Patents by Inventor Gary Bethurum

Gary Bethurum has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7887353
    Abstract: An electrical disconnect has first and second female contacts mounted in a power connector housing and first and second male contacts in a load connector housing. The male contacts each have a male blade contact finger. The female contacts each have a socket for removably receiving a male blade contact finger. At the rear ends of both the male and female contacts there are integrally formed push-in connector elements for receiving a conductor or wire. The disconnect is particularly suited for use in connecting power wires to a load device in a circuit, such as a fluorescent light ballast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: IDEAL Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary Bethurum, Benjamin Swedberg, Robert Sutter
  • Patent number: 7771217
    Abstract: An electrical disconnect has first and second female contacts mounted in a power connector housing and first and second male contacts in a load connector housing. The male contacts each have a male blade contact finger. The female contacts each have a socket for removably receiving a male blade contact finger. At the rear ends of both the male and female contacts there are integrally formed push-in connector elements for receiving a conductor or wire. The disconnect is particularly suited for use in connecting power wires to a load device in a circuit, such as a fluorescent light ballast.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2010
    Assignee: IDEAL Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary Bethurum, Benjamin Swedberg, Robert Sutter
  • Patent number: 7356914
    Abstract: A wire connector applicator is capable of holding a clip of interconnected twist-on wire connectors in a tube which can be rotated by an electric motor. The connectors rotate with the tube for installation on the ends of stripped electrical wires. The invention is also directed to an interlocking twist-on wire connector which prevents axial separation and relative rotation of similarly configured group or clip of interlocked connectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2008
    Assignee: IDEAL Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Sushil Keswani, Gary Bethurum
  • Publication number: 20080050949
    Abstract: An electrical disconnect has a pair of selectably engageable enclosures each including a housing and a cap and one or more terminals supported therein. The terminals each have spring fingers at outer ends opposite wire ports in the cap to receive a stripped end of a wire in a push-in engagement. One terminal has a male blade and the other terminal has a female blade at forward ends thereof. The blades are releasably engageable in overlapping relation in an engagement zone. The housings have wire receiving receptacles therein which reside in the engagement zone when the enclosures are joined. A terminal holder biases the overlapping blades into contact with one another. The terminals are arcuately spaced about 120° from one another in a plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of the connector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2007
    Publication date: February 28, 2008
    Inventors: Gary Bethurum, Mark Higgins
  • Publication number: 20070123091
    Abstract: A releasable wire connector has a housing and a cap slidably engaging one another and enclosing an electrical contact. The contact has inner and outer flexible fingers disposed opposite wire ports in the housing and cap. The fingers engage conductors inserted into the connector to retain the connectors therein and electrically connect them. The cap carries a release block which will engage some of the fingers and urge them out of engagement with the conductors to allow disengagement of a wire from the connector. One of the fingers may be split into sacrificial and main tines which are arranged so that the sacrificial tine will always be the first to make and the last to break contact with a conductor. Any arcing that may occur will then always be on the sacrificial tine so the main tine will not be degraded by arcing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2006
    Publication date: May 31, 2007
    Inventors: Benjamin Swedberg, Gary Bethurum
  • Publication number: 20060286839
    Abstract: An electrical disconnect has first and second female contacts mounted in a power connector housing and first and second male contacts in a load connector housing. The male contacts each have a male blade contact finger. The female contacts each have a socket for removably receiving a male blade contact finger. At the rear ends of both the male and female contacts there are integrally formed push-in connector elements for receiving a conductor or wire. The disconnect is particularly suited for use in connecting power wires to a load device in a circuit, such as a fluorescent light ballast.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2006
    Publication date: December 21, 2006
    Inventors: Gary Bethurum, Benjamin Swedberg, Robert Sutter
  • Publication number: 20060286864
    Abstract: A wire connector has an enclosure including a housing and a cap and one or more contacts supported in the enclosure. The contacts each have outer ends opposite wire ports in the cap to receive a stripped end of a wire in a push-in engagement. One set of contacts has a male blade and the other set of contacts has a female socket at the inner or forward ends thereof. The housings are arranged so that two housings are releasably engagable with one another. When two housings are engaged the male contacts electrically engages the female contacts of the other housing. The female contacts include a sacrificial tine that is always first to make and last to break engagement with the male contact so that any degradation due to arcing always occurs at the sacrificial tine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2006
    Publication date: December 21, 2006
    Inventors: Gary Bethurum, Benjamin Swedberg
  • Publication number: 20050139375
    Abstract: A wire connector applicator is capable of holding a clip of interconnected twist-on wire connectors in a tube which can be rotated by an electric motor. The connectors rotate with the tube for installation on the ends of stripped electrical wires. The invention is also directed to an interlocking twist-on wire connector which prevents axial separation and relative rotation of similarly configured group or clip of interlocked connectors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2004
    Publication date: June 30, 2005
    Inventors: Sushil Keswani, Gary Bethurum
  • Patent number: 5779496
    Abstract: A sliding connector block system for inserting an electronic device, such as a wireless modem transceiver, housed in a sliding metal tray into an electrical equipment enclosure containing other electronic components and blindly interconnecting the electronic device with another component via a flexible cable secured within a sliding connector block. The metal tray and connector block have flanges that align with a pair of guide rails mounted in the equipment enclosure and allow travel of the tray and connector block along the rails between stops. A bezel bonded to the front of the tray provides a handle for inserting and removing the electronic device. A grounding clip is also provided to ground the flexible cable to the sliding metal tray and rails.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 14, 1998
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Nancy J. Bolinger, Gary Bethurum, David Campbell Brower, Kenneth Wayne Maynor, Charles Lee Smith
  • Patent number: 5080576
    Abstract: A die apparatus permits the formation of an internal recess in a molded part. The die apparatus includes first and second mold members which are movable between an open and closed position. A core pin assembly includes a first core pin element and a second core pin element supported between the movable mold members for relative movement therewith. A resiliently deformable element is positioned between the first and second core pin elements. The resiliently deformable element is deformably expandable to form an external projection upon relative movement of the mold members to a closed position, and is elastically returnable upon the relative movement of the mold members to an open position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 14, 1992
    Assignee: Thomas & Betts Corporation
    Inventors: Gary Bethurum, Randy Anderson