Structure (e.g., Composite Material) Patents (Class 310/251)
  • Patent number: 5177529
    Abstract: An electrostatographic printing machine comprising a main frame and at least one unit insertable into and removable from said main frame for cooperative association therewith in producing prints, said main frame and said removable unit having at least one electrical connection to conduct electric current therebetween comprising two electrical contacting elements, one on each of said main frame and said removable unit a first element comprising a plurality of resiliently flexible conductive fibers arranged in a brush-like configuration and the second element comprising a substantially continuous conductive contact surface for electrical contact with said brush each of said contacting elements being connected to an electrical component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1988
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1993
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Ross E. Schroll, Jeffrey J. Folkins
  • Patent number: 5139862
    Abstract: An electronic device for conducting electric current has two contacting components at least one of which is a nonmetallic electronic contact in the form of a pultruded composite member made of a plurality of small generally circular cross section conductive fibers in a polymer matrix, the fibers being oriented in the matrix in a direction substantially parallel to the axial direction of the pultruded composite member and being continuous from one end of the member to the other to provide a plurality of electrical point contacts at each end of the member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1991
    Date of Patent: August 18, 1992
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph A. Swift, Stanley J. Wallace, Wilbur M. Peck
  • Patent number: 5136198
    Abstract: A carbon brush used for a miniature motor, which has a permanent magnet field and is caused to rotate through current commutation via a commutator, formed by bonding graphite powder and used for making sliding contact with the commutator for current commutation, in which the carbon brush is a metal-plated graphite brush formed by pressure-forming and sintering the graphite powder after covering particles of the graphite powder with a metallic layer; the graphite powder used for the metal-plated graphite brush being purified to reduce the ash content of the graphite powder to 0.05 wt. %, and the method of making the same.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1990
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1992
    Assignee: Mabuchi Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Isao Shibuya
  • Patent number: 5083055
    Abstract: The trailing edge of a carbon brush for commutating electric machines has a notch flanked by an ear on either side. The brush can include one or more wafers. The angular thickness of the trailing brush wafer at the notch is such that the brush does not touch more than n commutator contacts at a time. However, the brush wafer is thick enough at the ears to touch n+1commutator contacts at a time. The relatively high resistance of the ears improves commutation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1990
    Date of Patent: January 21, 1992
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventor: Paul R. Hokanson
  • Patent number: 4739209
    Abstract: A starter-generator brush has first and second juxtaposed carbon wafers. A first copper plate is provided on a recessed back surface of the first carbon wafer. A first electrically conductive hammer place has a first copper back plate on a recessed back surface of the second carbon wafer and a first top plate extending from the first back plate at an acute angle therewith. First and second solid copper rivets extend through the first copper plate and first and second side holes of the first carbon wafer and affix the first copper plate to the first wafer with the first copper plate in juxtaposition with the back surface of the first wafer. Brush pigtails are accommodated in first and second top holes of the first wafer and have a first end in electrical contact with the first and second solid copper rivets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1986
    Date of Patent: April 19, 1988
    Assignee: Aircraft Parts Corp.
    Inventor: Seymour Sherman
  • Patent number: 4710666
    Abstract: A homopolar dynamoelectric machine is provided with a rotor having a central axis and being mounted for relative rotation with a stator structure that supports a field coil encircling the rotor and has a main pole piece for directing magnetic flux produced by current flowing in the field coil into a first section of the rotor. Brush assemblies which are capable of making sliding electrical contact with a current collection zone of the rotor extend longitudinally adjacent to that current collecting zone and include a plurality of contact elements. These contact elements are packed in an increasing density in a longitudinal direction from one end of the brush assembly to the other end. The use of a variable packing factor for the contact elements of the brush assembly results in more uniform heating of the rotor in the current collecting zone, thereby minimizing the peak rotor temperatures and permitting the machine to operate for longer time periods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1986
    Date of Patent: December 1, 1987
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventors: Roald A. Rindal, Bobby D. McKee
  • Patent number: 4587723
    Abstract: An axial-type homopolar motor having high density, high current fiber brush ollectors affording efficient, low contact resistance and low operating temperatures. The collectors include a ring of concentric rows of brushes in equally spaced beveled holes soldered in place using a fixture for heating the ring to just below the solder melting point and a soldering iron for the local application of additional heat at each brush. Prior to soldering, an oxide film is formed on the surfaces of the brushes and ring, and the bevels are burnished to form a "wetting" surface. Flux applied with the solder at each bevel removes to an effective soldering depth the oxide film on the brushes and the holes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1985
    Date of Patent: May 13, 1986
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Samuel J. Scuro
  • Patent number: 4422918
    Abstract: A current-conductor assembly for conducting a machining current to a wire electrode in a wire-cutting electroerosion machine comprises a pair of coplanar wheels rotatable about their respective shafts and having their respective peripheries for receiving the wire electrode between them. The wheels are urged towards one another to press the wire electrode between the peripheries and a brush connectable electrically to a source of the machining current and adapted to be urged under pressure into electrical contact with a flank of one of the wheels which is electrically conductive for conducting the current to the wire electrode. The brush is an electrically conductive body preferably composed of copper, graphite or a copper/graphits composite material containing a solid-state lubricating material, e.g. MoS.sub.2 or WS.sub.2. The pressing wheel urged towards the conducting wheel is, at least along its peripheral region, composed of an elastomeric material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 1981
    Date of Patent: December 27, 1983
    Assignee: Inoue-Japax Research Incorporated
    Inventor: Kiyoshi Inoue
  • Patent number: 4358699
    Abstract: A versatile electrical fiber brush comprising the following components: Firstly a brush body, which is not necessarily equiaxed, non-porous, rigid or all in one piece, made of a matrix material, not necessarily electrically conductive, embedded in which is at least one set of similarly formed fibers, in which there may be embedded other, thinner fibers, and in these fibers still thinner fibers. Secondly, at least one fibrous part which is formed by removing from a part of the brush body most or all of the matrix material plus, as the conditions may make it advisable, some fibrous material. Third, at least one working surface, this being the macroscopic surface of a brush where it makes contact with the object(s) to which electrical connection shall be made. Fourth at least one set of electrically conductive fiber wires which form at least part of the working surface as well as of the fibrous part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 1980
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1982
    Assignee: The University of Virginia Alumni Patents Foundation
    Inventor: Doris Wilsdorf
  • Patent number: 4337407
    Abstract: A brush having at least a portion thereof adjacent the trailing end made up of a plurality of individually insulated strands of highly conductive material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 1980
    Date of Patent: June 29, 1982
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventor: George T. Hummert
  • Patent number: 4334163
    Abstract: A DC electric motor comprising a tubular support carrying spaced bearings, a shaft journalled in said bearings for coaxial rotation within said support and having a driven end portion extending from a first end length of said tubular support, a rotor comprising a hollow cylindrical rotor body carrying a rotor winding, said rotor body being secured at one end to said extending shaft portion so that the first end length of said tubular support is coaxially freely received within said hollow cylindrical rotor body, a stator surrounding said rotor, and a commutator mounted to said shaft end portion at the exterior side of said rotor body remote from said tubular support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1979
    Date of Patent: June 8, 1982
    Assignee: The Gillette Company
    Inventor: Enzo Ascoli
  • Patent number: 4306169
    Abstract: In a current transfer brush which includes a frame element holding together a flexible slider member containing several graphite fibers which are at least partly coated with an electrically conducting material, the slider member is made of a stack of a plurality of mats of highly graphitized graphite fibers, the mats extending at least approximately perpendicular to the contact surface of the brush with at least some of the fibers in mats coated with an electrically conducting material in order to give improved electrical characteristics for the brush over brushes utilizing a graphite block as the slider member, with the brush particularly useful in commutator machines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 1979
    Date of Patent: December 15, 1981
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Heinrich Diepers
  • Patent number: 4296985
    Abstract: An integral electrical contact (10, 110, 210) and a method for making the electrical contact is disclosed. The contact includes an elongated electrical conducting base portion (19, 119, 219) which has an axial passage (29, 129, 229) extending therethrough and also includes several axially aligned electrical wires (20, 120, 220) integrally formed with the base portion. The wires are axially aligned with the passage of the base portion and extend beyond a first end (18, 118, 218) of the base portion. Each of the wires which extends beyond the first end of the base portion includes an end portion (24, 124, 224) that terminates in an acutely angled surface. The electrical contact is made by coining an electrically conductive flat sheet of material (12) to form a plurality of elongated raised design portions (14, 16, 114, 116, 214, 216) which are axially aligned and extend inwardly from one end surface (13) of the sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 1979
    Date of Patent: October 27, 1981
    Assignee: The Bendix Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Karol, Richard W. Normann, Lloyd C. Hotchkiss
  • Patent number: 4267476
    Abstract: A high-current electrical machine, comprises a moving member and at least one current collector brush in interface contact with the moving member where the brush comprises a plurality of metal fibers plated with a metal-lubricant coating, the metal fiber and coating being annealed together, the coating being effective to provide a lubricating effect and minimize wear at the area of brush contact with the rotating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1979
    Date of Patent: May 12, 1981
    Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp.
    Inventor: Pang-Kai Lee
  • Patent number: 4220884
    Abstract: A brush for an electric motor including a body of porous carbon impregnated with tin or alloys of tin with either lead, zinc, or silver and combinations thereof. The metal impregnated brush can be used in an electric motor which is operated while immersed in gasoline without substantial loss of the electrical and mechanical properties of the brush.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 1978
    Date of Patent: September 2, 1980
    Assignee: TRW Inc.
    Inventor: James H. Sternbergh
  • Patent number: 4131460
    Abstract: A method of producing a sintered composition used as a brush for a dynamo electric machine, includes the steps of compacting a powder from which the brush is to be made around one end of an electrical lead with the remainder of the lead projecting from the compacted powder, and then heating in a non-reducing atmosphere the assembly of the lead and the compacted powder to sinter the powder into the required brush and physically electrically connect the lead to the brush.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1977
    Date of Patent: December 26, 1978
    Assignee: Lucas Industries Limited
    Inventor: Raymond L. Orford
  • Patent number: 4084669
    Abstract: A collector for collecting and passing an electric current in sliding contact, which is used for an electric train, a crane, a hoist or the like, said collector comprising a substrate metal or metal matrix into which a solid lubricant is dispersed, a layer of a prescribed thickness containing dispersed therein particles of the solid lubricant having a particle size of up to 2.5 mm, which is formed on the sliding surface side of the collector, and a solid lubricant-free layer of a prescribed thickness formed on the opposite surface side of the collector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 1976
    Date of Patent: April 18, 1978
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masateru Suwa, Katsuhiro Komuro
  • Patent number: 4000430
    Abstract: A contact brush made in the form of a lamination composed of electroconductive foil laminae joined together with an adhesive on the base of a polymeric binder. As a binder use may be made of thermoreactive polymeric resins filled with colloidal metal particles, antifrictional and polish-forming admixtures which impart electric conductivity, high wear resistance and electric contact stability to the adhesive under conditions of elevated humidity and in a vacuum.The contact brush is intended for use in electrical machines, in particular, electric fractional horsepower motors, measuring potentiometers, start-control devices and the like where it is necessary to provide for a reliable and highly stable sliding electric contact.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 1973
    Date of Patent: December 28, 1976
    Inventors: Vladimir Alexeevich Bely, Feliks Georgievich Ivannikov, Viktor Mikhailovich Kenko, Evald Akimovich Lodochnikov, Valentin Georgievich Savkin, Anatoly Ivanovich Sviridenok
  • Patent number: 3980914
    Abstract: For use with an electrical machine, a contact brush is provided which comprises a solid "carbon" block having a thin layer of electrically conductive, preferably carbon, fibers on a surface which contains the entering edge, or a surface which contains the leaving edge, or both such surfaces. The fibers have free ends contacting the relatively-moving counterface, e.g. a slip ring or commutator, close to the entering or leaving edge, thereby to provide near the respective edge a large number of contact points to obtain sparkless operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1972
    Date of Patent: September 14, 1976
    Assignee: Morganite Carbon Limited
    Inventor: James Cunningham