Patents Examined by Thomas Ward
  • Patent number: 8965185
    Abstract: An infrared furnace system provides for adjusting the amount of time a workpiece spends in a respective section of the furnace while at the same time minimizing the footprint, i.e., the amount of floor space that the furnace uses. Various embodiments allow for optimizing the required thermal duration of each section which then also optimizes the heating and/or cooling profile within each section. Transfer conveyors are provided to transfer a workpiece from one conveyor operating at a first speed to a second conveyor operating at a second speed, different from the first speed in order to prevent damage to the workpiece. Rollers are provided to support the workpiece and to maintain a proper orientation. A heating lamp support assembly provides power to the lamp and facilitates exchange and replacement of the lamp. An air delivery system provides process gas maintained at the correct temperature. An exhaust system provides air flow with improved turnover and reduced noise considerations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: BTU International, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy R. Doherty, Derek J. Butland
  • Patent number: 8957346
    Abstract: A thermal spraying apparatus prevents adhesion of spray fumes to unsprayed regions of a bore surface during arc spraying. The apparatus includes a spray gun movable within a cylinder bore. The spray gun has at one end thereof a first discharge opening facing a direction orthogonal to the movement direction, has a second discharge opening facing direction orthogonal to the nozzle, and has, at a predetermined region located further to the side in the movement direction of the spray gun than the nozzle, third discharge openings for discharging a fluid and facing the same direction as the nozzle. A droplet, formed as arc spray wire material melts at the tip of the spray gun, is stretched with auxiliary air. By blowing atomizing air onto the droplet, spray particles are formed and sprayed onto the bore surface. Simultaneously, fume adhesion prevention air is blown toward the cylinder bore surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kota Kodama, Noritaka Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 8905321
    Abstract: An apparatus is provided that quickly elevates and maintain a construction equipment engine coolant to operating temperature in order to lower the dwell time for the operator's cab to reach a comfortable temperature level during a period when the engine is in idle and main crane functions are not operated. The apparatus includes an auxiliary hydraulic circuit for rapidly bringing engine coolant temperature up to operating temperature. Engine coolant operating temperature is achieved by inducing a hydraulic load to the engine. By inducing a hydraulic load, a horsepower load is exerted on the engine causing the engine to generate heat sufficient to raise the engine coolant to operating temperature for heating the cabin. A pressure reducing relieving valve and a pilot operated relief valve result in precise hydraulic horsepower load to the construction equipment engine. Operation of the pilot operated relief valve also warms hydraulic fluid for a hydraulic reservoir.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2014
    Assignee: Manitowoc Crane Companies, LLC
    Inventor: Timothy F. Elliott
  • Patent number: 8901467
    Abstract: A multi-layer rod shaped ceramic igniter includes an elongated tapered electrode having a central core of resistant material and two annular segments. One of the segments in on one side of the core and the other on an opposite side and connected to two slightly converging facets extending along the core. The multi-layered rod shaped ceramic igniters disclosed herein may be manufactured by slip-casting, injection molding or extruding a green annular body and removing material from opposite sides of the green body to form two almost parallel but slightly converging facets that extend over the heater igniter between the back surface and the tip of the igniter. After removing material between the annular segments the igniter is air dried and then heated in a vacuum at atmospheric pressure to approximately 900° C. in order to burn off the organic binder. The ceramic is then held in an inert atmosphere and heated to a temperature of 1600° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Surface Igniter LLC
    Inventor: Stephen Radmacher
  • Patent number: 8901469
    Abstract: An apparatus for preparing a food item in a microwave oven comprises a tray including an interior space defined by a base and an upstanding peripheral wall, and a cover pivotably connected to the tray for pivoting the cover relative to the tray between an open position and a closed position. The tray and/or cover includes a plurality of protrusions extending into the interior space. A microwave energy interactive material overlies the protrusions on the tray and/or cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Graphic Packaging International, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee M. Schneider, Terrence P. Lafferty, Philip E. Netzer, Patrick H. Wnek
  • Patent number: 8872079
    Abstract: An apparatus for preparing a food item in a microwave oven comprises a tray including a plurality of elevated heating areas and a plurality of channels disposed between the elevated heating areas, the elevated heating areas each including a microwave energy interactive material, a cover pivotably connected to the tray for pivoting the cover relative to the tray between an open position and a closed position, and a locking feature operative for releasably maintaining the cover in the closed position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Graphic Packaging International, Inc.
    Inventor: Terrence P. Lafferty
  • Patent number: 8859938
    Abstract: A vehicle cabin heating system is provided basically with an infrared heater, a temperature sensor and a controller. The infrared heater is aimed to heat a target surface in front of the infrared heater within a vehicle cabin interior space. The temperature sensor is disposed in front of the first infrared heater to detect a measured temperature in front of the first infrared heater. The controller is operatively coupled to the first infrared heater to selectively operate the first infrared heater to a target surface temperature within the vehicle cabin interior space whenever an estimated surface temperature of a target surface is determined based on the measured temperature by the temperature sensor falls below a prescribed temperature range below the target surface temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Nissan North America, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald S Eisenhour, Alaa Meram
  • Patent number: 8803039
    Abstract: In a heating unit, based on a required output amount Q, a control part 50 performs: (A) when the required output amount Q is not more than a predetermined set value, a control in which none of the heating devices 24a is continuously kept on throughout a heating cycle, and all or one or more heating devices 24a are controlled in a periodically divided manner; and (B) when the required output amount is larger than the predetermined set value, a control in which all or one or more heating devices 24a are continuously kept on throughout the heating cycle, and all or one or more heating devices 24a among the remaining heating devices 24a are controlled in the periodically divided manner during this heating cycle. At this time, a difference between the maximum number and the minimum number of the heating devices 24a that are simultaneously kept on during the heating cycle is made not more than 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: Hideaki Sato, Hiromi Hara
  • Patent number: 8772687
    Abstract: An observation window for a microwave device exhibiting microwave radiation of a predetermined frequency, the observation window comprising two optically transparent panels to which an optically transparent conductive film has been applied to a single side thereof, each of the transparent conductive films primarily reflecting incident microwave radiation and being substantially parallel and spatially separated from each other by a predetermined distance, the predetermined distance being equal to an odd integer multiple of one quarter of the wavelength of the microwave radiation of the predetermined frequency in the interstice between the transparent films, the predetermined distance having a tolerance of plus or minus 0.15 of the wavelength in the interstice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Clear Wave, Ltd.
    Inventors: Revuen Boxman, Vladimir Dikhtyar, Evgeny Gidalevich, Vladimir Zhitomirsky
  • Patent number: 8763517
    Abstract: A tea pot is provided with a container having an upper reservoir, a lower reservoir, and an intermediate dividing member; a cavity formed with the dividing member and having an upper opening for communicating with the upper reservoir, and a lower opening for communicating with the lower reservoir; a receptacle in the upper reservoir and including a ball receiving well; a vent pipe partially positioned in the receptacle and having a passageway; a threaded recess extending outward from the cavity and being open to an outer surface of the container; a rotatable cylinder inserted through the recess into the cavity and including a hollow main body having surface openings; a nut secured to the recess; and a knob secured to the cylinder. Communication from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir through the openings of the main body can be open or closed by turning the knob.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Inventors: Han Tsung Chen, Wei Fu Chen
  • Patent number: 8759708
    Abstract: In a wire electric discharge machine in which chuck part electrodes that hold a wire electrode are provided on the upper side of an upper wire guide and electrodes of a detecting part are provided on a lower stream side of the chuck part electrodes, a part, which contacts with the chuck part electrodes, of a surface of the wire electrode is hardened by locally cooling down the part by air blowing during energization to the wire electrode. Accordingly, wire metal powder is hardly generated from the wire electrode even though the wire electrode rubs against the chuck part electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Fanuc Corporation
    Inventors: Harutora Inaba, Ryou Nishikawa
  • Patent number: 8735770
    Abstract: While a converging lens 108 is relatively moved along a line 50 including a line to cut 5, measuring laser light L2 is converged with the lens 108 when the lens 108 is positioned on a processing region 30 having an outer shape between an object to be processed 1 and a frame 22, and a reflected light component of the laser light L2 reflected by a front face 3 of the object 1 is detected. While keeping a substantially constant distance between the front face 3 and the lens 108 such that a converging point P of processing laser light L1 is positioned at a constant distance from the front face 3 according to the detection, the laser light L1 is converged by the lens 108, so as to form a molten processed region 13 within the object 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.
    Inventors: Koji Kuno, Tatsuya Suzuki, Kazuhiro Atsumi
  • Patent number: 8695486
    Abstract: The invention discloses a plunger-filter beverage-making machine with a lid which can be closed by a valve. The beverage-making machine has a vessel (2), a lid (3) and a filter piston (4) which can be vertically displaced in the vessel and has a piston rod (41). The lid (3) contains a pouring opening (37) which can be closed by means of an elongate lever (33) which extends transverse to the piston rod. To this end, the lever is mounted on the lid such that it can pivot about a horizontal axis. The lever has, in the region of its front end, a closure body (36) in order to close the pouring opening and, in the region of its rear end, an operating region (331) in order to pivot the lever by virtue of pressure exerted by a finger of a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Pi-Design AG
    Inventor: Jørgen Bodum
  • Patent number: 8680428
    Abstract: Disclosed is a slit width adjusting device comprising: a pair of slit members parallel to each other, which is moved to approach each other or to be separated from each other to adjust a slit width; a driving section to move the pair of slit members; an absolute position original point detection section to detect an arbitrary absolute position of the slit members as an original point; and an adjustment section to adjust the slit width, wherein the adjustment section comprises: a storage unit to store a slit width table in which a displacement amount of the slit width from the original point, and a drive instruction value corresponding to the displacement amount, are corresponding to each other; and a drive control unit to extract the drive instruction value corresponding to a specified slit width, to drive the driving section according to the extracted drive instruction value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Mitutoyo Corporation
    Inventors: Hidemitsu Asano, Makoto Uwada, Makoto Kaieda
  • Patent number: 8669493
    Abstract: In an electrically-heated glazing unit including a plurality of collector conductors configured to supply a plurality of heating conductors with an electric current used to heat up the heating conductors and the glazing unit, at least one partial region of the surface of the glazing unit includes an arrangement of parallel heating conductors in which the current flows in opposing directions. The arrangement of the heating conductors in the partial region of the surface is tuned to minimize by mutual compensation or eliminate the magnetic field acting locally within this partial region and perpendicularly to the plane of the glazing unit when the current flows. The operation of an apparatus sensitive to magnetic fields, for example a compass, in the immediate vicinity of the glazing unit thus becomes more reliable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2014
    Assignee: Sanit-Gobain Glass France
    Inventors: Marc Maurer, Stefan Ziegler, Martin Melcher
  • Patent number: 8637793
    Abstract: An electric oven has an air passage structure that is designed to effectively cool down electric components. The air passage structure quickly cools down a variety of electric components on a top surface of a cavity using air introduced from outside the oven. The oven has a series of passages and openings allowing the effective movement of air past the electric components and through the oven.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventors: Dong Seong Kwag, Hyeun Sik Nam, Wan Soo Kim, Seong Ho Cho, Jae Kyung Yang
  • Patent number: 8618443
    Abstract: A conventional vehicle lighting device has entailed a problem on swaging and fixing a power-feeding portion and a connector to each other insofar. In the present invention, a connector is made up of: a male terminal set at a power-feeding electrically conductive paste on one face of a power-feeding film of a power-feeding portion; a grommeted terminal board (primary swaging tool) on which the terminal and the power-feeding portion have been swaged; and a resin board (secondary swaging tool) on which the male terminal, the power-feeding portion, and the grommeted terminal board have been swaged. As a result, in the present invention, a swaging fixing strength between the power-feeding portion and the connector can be improved by means of the primary swaging fixing of the grommeted terminal board and the secondary swaging fixing of the resin board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Ichikoh Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kotoka Inoue, Katsuhiro Murahashi, Hiroto Tokunaga
  • Patent number: 8610028
    Abstract: An apparatus comprises a table, a source emitting polarized laser light, a source emitting laser light, a plate changing the polarization direction of the laser light, a plate splitting the laser light into a laser light having polarization in an X direction and a laser light component having polarization in a Y direction, a plate orienting the polarization direction of the laser light to the X direction, a lens converging the laser light components, a lens arranged in parallel with the lens along the X direction and converges the laser light component, a control section controlling a device such that a converging point of the laser light component is located at a predetermined position with reference to a front face by detecting a reflected light, and a control section moving the table along a line while making the X direction substantially coincide with the line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.
    Inventors: Koji Kuno, Tatsuya Suzuki, Norio Kurita, Tetsuya Osajima
  • Patent number: 8586891
    Abstract: In a wire electrical discharge machining apparatus, an upper main-discharge power supply is connected between an upper conducting terminal and a workpiece using an upper main-feeder line capable of configuring outward and homeward paths, and a lower main-discharge power supply is connected between a lower conducting terminal and the workpiece using a lower main-feeder line capable of configuring outward and homeward paths. Moreover, a sub-discharge power supply is connected between the upper conducting terminal and the workpiece and between the lower conducting terminal and the workpiece using an upper and a lower sub-feeder lines that have higher impedances than the impedances of the upper and the lower main-feeder lines and can configure outward and homeward paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Hashimoto, Yasuo Onodera, Tatsushi Sato, Koichiro Hattori, Hisashi Yamada
  • Patent number: RE45129
    Abstract: The present invention provides a module for a computer interface including a transducer wherein the transducer receives a measurement value and makes this measurement value available for monitoring an individual's health by means of the computer interface, for example, for monitoring an individual's blood glucose level, wherein the measurement value is obtained by means of a sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: Roche Diagnostics International AG
    Inventors: Ulrich Haueter, Erich Imhof