Patents Assigned to Smiths Group Plc
  • Patent number: 6350161
    Abstract: A connector system comprises at least three different connectors each having a common width and a different depth. Each connector is made up of a block and two housing parts. The housing parts are selected from a group of parts of different depths such that the smallest connector can be made from two identical parts of the smallest depth, the largest can be made from two identical parts of the largest depth and intermediate sizes can be made from combinations of parts of different depths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2002
    Assignee: Smith Group PLC
    Inventor: Donald Richard Lacoy
  • Publication number: 20020009931
    Abstract: A connector system comprises at least three different connectors each having a common width and a different depth. Each connector is made up of a block and two housing parts. The housing parts are selected from a group of parts of different depths such that the smallest connector can be made from two identical parts of the smallest depth, the largest can be made from two identical parts of the largest depth and intermediate sizes can be made from combinations of parts of different depths.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Publication date: January 24, 2002
    Applicant: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventor: Donald Richard Lacoy
  • Publication number: 20020005202
    Abstract: An inflation indicator balloon for a cuffed tracheal tube is moulded directly onto an and of an inflation line. The inflation line is slipped on one end of a core pin and a parison is injection moulded in a first cavity with one end of the parison on top of the inflation line. The parison is then blow moulded to the desired shape of the inflation balloon in a second cavity. The balloon and line are removed from the core pin and a valve is inserted in the end oposite the inflation line.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2001
    Publication date: January 17, 2002
    Applicant: Smiths Group plc
    Inventor: Andrew Martin Parry
  • Patent number: 6332358
    Abstract: An aircraft ultrasonic fuel-gauging system has a number of gauging probes in a tank arranged so as to include at least one set of three colinear probes. The outputs of the probes are supplied to a unit, which checks the operation of the probes in colinear sets by extrapolating height at one of the probes from the outputs of the other probes. Where there are two sets of colinear probes having a common probe it is possible uniquely to identify if the common probe is faulty. The system rejects any faulty probe and uses only the outputs of other probes in computations of fuel quantity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventor: Harry Atkinson
  • Publication number: 20010025700
    Abstract: A heat-recovery unit includes an outer housing and a heat-recovery cell with two separate air passages therethrough opening on faces of the cell. The upstream face of each passage is adjacent and inclined at 90 ° to the downstream face of the other passage. A turret on the housing at each inlet and outlet is rotatable about its axis and has an angled coupling rotatable on the turret about an axis at right-angles to the axis of the turret. The inlet, upstream turrets each contain a filter and the outlet, downstream turrets each contain a centrifugal fan.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2001
    Publication date: October 4, 2001
    Applicant: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventor: Neil Douglas Cottingham
  • Publication number: 20010024086
    Abstract: Parallel cathode electrodes extend across the base plate of a display. Each electrode has teeth projecting from both sides, the teeth of adjacent electrodes being closely spaced from one another by a gap that is bridged by a dot of an electron emitter material. A glass screen spaced by a vacuum gap above the base plate carries transparent anode stripes extending transversely of the cathode electrodes and a fluorescent layer of coloured phosphors on the anode stripes. A voltage applied between adjacent cathode electrodes and gates conduction via each electron emitter dot. A voltage applied to an anode stripe causes a part of the current from the emitter directly below the stripe to be directed towards the anode, thereby illuminating the phosphor pixel above the emitter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2001
    Publication date: September 27, 2001
    Applicant: SMITHS GROUP PLC
    Inventors: Neil Anthony Fox, Wang Nang Wang
  • Publication number: 20010021968
    Abstract: A processing system has a processor with a memory map identifying locations in a memory where data are stored, data associated with an application being stored at the same location every time an application is run. The processor runs each application during specified processing time slots. A monitor contains information as to the memory locations associated with each application and the time slots during which each application should be run. The monitor also has a register containing a keyword, which is compared with a keyword supplied by the processor 1 when it switches between user mode and supervisory mode so that the monitor denies access to memory locations associated with the other mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2001
    Publication date: September 13, 2001
    Applicant: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventors: John Alun Davies, James Frederick Moore, Peter John Stevens, Denis Vaughan Weale
  • Patent number: 6286509
    Abstract: A tracheostomy tube obturator has a patient end nose protruding from the patient end of the tube. A passage for a guide wire extends through the nose of the obturator at an angle to its axis. The aperture through which the passage opens at the patient end of the obturator lies on a plane extending at right angles to the passage and inclined away from the normal to the axis of the nose by about 8°.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2001
    Assignee: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventors: John Edward Nash, Simon Neame, Eric Pagan
  • Patent number: 6284556
    Abstract: A diamond grit surface is formed on a substrate (1) having a metal surface (2), such as nickel, by applying a paste (4) of low-grade diamond grit in a binder to the surface. After driving off the binder, the diamond coated surface is placed in a reactor chamber (10) having a microwave plasma reactor (11) and connected to a hydrogen gas pump (12). The substrate (1) is heated in the hydrogen atmosphere at a reduced pressure. The metal surface (2) acts as a catalyst in the presence of the hydrogen plasma to cause regrowth of the diamond (6), giving an improved size, shape and adhesion. The method may be used to make diamond surfaces in electron emitter devices, circuit boards or abrasive devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventors: Wang Nang Wang, Neil Anthony Fox
  • Publication number: 20010013156
    Abstract: A cable clamp has two identical moulded components that can be clamped together about a cable. Each component has a yoke with a ratchet bar at one end and two short arms at its opposite end spaced by a gap and having ratchet teeth on their inner faces. The ratchet bars on each component extend in the gap between the arms on the other component and the cable extends through the aperture between the two yokes and between the two ratchet bars. The yokes can be squeezed together about the cable, causing the ratchet bars to slide over the engaging teeth, which prevents the two components being subsequently separated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Publication date: August 16, 2001
    Applicant: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventors: Donald Richard LaCoy, Shannon Powers
  • Patent number: 6272922
    Abstract: A fuel-gauging system has an ultrasonic probe mounted in a tank, the probe being connected to a processor unit via an electrical signal path comprising two lengths of electrical wires and a piezoelectric transformer connected in series between the two lengths of wires. The transformer has two piezoelectric elements mounted on opposite sides of the wall of the tank so there is no direct electrical passage into the tank. The piezoelectric elements are matched to the resonant frequency of the probe so that signals of different frequencies are heavily attentuated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2001
    Assignee: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventors: Martin Stevens, Gerald Peter White
  • Publication number: 20010010171
    Abstract: An aircraft fuel quantity gauging system has a number of probes within a tank to measure the height of fuel at different locations. Each probe includes a still well and an ultrasonic transducer mounted at the top and bottom of the still well. The lower transducer transmits pulses of acoustic energy upwardly through the fuel to its surface and measures the time of travel back of the reflected pulse back to the transducer. This is used to derive a first, bottom-up measure of fuel height. Similarly, the upper transducer transmits pulses down through air to the fuel surface to derive a second, top-down measurement. These are compared to check for correct operation of the probes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2001
    Publication date: August 2, 2001
    Applicant: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventor: Harry Atkinson
  • Patent number: 6261401
    Abstract: Mask formations of a laryngeal mask airway are made from two tracks of sheet plastics material. Each sheet track comprises two layers sandwiching ring-shape reinforcements between them. A station along each track pressure-vacuum forms the regions of the reinforcements into cuff members. The two tracks come together and the cuff members are joined to opposite sides of mount members to complete the mask formations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2001
    Assignee: Smiths Group PLC
    Inventor: Eric Pagan