Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Shoemaker and Mattare, Ltd.
  • Anti-theft method and apparatus for locking the brakes of a vehicle
    Patent number: 5344221
    Abstract: An anti-theft device is installed in a vehicle brake line which carries braking fluid. The device defines a valve seat and a valve body adapted to close against said valve seat, the valve body having a passageway therethrough and being rotatable against said seat about an axis substantially perpendicular to the passageway, between a first position in which it permits fluid flow in one direction and inhibits fluid flow in the opposite direction, and a second position in which it permits fluid flow in both directions. The valve can easily be switched between the first and second positions, and can be locked in the first position. By allowing braking fluid to flow only toward the wheels, it will be evident that the wheel brakes, once applied, cannot, be released.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 6, 1994
    Inventor: Mark W. MacWilliam
  • Capless medical valve
    Patent number: 5342326
    Abstract: A capless medical valve includes a housing defining an inlet, an outlet, and a valve bore, all three of which meet at a common transition zone bounded by a transition surface. A valve member confined within the valve bore has a spherical head and a generally cylindrical stem sized to fit within the inlet and extending from the head toward the transition zone. A spring in compression biases the valve member toward the inlet, so that the spherical head is normally seated against the transition surface, but can be mechanically displaced off its seat by inserting a syringe tip or fitting into the inlet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 30, 1994
    Assignee: B. Braun Medical, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Peppel, Kenneth C. Raines
  • Multi-strike ink ribbon feed control
    Patent number: 5340223
    Abstract: Means to control feeding of a multi-strike ink ribbon housed in a reversible cassette is disclosed. The cassette carries a magnetizable element and when the cassette is inserted in printing apparatus the element is located in operative alignment with a magnetic sensing device and with an electromagnet. Upon insertion of the cassette, the polarity of magnetization is sensed and provided the polarity is correct printing is enabled. If the polarity is incorrect printing is disabled. When the end of the ink ribbon is sensed, the electromagnet is energized to reverse the polarity of magnetization of the element so that when the cassette is removed and reinserted with reversed orientation, the correct polarity of magnetization is sensed and printing is enabled. A counter may be provided to limit the number of permitted reversals of the cassette.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 23, 1994
    Assignee: Neopost Limited
    Inventor: Raymond J. Herbert
  • Vanadium-nickel-chromium master alloy
    Patent number: 5340535
    Abstract: A master alloy comprising vanadium, nickel and chromium having equal weight percentages of vanadium and nickel and from about 4% by weight to about 17% by weight of the total weight, of chromium is used to prepare alloys having those metals and other metals selected from the group consisting of zirconium, titanium, cobalt, manganese, aluminum and mixtures thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 23, 1994
    Assignee: Teledyne Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert G. Antrim, Edward G. Dirrett, Steven M. Tuominen
  • Method and device for heating or cooling a reaction flask
    Patent number: 5337806
    Abstract: The bath (4) is arranged the supply reservoir (5) for the liquid (3), in which the reaction flask to be heated or cooled can be immersed. The heating or cooling device (8) is arranged on the bottom of the supply reservoir (5). The liquid (3) is delivered with an immersion pump (19) through a feed pipe (6) and an opening (18) in the bottom of the bath (4). The level of the liquid in the bath (4) can be adjusted with the aid of a slider (11). The liquid flows back into the supply reservoir (5) over an overflow (7). When the pump (19) is switched off, the liquid (3) in the bath (4) flows independently back into the supply reservoir (5).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 16, 1994
    Assignee: Buchi Laboratoriums-Technik AG
    Inventor: Josef Trunner
  • Method and apparatus for inhalation of treating gas and sampling of exhaled gas for quantitative analysis
    Patent number: 5335656
    Abstract: A nasal cannulae is described for insufflating a treating gas into one nostril and measuring at least one gaseous component of exhaled breath in the other nostril of a living body. The cannulae includes a wall member cooperating with a hollow body of the cannulae to define inhalation and exhalation manifolds and sealingly engaging the hollow body to provide a gas-tight seal for positively preventing fluid communication between these manifolds. A hollow nasal prong communicates with each manifold and is positioned and shaped to be received in a corresponding nostril. The wall member may be integrally molded with the body of the cannulae when it is made or a conventional cannulae may be modified by insertion of a wall member to create separate manifolds. The nasal prongs may have the same or different lengths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 9, 1994
    Assignee: Salter Laboratories
    Inventors: Edwin A. Bowe, E. F. Klein, Jr., Philip G. Boysen
  • Steam trap
    Patent number: 5335686
    Abstract: A steam system is provided with a steam trap including a Y-fitting having a single fluid inlet, a primary outlet for returning water to a boiler, and a secondary outlet for testing only, and a main valve in series with the primary outlet. Connected to the secondary outlet are an auxiliary valve and a replaceable test jet downstream of the auxiliary valve, the test jet terminating the auxiliary branch. Test jets of various sizes may be installed, and outflow through each visually observed or measured, until an optimum size is arrived at. A main jet of a corresponding size is then installed in the main valve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 9, 1994
    Inventor: Carl L. Isringhausen
  • Packaging with integrated partitioning
    Patent number: 5333778
    Abstract: The support blank (1) forms the actual packaging envelope with the parallel side walls (4, 4'), which run parallel to the corrugations (3). These corrugations are formed from a shaped blank (2) which is connected with the support blank at the corrugation valleys. An end corrugation (6, 6') is in each case arranged directly next to the parallel side walls (4, 4'), the outer wall (7) of which is no longer connected with the support blank. The outer wall lies loosely against the parallel side wall and through that is held in position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 1993
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1994
    Assignee: Dividella AG
    Inventor: Erich Specker
  • Ejection port lock for firearms
    Patent number: 5331759
    Abstract: A multipurpose safety lock for firearms with automatic, semi-automatic or manually operated means of ejecting cartridge cases after firing is inserted in the ejection port when it is in the open position; and for firearms with a revolving cartridge-receiving cylinder, is inserted in the frame made vacant when the cylinder is in an open position. The lock comprises a body with a cylindrical assembly at the end inserted in the ejection port or the open frame, with a lock bolt extendible into the breech and barrel and lockable in that position by turning a key. While the lock bolt is in the locked condition in the breech and barrel the firearm cannot be put into firing condition and cannot be discharged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 26, 1994
    Inventors: Ian W. Marceau, Carol A. Marceau, Keith F. McHue, Edith McHue
  • Tamper resistant syringe cap
    Patent number: 5328474
    Abstract: A tamper-resistant closure for a medical injection device such as a syringe includes a cap having both a blind bore sized to receive and seat tightly against the syringe tip, to prevent material from entering or being withdrawn from the device. The cap has a threaded connection to the syringe tip, and is entirely covered by a loose-fitting shield having a one-way drive mechanism which prevents the cap from being unscrewed from the device while the shield is in place. The shield has at least one internal, frangible tang protruding obliquely into the envelope of the cap, so that the shield and cap can be easily assembled, but cannot thereafter be disassembled without breaking the tang and thus providing an indication of tampering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1993
    Date of Patent: July 12, 1994
    Assignee: B. Braun Medical Inc.
    Inventor: Kenneth Raines
  • Process for the production of hydrocarbons
    Patent number: 5324335
    Abstract: An oxygen-containing diesel fuel additive for reducing particulate airborne emissions which additive is produced in a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction using a promoted iron-based catalyst. The additive contains alcohols having at least five carbon atoms, and is employed in diesel fuel in an amount sufficient to provide an oxygen content in the diesel fuel of up to about 2% by weight while maintaining diesel fuel specification limits for viscosity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 1992
    Date of Patent: June 28, 1994
    Assignee: Rentech, Inc.
    Inventors: Charles B. Benham, Mark S. Bohn, Dennis L. Yakobson
  • Recovery of niobium metal
    Patent number: 5322548
    Abstract: Ferroniobium, ferrotantalum and ferrovanadium alloys are hydrogenated to facilitate crushing then nitrided, and then acid-leached to produce a soluble iron nitride leachate and a niobium, tantalum or vanadium nitride residue which residue can be denitrided to yield the metal which can be recovered by melting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1994
    Assignee: Teledyne Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Bernard F. Kieffer, John R. Peterson, Timothy R. McQueary, Matthew A. Rossback, Lloyd J. Fenwick
  • Franking machine system
    Patent number: 5323323
    Abstract: A franking machine system is disclosed in which a master controller is provided to communicate with a postal authority resetting center and with a plurality of franking machines. The controller includes registers for storing the value of credit available for distribution to the franking machines and registers for storing data relating to usage of the individual franking machines. Credit is obtained from the resetting center by the controller and is distributed to the franking machines as required by each machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1994
    Assignee: Neopost Limited
    Inventor: Dennis T. Gilham
  • Roller body, method of its manufacture, and of roller or plain bearings
    Patent number: 5322735
    Abstract: A roller body or plain bearing component exhibits a core body (1) of ceramic material which is coated with a lapped hard layer (3) (e.g. titanium carbide, Diamond . . . ).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 1993
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1994
    Assignee: Saphirwerk Industrieprodukte AG
    Inventors: Jean-Daniel Fridez, Georges W. Keller
  • Contact sensing probe
    Patent number: 5321895
    Abstract: A contact sensing probe with a cylindrical housing component (1), with a bearing (4) and a hemispherical element (3), possesses a stylus (13) which displaces the hemispherical element (3) and, with that, the transmission element (2). A measured value converter (14) is provided within the contact sensing probe. The running surfaces (1a, 2a) of the housing component (1) and the transmission element (2) comprise high strength ceramic material with a mean roughness value R.sub.a of .ltoreq.0.8 .mu.m, respectively 32 .mu.in. Rotational security is provided not only for the hemispherical element (3) but also for the transmission element (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1992
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1994
    Assignee: Saphirwerk Industrieprodukte AG
    Inventors: Daniel Dubois-Dunilac, Werner Salvisberg, Jean-Daniel Fridez
  • Protective cover
    Patent number: 5321861
    Abstract: A protective cover for upholstered or padded articles such as bedding is made from a microporous ultrafilter material having a pore size of less than 0.0005 mm, to suppress passage of fecal particles produced by house dust mites. To prevent particles from bypassing the ultrafilter material, the seams of the cover are welded, and its opening is sealed by a resealable fastener, such as a zip-fastener, covered with an adhesive tape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1992
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1994
    Inventors: Elizabeth Dancey, Ernest J. Dancey
  • Mid-roof anchoring system
    Patent number: 5321927
    Abstract: A mid-roof anchoring system includes a series of anchoring channels secured to the roof structure along a line midway between the eave and the ridge of the roof. Metal roof panels installed over the substructure are permitted to float laterally on the roof, except where they are attached to the anchoring channels. As a result, the roof panels expand or contract in both directions away from the midway line. This approach minimizes thermally induced movement the upper and lower edges of the roof, and minimizes reaction forces at the anchor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1993
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1994
    Assignee: Butler Manufacturing Company
    Inventor: Norman A. Bellem
  • Franking machine with means for checking operation of printing elements
    Patent number: 5321436
    Abstract: A franking machine in which the franking impression is printed by means of an ink jet print head. In order to determine whether all the ink jet nozzles are functional all of the nozzles are operated in selected ones of a series of print cycles to print a bar code. Reading means is provided to read a part of the bar code printed by a group of the nozzles and the information read is compared with information intended to be represented by the bar code. For successive printings of the bar code, the reading means is shifted transversely so that over a series of bar codes all the nozzles are checked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1992
    Date of Patent: June 14, 1994
    Assignee: Neopost Limited
    Inventor: Raymond J. Herbert
  • Method and apparatus for detecting thickness variation in sheet material
    Patent number: 5317898
    Abstract: The detection of thickness variations in sheet material, more specifically the presence or absence of labels on a moving web, is accomplished by providing two spaced apart nozzles, an entry for pressurized fluid, first and second conduits to connect the entry and the nozzles, and a differential pressure sensing element connected between the conduits so as to detect a mismatch between the fluid pressures in the two conduits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1992
    Date of Patent: June 7, 1994
    Assignee: Scantech Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Karoly G. Nemeth
  • Suit case
    Patent number: D348780
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: July 19, 1994
    Assignee: Echolac Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Aoi Masaru