Patents Represented by Attorney Richard E. Brink
  • Patent number: 4640859
    Abstract: Flat, inelastic, dimensionally stable sheet material is formed by stretching parallel elastomeric strands to several times their relaxed length and then bonding them to one or more flat, inelastic webs with inelastic thermoplastic polymer. When the sheet material is heated, the strands contract and the sheet material shirrs. Strips of the flat sheet material can be incorporated in disposable diapers and subsequently shirred to provide elastic waistbands or leg openings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: February 3, 1987
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Paul E. Hansen, Susan K. Marquardt
  • Patent number: 4629663
    Abstract: The adhesive layer of the novel pressure-sensitive adhesive tape comprises a polymer of a terminally unsaturated vinyl monomer such as isooctyl acrylate and an emulsifier monomer such as sodium styrene sulfonate. Preferably, the adhesive layer also contains a small amount of a noncationic external emulsifier such as sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate. Although the tape has excellent adhesive properties, it is removable from a variety of surfaces after one hour at 120.degree. C. and so is useful for purposes such as automotive masking tape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1984
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1986
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Francis W. Brown, Louis E. Winslow
  • Patent number: 4629751
    Abstract: Gel-resistant composition especially suited for filling, patching or repairing plaster, gypsum board panels and the like comprising a blend of glass microbubbles containing borate, high molecular weight polyhydroxy compound such as polyvinyl alcohol functioning as a binder, water, and low molecular weight polyhydroxy compound in which at least two of the hydroxyl groups are attached to carbon atoms that are separated by one or more intervening carbon atoms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 1985
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1986
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: Richard L. Montgomery
  • Patent number: 4618525
    Abstract: The invention concerns glass microbubbles having an inorganic thin-film coating not exceeding about 10 nm in thickness, especially a coating of a metal, a metalloid, or an alloy thereof. When dispersed throughout a matrix such as a polymer, the coated glass microbubbles can afford surprisingly good hiding power while also imparting esthetically pleasing colors to otherwise transparent articles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 21, 1986
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: Craig S. Chamberlain, George F. Vesley, Patrick G. Zimmerman, Jerome W. McAllister
  • Patent number: 4612242
    Abstract: The invention primarily concerns a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, the adhesive layer of which is filled with glass microbubbles and has a dark appearance by virtue of the microbubbles having a thin-film coating having an average thickness from 0.05 to 30 nm. A preferred thin-film coating is silver which can be applied by sputtering or by vapor deposition, preferably to an average thickness of between 1 and 10 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 16, 1986
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventors: George F. Vesley, Patrick G. Zimmerman, Craig S. Chamberlain, Jerome W. McAllister
  • Patent number: 4569960
    Abstract: Repulpable splicing tape, especially adapted for splicing carbonless paper. The preferred adhesive is a blend of acrylate:acrylic acid copolymer, NaOH and/or LiOH, KOH, and certain ethoxylated plasticizing components. A small amount of polyamide-epichlorohydrin crosslinker may also be included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 1984
    Date of Patent: February 11, 1986
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: Frederick D. Blake
  • Patent number: 4557960
    Abstract: A pressure-sensitive adhesive transfer tape of the prior art has an adhesive layer containing uniformly dispersed glass monofilaments which randomly cross each other but are predominantly oriented in the lengthwise direction of the tape and generally lie in straight lines. In contrast, the monofilaments of the transfer tape of the present invention are organic and have a randomly disposed, individually arcuate configuration as shown in FIG. 2. Unlike the prior tape, the novel tape can have high adhesion and shear values and yet be dispensed from an ordinary adhesive transfer gun.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 10, 1985
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventors: Caroline L. Vernon, Earl A. Stanek
  • Patent number: 4552795
    Abstract: Flat, inelastic, dimensionally stable sheet material is formed by stretching parallel elastomeric strands to several times their relaxed length and then bonding them to one or more flat, inelastic webs with inelastic thermoplastic polymer. When the sheet material is heated, the strands contract and the sheet material shirrs. Strips of the flat sheet material can be incorporated in disposable diapers and subsequently shirred to provide elastic waistbands or leg openings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1983
    Date of Patent: November 12, 1985
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventors: Paul E. Hansen, Susan K. Marquardt
  • Patent number: 4551473
    Abstract: Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea are relieved in most instances by administering an effective dose of a muscle relaxant that acts at the spinal or supra-spinal level. A presently preferred drug is orphenadrine citrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 1984
    Date of Patent: November 5, 1985
    Inventor: George W. Schossow
  • Patent number: 4548862
    Abstract: Flexible tape having a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer containing particles, each particle having a ferromagnetic core and an electrically conductive surface. By virtue of the ferromagnetic cores, the particles can be magnetically attracted to form a large number of discrete electrically conductive bridges extending through the thickness of the adhesive layer. The tape can be used both to bond together and to electrically connect individual members of facing arrays of electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 1984
    Date of Patent: October 22, 1985
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: Richard B. Hartman
  • Patent number: 4546037
    Abstract: Individual electrical connections between two banks of electrodes can be made by the novel tape, a layer of which contains electrically conductive particles. Each particle has an electrically conductive surface and a ferromagnetic core by which the particles can be magnetically attracted to form nonintersecting stripes, each stripe containing a continuous array of contacting particles and hence being electrically conductive over both its length and thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 1984
    Date of Patent: October 8, 1985
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: Timothy W. King
  • Patent number: 4503123
    Abstract: Tamper-resistant inner seals that bond firmly to the lips of lidded and capped glass and plastic containers incorporate an aluminum foil having a heat-sealable adhesive that is a blend of an acrylate polymer and a vinyl polymer. HCl scavengers, plasticizers, and PVC heat stabilizers are preferably included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 1983
    Date of Patent: March 5, 1985
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: David T. Ou-Yang
  • Patent number: 4487368
    Abstract: Lawn sprinkler incorporating a novel water distributing head having a "wobbling" motion. The base of the head is mounted loosely between shoulders near the end of a tubular water-supplying support arm. A water jet emerging from a nozzle at the end of the arm strikes internal vanes at the discharge end of the distributor head to cause the wobbling action. The support arm is journaled within a vertical bearing, and the action of the water jet causes the arm to be driven slowly through a circular path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1982
    Date of Patent: December 11, 1984
    Inventor: Jack F. Clearman
  • Patent number: 4428321
    Abstract: Device which visually indicates exposure to a temperature within a predetermined range for a predetermined length of time. An opaque microporous sheet has a colored stratum on the back and a transparent fusible coating on the face. The coating is a solid solution of amorphous rubbery polymer in crystallizable solvent which, upon melting, gradually penetrates and transparentizes the microporous layer, rendering the colored stratum visible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 1981
    Date of Patent: January 31, 1984
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventor: Robert P. Arens
  • Patent number: 4421822
    Abstract: Pressure-sensitive adhesive tape having a photopolymerized adhesive coating of a mixture of alkyl acrylate and/or methacrylate and preferably also copolymerizable monoethylenic monomer such as acrylic acid in which is dissolved an oxidizable tin salt such as stannous octoate. The tin salt permits thick layers of the mixture to be photomolymerized in air and allows an unusual tolerance of oxygen when photopolymerizing thin layers to provide pressure-sensitive adhesive coatings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 1981
    Date of Patent: December 20, 1983
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventor: Dennis L. Levens
  • Patent number: 4418120
    Abstract: Pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is made by coating a sheet backing with a solution of iso-octyl acrylate:acrylic acid copolymer containing a tackifying rosin ester and an anti-oxidant, evaporating the solvent, and crosslinking the adhesive. The resultant adhesive has an excellent balance of the tack, peel adhesion, and shear properties, even at 70.degree. C., and adheres well to low energy surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 29, 1983
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventors: Joanne P. Kealy, Robert E. Zenk
  • Patent number: 4418098
    Abstract: Improved sheet material of the type where a base sheet is provided with an opaque microvoid-containing layer which can be locally transparentized by applying a colorless liquid which is a non-solvent for the layer. Indicia remain more sharply defined by including in the layer an organic polymer which jellifies in the presence of the liquid and blocks lateral migration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 29, 1983
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: Anthony R. Maistrovich
  • Patent number: 4415615
    Abstract: A cellular pressure-sensitive adhesive membrane comprising 15 to 85% voids that does not collapse after being briefly compressed, has remarkably good adhesion on contact with rough surfaces and remarkably good flexibility and conformability at sub-freezing temperatures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1983
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventors: Donald L. Esmay, Gordon G. Johnson, George F. Vesley
  • Patent number: 4413080
    Abstract: Water-dispersible pressure-sensitive adhesive useful for splicing carbonless paper without deactivating its color-generating system. Certain acrylate:acrylic acid copolymers are blended with acidic rosin or rosin derivative, partially neutralized with KOH in combination with NaOH and/or LiOH, and plasticized with an oily water-soluble polyoxyethylene compound. Repulpable splicing tapes can be made with the adhesive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 1, 1983
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventor: Frederick D. Blake
  • Patent number: RE31620
    Abstract: The cutting rate and useful life of conventional resin bonded coated abrasive products in extremely high pressure abrading operations is significantly increased by using abrasive mineral which consists essentially of fused zirconia. Substantial amounts of diluent may be included, e.g., by blending other less effective abrasive grains with fused zirconia grains or by crushing a hardened co-fusion of alumina and zirconia.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1981
    Date of Patent: July 3, 1984
    Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
    Inventor: Sidney M. Leahy