Patents Represented by Law Firm Phillips, Moore, Weissenberger, Lempio & Majestic
  • Heavy duty drawbar
    Patent number: 4212139
    Abstract: A heavy duty drawbar features a Z-type brace which is accessible from the end of a vehicle which carries the drawbar. The Z-type brace provides significant strength for the overall drawbar while still allowing easy access to the hitch fastening bolts for easy changing. Also, the hitch can be placed very close to the vehicle when held by such a Z-type brace. Two of the Z-type braces are supported each between generally vertical frame members and the hitch of the drawbar is supported between the two Z-type braces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 1977
    Date of Patent: July 15, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Stephen G. Shoup
  • Pressurized fluid supply system
    Patent number: 4212596
    Abstract: Variable displacement pumps are each provided with internal biasing means which adjusts displacement in response to spring forces, discharge pressures and net swivel torque forces in order to limit output pressure and to avoid overtaxing the power output capabilities of the motor which drives the pumps. In a system where a plurality of such pumps each supply a separate fluid-operated device but are driven by a single motor, the internal displacement control means of each pump may be arranged to be responsive in part to the discharge pressure of each other pump. The pumps may operate at different power output levels and if one experiences a relatively heavy load, the displacements of the others also reduce if necessary to avoid exceeding the power limitations of the drive motor from a total system overload.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 1978
    Date of Patent: July 15, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Walter Z. Ruseff
  • Turboexhaust hub extension for a marine propeller
    Patent number: 4212586
    Abstract: An improvement to a marine propeller in which engine exhaust gases are discharged through the hub consists of an extension formed with inwardly projecting helical fins. The extension is adapted for mounting on the propeller distal of the shaft end of the hub.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 1978
    Date of Patent: July 15, 1980
    Inventor: Mervyn F. Aguiar
  • Orthopedic cushion and method for fitting thereof
    Patent number: 4211236
    Abstract: An orthopedic cushion, both fittable as well as fitted, for a portion of a user's body such as a user's foot, and a method for fitting thereof. The fittable orthopedic cushion comprises a flexible envelope containing a flowable, highly viscous material. The envelope includes an elongated member and a diverticulum which may receive part of the viscous material during adjustment of the cushion to comfortably accommodate the portion of the user's body. The elongated member and diverticulum of the fittable cushion may be sealed off from the envelope and removed, resulting in a fitted orthopedic cushion, the envelope of which will contain a desired amount of the viscous material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1978
    Date of Patent: July 8, 1980
    Inventor: Martin S. Krinsky
  • Surface treatment for blood dialysis cartridges
    Patent number: 4211602
    Abstract: In blood dialyzers in which hollow fibers are potted in plastic tube sheets and the tube sheets are then cut to form a manifold surface providing access to the interior of the hollow fibers, blood clotting at the manifold surface is greatly reduced by treating the surface to increase the radii of the microscopic sharp edges of the fiber ends which are produced by the cutting process. The smoothing of the fiber ends can be accomplished by momentary heating, flame polishing, etching, or coating of the manifold surface with a varnish.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1978
    Date of Patent: July 8, 1980
    Inventor: Robert C. Brumfield
  • Timing control for sleeve metering fuel system
    Patent number: 4211520
    Abstract: The invention relates to an improvement in an engine fuel pump having a fill port in a plunger closed and opened during plunger strokes by a face of a relatively stationary barrel surrounding the plunger. A spill port in the plunger is closed and opened during plunger strokes by a relatively stationary collar surrounding the plunger and a linkage structure is operable by a governor or the like for adjusting the collar axially on the plunger to vary the separation of the barrel face from the collar and thereby the volume of fuel delivered per plunger stroke. The improvement of the invention comprises an oblique surface serving as the barrel face along with apparatus for adjustably setting the angular position of the plunger about its axes and thereby adjusting injection timing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 1978
    Date of Patent: July 8, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Stanley J. Kranc
  • Laminated spacer plate for engines and method for making the same
    Patent number: 4211205
    Abstract: A laminated spacer plate (10) for engines, pumps and the like comprises a plurality of metallic sheets (11-14), each having openings (15, 16, 17, 24, 40) preformed therethrough and secured together. The preforming of the openings through the individual sheets facilitates intercommunication of certain of the openings with passages formed within the spacer plate and eliminates the need for costly machining and related manufacturing operations normally required for the fabrication of a one-piece spacer plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 1978
    Date of Patent: July 8, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: David A. Lockhart
  • Nutating drive
    Patent number: 4208926
    Abstract: Nutating drives of the prior art have suffered from a problem of rotational unbalance. Such drives (10) include an outer rotatable structure (14) rotatable about its axis (16) and having a generally cylindrical cavity (18) axially therein, an axis (20) of said cavity being at an angle from the axis of rotation (16) of the rotatable structure (14), a generally cylindrical nutatable member (22) nutatably mounted within said cavity and a generally conically surfaced member (26) in contact with a generally cylindrical surface (28) of the nutatable member (22), said generally conically surfaced member (26) having an output shaft (30) generally coaxial with the axis of the rotatable structure. This problem of the prior art is solved by a structure which does not create rotational unbalance and which allows full nutation of the nutatable member while preventing it from rotating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 1978
    Date of Patent: June 24, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Edwin E. Hanson
  • Electronic transmission control and method therefor
    Patent number: 4208925
    Abstract: A control for the automatic shifting of a multi-ratio power transmission. A memory is provided and programmed with the optimum vehicle speed shift points for upshift and downshift from each gear of the automatic range. The actual speed of the vehicle is periodically sampled, and each time it is, such speed is compared with the shift points for the gear which the transmission is in to see if a shift from such gear should be made. If it is determined from the speed sample that an upshift should be made, then the upshift speed points of higher gears are examined with reference to such speed sample to find the gear to which the transmission should be upshifted, i.e., the gear just above the highest gear having an upshift speed point which is less than the sampled speed. Having found such gear, the transmission is shifted thereto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1977
    Date of Patent: June 24, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventors: Robert G. Miller, Michael L. Render
  • Apparatus for producing different flow rates of a fluid
    Patent number: 4208874
    Abstract: A fluid system (10, 10A, 10B) which supplies two work systems (26, 38) with respective different fluid flow rates, including a pressure-flow compensated pump (12), a first control valve (18) for delivering the fluid to one of the work systems, a second control valve (28) for receiving the fluid from the first control valve and delivering the fluid to the other of the work systems (38), a first device ([20,42,50] or [20,56,58] or [20,90,96]) coupled between the pump output and the first control valve, for providing one control signal causing the pump to produce one flow rate of fluid for activating the one work system (26), and a second device ([20,40,44,46,50] or [22,58,66,72,78] or [22,88,92,96,102]) for overriding the first device for providing another control signal causing the pump to produce another flow rate of fluid for actuating the other work system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1978
    Date of Patent: June 24, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Jesse L. Field, Jr.
  • Inlet air passage for an engine
    Patent number: 4207854
    Abstract: A concave surface forms a section of the inner wall of an inlet air passage in the cylinder head of an internal combustion engine with the concave surface facing towards the outer wall of the passage. The inlet passage leads to a valve past which air is introduced into a cylinder of the engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 1978
    Date of Patent: June 17, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventors: Richard R. Alford, Alan R. Stockner
  • Welding method using a break away flux dam
    Patent number: 4208563
    Abstract: The invention relates to an improvement in a method of welding a first workpiece to a second workpiece which comprises utilizing the flux dam composition on each side of a weld groove to define a dam and electrical welding along the weld groove while adding flux thereto to maintain a slag blanket over a pool of molten weld metal in the groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1978
    Date of Patent: June 17, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventors: John G. Frantzreb, Sr., Daniel J. Reinhart
  • Variable speed transmission
    Patent number: 4205563
    Abstract: A transmission combining a plurality of planetary gear arrangements with a torque converter along with various clutching and braking elements provides a broad range of speed reductions with practically identical step ratios between shift ranges thereby efficiently transmitting torque from an input shaft to an output shaft over a broad range of output speeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1977
    Date of Patent: June 3, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: James M. Gorrell
  • Fluid delivery apparatus
    Patent number: 4205699
    Abstract: An improvement in a fluid delivery apparatus which comprises a fluid input tube communicating via a flow through swivel joint with a fluid output tube which extends orthogonally of the input tube. The improvement comprises a pair of spaced apart bearings, each comprising an inner cylindrical bearing structure and an outer cylindrical structure. The outer cylindrical bearing structures are supported by the output tube and the inner cylindrical bearing structures are supported by the input tube. The bearings serve for taking up substantially the entire radial load created by the weight of the output tube thus protecting the swivel joint from such radial load.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 1977
    Date of Patent: June 3, 1980
    Inventor: Carroll E. Brekke
  • Vacuum deposition apparatus
    Patent number: 4205623
    Abstract: A thin-film deposition apparatus comprises a cabinet having a vessel mounted therein which defines a vacuum chamber adapted to retain processed articles. A vacuum unit is mounted in the cabinet to communicate with an opening defined in the vacuum chamber whereby the chamber may be evacuated upon actuation of the pump of the vacuum unit. A door is movably mounted on a front panel of the cabinet for movement between closed and opened positions and a fan is preferably mounted on the cabinet and above the door to blow a laminar airflow over the front panel of the cabinet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1978
    Date of Patent: June 3, 1980
    Assignee: CHA Industries
    Inventor: Gunard O. B. Mahl
  • Sprinkler leveler and wind compensating device
    Patent number: 4204643
    Abstract: A main irrigation pipe with wheels fixed thereto has mounted along its length a plurality of movable sprinkler heads. Each sprinkler head has connected thereto a flat, bladelike member, the weight of which aids in urging that sprinkler head toward an erect position, meanwhile with the bladelike member compensating for wind by leaning the sprinkler head into the wind to provide a more even distribution of water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 1978
    Date of Patent: May 27, 1980
    Assignee: R. M. Wade & Co.
    Inventor: Gail Cornelius
  • Electronic switching control for rear transmission
    Patent number: 4203375
    Abstract: In a vehicle having separate front and rear transmissions, a system for slaving one of the transmissions to the other so that the slave transmission will operate in the same drive range as that existing in the master transmission. Low-level binary coded signals are separately generated by each transmission to indicate the existing drive ranges of the two transmissions. The signals are sent to a control unit where they are examined and used to shift the slave transmission up or down as necessary, so that it keeps in step with the drive range in which the master transmission is operating. A unique binary code is used in the sending of drive-range signals to the control unit to prevent the control unit from shifting the slave transmission in response to errors in the signals which may occur in the event of faults in the cables through which the signals are sent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1977
    Date of Patent: May 20, 1980
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Robert G. Miller
  • Method and test kit for the on-site determination of the presence of contaminant material in lubricating oil
    Patent number: 4203725
    Abstract: A method and kit for the on-site determination of the presence and concentration of contaminant materials in lubricating oils is provided. According to the method, chemical analysis of representative samples of the lubricating oil establishes the concentration of preselected metal contaminants that may be existing in the oil sample. Concentration of acidic and/or basic contaminants is also determinable as a function of the pH value of the oil sample. Repetitive analysis of oil samples, according to the method of the invention, provides information regarding the quality of the oil during its lifetime in machines and/or engines and provides a basis for determining when the oil should be replaced with oil containing little or no contaminant material.The invention also provides a kit for use in carrying out the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 1978
    Date of Patent: May 20, 1980
    Assignee: Contamoil Corporation
    Inventors: James E. Snowden, Jr., Esther A. Snowden
  • Vacuum deposition apparatus
    Patent number: D254974
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1978
    Date of Patent: May 13, 1980
    Assignee: CHA Industries
    Inventor: Gunard O. B. Mahl
  • Vacuum deposition apparatus
    Patent number: D255122
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1978
    Date of Patent: May 27, 1980
    Assignee: Cha Industries
    Inventor: Gunard O. B. Mahl