Patents Assigned to Tower Systems Inc.
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Patent number: 10189064Abstract: A control system for forming a tapered structure includes a sensor providing feedback for a machine for forming a tapered structure including at least three rolls having at least one bend roll and at least two guide rolls. The guide rolls may include rollette banks having a plurality of rollettes. The machine may also include an adjustment mechanism to position at least one of the rolls, where a diameter of the tapered structure being formed is controlled by relative positions of the rolls. The machine may also include a joining element to join edges of a stock of material together as it is rolled through the rolls to form the tapered structure. The control system may also include a controller to receive feedback from the sensor and to send a control signal based on the feedback to the adjustment mechanism for positioning at least one of the rolls.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2014Date of Patent: January 29, 2019Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Rosalind K. Takata, Eric D. Smith, Loren Daniel Bridgers, Daniel Ainge, Alexander H. Slocum
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Patent number: 10150150Abstract: Tube forming methods can be used for efficient transition in the production of tubes having varying thickness. Material used to form consecutive tubes may have the same thickness along a separation plane separating a first discrete section from a second discrete section of the material, and the first discrete section and the second discrete section may each have varying thickness in a feed direction of the material. With such a thickness profile, the first discrete section of the material may be formed into a first cylinder having varying thickness and separated from the second discrete portion as the second discrete section is formed into a second cylinder having varying thickness. In particular, the transition between the first cylinder and the second cylinder may be achieved without scrap and/or interruption, resulting in cost-savings and improvements in production throughput associated with forming tubes having varying thickness.Type: GrantFiled: January 12, 2018Date of Patent: December 11, 2018Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventor: Michel Caron
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Patent number: 10060149Abstract: A method for creating a tapered spiral welded conical structure where the overall shape of the cone is first graphically slit axially and unwrapped, and then a series of construction arcs and lines are created to form the edge lines of a strip that can then be wrapped (rolled) to form a tapered conical structure. The edges of the spirally wound strip can be welded together, and a very large conical structure can thus be achieved. Various construction options are presented from a constant width strip to strip made from straight segments. Equations are given for the formation of the strips to enable those skilled in the art of spiral welded tubing to practice the invention.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2016Date of Patent: August 28, 2018Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Eric D. Smith, Alexander H. Slocum
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Patent number: 9475153Abstract: A method for creating a tapered spiral welded conical structure where the overall shape of the cone is first graphically slit axially and unwrapped, and then a series of construction arcs and lines are created to form the edge lines of a strip that can then be wrapped (rolled) to form a tapered conical structure. The edges of the spirally wound strip can be welded together, and a very large conical structure can thus be achieved. Various construction options are presented from a constant width strip to strip made from straight segments. Equations are given for the formation of the strips to enable those skilled in the art of spiral welded tubing to practice the invention.Type: GrantFiled: April 8, 2014Date of Patent: October 25, 2016Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Eric D. Smith, Alexander H. Slocum
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Patent number: 9302303Abstract: Feeding stock used to form a tapered structure into a curving device such that each point on the stock undergoes rotational motion about a peak location of the tapered structure; and the stock meets a predecessor portion of stock along one or more adjacent edges.Type: GrantFiled: September 20, 2012Date of Patent: April 5, 2016Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Eric D. Smith, Rosalind K. Takata, Alexander H. Slocum, Samir A. Nayfeh
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Patent number: 9266157Abstract: Feeding stock used to form a tapered structure into a curving device such that each point on the stock undergoes rotational motion about a peak location of the tapered structure; and the stock meets a predecessor portion of stock along one or more adjacent edges.Type: GrantFiled: September 20, 2012Date of Patent: February 23, 2016Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Eric D. Smith, Rosalind K. Takata, Alexander H. Slocum, Samir A. Nayfeh
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Publication number: 20150273550Abstract: A control system for forming a tapered structure includes a sensor providing feedback for a machine for forming a tapered structure including at least three rolls having at least one bend roll and at least two guide rolls. The guide rolls may include rollette banks having a plurality of rollettes. The machine may also include an adjustment mechanism to position at least one of the rolls, where a diameter of the tapered structure being formed is controlled by relative positions of the rolls. The machine may also include a joining element to join edges of a stock of material together as it is rolled through the rolls to form the tapered structure. The control system may also include a controller to receive feedback from the sensor and to send a control signal based on the feedback to the adjustment mechanism for positioning at least one of the rolls.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2014Publication date: October 1, 2015Applicant: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Rosalind K. Takata, Eric D. Smith, Daniel Bridgers, Daniel Ainge, Alexander H. Slocum
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Publication number: 20140220371Abstract: A method for creating a tapered spiral welded conical structure where the overall shape of the cone is first graphically slit axially and unwrapped, and then a series of construction arcs and lines are created to form the edge lines of a strip that can then be wrapped (rolled) to form a tapered conical structure. The edges of the spirally wound strip can be welded together, and a very large conical structure can thus be achieved. Various construction options are presented from a constant width strip to strip made from straight segments. Equations are given for the formation of the strips to enable those skilled in the art of spiral welded tubing to practice the invention.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 8, 2014Publication date: August 7, 2014Applicant: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Eric D. Smith, Alexander H. Slocum
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Patent number: 8720153Abstract: A method for creating a tapered spiral welded conical structure where the overall shape of the cone is first graphically slit axially and unwrapped, and then a series of construction arcs and lines are created to form the edge lines of a strip that can then be wrapped (rolled) to form a tapered conical structure. The edges of the spirally wound strip can be welded together, and a very large conical structure can thus be achieved. Various construction options are presented from a constant width strip to strip made from straight segments. Equations are given for the formation of the strips to enable those skilled in the art of spiral welded tubing to practice the invention.Type: GrantFiled: January 25, 2010Date of Patent: May 13, 2014Assignee: Keystone Tower Systems, Inc.Inventors: Eric Smith, Alexander Slocum
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Patent number: 4435339Abstract: The invention relates to a low pressure heat exchanger for use in an environment where metal parts would be subject to corrosion or scaling comprising a plurality of vertically disposed mutually parallel membranes acting as heat transfer surfaces and including fluid distributors and dispensing nozzles disposed near the top edge of the membranes so as to distribute hot liquid as a falling film down the membrane surface. From a second distributor set, a second liquid may be passed down the opposite surface of each membrane to provide liquid-to-liquid heat transfer. A draft producing device is employed to either allow a gas to flow directly over the heat transfer membrane or over the second liquid as it falls down the membrane surface to obtain a liquid-to-gas heat transfer or evaporative cooling of the second liquid.Type: GrantFiled: August 6, 1979Date of Patent: March 6, 1984Assignee: Tower Systems, Inc.Inventor: Loren G. Kragh
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Patent number: 4372897Abstract: Heat transfer and exchange apparatus having a plurality of double-sheeted wettable flow-through pockets suspended from an overhead liquid supplying support in spaced apart and essentially parallel relationship. A downwardly flowing liquid curtain exists within the innerspace of each of the pockets, the liquid curtain bonding the wettable side-forming sheets of each pocket together through cohesive, adhesive and pressure forces. Flow characteristics within the liquid curtain automatically adjust to create a condition of zero pressure differential across each of the wettable sheets which form a pocket pair so that pressure inside and outside the pocket are equal at all unconfined points over the surfaces of the sheets irrespective of flow rate, temperature viscosity, density or composition of the liquid curtain.Type: GrantFiled: April 16, 1981Date of Patent: February 8, 1983Assignee: Tower Systems Inc.Inventors: William G. Sanderson, Richard B. Sumner, Loren G. Kragh
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Patent number: 4299786Abstract: This invention relates to an improved waste heat disposal process characterized primarily by splitting the total cooling load between two or more open-looped evaporative cooling circuits, staging the circuits in series such that each successive circuit has a greater dissolved solids carrying capacity than the preceding one, using the brine blown down from a preceding circuit as the coolant circulated within the next succeeding one, and treating only the blowdown from one circuit to the relatively greater extent necessary to accommodate the increased solids-carrying capacity of the next. The invention also includes the feature of essentially staging the heat load by dividing same into two or more parts and handling the different parts by separate and distinct evaporative cooling loops.Type: GrantFiled: October 28, 1980Date of Patent: November 10, 1981Assignee: Tower Systems Inc.Inventors: William G. Sanderson, Richard B. Sumner, Loren G. Kragh