Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Craig M. Korfanta
  • Patent number: 5411457
    Abstract: An infant entertainment and development device (10) is disclosed which in its preferred embodiment includes a sliding inclined bed (11) which has a stationary perpendicularly disposed kick board (25) positioned at the lower foot end of the bed (11). The infant (1) is secured to the inclined carriage bed (11) using traps (19) attached to a cushion (18) which is in turn attached to the upper surface (12a) of the bed (11). The carriage bed (11) is slidably secured to a main frame (22) which includes an inclined base board (23). The carriage bed (11) is attached to the base board (23) using ball bearings (24). The inclined base board (23) is supported by a main frame incline support (29) which can be of adjustable height to adjust the angle of incline of the sliding carriage bed (11). A positive reinforcement sensory signal generator (30) is attached between the carriage bed (11) and the base board ( 23).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 2, 1995
    Inventors: George Hartdegen, III, George Hartdegen, Jr., deceased
  • Patent number: 5400510
    Abstract: The invention is a brace for a windshield glass knife. In a preferred embodiment, the brace has a hollow, cylindrical sleeve which fits over the top of the handle of a conventional manual windshield glass knife. The cylindrical sleeve is rotatably attached to the first end of a rigid brace arm so that the brace arm may pivot in only a single plane containing the centerline of the knife handle when the sleeve is fitted over the handle. At the second end of the brace arm, it is connected to a forearm rest and pad. The forearm rest is a generally L- or U-shaped rest which is connected to and extends from the brace arm, with at least one side for engaging the forearm of the repairman. Optionally, on the forearm rest is a pad which increases the surface area for spreading out the forces transmitted by the brace arm to the forearm, and for resisting the twisting force in the knife handle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 28, 1995
    Inventor: Michael J. Glodowski
  • Patent number: 5394700
    Abstract: A Stirling cycle engine having its cylinders ganged together by connecting through a cross connect passage and valve the cold variable volume chamber of one cylinder with the compression chamber of a cylinder in which the displacer piston and the power piston are ninety degrees (90.degree.) out-of-phase with the pistons in the first cylinder.The displacer piston and power piston in each cylinder are connected by a sealed piston rod so that the two pistons move in unison. Each cylinder's power piston is connected by means of a connecting rod to a means for converting the reciprocating motion of the power piston into rotational motion. Each cross connect passage is provided with a valve which allows a working fluid to pass from the cold variable volume chamber of one cylinder to the compression chamber of any cylinder which is ninety degrees (90.degree.) out-of-phase with the displacer piston of the first cylinder. This valving feature allows the engine to be reversed and throttled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 7, 1995
    Inventor: Ronald J. Steele
  • Patent number: 5394832
    Abstract: The invention is a feeder for horses comprising an elongate feeder housing with a feeding chamber. Feeder has a rounded front forming an elliptical arc in relation to the back with a feed access opening in the front. The feed access opening accommodates entry of a horse's head into the feeding chamber. The lower edge of the feed access opening is positioned so the bottom of the chamber is a feed holding bin. The top of the feeder has a feed delivery opening close to the back of the housing. The feed delivery opening is rectangular for accepting a hay flake, the feed delivery opening extends into the feeder housing as a feed delivery chute, allowing the hay flake to land in the back of the feed chamber with the upper portion of the flake still in the delivery chute. The feed delivery opening has a removable cover. In any embodiment, the bottom of the feeder can contain a removable plug for cleaning of the feed chamber. In one embodiment of the invention the back of the feeder contains a 90.degree.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 7, 1995
    Inventor: Lane Briley
  • Patent number: 5390590
    Abstract: A toroidal shaped impact assembly (10) for use in a hydraulic food cutting system is disclosed. Impact assembly (10) includes frustum shaped housing (22), an attachment plate (28) for mounting the assembly within a hydraulic food assembly, and a toroidally shaped impact ring (20). Food products such as peppers (12) are suspended in water and accelerated into assembly (10) where the aligned whole peppers impact against ring (20) thereby breaking apart into food pieces and an unattached seed pod or core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1995
    Inventor: George A. Mendenhall
  • Patent number: 5389059
    Abstract: A honeycomb structural material formed from flat sheet material 60 by establishing a plurality of channels along parallel channel fold lines 68 and reverse channel fold lines 74 and reverse channel cuts 70. A spaced array of holes 66 are cut in the top surfaces 86 of the channels with triple point fold lines 72 formed in top surface 62 and side wall fold lines 74 formed in bottom surface 64. With all fold lines formed flat sheet 60 is folded into plurality of channels and compressed along the axis of the channels to form the honeycomb structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1992
    Date of Patent: February 14, 1995
    Inventor: Charles H. Corwin
  • Patent number: 5386990
    Abstract: Embodiments of a golf course timing method and system are shown and described. A countdown timer is carried by a golfer or flight of golfers to indicate the golfer's progress relative to an allotted maximum time for the total course and/or for each hole. Elapsed time or time left to play may be indicated. The timer may be programmed to account for different playing times for the various holes of the course. This programming may be done by programming an electronic timer, by printing a graphic design or arranging moveable blades on the timer face so that the clock hand points to the individual holes at the appropriate time, or by other methods. Alternatively, a printed schedule may be assigned to each flight of golfers. The golfers may then be made responsible for keeping up a smooth, consistent, and reasonable pace on the course, which relieves tension and allows more flights of golfers per day.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 7, 1995
    Inventor: Matt H. Smith
  • Patent number: 5375582
    Abstract: A combined LNG vaporizer and engine to aftercooler coolant heat exchanger 72 is provided for use in maintaining vaporized gas fuel at a design temperature band within the charged combustion air temperature so as to automatically compensate for ambient air and fuel density variations to more accurately maintain a combustible stoichiometric mixture of vaporized LNG and combustion air during periods of engine idling or low power operation or during periods of extreme cold or extreme hot ambient air conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 27, 1994
    Assignee: MK Rail Corporation
    Inventor: Burnell P. Wimer
  • Patent number: 5372535
    Abstract: A bee nest made from a plurality of bee board laminates held in close side by side relation by a permanent, flexible and lightproof backing material. The nest includes a closure for releasably opening and closing the nest at the front edges of the laminates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 13, 1994
    Inventor: Jerry Mills
  • Patent number: 5370436
    Abstract: A dual composition bed liner (10) is disclosed which includes a unitary side and front wall member (11) formed of a resilient plastic, such as polyethylene, and which has a rubber bed mat (18) integrally attached to the unitary wall member (11). A plurality of "C" shaped retaining tabs (19) are formed along the upper edge of unitary wall member (11) to engage the underside of truck bed rail (24). Each of the left side (11a), right side (11c) and front wall (11b) panels have a lip (13) extending inwardly from their bottom edges. A mat retaining ridge channel (14) is formed in the underside of the lip (13) to receive a retaining ridge (19) formed along the marginal edge of the upper surface of the bed mat (18). A plurality of rivet recesses (15) are provided in the top and bottom of retaining ridge (19) and are positioned to align with similar rivet recesses (15) in the mat ridge channel (14).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1994
    Inventors: Gerald A. Martindale, Lonnie D. Kuenzli
  • Patent number: 5368633
    Abstract: A system for collecting, transferring and storing radioactive gas released from other radioactive materials. In the described process, gas pump (24) removes gas from a headspace volume within an unvented radioactive material storage vessel (8). The gas is cooled in an aftercooler (28) and discharged into a receiver (32). As pressure in receiver (32) increases, compressed gas is transferred to a selected pressurized decay vessel (44 or 50), in which the radioactive gas remains for a predetermined decay period. After expiration of decay period, decayed gas is either recycled back to the radioactive material storage vessel (8) via recycled gas recirculation line (52) and pressure reducing valve (54), or is discharged to atmosphere through an activated carbon and high-efficiency particulate filters (48), removing remaining undecayed radioactive gas and particulate daughter products.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 29, 1994
    Assignee: Morrison-Knudson (an Idaho corporation)
    Inventors: Joseph T. Foldyna, Donald J. Carpenter, John M. Cron
  • Patent number: 5368078
    Abstract: A cutter blade (17) for a finger joint cutter head (10) which includes a cantilevered cutting tip attachment. A cantilever pocket (20) is formed in the fillet area of steel backing member (18) to receive and hold the inner end of a hard material cutting tip (19), such as tungsten carbide. Cantilever pocket (20) has tapered sides which diverge outwardly and a rounded vertex or pocket bottom. Cutter tips are elongated to extend well into cantilever pockets (20). Each cutter tip is attached within a pocket (20) and along the joint surface of steel backing members (18), using a sandwich braze, to form braze joints (21) and (22).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 29, 1994
    Assignee: Ace Company, Inc.
    Inventor: Lawrence A. Rupe
  • Patent number: 5367793
    Abstract: The invention is a replaceable golf shoe cleat or spike 10 for use in place of a standard metal spike 4. Winter golf shoe spike 10 preferably has a main cleat body 11 molded from a durable plastic type material in single unitary fashion. A threaded stud 13 is formed on the upper surface of generally concavo-convex flange 12 and protrudes axially therefrom. A plurality of traction ribs 15 are formed on the bottom traction surface of concavo-convex flange 12. While the ribs 15 may be present in a variety of configurations, they are preferably triangular ridges arranged in a radial fashion emanating from the center of concavo-convex flange 12.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 29, 1994
    Assignee: Warm Springs Golf Club, Inc.
    Inventors: Ernie L. Deacon, Faris W. McMullin
  • Patent number: 5365970
    Abstract: A gravity flow chemigation system (10) is disclosed which generally consists of chemical supply tank (37), in which chemical (29) is contained, a supply line (37) connected to the bottom of chemical supply tank (36), and a low-level shutoff valve (11) suspended across an irrigation ditch (39) and partially below the surface of irrigation water (38). Chemical enters the valve (11) from supply line (37) through air vent tube (21) and inlet (18). The chemical (29) within supply line (37) will continue to flow through valve (11), out outlet (15) and through outlet screen (28) to mix with irrigation water (38) as long as the level of irrigation water (38) remains at a level above converging valve seat (16) of lower float valve (13). Once the level of irrigation water (38) falls below valve seat (16), lower float (17) will engage the lower converging valve seat (16) and close off the valve which will not reactivate until manually reset, even if the irrigation water level rises.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 22, 1994
    Inventor: Larry D. Butler
  • Patent number: 5366699
    Abstract: An apparatus for the thermal destruction of waste which includes an afterburner assembly for removing pollutants from industrial waste streams by high temperature thermal destruction using a mixture of gas and gaseous hydrocarbons which is injected into the combustion chamber of the assembly using a ring injector assembly of novel construction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 22, 1994
    Assignees: Bonnie June Goodrich, Keith Joseph Goodrich
    Inventors: Leslie R. Milfeld, Keith J. Goodrich
  • Patent number: 5358095
    Abstract: A removable conveyor flight formed of a flight body 12 having downwardly extending arcuate clamp arms. A pair of opposing arcuately shaped rigid clamps (14) and (16) are embedded within the flight body. Formed integrally with clamps (14) and (16) are compression tabs (20) which extend upward into the flight body to a fulcrum point (22). Bolts (28) are provided to draw the clamps together, thereby clamping the resilient clamp arms of flight body (12) against the cross bar or rod (34) of draper chain (32).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1994
    Inventor: Robert B. Curl
  • Patent number: 5358573
    Abstract: A pipe pig is reciprocated through a section of a pipe having deposits of scale. In the case of very hard deposits, each pass through the contaminated sections removes a thin layer each time. The location of the coated section can be located by first running the pig through the pipe. The hydraulic pressure is monitored using pen recorders. At each bend in the pipe, a sharp pressure increase will be recorded. The location of the bends can be determined from a drawing of the pipe installation. When the pig encounters scale, there will be a pressure increase that corresponds to the degree of resistance met by the pig resulting from the scale. Greater pressure means greater scale build up. By running the pig through the pipe, a profile of the scale may be created. The location of the scale can be correlated to the known location of the bends. The scale itself can be flushed out with the hydraulic propellant and analyzed. The pin height and hardness can then be selected for the particular scale encountered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1994
    Inventor: Orlande Sivacoe
  • Patent number: D352580
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1994
    Inventor: James A. Cook
  • Patent number: D353031
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1994
    Inventor: Judith A. Pope
  • Patent number: D353405
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 1993
    Date of Patent: December 13, 1994
    Assignee: C/C Cign Company, Inc.
    Inventor: Danny L. Cutler