Patents Examined by Bridget Avery
  • Patent number: 7914015
    Abstract: A shopping tote including a vertical support structure having one or more hooks for suspending bags therefrom enables carrying of shopping bags and/or boxes in an easy and convenient manner. A platform may be provided for placing of boxed items. The tote may be quickly changed between a compact storage condition and an in-use condition. When in the storage condition, the tote is of a size allowing carrying thereof alone or in a backpack, briefcase or purse, for example.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Inventor: Mary Tompkins
  • Patent number: 7905509
    Abstract: A brake mechanism for a baby stroller, having a plurality of wheels and a pair of rotatable push arms capable of being moved either forward or rearward. The brake mechanism comprises a connecting assembly and an actuator; and has a braking block for operatively stopping the baby stroller. The connecting assembly has a pulling slider for operatively associating with the braking block of the brake mechanism, and the actuator is operatively secured to the push arm and associated with the connecting assembly, so as to indirectly drive the brake mechanism. This allows a user to manipulate the actuator to stop the stroller from either in front of or behind the stroller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2011
    Assignee: Link Treasure Limited
    Inventor: Chuan-Ming Yeh
  • Patent number: 7900731
    Abstract: A pair of shoes is provided having retractable motorized wheels. Each of the shoes has an upper, a sole, and first and second wheels mounted on the sole and movable from a retracted to an extended position. When the wheels are in an extended position, at least one wheel of one of the shoes engages a battery-powered, DC motor mounted on the shoe. The motor is controlled by a hand-held throttle. A latching mechanism engages to secure the wheels in the desired position. The shoes may be used for skating, with and without power assistance, with the wheels in an extended position, and may be used for walking, with the wheels in a retracted position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Inventor: Bradley K. McKinzie
  • Patent number: 7896366
    Abstract: A retractable wheel assembly includes a wheel frame supporting a wheel, and a pivot bracket assembly secured to the wheel frame. The pivot bracket assembly is displaceable between an extended position and a retracted position. A biasing mechanism is coupled with the pivot bracket assembly. The biasing mechanism urges the pivot bracket assembly toward the extended position when the pivot bracket assembly is in the extended position and urges the pivot bracket assembly toward the retracted position when the pivot bracket assembly is in the retracted position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: JLG Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Geoffrey George Campbell, Hugh Lithgow Stark
  • Patent number: 7896115
    Abstract: A fuel cell vehicle includes: a vehicle body; a floor panel provided on the bottom of the vehicle body; a floor tunnel that is formed bulging upward in the center of the floor panel in the vehicle body width; a pair of front seats that are disposed on the floor panel, outside of the floor tunnel in the vehicle body width direction; center frames that support the floor tunnel, disposed at the center in the vehicle body width and extending along the vehicle body longitudinal direction; a sub-frame provided on the bottom of the floor panel and joined to the center frames; and a fuel cell stack mounted on the sub-frame and provided under the floor tunnel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tohru Ono, Takayuki Ogawa, Akira Nakashima, Shujiro Nozaki, Takashi Kato, Takaharu Sato, Kenji Nagumo, Kazunori Fukuma, Takanori Moori
  • Patent number: 7886862
    Abstract: A prime mover control device of a construction machine includes a hydraulic pump (24) driven by a prime mover (10), an actuator (5) driven with pressure oil discharged from the hydraulic pump (24), and a control valve (25) that controls a flow of the pressure oil from the hydraulic pump (24) to the actuator (5) in response to an operation of a first operating member (22a).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yukihiro Tatsuno, Hidetoshi Satake, Kazuhiro Ichimura
  • Patent number: 7887068
    Abstract: A shopping cart having knobs, ridges or other protrusions upon which plastic store bags can be hung by their handles. It may also be thought of as the method of providing such a cart to a shopper or shoppers, and may include the further step, performed by a shopper, of hanging store bags from the protrusions. The invention may also encompass a shopping cart having bag hangers that are positioned and adapted to retain a tray, and the method of positioning a tray on a shopping cart.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Inventor: Jeremy Ferguson
  • Patent number: 7887084
    Abstract: Ski binding heel unit includes lateral release cams and a vector decoupler mechanism that provide lateral shear release of the heel of a ski boot from a ski. The ski binding heel unit includes an independent vertical heel release mechanism, independent lateral release mechanism and a forward pressure compensator. The lateral release cams have laterally outwardly flaring contact points. The vector decoupler mechanism restricts heel unit lateral rotation and translation to a control path. The shape of the lateral release cams dictates the control path. The vector decoupler mechanism redirects the non-lateral forces without effecting the vertical heel release, lateral heel release or forward pressure compensator. The lateral release cams and vector decoupler mechanism avert non-lateral, benign loads from the lateral heel release, and avert non-vertical, benign loads from the vertical heel release thereby reducing the incidence of inadvertent pre-release of a boot from a ski.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: KneeBinding, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard J. Howell
  • Patent number: 7886855
    Abstract: An electric walk-substituting vehicle includes a chassis, a seat assembly pivoted on upper ends of the connecting rods, a pivotal steering mechanism, and a folding and fixing device, which will fix the connecting rods after the seat assembly is moved to either of raised in-use and lowered not-in-use positions; the seat assembly includes connecting rods pivoted on the chassis; the folding and fixing device includes two position-limiting plates, which are secured on the connecting rods to pivot together with the connecting rods; the position-limiting plates each have first and second holes; the folding and fixing device includes a pressing and moving mechanism with two insertion rods; the insertion rods will pass into the first holes to engage the position-limiting plates after the connecting rods are pivoted to the raised in-use position; the insertion rods will pass into the second holes after the connecting rods are pivoted to the not-in-use position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Inventor: Arthur Wang
  • Patent number: 7886858
    Abstract: An integrated electric motor hub drive 1 that combines an electric motor subassembly (30), a sunless differential planetary gear drive subassembly (20), and a hub bearing assembly (10) together in a coaxial assembly to provide a compact high gear reduction electric hub drive system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: The Timken Company
    Inventor: Xiaolan Ai
  • Patent number: 7874388
    Abstract: A mini-type electric vehicle, which is mainly used for individual transportation and includes a frame, a seat, front and rear wheels, a driving device, a battery, a steering system and a front wheel suspension device. A casing in which the battery is placed is provided forward in the middle position of the front end of the frame. The suspension device for front wheels has a front convex shape and a rear concave shape and covers the front end of the casing, and pivots to the middle of the front end of the casing. Two front wheels are installed on the front wheel suspension device. The rear edge line of the two front wheels is located at the rear of the battery front edge. The steering system is connected to the front end of the frame and interlocks with the front wheels. The battery is installed at the front so as to balance the weight distribution, improve the driving safety, comfort and steering performance for electric vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Letrix Power Hangzhou Pty Ltd.
    Inventor: Scott Ranger
  • Patent number: 7874592
    Abstract: A vehicle fender is mounted to a mounting arm through at least one clamp that is mounted on the mounting arm. The clamp and an edge of the fender have complementary teeth and grooves to adjustably mount the fender to the mounting arm. The fender teeth and grooves are formed in a pocket and the pocket extends beneath the fender panel and receives the mounting arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Fleet Engineers, Incorporated
    Inventors: Wesley K. Eklund, Gary Roberts, Tom Gerst, Andrew Hartmann, Guido Redaelli
  • Patent number: 7866686
    Abstract: A collapsible wheelbarrow includes a rigid front bracket, a wheel rotatably secured to the front bracket, and first and second handle arms pivotably attached to the front bracket. The first and second handle arms are laterally pivotable about first and second pivot axes respectively. The first and second pivot axes are each spaced apart from the axis of rotation of the wheel. Preferably a clamping device removably applies a clamping force between the first and second handle arms and clamps a rigid tray between the first and second handle arms. The tray is preferably interconnected with the first and second handle arms to permit relative movement in a lateral direction and to prevent relative movement in a forward rearward direction. Preferably, the front bracket has spaced apart upper and lower walls and the first and second handle arms extend between the upper and lower walls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: Ames True Temper, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian J. Conaway, Keith Kristiansen, David Demar, Mark Millman
  • Patent number: 7866432
    Abstract: The present invention discloses an electric vehicle chassis applicable to the field of the electric vehicle technology. The object is to provide an electric vehicle with light weight and good driving stability. The electric vehicle chassis according the present invention comprises a frame and a power real axle, wherein the left and right rear wheels connected to the rear axle are driven by left and right motors, respectively, and a pendulum shaft is provided between the real axle and the frame for the swinging of the rear axle. Meanwhile, the rear wheels on both sides of the rear axle can also be directly driven by the respective full gear reduction motors, and the rear axle can be provided with a limiting swinging device thereon. The present invention includes characteristics such as light weight, low center of gravity, impossibility of turning over sideward during full speed steering, flexibility and automatic restoration, and is suitable for sports and recreation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: Sanford Tools Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Shouchun Xie
  • Patent number: 7854290
    Abstract: In some embodiments, a vehicle having multiple silencers may include one or more of the following features: (a) a chassis carrying a seat, (b) a steerable pair of front wheels and at least two rear wheels coupled to the chassis, (c) a steering member for steering the front wheels, (d) an engine carried by the chassis for powering the vehicle, (e) at least one exhaust manifold operably coupled to the engine, (f) at least one exhaust pipe coupled at one end to said at least two exhaust manifolds, (g) a first silencer coupled to the other end of said one or more exhaust pipes, (h) a second silencer coupled to the first silencer to route exhaust through the length of each silencer, and (i) a crossover tube which couples the first silencer to the second silencer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: Polaris Industries Inc.
    Inventor: George Jay McKoskey
  • Patent number: 7845654
    Abstract: An auxiliary wheel assembly mounted on a selected portion of a wheelbarrow comprising: several structural members namely a urethane receptacle barrow, a dual front support and wheel assembly, a rear support and wheel assembly with a plurality of heavy duty wheels, and a means to connect these front and rear assembles and barrow. These members are potentially made of various materials and are designed for Original Equipment offerings or After Market additions to currently produced wheel barrows. The device may have alternative embodiments with various materials and wheel assembly designs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Inventor: Lucky W. Price, Jr.
  • Patent number: 7841442
    Abstract: A hydrostatic transmission that is operated in an open loop by way of an adjustable hydraulic motor (5), which is adjusted for the purpose of acceleration or deceleration with the aid of an electronic control unit (8) such that a desired vehicle speed corresponds to a measured vehicle speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: ZF Friedrichshafen AG
    Inventors: Torsten Berg, Jürgen Legner, Jörg Geis
  • Patent number: 7837219
    Abstract: A binding assembly comprising a binding which comprises a boot platform and a positioning unit, wherein the positioning unit secures the binding assembly to a sports board. The positioning unit comprises an anchoring subunit comprising a central member; and a locking subunit comprising a handle in communication with an engaging member. At one moment the handle exerts a first force on the engaging member thereby causing the engaging member to move towards the central member until the engaging member is in contact with the central member, at which point the handle is maneuvered to lock the binding assembly into position. At another moment, the handle exerts a second force on the engaging member thereby causing the engaging member to move away from the central member, thereby unlocking the binding assembly. When unlocked, the binding is rotatable about a central longitudinal axis, and when unlocked, the binding is fixed in position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Inventor: David W. Cordes
  • Patent number: 7837232
    Abstract: A hand held protective ski appliance including a ski no longer than 18? inches long and including a handle extensive with the direction of the ski and spaced therefrom about 3? inches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Inventor: William M. Richards
  • Patent number: 7832743
    Abstract: A device for manually transporting a carcass 8 or similar sized object includes a transport member 12, at least one hauling member 18 for manually pulling the transport member 12 with a carcass 8 therein, the hauling member 18 being secured to the transport member 12, at least one carcass member 20 for securing the carcass 8 to the transport member 12, and at least one closing member 22 for wrapping the transport member 12 about the carcass 8.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Inventor: Alan J. Small