Patents Represented by Attorney Luis M. Ortiz
  • Patent number: 5387791
    Abstract: A shock, detonation, and damage location sensor providing continuous fiber-optic means of measuring shock speed and damage location, and could be designed through proper cabling to have virtually any desired crush pressure. The sensor has one or a plurality of parallel multimode optical fibers, or a singlemode fiber core, surrounded by an elongated cladding, doped along their entire length with impurities to fluoresce in response to light at a different wavelength entering one end of the fiber(s). The length of a fiber would be continuously shorted as it is progressively destroyed by a shock wave traveling parallel to its axis. The resulting backscattered and shifted light would eventually enter a detector and be converted into a proportional electrical signals which would be evaluated to determine shock velocity and damage location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 7, 1995
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
    Inventor: Jonathan D. Weiss
  • Patent number: 5343968
    Abstract: Apparatus and method for simultaneously and separately emplacing two streams of different materials through a drillstring in a borehole to a downhole location for lost circulation control. The two streams are mixed outside the drillstring at the desired downhole location and harden only after mixing for control of a lost circulation zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1991
    Date of Patent: September 6, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
    Inventor: David A. Glowka
  • Patent number: 5341574
    Abstract: A coordinate measuring machine test standard apparatus and method which iudes a rotary spindle having an upper phase plate and an axis of rotation, a kinematic ball mount attached to the phase plate concentric with the axis of rotation of the phase plate, a groove mounted at the circumference of the phase plate, and an arm assembly which rests in the groove. The arm assembly has a small sphere at one end and a large sphere at the other end. The small sphere may be a coordinate measuring machine probe tip and may have variable diameters. The large sphere is secured in the kinematic ball mount and the arm is held in the groove. The kinematic ball mount includes at least three mounting spheres and the groove is an angular locating groove including at least two locking spheres. The arm may have a hollow inner core and an outer layer. The rotary spindle may be a ratio reducer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 30, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Department of Energy
    Inventor: Lothar F. Bieg
  • Patent number: 5333162
    Abstract: A high resolution counter circuit measures the time interval between the occurrence of an initial and a subsequent electrical pulse to two nanoseconds resolution using an eight megahertz clock. The circuit includes a main counter for receiving electrical pulses and generating a binary word--a measure of the number of eight megahertz clock pulses occurring between the signals. A pair of first and second pulse stretchers receive the signal and generate a pair of output signals whose widths are approximately sixty-four times the time between the receipt of the signals by the respective pulse stretchers and the receipt by the respective pulse stretchers of a second subsequent clock pulse. Output signals are thereafter supplied to a pair of start and stop counters operable to generate a pair of binary output words representative of the measure of the width of the pulses to a resolution of two nanoseconds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 26, 1994
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
    Inventor: Kenneth J. Condreva
  • Patent number: 5259417
    Abstract: A device for testing the burst pressure of closure disks which provides high pressure to both sides of a disk and rapidly releases pressure from one side thereof causing a high rate of change of pressure. A hollow notched plug allows the rapid release of pressure upon rupturing. A means is also disclosed for transmitting a tensile load from a piston to a hollow notched plug and for sealing the means for transmitting load within a hole in a piston.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1991
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1993
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
    Inventor: Charles W. Merten, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5235235
    Abstract: A chemical sensor (1) includes two or more pairs of interdigital electrodes (10) having different periodicities. Each pair is comprised of a first electrode (10a) and a second electrode (10b). The electrodes are patterned on a surface of a piezoelectric substrate (12). Each pair of electrodes may launch and receive various acoustic waves (AW), including a surface acoustic wave (SAW), and may also launch and receive several acoustic plate modes (APMs). The frequencies associated with each are functions of the transducer periodicity as well as the velocity of the particular AW in the chosen substrate material. An AW interaction region (13) exists between each pair of electrodes. Circuitry (20, 40) is used to launch, receive, and monitor the propagation characteristics of the AWs and may be configured in an intermittent measurement fashion or in a continuous measurement fashion. Perturbations to the AW velocity and attenuation are recorded at several frequencies and provide the sensor response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 1991
    Date of Patent: August 10, 1993
    Assignee: The United States of America as Represented by the United States Department of Energy
    Inventors: Stephen J. Martin, Antonio J. Ricco