Patents Represented by Attorney Roger M. Rickert
  • Patent number: 5627218
    Abstract: Apparatus and method for the production of hopper feedable thermoplastic pellets having zones or compartments which contain physically separated reactants which react only after being melt-mixed, as in a screw type extruder, reciproscrew injection machine, or similar device which heat forms pellets into a larger mass. This new class of thermoplastic molding materials relies mainly on the relatively slow reaction kinetics of contained large molecule molding materials to provide a time interval after melt-mixing of zoned pelletized reactants in an extruder barrel or inflection molding machine. During this time period, the thermoplastic molding material is easily filled into injection molds. As the reaction progresses, the material becomes more viscous and such flow is difficult or impossible. The involved reactions may continue after demolding at room temperature during a post molding cure, or appliance service generated heat may cause post molding cure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 6, 1997
    Inventor: Rexford H. Bradt
  • Patent number: 5626106
    Abstract: Design Improvements are disclosed which enhance the migrating combustion chamber engine's ability to achieve improved performance, obtain higher durability and cost less to manufacture. These include strip seals between the combustion chamber member and orbiting piston which are adapted to respond to the pressure of combustion to increase contact pressure and improve retention of the gases in the combustion chambers as well as improved porting located in at least one power block sidewall and cooperating with the migrating combustion chamber to convey hot combustion gasses from a combustion chamber to a corresponding secondary expansion chamber. The combustion chamber member may be formed of two reciprocable piston portions and a pair of separate alloy steel connecting bars coupling the piston portions together. The connecting bars made of a low thermal conductivity material to remain hot and aid in fuel evaporation. A one piece counterweight hub provides all required counterweights.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 6, 1997
    Assignee: Engine Research Associates, Inc.
    Inventors: Frederick L. Erickson, Frederick Lynn Erickson, Jeffrey L. Erickson
  • Patent number: 5605413
    Abstract: An elongated hollow rotationally molded high density polyethylene highway barrier has two elongated generally parallel sidewalls, two generally vertical end walls, and a plurality of longitudinal reinforcing members extending from one end wall to the other. The longitudinal reinforcing members extend from respective vertical end walls and terminate in loops which may be joined to like loops on an adjacent barrier for interconnecting the barriers. The longitudinal reinforcing members are typically steel cables. In one form, both end walls have central vertical notches arranged so that the notch end of one barrier may be aligned with the notch end of another barrier and the two barriers moved toward one another with the notches aligned. In this form, there are two steel cables passing through longitudinal holes in each barrier to be joined within the two aligned end notches. In another form, one barrier end is notched vertically while the opposite end has a central vertical protrusion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 25, 1997
    Inventor: James C. Brown
  • Patent number: 5572427
    Abstract: A Doppler position locator for determining the bearing of a signal source from a moving receiver. The signal source encodes a digital signal indicating its actual transmitting frequency on a transmitted carrier. The moving receiver such as an airplane receives a Doppler shifted carrier frequency and the digital information on what the actual transmitted frequency was. Comparison of the received frequency to the digital information on the transmitted frequency yields a Doppler frequency (the increase or decrease caused by the relative motion, i.e., the numerical difference between the transmitted and received frequencies). From the aircraft velocity and the two frequencies, the bearing can be determined using the formula .crclbar.=cos.sup.-1 (d*c)/(f*v) where .crclbar. is the bearing angle, f is the transmitted frequency, d is the Doppler shift or change in frequency, c is the speed of light and v is the magnitude of the receiver velocity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 5, 1996
    Assignee: Magnavox Electronic Systems Company
    Inventors: John T. Link, Gene D. Robertson
  • Patent number: 5558584
    Abstract: A pool cue with a sight or aiming aid integrally associated therewith in the form of a narrow straight line centered along the top of the cue to be aligned with the ball, pocket in the background, or similar target. The cue is formed as two separate pieces of about the same length which screw together. The front piece is a tapered metal tube or rod terminating in the tip which strikes the ball. A cold-roll-forming machine is used to pinch the front piece together deforming the cross-section from a circle and creating a top line for sighting or alignment purposes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: September 24, 1996
    Inventor: James C. Brown
  • Patent number: 5553063
    Abstract: A system for full duplex real time two-way voice and data communication between a pair of computer terminal locations is disclosed. Analog voice signals are converted to digital form at one terminal location and those digital signals are interleaved with other digital information for transmission to the other terminal location. A value for the number of bytes in a data packet is first established, and then values for the number of bytes and the location dedicated to the transmission of voice information, control information, and data transmission within such fixed size data packets is established. Thereafter, a sequence of data packets with synchronization bytes in the voice byte locations is transmitted from each computer terminal location and received by the other of the terminal locations. Upon receipt thereof, an acknowledgement of the receipt is transmitted back to the originating location to indicate the establishment of synchronization between the two locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 3, 1996
    Inventor: William D. Dickson
  • Patent number: 5544459
    Abstract: A duct chase frame is substituted for a portion of the length of a conventional wooden or metal floor joist to facilitate running hot or cold air ductwork, plumbing and even electrical wiring. The frame includes a pair of elongated metal channels of uniform cross-sectional configuration with two metal spacers spanning and maintaining a joist accepting separation between those channels. One of the spacers is generally U-shaped for receiving and cradling a lower edge of one end of a floor joist, and the other spacer has an inverted U-shape for engaging an upper edge of the floor joist in a location intermediate the joist ends. The inverted U-shaped support is located near a first end of the pair of metal channels and the U-shaped support is located intermediate the metal channel ends. There may be a second inverted U-shaped support near a second end of the pair of metal channels for maintaining the separation between the pair of channels and for receiving and supporting a floor nailer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Inventor: Raymond J. Konger
  • Patent number: 5539957
    Abstract: A mesh net supporting framework for a hockey goal which is readily collapsed for transportation or storage has elongated tubular members hinged together at their respective ends and locking mechanisms at those hinges for securing the tubular members in mutually perpendicular configurations. The locking mechanisms may comprise an elbow with one of the tubular members and a short tube extending therefrom perpendicular to one another. There is an abutment on the short tube, and a cylindrical cuff surrounds the other of the tubular members, with that cuff having a semicylindrical extension for engaging the abutment. The other tubular member also has a semicylindrical end portion for engaging the abutment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 30, 1996
    Inventor: Todd W. Schmidt
  • Patent number: 5537730
    Abstract: Improvements in coil placing tooling of the type employed to insert prewound coils in the slots of dynamoelectric machine stator cores. Certain ones of the blades comprise an elongated blade of generally uniform cross-sectional configuration which includes a convex portion having a series of: generally parallel grooves cut therein to define intervening coil contacting lands. As compared to conventional "smooth" blades, these blades have only a portion of the area of contact with the coils and, therefor, only a fraction of the frictional resistance to coil insertion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 23, 1996
    Assignee: RMT, Inc.
    Inventor: Timothy K. Pease
  • Patent number: 5535918
    Abstract: A liquid dispensing vessel having an air space above the liquid near the top of the vessel has a fluid pump with a suction inlet and a pressure outlet. The pump is operable in a first mode to pump liquid and in a second mode to pump air. There is a first conduit coupling the suction inlet and liquid near the bottom of the vessel, a second conduit coupling the suction inlet and the air space above the liquid near the top of the vessel, a third conduit coupling the pressure outlet to a dispensing device, and a fourth conduit coupling the pressure outlet to liquid near the bottom of the vessel. A valving arrangement is effective to block both the second and fourth conduits for operating the pump in the first mode, and to open the second and fourth conduits for operating the pump in the second mode. The valving arrangement is preferably formed by valves in the second and fourth conduits and an arrangement which is common to the two valves for contemporaneous opening and closing both valves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1996
    Assignee: Tuthill Corporation
    Inventors: John E. Hathaway, Harold D. Pawlowski
  • Patent number: 5514920
    Abstract: A leak detector and circuit interrupter for detecting the presence of a liquid in the base of a dispenser containment box and interrupting the supply of electrical power when such liquid is detected is disclosed. There is a user enableable circuit for selectively enabling the pump and an override circuit which is operable when enabled to disable the user enableable circuit. An optical liquid sensing probe is positioned near the bottom of the containment box with optical coupling to the override circuit. The optical probe is coupled to a light emitting diode, a photosensitive transistor, and includes a light path with at least one total internal reflection surface normally coupling the light emitting diode and the photosensitive transistor. The probe normally maintains the override circuit in an ineffective state, but, when the light path is interrupted by an accumulation of liquid in the bottom of the containment box, changes state thereby enabling the override circuit and disabling the pump.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 7, 1996
    Inventor: William D. Key
  • Patent number: 5500175
    Abstract: Process and product for manufacturing continuous fiber reinforced sheets and shapes. A pressurized extrusion process consisting of a paired and edge enclosing doctor blades that remove feed material from a pair of pinch rolls and contain such in an optimally heated environment and which provides suitable hot dies and enables extrusion of continuous reinforcements, cores or threads to be contained in the extrudite. Hopper feedable plastic pellets containing reinforcing fibers which are longer than the largest pellet dimension are disclosed. The fibers in an elongated web of fiber reinforced plastic are caused to be wrinkled or folded prior to cutting the web into pellets. One form of apparatus includes a set of conveyor rollers for moving the web, with later rollers moving more slowly that the input rollers, in conjunction with a crowding doctor blade which forces the web with a creping action from the input rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1996
    Inventor: Rexford H. Bradt
  • Patent number: 5471661
    Abstract: A high speed scanning radio has conventional RF amplifier, a mixer, a frequency synthesizer for the generation of local oscillator signals, an IF amplifier, a demodulator, and an audio output stage. The receiver includes a memory for storing a plurality of frequency codes corresponding to respective radio channels and a scan control for reading those codes, two for each channel, into the frequency synthesizer. A linear combination of each pair of distinct frequency codes is utilized to generate a local oscillator signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 1992
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Inventor: Noel D. Atkinson
  • Patent number: 5447376
    Abstract: A self contained, "package", bearing system, has relatively rotating and sliding, precisely formed, truncated spherical, journal and bearing surfaces with a high hardness and with a low surface roughness, that operate on a thin hydrodynamic film of pressurized lubricant, when the bearing system is operated under any combination of axial and radial loads. It optionally contains either a supply of dry lubricant, or normally a capillary supported, self-contained reserve of fluid lubricant, and a system of "internally discharging" throwers, for keeping the fluid lubricant within the system, to promote a long operating life.Lubricant re-circulation channels at the ends of the bearing and the inherently lower rates of flow of lubricant from the ends of truncated spherical bearings facilitates achieving long operating life. Grooves and recesses are optionally included in the bearing surfaces for enhancing the axial load capacity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 5, 1995
    Inventors: Eldon R. Cunningham, deceased, Shirley J. Cunningham, personal representative
  • Patent number: 5435576
    Abstract: A gas pressure differential sealing ring for forming a seal between a pair of annular surfaces which are rotatable with respect to one another about a common axis to be used, for example, in the compressor portion of a turbojet engine, is disclosed. The sealing ring has a metallic annulus with a central axis and a generally uniform M-shaped cross sectional configuration. One of the surfaces against which it is to seal is substantially flat and generally in a plane perpendicular to the axis while the other is frustoconical. The annulus is formed of a strip of metal of generally uniform thickness to have a uniform serpentine cross-sectional configuration. The annulus is interrupted by a gap creating a pair of closely adjacent ends facing one another, each of the same serpentine shape as the uniform cross-sectional configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 25, 1995
    Inventor: John E. Rode
  • Patent number: D365870
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 2, 1996
    Assignee: Universal Consolidated Methods, Inc.
    Inventor: Timothy J. Miller
  • Patent number: D371819
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1996
    Inventor: James C. Brown
  • Patent number: D374485
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1991
    Date of Patent: October 8, 1996
    Inventor: James C. Brown
  • Patent number: D375238
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 5, 1996
    Assignee: Universal Consolidated Methods, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott A. Colley
  • Patent number: D379142
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 13, 1997
    Assignee: Universal Consolidated Methods, Inc.
    Inventor: Timothy J. Miller