Patents by Inventor Robert P. Kusy

Robert P. Kusy 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).

  • Publication number: 20040122123
    Abstract: A pultrusion apparatus for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced plastic article having a non-linear shape includes a mold configured to receive a partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article and to form the partially-cured fiber-reinforced plastic article into a spirally wound shape. A drive mechanism is coupled to the mold and configured to rotate the mold such that the fiber-reinforced plastic article is taken up on the mold. An energy source is operatively associated with the mold and positioned so that the partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article is cured in a spirally wound shape as the article is taken up on the longitudinally extending mold. The pultrusion apparatus allows for continuously shaping a non-linear fiber-reinforced plastic article, obviating the need for any of the work to be done by hand, which may be labor intensive, not as highly reproducible, and potentially contaminating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2003
    Publication date: June 24, 2004
    Inventors: Robert P. Kusy, Scott Zufall, Matthew Camp, Glenys Thorstenson, Brian Rucker, Hiawatha Demby, David Ruddell, Elodia Cole, Aditya Patel
  • Patent number: 6679695
    Abstract: A pultrusion apparatus for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced plastic article having a non-linear shape includes a mold configured to receive a partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article and to form the partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article into a spirally wound shape. A drive mechanism is coupled to the mold and configured to rotate the mold such that the fiber-reinforced plastic article is taken up on the mold. An energy source is operatively associated with the mold and positioned so that the partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article is cured in a spirally wound shape as the article is taken up on the longitudinally extending mold. The pultrusion apparatus allows for continuously shaping a non-linear fiber-reinforced plastic article, obviating the need for any of the work to be done by hand, which may be labor intensive, not as highly reproducible, and potentially contaminating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2004
    Assignee: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Inventors: Robert P. Kusy, Scott Zufall, Matthew Camp, Glenys Thorstenson, Brian Rucker, Hiawatha Demby, David Ruddell, Elodia Cole, Aditya Patel
  • Publication number: 20020180112
    Abstract: A pultrusion apparatus for manufacturing a fiber-reinforced plastic article having a non-linear shape includes a mold configured to receive a partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article and to form the partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article into a spirally wound shape. A drive mechanism is coupled to the mold and configured to rotate the mold such that the fiber-reinforced plastic article is taken up on the mold. An energy source is operatively associated with the mold and positioned so that the partially cured fiber-reinforced plastic article is cured in a spirally wound shape as the article is taken up on the longitudinally extending mold. The pultrusion apparatus allows for continuously shaping a non-linear fiber-reinforced plastic article, obviating the need for any of the work to be done by hand, which may be labor intensive, not as highly reproducible, and potentially contaminating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2001
    Publication date: December 5, 2002
    Inventors: Robert P. Kusy, Scott Zufall, Matthew Camp, Glenys Thorstenson, Brian Rucker, Hiawatha Demby, David Ruddell, Elodia Cole, Aditya Patel
  • Patent number: 5989376
    Abstract: Disclosed are profiles of fiber-reinforced polymeric plastic and a pultrusion apparatus and method for the manufacture thereof. The apparatus is preferably vertically disposed. As one or more fibers is fed into the apparatus, each fiber is spread and wetted with monomer resin in a bundle spreader, formed in a die, and then subjected in a curing chamber to a source of radiation which initiates polymerization of the monomer, resulting in a fiber-reinforced polymeric plastic exiting from the pultrusion apparatus. Suitably, the radiation is ultraviolet, the monomer resin is methacrylate resin, and the fiber is quartz. The resultant profile is long and thin like a structural steel wire, but typically will have only 1/4 the weight thereof while having a strength comparable thereto. Thus, the profile is useful as an orthodontic wire as a replacement instead of structural steel wires used as orthodontic wires.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 23, 1999
    Assignee: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Inventors: Robert P. Kusy, Kenneth C. Kennedy, II
  • Patent number: 5869178
    Abstract: Disclosed are profiles of fiber-reinforced polymeric plastic and a pultrusion apparatus and method for the manufacture thereof. The apparatus is preferably vertically disposed. As one or more fibers is fed into the apparatus, each fiber is spread and wetted with monomer resin in a bundle spreader, formed in a die, and then subjected in a curing chamber to a source of radiation which initiates polymerization of the monomer, resulting in a fiber-reinforced polymeric plastic exiting from the pultrusion apparatus. Suitably, the radiation is ultraviolet, the monomer resin is methacrylate resin, and the fiber is quartz. The resultant profile is long and thin like a structural steel wire, but typically will have only 1/4 the weight thereof while having a strength comparable thereto. Thus, the profile is useful as an orthodontic wire as a replacement instead of structural steel wires used as orthodontic wires.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 9, 1999
    Assignee: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Inventors: Robert P. Kusy, Kenneth C. Kennedy, II
  • Patent number: 5403895
    Abstract: Disclosed are a copolymer composition comprising a substituted halo-polymer wherein from about 0.01% to about by weight of the halo moieties therein are replaced with piperazine, and a flexible plastic film made from the copolymer. The copolymer is inherently conductive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 4, 1995
    Assignee: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Inventors: Robert P. Kusy, Vasile V. Cosofret, John Q. Whitley, Erno Lindner, Richard P. Buck
  • Patent number: 4295374
    Abstract: Specimen clamps or grips for locating and releasably retaining a specimen for testing on a dynamic mechanical analyzer which analyzer is of conventional construction with the improvement being in the specimen clamps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1979
    Date of Patent: October 20, 1981
    Assignee: E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
    Inventor: Robert P. Kusy