Patents Represented by Law Firm Pearne, Gordon, McCoy & Granger
  • Patent number: 6182552
    Abstract: A holding device for a cage for roll bodies of longitudinal leaders on pillars of a tool, in particular a blanking or punching die or a mould, the tool consisting of a plurality of assembled plates, and having at least a first part and a second part. The holding device comprises a holding part which includes a hollow cylindrical rod, held displaceably in a longitudinal bore made on the free end of each pillar. Said rod is provided on its face with a disk projecting beyond the circumference of the pillar. Also inserted into the longitudinal bore is a screw. Provided on the shank of said screw is an elastic element over which an annular element, inserted into the hollow cylindrical rod, is pushed when the holding part is in pushed-in position. The elastic element holds the annular element in this position in a firmly clamping fashion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: Agathon AG Maschinenfabrik
    Inventor: Martin Graber
  • Patent number: 6157104
    Abstract: An electronic component cooling apparatus capable of permitting a sufficient amount of air to be fed to an electronic component to be cooled. An impeller which includes a plurality of blades for sucking air from one side in an axial direction of a revolving shaft of a motor is fixed on a rotor of the motor. A casing having a cylindrical cavity defined therein in which the motor and impeller are received is constructed of a peripheral wall arranged so as to surround the impeller and a closing wall for closing an end of the cavity on the other side in the axial direction. The peripheral wall is formed at a portion thereof in proximity to an end thereof on the one side with a lateral discharge port through which air suckedly introduced into the cavity is discharged so that a surrounding portion for surrounding a whole circumference of the impeller is left at a portion of the peripheral wall in proximity to an end on the other side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2000
    Assignee: Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinjiro Yokozawa, Nobumasa Kodama, Toshiki Ogawara, Yuichi Kodaira, Michinori Watanabe
  • Patent number: 6154921
    Abstract: This invention relates to a vacuum cleaner having a vacuum cleaner housing and a pivotable handle with a grip portion. The handle is pivotably secured to the vacuum cleaner housing in such a manner that the turning axis of the handle is generally horizontal and perpendicular to the direction of movement of the vacuum cleaner when the vacuum cleaner is in a working position on a horizontal surface. The handle is maintained in a generally vertical position when the vacuum cleaner is in the working position. When an operator lifts the vacuum cleaner housing from the working position using the handle, the vacuum cleaner housing pivots to a substantially vertical position, with the position of the grip portion relative to the operator's hand remaining substantially unchanged during the lifting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2000
    Assignee: Aktiebolaget Electrolux
    Inventors: Michael Green, Johan Sk.ang.ntorp, Fredrik Johansson, Stefan Petersson
  • Patent number: 6122973
    Abstract: A capacitance-type pressure sensor capable of reducing a variation in reference capacitance. The capacitance-type pressure sensor includes insulating spacer (3b) arranged between a main capacitive electrode (4) and a reference capacitive electrode (5) to couple a base substrate (1) and a diaphragm substrate (2) to each other. The insulating spacer (3b) is patterned so as to restrain a variation in distance between the reference capacitive electrode (5) and a counter electrode (10) arranged on the diaphragm substrate (2). Such construction reduces a variation in capacitance between the reference capacitive electrode (5) and the diaphragm electrode (10), to thereby increase accuracy at which a pressure is measured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2000
    Assignee: Hokuriku Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuo Nomura, Kiyoshi Tanaka, Satoshi Nakao, Hideki Tanigami, Kazutaka Hayashi
  • Patent number: 6121783
    Abstract: A needle is pressed into the backside oxide of a semiconductor wafer and a voltage applied to the wafer greater than the breakdown voltage of the oxide in order to make an electrical contact with the bulk material of the wafer. A capacitor plate is provided proximate to a wafer on a chuck and a Kelvin probe is provided proximate to the wafer. A varying voltage is applied between the chuck and the capacitor plate and a voltage is monitored between the Kelvin probe and the chuck. The monitored voltage remaining constant indicates electrical contact between the chuck and the wafer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2000
    Inventors: Gregory S. Horner, Meindert J. Kleefstra, Roger L. Verkuil, Robert A. Miles
  • Patent number: 6118994
    Abstract: A processor extracts a numeral string from a pager message which has been received via a pager antenna and a pager-signal receiving unit, and retrieves a telephone number including that numeral from a built-in telephone directory memory. The retrieved telephone number is displayed on a display unit, making it possible to determine a complete telephone number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2000
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshio Usami, Kazuhiko Fujimori
  • Patent number: 6116095
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for selectively predicting the air flows from a duct system that would be produced by environment conditioning plants. The apparatus includes a measurement duct connected to a blower. A restrictor plate is movably mounted over an inlet to the blower to vary the air flow produced by the blower so as to correspond to the air flow generated by a selected environment conditioning plant. A manometer is connected to the measurement duct and is operable to measure static pressure in the measurement duct when the measurement duct is in air flow communication with the duct system. Performance curves for the environment conditioning plants are used to convert static pressures to air flows.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2000
    Assignee: White Consolidated Industries, Inc.
    Inventor: David T. Radle
  • Patent number: 6115405
    Abstract: An arrangement and method for determining the height position of a vertically movable electrode (2) in an arc furnace (1). The arrangement includes an elongated, flexible element (9), preferably a heavy chain, whose one end is attached to a first attachment point on the movable electrode (2). The other end of the chain is attached to a fixed second attachment point. The total weight of those flexible element parts that are carried by the movable and the fixed attachment points respectively will vary in response to vertical movement of the electrode. The arrangement also includes load cell for sensing the part of the total weight supported by the fixed attachment point, for determining the height position of the electrode (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: AGA AB
    Inventor: Mikael Brunner
  • Patent number: 6114861
    Abstract: Described herein is an apparatus for evaluating the polarization characteristic of a ferroelectric capacitor. The apparatus includes a ferroelectric capacitor, a first pulse generator, a second pulse generator, a reference capacitor of a known capacitance value, and switch means. Those electronic circuit elements and components are all fabricated into a semiconductor substrate. In the apparatus, the first and second electrodes of the ferroelectric capacitor are connected to the output terminals of the first and second pulse generators. A second electrode of the ferroelectric capacitor is connected to an output terminal of the second pulse generator. The second electrode of the ferroelectric capacitor is connected to a first electrode of the reference capacitor through the switch means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: Matsushita Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: Masato Takeo
  • Patent number: 6111390
    Abstract: A power device including a magneto and a rectification circuit for rectifying an output of the magneto is provided which is capable of adjusting an output of the magneto without any specific control circuit. A field adjusting excitation coil is arranged on a side of a stator of the magneto so as to generate a field adjusting magnetic flux when it is excited, resulting in a magnet field of the magneto being varied by means of the magnetic flux. The field adjusting excitation coil is connected to an intermediate portion of a current flow circuit for a load current, to thereby be excited by the load current, so that a magnet field of a rotor of the magneto is varied depending on the load current, leading to adjustment of an output of the magneto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2000
    Assignee: Kokusan Kenki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yutaka Inaba, Tetsuya Kondo
  • Patent number: 6108864
    Abstract: A vacuum cleaner assembly including a motor housing, a motor and fan assembly mounted in the motor housing, and a dirt containment chamber having an air intake at one end. An apertured wall is provided at one end of the motor housing so that the fan is closely adjacent the aperture. A planar filter is provided within the containment chamber and extends from a distal end to a proximal end of the chamber to separate the chamber into an air flow chamber and a dirt chamber. The aperture is separated from air flow communication with said intake opening by the filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2000
    Assignee: White Consolidated Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Joyce K. Thomas, Samuel E. Hohulin, Jeffrey Smith
  • Patent number: 6103792
    Abstract: A non-phenolic tackifier compound which includes starch and asphalt, and is substantially free of cross-linked fatty acids. Preferably, the tackifier compound further includes a hydrocarbon tackifying resin, and a binding resin composed of a styrene copolymer, or an ethylene copolymer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: Flow Polymers, Inc.
    Inventors: James W. Hoover, James V. Fusco, Pamela S. MacMillan
  • Patent number: 6100965
    Abstract: The purpose of this invention is a laser speed measurement and range finding device, with coherent detection comprising:a microlaser (10) with continuous emission comprising an active laser medium (10) and a microlaser cavity (16, 18),means (20, 22, 24) for modulating an optical frequency of a beam output by the microlaser,means (28) of outputting a signal depending on:firstly, the Doppler frequency ##EQU1## where .lambda. is the microlaser emission wave length and V is the speed of the target (2) to be detected,secondly, a modulation frequency F.tau. caused by interference in the cavity of the frequency modulated laser oscillation and the signal from a target (2) placed at a distance Z.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignees: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires
    Inventor: Philippe Nerin
  • Patent number: 6098912
    Abstract: A winding machine is provided, by which it is possible to cope with various kinds of shapes of the winding section, to realize stable winding, and to perform an operation of connecting the end of the wound wire to a terminal and a winding operation in a single process. The winding machine comprises a nozzle which is movable while letting out a wire; driving device for driving the nozzle; direction switching device for making the direction of the nozzle switchable; and winding position setting device for setting the position of a winding section onto which the wire is wound, and wherein the wire is wound onto the winding section according to movement of the nozzle, and the wire is fixed to a wire fixing section at the end of winding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Nittoku Engineering Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kaoru Noji
  • Patent number: 6099339
    Abstract: A lock mechanism by which a mating connector socket to be mounted on a printed wiring board of an electronic equipment can be formed into a small size, and even if the direction of mounting of the connector socket is inverted, or if the electronic equipment itself is turned upside down, the locking can be easily released. In a connector plug (10) for electrically connecting a mating connector socket (20), mounted on a printed wiring board of an electronic equipment, to another electronic equipment through an electric cable (30), when the connector plug (10) is fitted in the connector socket (20), this fitted condition is locked by a lock mechanism, and the lock mechanism of the connector plug includes retractable lock pawls (12) provided at a face side of a fitting portion (11) of a generally rectangular parallelepiped shape, and lock release buttons (14) provided respectively at opposite side surfaces of a finger grip portion (13).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Yanagida, Mitsuhiro Yoshida, Koji Hisada, Koji Togashi
  • Patent number: 6095307
    Abstract: A tool support and monitoring assembly for a press. The tool includes upper and lower die shoes, back-up plates, and upper and lower die tooling. The die tooling is secured to the back-up plate and includes a first surface facing the back-up plate and an opposite second surface. The back-up plate defines an air plenum which is connected to a pressure monitoring device. The die tooling defines a plurality of small bores which communicate with the air plenum. The bores extend from the first surface toward the second surface of the die tooling. The pressure monitoring device detects air pressure in the air plenum and bores, and shuts down the press to prevent a subsequent stroke when a pressure drop indicative of tool failure is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2000
    Assignee: A. J. Rose Manufacturing Co.
    Inventors: Michael A. Hamulak, Randy Monahan, Christopher P. Rose, Robert D. Pritchard
  • Patent number: 6095221
    Abstract: An awning includes a roller assembly having a torsion spring, a canopy connected between a wall the roller assembly, and a pair of "four-bar" arm assemblies supporting opposite ends of the roller assembly. The arm assemblies move the roller assembly between a retracted position and an extended position, where the torsion spring biases the roller assembly toward the retracted position. Each arm assembly includes a vertically extending base arm secured to the wall, a bottom arm having a first end pivotally connected to the base arm, an extended arm having a first end pivotally connected to the bottom arm and a second end supporting the roller assembly, and a top arm having a first end pivotally connected to the base arm and a second end pivotally connected to the extended arm. The base arm has a telescoping extension so that the effective length of the base arm is variable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2000
    Assignee: White Consolidated Industries, Inc.
    Inventor: Sydney W. Frey, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6094011
    Abstract: A discharge lamp lighting device driven by an internal combustion engine is disclosed which is capable of lighting a discharge lamp without using a ballast constituted by a leakage transformer. The device includes a generator which is driven by the internal combustion engine and of which output characteristics exhibit drooping characteristics, so that an output voltage of the generator may be applied to a discharge lamp without using any ballast. Output characteristics of the generator are so set that an output voltage of the generator at a non-load state thereof may be higher than a break-down voltage of the discharge lamp, a short-circuit current of the generator may have a level sufficient to restrict a discharge current of the discharge lamp just after starting of discharge thereof to an allowable level or below, and a voltage across the discharge lamp and a discharge current thereof at a steady state thereof each are kept within a rated range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2000
    Assignee: Kokusan Denki Co., Ltd
    Inventor: Tooru Notsu
  • Patent number: 6089088
    Abstract: The invention relates to a vibrating microgyrometer incorporating a seismic mass (16) placed above a surface of a substrate (15) and attached to the surface by elastic supports arranged so as to enable the seismic mass (16) to move with respect to the substrate (15) in two directions x, y orthogonal to one another and orthogonal to the measurement axis of the microgyrometer. The microgyrometer also comprises excitation electrodes (40) making it possible to excite the seismic mass in the two mutually orthogonal directions and detection electrodes (41) making it possible to detect components of the Coriolis force, once again in the two mutually orthogonal directions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2000
    Assignee: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique
    Inventor: Pierre-Louis Charvet
  • Patent number: D434573
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2000
    Inventor: Ronald C. Noll