Patents Represented by Law Firm Kemon & Estabrook
  • Engine analyzers
    Patent number: 4379263
    Abstract: An engine analyzer, for analyzing ignition voltage or current signals in an engine of the kind in which each spark plug is fed with a succession of pulses, alternate pulses producing real sparks to ignite the petrol/air mixture, the other pulses producing wasted sparks at a point of the engine operating cycle remote from ignition, the analyzer including circuitry to pass the real spark pulse and inhibit passage of the wasted spark pulses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1980
    Date of Patent: April 5, 1983
    Assignee: TI Crypton Limited
    Inventors: Geoffrey J. Everett, Christopher J. Hunt
  • Booster for a hydraulic clutch system
    Patent number: 4378676
    Abstract: An air/hydraulic servomotor unit for providing power assistance for a clutch hydraulic operating system and comprising a compressed air cylinder, a hydraulic slave cylinder, a load proportioning means that determines what ratio of the unit output is derived from the hydraulic and air cylinders, and a clutch operating member.The hydraulic slave cylinder is secured to one end of the air cylinder housing and has a piston which passes through the air cylinder piston so that both pistons can act against the proportioning means. All the unit output loads pass through the proportioning means prior to being transmitted to the operating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1980
    Date of Patent: April 5, 1983
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventors: David Parsons, David R. Arrowsmith
  • Manufacture of structural board panels
    Patent number: 4378401
    Abstract: A method of forming structural board panels from short strands of bagasse or other cellulistic material. The material resinated, compressed and cured to give an open structural block. A mortar screed of portland cement and sand is then applied to penetrate interstices between the strands and is built up with rendering and facing layers of mortar. A reinforcement, such as an open mesh net of resinated nylon strands may be incorporated in the facing layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1980
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1983
    Assignee: Borfglace Limited
    Inventor: Charles L. Wright
  • Automatic wear adjuster for drum brakes
    Patent number: 4375251
    Abstract: An internal drum brake of the kind including a strut between a hand brake lever pivoted on one shoe and the other shoe, has a wear adjuster comprising a pair of screw-threaded members with a pawl and pawl wheel for relative rotation thereof on operation of the service brake system, the axis of the screw-threaded members intercepting the line of action between the shoe and an abutment which limits return movement of the shoe to a brake-released position, one of the members having a spacer between the shoe and the abutment, the spacing effect of the spacer being changed on relative rotation of the screw-threaded members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1980
    Date of Patent: March 1, 1983
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventors: John P. Burke, Alastair J. Young
  • Ball and socket joints
    Patent number: 4372621
    Abstract: A composite support bearing for the ball of a ball and socket joint comprises a hard plastics bearing member for the ball in the socket and a soft plastics cushion member held by the bearing member so as to be stressed by contact with the ball on assembly of the joint. The bearing member and the cushion member are preferably interlocked to prevent relative rotation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 1980
    Date of Patent: February 8, 1983
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: David J. R. Farrant
  • Engine analyzers
    Patent number: 4366436
    Abstract: An engine analyzer including a plurality of probes each connectable to one component of a different pair from a plurality of pairs of engine components, each pair comprising a spark plug and a lead connected direct to said spark plug, in which each probe will emit a succession of pulses during use, some or all of the pulses being of either one polarity or of the opposite polarity, wherein the invention comprises means to process said pulses and to emit coincident pulses all of one predetermined polarity, irrespective of the polarity of the pulses from the probe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1980
    Date of Patent: December 28, 1982
    Assignee: TI Crypton Limited
    Inventors: Geoffrey J. Everett, Christopher J. Hunt
  • Apparatus for locating interfaces in media
    Patent number: 4364273
    Abstract: Apparatus to detect and/or locate an inhomogeneity in a medium comprises a transducer to transmit frequency-modulated ultrasonic energy through the medium and a transducer to receive reflected energy. The transducers are connected to a phase-locked loop which maintains a required relationship between the phase of the transmitted modulation and the phase of the received modulation by adjustment of the modulation frequency. The modulation frequency adjustment is kept within predetermined upper and lower frequency limits so that the loop can lock only on to received ultrasonic energy which has travelled a distance within a predetermined region in the medium. The energy may be scanned across the region to produce a profile of the inhomogeneity, such as tissue at a certain depth within a limb.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 1980
    Date of Patent: December 21, 1982
    Inventor: Robert J. Redding
  • Brake pressure modulating valve
    Patent number: 4358163
    Abstract: A vehicle brake system fluid modulating valve has a main piston acted upon by a control spring and master cylinder pressure on one hand and an opposing brake system on the other hand. A slave piston is also acted upon by the master cylinder pressure, and is arranged to control an operating point at which the main piston effects brake pressure modulation. This control is effected by cutting off the master cylinder pressure to the slave piston when the operating point is reached. Electrical transducers sense vehicle load and master cylinder pressure, respectively, and their output signals are processed by a comparator for consequential operation of the valve to cut-off the master cylinder pressure to the slave piston. The operating point is altered by balancing the master cylinder pressure signal in response to changes in the vehicle load signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1980
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1982
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: Alastair J. Young
  • Injection lasers
    Patent number: 4355395
    Abstract: Apparatus for stabilizing output characteristics of an injection laser has a light sensitive device for producing an electrical signal indicative of the d.c. output light level of the laser. The electrical signal is compared with a reference signal to produce a further signal which is applied to d.c. bias control means for the laser. The d.c. bias control means responds to the further signal to adjust the d.c. bias level such that the d.c. light output level remains substantially at a predetermined level. The means or peak output of the laser can be controlled in a similar manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 1978
    Date of Patent: October 19, 1982
    Assignee: British Telecommunications
    Inventors: Stuart R. Salter, David R. Smith
  • Friction clutch driven plate
    Patent number: 4354586
    Abstract: This invention relates to friction clutch driven plates in which the friction facings are carried on a friction facing carrier rotatably mounted on a hub. Relative rotational movement between the hub and the carrier is resisted by springs and a friction damper plate. The friction damper plate is sandwiched between the hub flange and a facing carrier plate and is in frictional engagement with the carrier plate. The damper plate has a radial arm with an aperture therein that snugly accommodates a spring and has an axially extending lug, located at the outer periphery of the arm, loosely engages a slot in the hub flange so that there is no friction damping for the initial movement of the carrier relative to the hub, until the lug abuts the end of the slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 1980
    Date of Patent: October 19, 1982
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: Michael G. Stanley
  • Friction clutch driven plate
    Patent number: 4352420
    Abstract: A motor vehicle clutch driven plate having a flanged hub comprising a pressed annular metal plate having a central cylindrical neck and a central insert. The insert has inner splines for mating with a shaft and outer teeth for engagement in the neck. The insert is a force fit into the neck so that engagement of the teeth with the internal surface of the neck holds the insert in its operative position relative to the plate which then constitutes the hub flange.Such a construction allows a large number of inserts having different internal splines to be used with a single metal plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1980
    Date of Patent: October 5, 1982
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: Ian C. Maycock
  • Vehicle brake pressure proportioning valves
    Patent number: 4351570
    Abstract: A vehicle brake pressure proportioning valve has a stepped proportioning plunger movable by brake pressure against a loading spring. A control plunger subject to pressure from an inlet port co-operates with a metering valve associated with the proportioning plunger. For low inlet pressures both plungers move together and there is no significant pressure drop through the valve but at a particular vehicle deceleration a control mass moves to hydraulically lock the control plunger and allow full operation of the metering valve. A control spring acts on the control mass with a force which, at the time of hydraulic locking, varies according to the distance moved by the control plunger and, by inference, the weight of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1982
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: Alastair J. Young
  • Method for manufacture of graded index optical fibres
    Patent number: 4351659
    Abstract: A graded index optical fiber is produced in a double crucible with an elongate heated exit nozzle. The core and cladding glasses of the fiber diffuse into one another in the nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 1981
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1982
    Assignee: The Post Office
    Inventors: Keith J. Beales, Clive R. Day, George R. Newns
  • Self saturating semiconductor lasers
    Patent number: 4350960
    Abstract: A double heterostructure semiconductor laser having the configuration of its optical cavity arranged to impose a constraint on the lasing filament as the spatial distribution of the lasing filament changes from that occuring at the start of the lasing regime, so that the optical flux emitted by the laser has self-saturating properties. This protects the laser from catastrophic facet erosion and enables a simpler control circuit to be used to drive this laser when it is used as a light source for an optical communications system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1982
    Assignee: The Post Office
    Inventors: Michael R. Matthews, David H. Newman, David R. Smith, Alan G. Steventon
  • Static inverter with energy return
    Patent number: 4348719
    Abstract: In a static inverter for providing a low-frequency output (e.g. 60 Hz) from a d.c. supply, the passage of low-frequency currents through the inverter transformer is avoided by producing a train of high-frequency pulses (e.g. 40 kHz) which represent, for example by their pulse widths, the successive instantaneous amplitudes of the required low-frequency voltage. These pulses cause a train of corresponding pulses to be produced at the secondary of the transformer, and this train is filtered to produce a unidirectional voltage having the desired instantaneous amplitudes. This voltage is fed to a transistor switching bridge which changes the unidirectional voltage into an alternating voltage having the required low frequency. A circuit is preferably provided to allow regeneration of power from the load back into the d.c. supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 1979
    Date of Patent: September 7, 1982
    Assignee: ERA Patents Limited
    Inventors: Graham P. Hicks, Michael C. Carter
  • Engraving printing cylinders
    Patent number: 4347785
    Abstract: Apparatus for engraving a rotating cylinder by means of a laser, in which the laser beam is focused onto a small area of the cylinder surface by a lens, including means for defining a path for the flow of compressed air across the path of the laser beam, and a suction device communicating with the region between the lens and the cylinder for extracting air from this region, the flow of air serving to remove debris from the area being engraved and to prevent it from reaching the lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 7, 1982
    Assignee: Crosfield Electronics Limited
    Inventors: Bryan B. Chase, Alberto Yi
  • Testing glass fibres
    Patent number: 4346601
    Abstract: A method of proof testing an optical glass fibre by pulling it around a free roller whose radius is sufficiently small to impart the strain necessary to detect fibres whose surface or near surface flaws weaken the fibre below a required strength. Proof testers are disclosed incorporating, single rollers, a set of three parallel rollers and a jig holding four sets of three rollers. Proof testers incorporating the extra rollers whose axes are at different angles are shown to more thoroughly explore the surface of the fibre for cracks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 1980
    Date of Patent: August 31, 1982
    Assignee: The Post Office
    Inventor: Paul W. France
  • Fluid pressure servomotor
    Patent number: 4346573
    Abstract: A fluid pressure servo motor comprises a body having two operatively independent fluid chambers each chamber having therein a piston means movable in response to a fluid pressure differential so as to alter in use a two condition device from one to the other of said two conditions. The two piston means each have a lost motion means connection with the device to allow idle return of the pistons on cessation of the pressure differential. The two chambers and their respective pistons are co-axial and the pistons work in opposition to each other, one piston being fixed to a stirrup which bridges the other piston and acts in use against the two condition device, while allowing said other piston to move independently of the stirrup. Also disclosed is a vehicle door locking system incorporating servo motors as described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1979
    Date of Patent: August 31, 1982
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: David Parsons
  • Friction clutch driven plates
    Patent number: 4345676
    Abstract: A friction clutch driven plate has an annular friction facing with a back surface in contact with an opposed surface of a friction facing carrier.Circumferentially spaced recesses are provided in the back face of the facing so as to relieve the back surface of the facing to allow portions of the friction surface of the facing to yield under axial load on engagement of the driven plate against a drive member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 1980
    Date of Patent: August 24, 1982
    Assignee: Automotive Products Limited
    Inventor: Roger P. Jarvis
  • Restraint device
    Patent number: 4341422
    Abstract: A child restraint, of the type comprising a pad adapted to fit between an adult lap safety belt and the abdomen of a child, can alternatively be used as an adult head restraint. When used as a child restraint, the pad is held in place by an adult lap safety belt. When used as an adult head restraint, the pad is secured to fixtures at the top of the seat back, the front surfaces of the device being suitably shaped. When used as a child restraint, webs of webbing extend from the top of the seat back to respective sides of the pad, so as to provide lateral restraint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 1980
    Date of Patent: July 27, 1982
    Assignee: B.S.G. International Limited
    Inventor: Douglas J. Cunningham