Patents Represented by Law Firm Willian Brinks Hofer
  • Patent number: 5549098
    Abstract: A reliable, easily installable and replaceable range top system sealingly and removably connects a sealed glass panel to the structure of a range top. The system comprises a glass panel-elastic seal assembly, including a glass range top panel and an elastic seal attached at the periphery of the glass range top panel, a carrier for the glass panel-elastic seal assembly and means for removably fastening the glass panel into sealing engagement with the range top structure without tools, the fastening means providing an easily disengageable interlock with the range top structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 27, 1996
    Assignee: Maytag Corporation
    Inventors: Michael E. Bales, Paul D. Noel, Steve M. Schatz
  • Patent number: 5549645
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for securing the terminal end of a catheter extension (300) used by a peritoneal dialysis patient. The Cosentino Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Clip (3CDP) (100) consists of a rigid plastic body (100) open at both the proximal end (101) and distal end (102). Attached to the distal end (102) of the 3CPD (100) is a neck cord (120) which is simultaneously threaded through a pair of holes (112) in the distal end (102) of the 3CPD (100) and through a neck cord adjustor (200) housed inside the distal end (102) of plastic body (101). The adjustor assembly (200) is a push button arrangement made up of a push button shell (210), a push button (220), and a spring (230). The neck cord (120), which is threaded through neck cord adjustor passage (223), is pinched via the spring action of the push button (220) and the neck cord length is maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 27, 1996
    Inventor: James R. Frey
  • Patent number: 5546976
    Abstract: A condensate trap installation comprises a condensate trap 6 and one or more further components such as a strainer 8 and a check valve 10. The condensate trap 6 and the further components 8, 10 are placed in face-to-face engagement at end faces 30 and clamped together by a clamping device, comprising bolts 22 or comprising a carrier 60, which applies a compressive force by means of a clamping body 18 and a flange 20 provided respectively on pipe ends 2 and 4. An isolating valve 14 is provided to isolate the condensate trap 6 and the components 8, 10 so that they can be removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 20, 1996
    Assignee: Spirax-Sarco Limited
    Inventor: Keith Farquhar
  • Patent number: 5547931
    Abstract: The invention provides methods for stimulating thrombocytopoiesis and for treating thrombocytopenia in a mammal comprising administering to the mammal an effective amount of modified C-reactive protein (mCRP).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 20, 1996
    Assignee: Immtech International Inc.
    Inventor: Lawrence A. Potempa
  • Patent number: 5545417
    Abstract: A chewing gum pellet coated with a coating of natural carbohydrate gum hydrolyzate material, wherein the material is selected from the group consisting of guar gum hydrolyzate, locust bean gum hydrolyzate and karaya gum hydrolyzate. The coating may also include xylitol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Assignee: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
    Inventors: Lindell C. Richey, Jeffrey S. Hook, Michael A. Reed, Robert J. Yatka
  • Patent number: 5544824
    Abstract: A pulverizer is provided with: a ring-form rotary hammer supported by a rotary shaft and having a pulverizing blade including a plurality of concaves and convexes on its outer surface; a liner fixed so that a gap is left between the rotary hammer and the liner and having a plurality of concaves and convexes on its surface which faces the hammer; and a rotary classifying fan for discharging toward an exit a material pulverized between the rotary hammer and the liner into a predetermined particle diameter or smaller and directed to an upper part. The pulverizing blade is provided substantially on an entire periphery, and a circulation passage for directing downward a material not discharged toward the exit is provided below the pulverizing blade.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Assignee: Hosokawa Micron Corporation
    Inventor: Masahiro Inoki
  • Patent number: 5545454
    Abstract: Phase-change-type optical recording medium comprises a first dielectric layer, a recording layer made of a phase change material, a second dielectric layer and a reflecting layer wherein the thicknesses of the first and second dielectric layers are determined for a given thickness of the recording layer so that the following conditions are satisfied;.DELTA.A+.DELTA.R.gtoreq.20% and .DELTA.A.gtoreq.5%wherein.DELTA.A=A(cry)-A(amo),A(cry), A(amo): light absorption rates of the recording layer in the crystal state and amorphous state, respectively,.DELTA.R=R(cry)-R(amo),R(cry) and R(amo): light reflection rates of the recording lates in the crystal state and amorphous state, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Inc., Ltd.
    Inventors: Noboru Yamada, Nobuo Akahira, Kenichi Nishiuchi, Kenichi Nagata, Eiji Ohno, Shigeaki Furukawa
  • Patent number: 5545415
    Abstract: Chewing gum containing gum base, powdered erythritol, flavor and less than 2% moisture has an improved shelf life, i.e., does not absorb significant amounts of water from the atmosphere to soften with age, or give off significant amounts of water to the atmosphere to harden or stiffen with age.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 13, 1996
    Assignee: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
    Inventors: Henry T. Tyrpin, Kevin B. Broderick, David W. Record
  • Patent number: 5543934
    Abstract: In an apparatus and method for recording inputted digital video and audio signals of one field, which are synchronous with each other, onto a plurality of inclined tracks of a magnetic tape using a plurality sets of helical scan type magnetic heads provided in a rotation head drum at predetermined angle intervals, a read clock is generated. A read address of a first field memory is generated based on the read clock, so that the inputted digital video signal is read out and recorded onto both end portions of each of the inclined tracks of the magnetic tape, after starting recording the inputted digital video signal of one field onto an end of the inclined track, and ending recording the inputted digital video signal of one field onto another end of the other inclined track. On the other hand, a read address of a second field memory is generated based on the read clock, so that the inputted digital audio signal is read out and recorded onto the middle portion of each of the inclined tracks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1996
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koso Takeuchi, Kunio Suesada
  • Patent number: 5543938
    Abstract: An information transmitting method in a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention comprises a first step of reading image information of an original to be transmitted, a second step of accepting an entry for specifying a destination to which the image information should be transmitted, a third step for storing the read-out image information, a fourth step of transmitting the stored image information to the destination specified by the entry in the second step, a fifth step of accepting an entry for specifying a destination to which the stored image information should be transmitted after the fourth step is completed, and a sixth step of transmitting the stored image information to the destination specified by the entry in the fifth step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1996
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shigenobu Fukushima
  • Patent number: 5543302
    Abstract: Proteases are susceptible to autolytic degradation. The method of the invention provides a method to identify susceptible autolysis sites which are cleaved to produce a few discrete fragments. Once identified, amino acid(s) at or in the vicinity of the cleavage site may be chemically modified or the DNA sequence capable of encoding the amino acid present at the site may be changed or deleted by site directed mutagenesis to produce an autolysis stable protease. The invention is particularly applicable to alkaline proteases which are produced in large quantities and used as detergent additives. Stable alkaline proteases could then be used in liquid detergent formulations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1996
    Assignee: Solvay Enzymes, Inc.
    Inventors: George Boguslawski, Josephine Grosch, John W. Shultz, Sethuraman Subramanian
  • Patent number: 5541723
    Abstract: A distance measuring device according to the present invention includes a light projector, a controller, and a light receiver. The light projector projects light toward an object to be measured, and the controller controls the light projector to carry out a first light projection to emit a first light at a predetermined angle with a first light distribution, and subsequently to carry out a second light projection to emit a second light at the predetermined angle with a second light distribution which is different from the first light distribution. The light receiver receives the first and second light emitted by the light projector and reflected from the object, and produces light reception signals, and a circuit arrangement calculates a distance to the object by means of the light reception signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 30, 1996
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yoshito Tanaka
  • Patent number: 5539767
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a semiconductor laser device on which a high-frequency signal can be superposed without radiating said high-frequency signal externally. Said device consists of a semiconductor laser element mounted directly or indirectly through a semiconductor substrate on a comb-frame, and an outer frame made of an insulation material provided at an area surrounding said comb-frame on which said semiconductor laser chip is mounted; and this device is fixed on a printed circuit board with a through-hole allowing a direct pass of laser light emitted from said semiconductor laser device. Said printed circuit board is provided with a high-frequency circuit and is lined with a metal film layer on the rear surface of said printed circuit board or within said printed circuit board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 23, 1996
    Assignee: Matsushia Electronics Corporation
    Inventors: Hideyuki Nakanishi, Akira Ueno, Hideo Nagai, Akio Yoshikawa
  • Patent number: 5538777
    Abstract: A method is provided for triple extrusion of a foam material, a coating and one or more flexible flanges attached to the coating or foam material. All three materials are coextruded through a common die and are useful for forming window sashes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 23, 1996
    Assignee: Marley Mouldings Inc.
    Inventors: Robert E. Pauley, Noel E. King, Douglas H. Chin
  • Patent number: 5538742
    Abstract: The invention is a multi-phase, sheeted chewing gum product, a method and an apparatus for making such a product. The product includes a first mass of a chewing gum formed in a generally flat sheet and a second mass of a confectionery product having a different color than the first mass. The second mass is smaller than the first mass and is embedded in the first mass so as to be visible with the first mass from the top surface of the chewing gum. The method includes the steps of forming the first mass into a slab with a generally flat surface. The second mass is formed into at least one piece which is brought into contact with the flat surface. The slab and the piece are pressed to produce a generally flat sheet which is cut into segments of a desired width, length and shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1995
    Date of Patent: July 23, 1996
    Assignee: Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
    Inventors: Michael McHale, George Nichtula, Christine L. Corriveau, William J. Wokas
  • Patent number: 5537553
    Abstract: In a processor having a central processing unit, an instruction cache and a data cache, a bus controller is provided for controlling giving and receiving of a signal between internal instruction and data buses and external bus. Upon concurrent miss of instruction cache and data cache, the bus controller executes an external instruction access with priority in case where the external instruction access is a same page access as a previous external DRAM access, and executes an external data access in the other cases. Thereby, the cycle number required for the external access is reduced, while reducing the number of instruction execution cycles as a total.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1996
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Toru Kakiage
  • Patent number: 5537345
    Abstract: An input register holds, as an input operand to be square rooted, a floating-point number with an exponential radix is 2. An approximation of the reciprocal of a square root is retrieved from a table information store unit by an address composed of a least significant bit of an exponent and upper bits of a mantissa provided from the input register. The mantissa, with a leading bit appended, is normalized by a normalization circuit in units of two bits. An output of a remainder hold circuit in which a 0th remainder serves as a normalized operand is multiplied by a retrieved approximation to find a partial square root. Partial square roots found in iterative calculations are merged by a digit place alignment circuit and an adder. By making use of an inverter, a multiplicand generator, and an (R+S.times.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1996
    Assignee: Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. Ltd.
    Inventor: Hiraku Nakano
  • Patent number: 5534675
    Abstract: A power supply for an electroerosion machine having a switching element which controls the machining current in the gap. The value of the current is compared with a predetermined voltage and the signal generated based on this comparation is provided to a logic gate, advantageously an "AND" gate, whose output signal is applied to the control electrode of the switching element. Electrode consumption is reduced by using a generally step-type current waveform signal. Machining current during the discharge period may also be controlled to more closely approximate a square wave so that shifting to a faster machining rate can be easily accomplished by accepting some sacrifice in electrode consuption. Preferably, two or more switching and gating devices are used to permit gap current to flow intermittently during the entire discharge period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 9, 1996
    Assignee: Sodick Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuji Kaneko, Shinji Ito
  • Patent number: D372290
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 30, 1996
    Assignee: Roadmaster Corporation
    Inventors: Charles W. Bookstaver, Frank Mercurio
  • Patent number: PP9619
    Abstract: A new and distinct cultivar of geranium known by the cultivar name `Neila` is characterized by a rose colored flower, a semi-double flower form, dark foliage, early flower response, a compact habit and good heat tolerance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 6, 1996
    Assignee: Gerd Endisch
    Inventors: Gerd Endisch, Ursula Endisch-Burmeister, Wolf Endisch