Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm M. LuKacher
  • Patent number: 5514296
    Abstract: A glassy thermotropic chiral nematic liquid crystalline composition comprises a glassy chiral nematic compound of low molar mass that includes a cycloaliphatic radical, a nematogenic moiety, and a chiral moiety, or a mixture of a nematic liquid crystalline compound of low molar mass that includes a cycloaliphatic radical and a nematogenic moiety and a chiral compound of low molar mass that includes a chiral moiety. Each cycloaliphatic radical contains 4 to about 18 carbon atoms. An optical device is formed from the described glassy thermotropic chiral nematic liquid crystalline composition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 1994
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1996
    Assignee: The University of Rochester
    Inventors: Shaw H. Chen, Hongqin Shi
  • Patent number: 5511881
    Abstract: A rotatably driveable enhanced-flow impeller system is provided for pumping at least one liquid in a tank through an outlet port thereof. A radial flow impeller has a first impeller face disposed proximate the bottom of the tank and proximate or extending into an inlet port for liquids in the tank bottom. The radial flow impeller has a plurality of blades with radially outermost blade tips terminating along a blade terminating circle. Disposed adjacent a second opposing face of the radial flow impeller is a radial flow extension plate which preferably extends radially outwardly along the second face by a radial distance beyond the blade terminating circle. The radial flow extension plate may be fixedly attached to the second impeller face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 30, 1996
    Assignee: General Signal Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas A. Post, Richard A. Howk, Michael J. Preston
  • Patent number: 5501068
    Abstract: A mulching blade for a gasoline- or electrically-powered rotary lawn mower having a housing, which blade is mounted on the shaft of the lawn mower motor below the deck of the housing. The blade has a central mounting area and inner and outer sections sharpened on their leading edges which extend radially from the mounting area. The outer section cuts the unmowed grass. All sections are pitched upwardly away from the direction of rotation of the blade to lift the clippings as they are cut by the outer section and to turbulently suspend the clippings within the housing while the inner sections re-cut them repeatedly, comminuting the clippings into a fine mulch which falls by gravity to the soil level under the grass. Preferably there are three inner sections which jointly form an arch between the mounting area and the outer section and act as a comminuting tubulator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1996
    Assignee: Foley/PLP Co.
    Inventor: William Martz
  • Patent number: 5501523
    Abstract: A rotatably driveable enhanced-flow impeller system has a radial flow impeller with a first impeller face disposed proximate the bottom of the tank and proximate or extending into an inlet port for liquids in the tank bottom. The radial flow impeller has a plurality of blades with radially outermost blade tips terminating along a blade terminating circle. The blades and inlet port are contoured to reduce shear stress on the liquids. Disposed adjacent a second opposing face of the radial flow impeller is a radial flow extension plate which preferably extends radially outwardly along the second face by a radial distance beyond the blade terminating circle. The radial flow extension plate may be fixedly attached to the second impeller face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1996
    Assignee: General Signal Corporation
    Inventors: Ronald J. Weetman, Richard A. Howk, Thomas A. Post
  • Patent number: 5500770
    Abstract: A multiple lens element macrolens system operative as a single lens has a high light transmission value and a wide field of view of an object to be viewed. The macrolens system provides a long object working distance and an extended back focal distance to an image plane. An object group of lens elements is spaced by a substantial axial gap from an image group of lens elements. The gap and the working and back focal distances facilitate inclusion of various auxiliary components into an optical instrument which incorporates the macrolens system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1996
    Assignee: Amarel Precision Instruments
    Inventors: J. Robert Zinter, Paul L. Ruben
  • Patent number: 5483044
    Abstract: A microwave oven cavity 2 is provided by a magnetron(s) with microwave energy for providing heat in the thermal cavity. Hot air is supplied by a heated air supply and director (21,22,24). Cool air, at least a portion of which is able to assist in containing and/or directing at least a portion of said hot air, is also supplied via a sleeve (31) so as to provide localization of at least a portion of said hot air in the thermal cavity, and optionally to prevent or reduce heat reaching at least a portion of the boundary of the thermal cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1996
    Assignee: Merrychef Limited
    Inventors: Nigel Thorneywork, Aubrey B. Jelly
  • Patent number: 5480228
    Abstract: A mixer system for aggressive (toxic, hazardous, corrosive, etc.) materials which are mixed (agitated, suspended, circulated, etc.) in a vessel with an impeller connected to a drive shaft has the impeller and its shaft mounted in an assembly which extends through an opening into the tank and closes that opening. The assembly has a cylindrical hub with a passageway through which the shaft extends out of an open end of the hub. Bearings which are made of materials resistant to the aggressive material in the tank are mounted in the hub and journal and support the shaft. The passageway is part of a confinement region which is terminated by a confinement shell which separates inner and outer rotors of a magnet coupling. The inner rotor is connected to the shaft, directly or through a gear train (preferably a planetary gear set). The outer rotor is connected to a drive shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 2, 1996
    Assignee: General Signal Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey S. Gambrill, William F. Hutchings, Stephen L. Markle, Marlin Schutte, John M. Palmer
  • Patent number: 5481384
    Abstract: Centered monofacet deflector systems having a dipole laser beam scanning pattern (dual scanning beams which propagate in opposite directions) enables both the scan rate and the scan duty cycle of the scanning system to be doubled over deflectors which produce only one beam. The deflector may be a non-disc plane diffraction grating (NPDG) deflector or a dual reflecting cube (DRC) deflector having polarization sensitive beam splitting characteristics. The input beam polarization contains or is generated to contain orthogonally polarized components which are reflected or diffracted to produce one of the dual scanning beams and a transmitted beam through the element and retroreflected with the proper polarization to be deflected at the element to produce the other scanning beam thereby providing the capability of two simultaneous or sequential scan lines for every revolution of the deflector element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 2, 1996
    Assignee: Holotek Ltd.
    Inventors: Charles J. Kramer, Geoffrey B. Gretton
  • Patent number: 5469267
    Abstract: Prior to printing on a digital printer a halftone reproduction of a continuous one original image, digital image signals are corrected for the effects of printed dot overlap generated by a particular chosen digital printer. The dot overlap correction is based upon superimposing a virtual screen on the printer-generated dot patterns such that the printer dots are centered at the orthogonal intersections of the lines defining openings in the screen. This centering approach allows for determination of printed dot overlap by a 2.times.2 matrix, so that only seven test patterns are required for characterization of the printer and for dot overlap correction of halftone prints produced by the printer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 21, 1995
    Assignee: The University of Rochester
    Inventor: Shenge Wang
  • Patent number: 5461471
    Abstract: Optical ranging (e.g. for hitching purposes) utilises at least one first reference indicium comprised by a subject (e.g. a vehicle); at least one reflector; at least one second reference indicium, for being comprised by an object behind the subject; and optionally at least one third reference indicium; such that during suitable relative motion towards each other of the subject and object, the first and second reference indicia and optionally the third reference indicium are observed suitably to come into coincidence whereby a predetermined distance of separation (e.g. a hitching distance will exist between the subject and object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 24, 1995
    Inventor: Keith M. Sommerfeld
  • Patent number: 5454986
    Abstract: Improved mixing effectiveness in the mixing of a gas with a liquid suspension is achieved in a batch mixing system having a mixing tank with a hemi-toroidal tank bottom which extends between a radially inner neck portion of the tank to a radially outer cylindrical wall portion of the tank. The hemi-toroidal profile of the tank bottom has a monotonically increasing toroidal radius between the neck and wall portions. Disposed within the tank is an assembly including an axial flow impeller with pitched impeller blades, a stator adjacent to the impeller and having stationary stator blades of a pitch opposite to the pitch of the impeller blades, a shroud surrounding the radial periphery of both the impeller and the stator and a gas sparging means supported by the shroud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 3, 1995
    Inventor: Martin Lessen
  • Patent number: 5453844
    Abstract: Data representing the image of an original picture having high resolution are first acquired. The data are then processed in accordance with a blurring function, which can be a randomly distributed point spread function. Processing can be carried out either in object space or in spatial-frequency space. In object space a multi-dimensional convolution is required. In the spatial frequency domain, processing is performed by a pointwise product of data representing the Fourier transform of the original image and the Fourier transform of the blurring function. The resulting blurred image is thereby coded such that the original scene is no longer discernible, but can be recovered provided the blurring function is known. Additionally, this blurred image can be shown to contain the detail of the original but can be stored or transmitted as data which are compressed by compression ratios which can range from 2 to 100.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 26, 1995
    Assignee: The University of Rochester
    Inventors: Nicholas George, Bryan J. Stossel
  • Patent number: 5453164
    Abstract: A pyrolytic converter utilizing a rotatable drum surrounded by an outer drum support structure and disposed in an oven chamber pyrolyzes materials including plastic waste, tires, materials from automobile shredding operations, containers and trays of plastic material, rubber, leather, garbage, sewage sludge, coal, oil shale, broken asphalt and the like. These materials are formed into cartridges by a compactor using a reciprocating ram which forms cartridges in an injection tube wherein another ram injects the cartridges into the converter drum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 26, 1995
    Assignee: Wayne Technology Corp.
    Inventor: Fred A. Breu
  • Patent number: 5446588
    Abstract: Eyepiece optical systems having arrangements of surfaces where light is refracted or diffracted provide eyepieces with fewer elements and more compact designs than comparable, conventional eyepiece designs. These eyepiece optical systems have three elements each with positive focussing power, and provide a wide field-of-view of about 70.degree. and an eye relief of approximately 80% of the total focal length of the eyepiece. One embodiment has (from the eye side) a refracting, meniscus, positive element with a surface concave toward the eye, a bi-convex element having a refracting convex surface and a second refracting convex surface, and a refractive/diffractive doublet element with a refracting convex surface and diffracting surface (each element being of positive power).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 29, 1995
    Assignee: The University of Rochester
    Inventors: Michael D. Missig, G. Michael Morris
  • Patent number: 5438802
    Abstract: A weatherstrip assembly has a backing strip 30 with one or more local interference members in the form such as of nubbins 40A or alternative nubbins, which frictionally engage a channel or T-slot holding the backing member 30 and thereby restrict movement of the backing member 30 within the channel or T-slot, and especially movement of the weatherstrip along (longitudinally of) the length of the channel. Lateral (side to side) movement of weatherstrip is also restricted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 8, 1995
    Assignee: Ultrafab Inc.
    Inventor: Larry E. Johnson
  • Patent number: 5440111
    Abstract: A unitary hand-held bar code scanner and reader produces an elliptical beam, oriented with its major axis along the direction of the bars, utilizing optics employing far field diffraction effects to shape the beam and maintain its elliptical aspect (length to width ratio) constant over a distance in front of the scanner were bar codes may be located. The optics eliminates parallax even though the photodetector and light source (preferably a laser diode) are located offset from each other on a board on which the optics are mounted. A housing assembly has channels which mount the board therein without shock absorbing devices. A digital microcomputer controller and peripheral devices regulate the optical power output from the laser diode and prevents catastrophic failure, if the electrical current through the laser diode exceeds safe limits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 8, 1995
    Assignee: PSC, Inc.
    Inventors: Jay M. Eastman, Anna M. Quinn, Scott R. Grodevant, John A. Boles
  • Patent number: 5431000
    Abstract: Apparatus and method for preventing build-up of sheared material on a sickle-bar cutter assembly for use in removing unwanted tops from root or bulb crops, and an agricultural harvester embodying such an assembly. Stationary components of the assembly, including the knife guard mount bar and optionally an improved knife guard bar, are provided with a plurality of open passageways therethrough to permit process air to flow through the assembly to purge regions above the assembly in which sheared material would otherwise accumulate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 11, 1995
    Assignee: Lee Shuknecht & Sons
    Inventor: Lee Shuknecht
  • Patent number: D362531
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 19, 1995
    Assignee: Factura Composites, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael B. Thayer, Timothy R. Seely, Heather E. Wachter
  • Patent number: D362532
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 19, 1995
    Assignee: Factura Composites Inc.
    Inventors: Michael B. Thayer, Timothy R. Seely, Heather E. Wachter
  • Patent number: D365188
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 12, 1995
    Assignee: Factura Composites Inc.
    Inventors: Michael B. Thayer, Timothy R. Seely, Heather E. Wachter