Patents Examined by Denise L. Ferensic
  • Patent number: 6105538
    Abstract: A self-regulating exhaust gas boiler intended for the recovery of thermal energy from the exhaust gases of diesel engines or the like, has a steam/water cylinder acting as the water and steam space. There is a convection part acting as the vaporizer and being fitted in the vertical orientation between the steam/water cylinder and a lower cylinder, or the like, and connected to it. There is at least one downcomer interconnecting the steam/water cylinder and the lower cylinder, or the like. At least one valve or corresponding device regulates the amount of water and the water level in the convection part is mounted between the steam/water cylinder and the lower cylinder, or the like, preferably in the lower section of the downcomer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Aalborg Industries A/S
    Inventor: Pasi Aaltonen
  • Patent number: 6106282
    Abstract: A fuel-operated heater, especially an auxiliary heater for a motor vehicle, with a fuel feed pump and/or with a combustion air fan, the heater, being operated in a predetermined lambda range. The heater is associated with a pressure sensor, by which the controllable fuel feed pump and/or the controllable combustion air fan can be energized via a control device. The pressure sensor may be arranged externally or also in the heater, especially on the pressure side of the fan. Not only changes in air pressure caused by atmospheric conditions, but also system-dependent changes in air pressure can be corrected in the case of the arrangement of a sensor on the pressure side of the fan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: J. Eberspacher GmbH
    Inventors: Michael Humburg, Harald Sailer, Andreas Alber
  • Patent number: 6106385
    Abstract: A vent assembly is provided for any manner of vehicle or vessel. The vent assembly includes a vent which is operable between selective open positions and a closed position. The vent is rotatable relative to a panel through which the vent is disposed so that the vent can act as a forced air vent or exhaust vent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Mountain Car Company
    Inventors: James T. Humphrey, Randy L. Pratt
  • Patent number: 6105517
    Abstract: A process for treating toxic fly ash from an incinerator which comprises heating the fly ash held in suspension in a combustible or combusted gas at least to a temperature at which sintering of the fly ash takes place.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: University of Sheffield
    Inventor: Joshua Swithenbank
  • Patent number: 6105272
    Abstract: A rotating vacuum kiln for heat treating solid particulate material under vacuum conditions uses a rotating refractory metal cylindrical vessel with a cool inlet zone, hot intermediate zone, and cool exit zone, with a first series of inner radiation shields provided at the hot intermediate zone adjacent to the cool inlet zone and a second series of inner radiation shields provided at the hot intermediate zone adjacent the cool exit zone to protect those two zones from the high temperatures in the hot intermediate zone. Heat for the hot intermediate zone of the cylindrical vessel is provided indirectly by electrical resistance heaters that surround the vessel and outer radiation shields are provided about the heaters to direct heat to the cylindrical vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Cabot Corporation
    Inventor: Allan C. Morgan
  • Patent number: 6105610
    Abstract: A valve includes a valve body including a recess therein, a valve element movably disposed in the recess and a seal member disposed in the recess. The seal member has first, second and third separate and distinct sealing surfaces which are engageable by the valve element in response to fluid pressure in the recess.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Liquid Metronics Incorporated
    Inventors: W. J. Watkins, II, Enrique L. Kilayko
  • Patent number: 6106281
    Abstract: A temperature-controlled chamber, such as an inerted oven for soldering, in which the buoyancy-induced motion of gas at the opening of the chamber is suppressed by adjusting the densities of gases. In one embodiment the inertant gas is chosen to be a mixture of inert gases such that the density of warm gas inside the oven approximately equals the density of the external atmosphere. In another embodiment, a buffer region of density-matched warm air is provided between the warm inertant inside the oven and the external atmosphere. The result is reduction in the consumption of inertant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Inventor: Peter A. Materna
  • Patent number: 6101982
    Abstract: A method and an arrangement for preheating the fuel for a firing plant which is operated with liquid or gaseous fuel, which is fed to the firing plant via a feed line, having at least one heat-exchanger unit which is thermally coupled to the feed line and through which heat is transferred from a heating medium, which is directed in a heating circuit, to the fuel.The invention is distinguished by the fact that the pressure at which the fuel is directed in the feed line is greater than the pressure at which the heating medium is directed in the heating circuit, at least in the region of the heat exchanger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: Asea Brown Boveri AG
    Inventors: Kurt Fischer, Ralf Kuske, Erhard Liebig
  • Patent number: 6101983
    Abstract: A modified gas turbine system is provided that adapts an advanced pressurized fluidized bed combustor cycle for use with existing combustion turbine technology. To accommodate current combustion turbine technology, the air extracted from the compressor discharge is limited, e.g. to about 20% of the total. The additional air required for the APFBC cycle is provided by an auxiliary source of compressed air. The compressor discharge air that is not extracted is used for combustion of the fuel gas produced by the carbonizer and also provides internal cooling as required by conventional combustion turbine design. A separate expander turbine is used to recover energy from the vitiated air from the PFBC. Energy from the vitiated air may further be recovered by directing the expander exhaust to an HRSG.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: General Electric Co.
    Inventors: Ashok Kumar Anand, Ralph R. Boericke
  • Patent number: 6101984
    Abstract: A fluid heater, comprising a tank having an inner chamber for accommodating a fluid to be heated, a heat exchanger having a tube bundle and a shell surrounding the tube bundle, the shell being introduced in the tank so that a wall of the shell is in contact with the fluid in the interior of the tank, the shell having an inlet for introducing a heating fluid, the tube bundle having an outlet which communicates through an upwardly raising pipe with the interior of the tank and an inlet for introducing a fluid to be heated, so that when the heating fluid is introduced through the inlet of the shell into the shell heat of the heating fluid is transferred through the wall of the shell to the fluid in the interior of the tank and also heats the fluid inside the tube bundle so that the heated fluid from the tube bundle is supplied through the upwardly raising pipe into the interior of the tank, providing a heat transfer between the heating and heated fluid by forced and natural convection simultaneously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Inventor: Ari Nir
  • Patent number: 6102693
    Abstract: In order to prevent air pollution, gases evaporated from articles preheated in a preheating chamber of a continuous furnace are automatically and compulsorily sucked into a high-temperature chamber annexed to the preheating chamber by creating a negative pressure working in the high-temperature chamber. After the gases have been completely oxidized and decomposed in the high-temperature chamber at a high temperature and under an excess of oxygen, they are exhausted outside of the furnace via an exhaust-pipe extending through the preheating chamber, so that they join to heat the preheating chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: Kanto Yakin Kogyo K.K.
    Inventor: Susumu Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6101957
    Abstract: An apparatus for the disposal of solid rocket motors which produce exhaust ases containing flammable and/or explosive products. The solid rocket motor to be burned is first detachably connected to and inserted in one end of an elongated mixing chamber which has, at an opposite end, a multi-step expansion nozzle. The rocket motor is then ignited and the exhaust gas is passed into the mixing chamber, which is sufficiently large to reduce the velocity of exhaust gases from supersonic to subsonic. Air is injected into the mixing chamber to react with flammable and/or explosive products in the exhaust gases and the resultant mixture is then discharged from the mixing chamber through a multi-step expansion nozzle to expand the gaseous mixture and, at the same time, produce substantial turbulence within the gas mixture which is about six times higher than the turbulence levels produced by a constant area circular nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Kenneth J. Wilson, Eric D. Erickson, Klaus C. Schadow
  • Patent number: 6101738
    Abstract: A process and system for treating sludge are provided. Sludge is dewatered by introducing pressurized air to the sludge, while the sludge is being moved continuously. The air strips the sludge of its water, thus increasing total solids captured with respect to time. The throughput of the system is therefore also increased. In addition, the pressurized air passing through the sludge support purges contaminants from the pores of the support, thus keeping them clean without the necessity to backwash same.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Inventor: Gary Gleason
  • Patent number: 6102694
    Abstract: Water-cooled pipes of the type utilized to support steel workpieces in reheat furnaces and the like are insulated by preformed, rigid refractory members. Threaded studs are welded to opposing surfaces of the pipe or the web between a pair of pipes. The pipe(s) are then covered by a ceramic fiber blanket. A pair of the refractory members, each of which contains an aperture through which one of the studs is received, is positioned so as cover the pipe(s) and blanket. Nuts are fastened to the studs to hold the refractory members in place. The refractory members are sized and positioned so that gaps exist between them so as to allow for thermal expansion. These gaps may be filled with blanket insulation or heat-resistant plastic. The remaining portions of the apertures are also filled with heat-resistant plastic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Assignee: M. H. Detrick Co.
    Inventor: Kevin Lenz
  • Patent number: 6101985
    Abstract: A water lance blower for cleaning heating installations, wherein a water lance (6) is movably (5) arranged with its mouth on or in a hatch (2) and can blow a water jet through the heating installation, which is in operation and is flowed through with flames and/or smoke, onto wall areas (A-E) which can be reached from the hatch (2), wherein the water lance (6) is configured in a shortened manner, in that the water supply (11, 10) is bent one or more times by in total more than 70.degree., preferably more than 90.degree. (20, 24; 39). In addition steadying of the flow profile is effected by an expanded calming volume (20) arranged in the end of the water lance (6) lying outside the heating installation, in particular an approximately spherical volume (20), so that the jet quality of the water lance is not impaired. The shortened water lance permits more simple drive mechanisms and adjustment to restricted spatial arrangements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2000
    Inventors: Friedrich Bude, Karl Albers, Stephan Simon
  • Patent number: 6098553
    Abstract: An arrangement for converting a conventional oil boiler to a boiler with moist, granular and solid fuel, utilizes a fuel combustion gas dryer connected to the combustion gas line of the boiler, and a solid fuel combustion device to replace the oil burner. The combustion gas dryer is a so-called circulating fluidized bed (CFB) dryer together with a particle separator and a combustion gas center tap has been fitted into the oil boiler, through which center tap hot combustion gas has been set to be mixed with combustion gases of the normal outlet in the desired proportion in order to regulate the temperature of the drying gas of the dryer. The combustion devices may include a cyclone burner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Vapo Oy
    Inventors: Mauno Oksanen, Markku Miettinen, Markku Pyykkonen, Kari Pajunen
  • Patent number: 6099302
    Abstract: A boat for semiconductor wafers has reduced contact surface area with the wafer, thereby preventing distortion of the wafer during heating. The boat has an upper member; a lower member, a plurality of wafers being loaded between the upper member and the lower member; and a plurality of support members vertically extended between and connecting the upper member to the lower member for supporting the wafers. A plurality of slots are successively and horizontally formed in each of the support members, and the peripheral edge of the wafer is inserted therein, wherein a hemisphere-shaped protrusion is formed inside the slot, and the bottom surface of the wafer contacts and is supported by each hemisphere-shaped protrusion at a single contact point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ji-hoon Hong, Ki-heum Nam
  • Patent number: 6099301
    Abstract: Feed apparatus for treating and feeding lumpy or granular material to a smelting furnace, which apparatus contains a plurality of silos or sub-silos in which said material is contacted with a gas. The silo or sub-silo contains a cone-shaped gas distributor located in the middle of the bottom portion of the silo. The gas distribution cone has a number of gas nozzles, preferably between 100 and 500 gas nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Outokumpu Oyj
    Inventors: Matti Elias Honkaniemi, Pekka Juhani Niemela, Risto Markus Heikkila, Martti Johannes Jankkila, Launo Leo Lilja
  • Patent number: 6098309
    Abstract: Apparatus and process for manufacturing or treating a material web that includes at least one heatable cylinder and a combustion unit. The combustion unit is adapted to heat the at least one heatable cylinder with at least one of combustion gases and infrared radiation and the material web is adapted to be guided one of alone and with a transport belt over the at least one heatable cylinder. The apparatus also includes at least one blower box positioned to direct a hot gas onto the material web. The hot gas is at least one of the combustion gas and heated by the combustion gases. The process includes heating the at least one heatable cylinder with at least one of combustion gases and infrared radiation of the combustion unit, guiding the material web, one of alone and with a transport belt, over the at least one heated cylinder, and directing a hot gas from the blower box onto the material web, the hot gas being at least one of the combustion gas and heated by the combustion gases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Voith Sulzer Papiertechnik Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Guenter Halmschlager, Walter Holzer
  • Patent number: 6098655
    Abstract: Normally closed valves that operate in the environment of nuclear power plants are provided with surface-modified valve seat components to alleviate sticking of the valves. The surface modification is achieved by ion implantation of a coating of, for example, platinum, palladium, platinum/palladium or palladium/gold on at least one valve seat component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1996
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Carolina Power & Light Company
    Inventors: Richard J. Bloch, Ahmad A. Moccari