enlarged ends of the strap engage against the lip in each rail for anchoring purposes. Damaged straps may be readily removed without having to remove additional straps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: Telescope Casual Furniture, Inc.
    Inventor: William M. Vanderminden
  • Patent number: 6490762
    Abstract: In a lap winding apparatus for producing a batt lap, the batt is wound onto a tube which is rotatable about a fixed axis and is driven by a revolving endless belt. The belt is arranged in a loop, formed between two deflecting rolls and is tensioned by a tensioning device. The tube which is rotatable about a fixed axis, as well as the two deflecting rolls are dimensioned, and positioned relative to each other, in such a manner that the loop at the beginning of the lap winding process embraces the tube over an initial minimum wrapping angle equal to, or larger than, 120° and preferentially equal to, or larger than, 180°. For generating a tensioning force depending on the lap diameter, the tensioning device is associated with a control device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2002
    Inventors: Marcel Siegenthaler, Christian Sporri, Werner Graber
  • Patent number: 6473987
    Abstract: A wafer edge grinding or polishing machine is provided with a pair of chucks for engaging a wafer therebetween, a fixed reference surface and a sensor which is movable with a movable chuck. Measurements are made by the sensor relative to the fixed reference plane when the movable chuck is in engagement with the opposite chuck without a wafer therebetween in order to obtain a standard measurement value. With a wafer between the chucks, the sensor obtains an actual measurement value relative to the fixed reference surface. A calculator determines the difference between the standard and actual measurements values and displays the difference as the thickness of the wafer. Multiple sensors may be used to obtain multiples readings which are averaged by the calculator to obtain a thickness measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2002
    Assignee: Accretech USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert E. Steere, III, Colby Steere
  • Patent number: 6416428
    Abstract: The golf ball launching device employs an annular ring for mounting a golf ball within a barrel of the launching device upstream of a hinged cover through which the ball is mounted in the barrel. A blast of air from one end of the barrel propels the ball off the ring at a consistent velocity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: United States Golf Association
    Inventors: Robert A. Tygar, Stanley E. Chrapowicki, Eric S. Blasic
  • Patent number: 6402635
    Abstract: The force plate data acquisition system measures, processes and analyzes the vertical reaction forces and various weight shifts between the ground and a golfer's feet during a swing. Plates are supported on cantilever beams through ball bearings. The beams are attached to a rigid frame and instrumented with strain gauges configured in a Wheatstone half bridge arrangement. An eight-channel strain gauge data acquisition board in a central processing unit records strain information. Data collection can be independent or controlled by a motion analysis system to provide synchronous foot force and video information. A set of BASIC programs collect strain readings from the foot plates, process the data, relate beam deflections to applied load and plots reaction force and weight shift information to the computer screen. Graphs produced are total vertical reaction force, foot-to-foot weight shift, heel-to-toe weight shift, outside-to-instep weight shift and the speeds of each.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2002
    Assignee: U. S. Golf Association
    Inventors: Steven M. Nesbit, Terry A. Hartzell, Anthony Shea, Michael Tracey, Lucien Webb
  • Patent number: 6403184
    Abstract: A laminated form is made of multiple plies which are laminated together. One or both of the outer plies is die-cut to form a plurality of spaced apart or contiguous removable labels. Each label has one portion on the underside provided with a pressure-sensitive adhesive to allow the label to be temporarily attached, for example, to a page of a catalog. The adhesive-free portion of each label may be held in place in the form by ties or by adhesive on the opposed ply with a barrier coat therebetween. The labels may be disposed in a random pattern on each ply with suitable software provided to image the labels in distinct manners.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2002
    Inventor: Irving R. Michlin
  • Patent number: 6385791
    Abstract: The pool cover is made of multi-layer light weight construction having a translucent top layer to permit sunlight to pass through an opaque bottom layer for absorbing sunlight passing through the transparent layer. In addition, a plurality of pockets are formed in the opaque layer having air encapsulated therein. When in use, the opaque layer becomes heated by sunlight thereby transferring heat by contact to the body of the water in the pool while also blocking light from the body of water to inhibit algae growth. The heated trapped air also serves to conduct heat to the body of water while also acting as a thermal insulation barrier during non-daylight hours. The pool cover may also be turned upside down in use. In other embodiment, all layers may be opaque.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Inventors: Harry Bussey, Jr., Edward J. Ellison
  • Patent number: 6361190
    Abstract: An enlarged surface LED lighting device having an interior reflector disposed and configured to reflect the light emitted by a LED element to increase the divergence of the light and form an interior reflected light. The interior reflector is typically a surface of revolution about the pattern axis configured to reflect and bend the light away from the axis of the spatial radiation pattern of the emitted light. The interior reflector is also formed to Increase the transfer of heat away from the LED element. The interior reflector is usually disposed in close proximity to the LED element to maximize the percentage of emitted light it redirects. The lighting device additionally includes an exterior reflector also normally a surface of revolution about the pattern axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2002
    Inventor: Kevin McDermott
  • Patent number: 6325027
    Abstract: The bearing arrangement includes an annular flange provided with a groove, a holder disposed on a fixed axis opposite the groove and a hollow shell-shaped sphere mounted between the holder and the groove in the annular flange. The sphere is elastically deformable so that loads imposed on the bearing arrangement, for example, by a reciprocating piston rod of an internal combustion engine, can be spread over a large area as the sphere elastically deforms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: Sinus Holding AS
    Inventor: Leif Dag Henriksen
  • Patent number: 6299246
    Abstract: The plastic moulding and design structure has a load-bearing structure (3), which is wholly or partly surrounded by a polymer material (8) forming the moulding. The load-bearing structure (3) is formed from several interconnected, high strength, continuous fibre-reinforced structural elements (5). Thus, in a simple and inexpensive manner it is possible to produce structures with the most varied shapes such as containers, tanks, vehicle frames, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2001
    Assignee: RCC Regional Compact Car AG
    Inventor: Ivan Tomka
  • Patent number: 6289545
    Abstract: The device for cleaning the inside of an oral cavity includes a cleaning member having bristles on an upper surface for brushing purposes and a scraping edge extending along a rear edge of a lower surface for scraping the tongue and/or interior surfaces of an oral cavity. The scraping edge is formed by an upstanding ridge which extends from the lower surface a distance of from 1 to 3 millimeters. In some embodiments, the cleaning member may be straight while other embodiments the cleaning member may be bowed. Also, the cleaning instrument may have a single handle for holding the cleaning member or a pair of handles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2001
    Inventor: Olav Mølster
  • Patent number: 6289791
    Abstract: The piston is provided with a hollow space in which a head member for a piston rod is mounted. A disc is provided within the piston for seating of the head member via mating concave/convex surfaces and a separate support ring is disposed under a flange of the head member with mating concave/convex surfaces therebetween. An annular clamping member serves to secure the disc ring and head member together and also abuts against an internal shoulder within the piston. Eccentric loadings on the piston are compensated by tilting movements between the head member and piston in a self-adjusting manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2001
    Assignee: Sinus Holding AS
    Inventor: Leif Dag Henriksen
  • Patent number: 6279245
    Abstract: A ball controller (10) is in the form of a rigid mat having a central cavity (12) for the reception of a golf ball (11) for checking the diameter of a golf ball (11), the ball controller (10) having sectionally (13, 14, 15) differing wall thicknesses (a, b, c) in the radial direction of the controller (10) and preferably having an optimal thickness in a radially innermost, annular portion (15) around the cavity (12). The cavity (12) has a cylindrical inner face (14a) having an axial dimension (1) of 3 mm minimum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2001
    Inventor: Erling Johnsen
  • Patent number: D447679
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2001
    Assignee: Component Hardware Group, Inc.
    Inventor: Bernard Parisi
  • Patent number: D448792
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2001
    Inventor: Sylvana Miceli
  • Patent number: D452267
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: Pama Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Marvin A Makofsky, Jerome B Schwartz
  • Patent number: D455704
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2002
    Assignee: A. Procean AS
    Inventor: Knut Vangen
  • Patent number: D469591
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Telescope Casual Furniture Co.
    Inventor: William M. Vanderminden
  • Patent number: D469972
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2003
    Assignee: Telescope Casual Furniture, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert D. Vanderminden, Sr.
  • Patent number: D472290
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Inventor: Helge Kristoffersen