Patents Examined by Donald R. Studebaker
  • Patent number: 4777779
    Abstract: A compact self-contained machine operated by a single gear motor and having start and stop cycle switches feeds a cotton roving and severs the roving into plugging lengths. The severed plugging lengths are folded and inserted as plugs into the mouths of pipets which are held one at a time by hand in a locator bushing on a cycle activating panel of the machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 1983
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1988
    Assignee: Meteor Manufacturing & Machinery Co.
    Inventors: Daniel A. Lodge, Donald D. Wheeler
  • Patent number: 4756140
    Abstract: A process of packaging goods, especially foodstuffs, comprising enclosing the goods in a sheet of thermoplastics material, preferably a bag, so as to form a package which presents two unsealed juxtaposed surfaces. The package is then placed in a container, one wall of which is made of deformable sheet material, preferably a sheet made of a silicone resin, which is stable at the sealing temperature of the thermoplastics material. The container is then connected to a source of vacuum and when the pressure has been reduced in both the container and the bag sufficient heat is applied to the deformable sheet in the vicinity of the juxtaposed surfaces to cause them to become sealed together. In a further embodiment of the invention vacuumization of the container including the bag is followed by the injection of a preserving gas such as carbon dioxide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 1986
    Date of Patent: July 12, 1988
    Assignee: FGL Projects Limited
    Inventor: Raymond Gannon
  • Patent number: 4753102
    Abstract: An arrangement for coupling and decoupling gripper rail partial sections of a transfer press in which the gripper rail partial sections are to be clamped together flange-like. The clamping bolt is adapted to be actuated by an adjusting drive in the displacement direction and in a rotary movement. A slide member displaceable in the end portion of the gripper rail partial section includes slide guidances which extend at an inclination to the displacement direction and in which pressure members are displaceably supported. During the displacement of the clamping bolt, the slide member is moved along and the pressure members are displaced into the separating gap between the gripper rail partial sections under abutment at stop members in the end portion of the gripper rail partial section to be coupled. The clamping anchor is adapted to be fixed at a ball socket by rotation and by retraction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 28, 1988
    Assignee: L. Schuler GmbH
    Inventors: Hans Braun, Gunter Cieslok
  • Patent number: 4750348
    Abstract: A transfer press for performing by means of a series of rams and dies, sequential operations on successive workpieces has a reciprocable transfer slide for conveying the workpieces through a series of locations at which the operations are performed, there being provided driven means, which, at or near the forward end of the travel of the slide, mechanically open the transfer slide workpiece engaging devices to release the workpieces as the workpieces are engaged between the corresponding ram tool and associated die and which, at or near the rearward end of the travel of the slide, enable the said devices to engage each of the workpieces, said driven means comprising elements driven from a main drive shaft and mounted on a frame part of the press and workpiece transfer device actuating means carried on the transfer slide and co-operating in readily separable manner with said elements on the frame part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 14, 1988
    Assignee: Platarg Engineering Limited
    Inventor: Brian S. Hennah
  • Patent number: 4748768
    Abstract: A mattress consists of two outer layers of cotton material (3), under which there is provided two layers of plastic foam material (1), in that these four layers are sewn together with stitching (4) in such a manner that there are formed compartments or channels which can be filled with particles of synthetic material (2). Such a mattress is capable at one and the same time of dissipating moisture while keeping the body warm by insulation, while simultaneously influencing the body with an advantageous massaging effect which, among other things, prevents bedsores and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 7, 1988
    Inventor: Poul E. B. Jacobsen
  • Patent number: 4748708
    Abstract: A spike harrow tooth is fabricated by cold forming a metal blank which is provided from appropriate bar stock, the blank having a length for a single harrow tooth. The blank is placed in a first press, oriented with opposite edges of the square configuration aligned in the direction of press closing and opening. The first press is equipped with dies for displacing the metal at one end of the blank, by flattening the opposite edges to thereby displace the metal crosswise and form an enlarged head. Simultaneously, metal is displaced by dies in the first press from opposite side edges of the blank at the other end of the blank for partially forming a point with outwardly bulging excess portions. The partially formed blank then is placed in a second press equipped with dies for removing the outwardly bulging excess portions into waste chips.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 7, 1988
    Assignee: Lear Siegler, Inc.
    Inventor: Larry J. Schlicht
  • Patent number: 4747291
    Abstract: A mounting and handling arrangement for a hydraulic force applying system used to adjust and maintain a passline in a rolling mill stand comprises a hydraulic device having a manifold member extending through the top of a housing and connected to a piston cylinder assembly. Manifold member carries a position transducer along with its electrical components and hydraulic line connections communicating with internal passages for delivering hydraulic fluid to the piston cylinder assembly. Cradle assembly comprising a plate and brace members receive and support the hydraulic force assembly for its insertion and removal from the roll stand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 31, 1988
    Assignee: United Engineering Rolling Mills, Inc.
    Inventor: Peter Kostopolos
  • Patent number: 4747253
    Abstract: The manufacture of non-returnable packages for e.g. milk is frequently carried out by the conversion of web-shaped, laminated packing material to a tube, filling of the tube with milk and sealing and forming to filled packing containers of the desired, e.g. parallelepipedic, shape. During the forming, which is done by means of external forming devices, the contents are made use of as an internal mandrel or a holder-up for the forming devices, so that the desired shape can be achieved without creasing or other deformations. The above-mentioned forming principle works less well if the packing containers are not to be completely filled but have a certain air space or headspace. The proportioning of the contents also becomes uncertain and the desired accuracy of volume cannot always be achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 31, 1988
    Assignee: Tetra Pak International AB
    Inventor: Diethard Schulte
  • Patent number: 4745731
    Abstract: An apparatus and a method for forming reclosable storage containers are provided to form and seal pouches containing products such as consumer food products. The film material handled thereby and the pouches thus formed include an access opening assembly having a reclosable closure assembly that is characterized by mating flexible closure strips having interlocking means that permit the consumer to easily open and readily and positively reclose the formed pouch. The apparatus and method engage together mating strips of film material sheeting to form a substantially closed web of sheet material that is generally spread or flattened and otherwise handled in order to minimize the formation of kinks and the like in seals formed by the apparatus and method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 24, 1988
    Assignee: General Foods Corporation
    Inventors: Ronnie D. Talbott, Thomas Tedeschi, Jr., Michael P. Hughes
  • Patent number: 4745786
    Abstract: A hot rolling method, wherein portions of a hot-rolled steel material having suffered a temperature fall below Ar.sub.3 transformation temperature thereof during hot rolling are subjected to an intermediate heating to have a temperature not less than Ac.sub.3 transformation temperature before the steel material is finally finish-hot-rolled, whereby a resultant hot-rolled product can have a superior uniform structure without duplex structure, and apparatus for effecting the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 24, 1988
    Assignee: Nippon Steel Corporation
    Inventors: Atsuhiro Wakako, Takeshi Ono, Kunio Kawamura, Kenichi Matsui
  • Patent number: 4745034
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of wrapping a reel with a metal strip as well as the strip adapted for implementing this method and the reel thus wrapped.This method is characterized in that before or after bending back, the margins (20) of the metal strip (12) are shaped so that after bending back under the tire (7), their end terminates under the tire in a web (21) parallel to a plane perpendicular to the axis of the reel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 17, 1988
    Inventor: Arthur Joly
  • Patent number: 4744237
    Abstract: A box-like frame member is formed by compressing an internally-pressurized tubular blank within a die having a cavity conforming to the final box-like cross section desired for the product, and increasing the pressure to exceed the yield limit of the wall of the blank to expand the blank into conformity with the die cavity. The blank is selected so that the final product and the die cavity have a circumference preferably no more than about 5% larger than the circumference of the blank, to avoid weakening or cracking of the blank through excessive circumferential expansion. The internal pressure forces the blank evenly into the corners of the die on closing and allows the blank to be confined within the die without sections of the die pinching the blank on closing of the die.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 17, 1988
    Assignee: TI Automotive Division of TI Canada Inc.
    Inventor: Ivano G. Cudini
  • Patent number: 4742707
    Abstract: For the production of coaxial corrugations in the walls of thin-walled tubes with very tight tolerances, the invention provides a device having jaws adapted to be moved equally in opposite directions and which press against the ends of the tube so as to have a corrugation formed therein so as to feed the tube wall axially towards the corrugation in the process of being generated. The jaws are moved by means of a central lead screw with screw threads of opposite hand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 10, 1988
    Assignee: MAN Technologie GmbH
    Inventors: Maximilian Hammer, Johann Munich, Ludwig Rohrl
  • Patent number: 4741196
    Abstract: Successively formed cans or cups are quickly and smoothly removed from beneath the lower die shoe of a high speed forming press by an elongated dual lane stainless steel air conveyor having closely spaced upper and lower parallel walls defining an air chamber therebetween. A blower supplies air to the discharge end portion of the conveyor, and the inner end portion of the conveyor top wall defines two cup receiving zones adjacent corresponding outlets formed by upwardly projecting air deflecting hoods. Each hood directs a high flow of air horizontally across the adjacent receiving zone and longitudinally along the top conveyor wall to move each cup quickly from the receiving zone. Longitudinal extending parallel ribs project upwardly from the top wall for each lane, and a set of louvered slots are formed within the top wall between the ribs to maintain the linear and uniform flow of the cups to the discharge end of the conveyor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 3, 1988
    Assignee: Formatec Tooling Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Harry D. Stewart, Ralph P. Stodd
  • Patent number: 4739644
    Abstract: A cup-shaped raw workpiece having a bottom panel and a cylindrically-shaped circumferential panel is positioned facing downwardly on a movable lower punch having a forming gear profile. The lower punch is provided in a die having an orifice portion which together with the gear profile defines an orifice. A resilient mechanism resists downward movement of the lower punch. An upper punch is lowered to hold the bottom panel of the workpiece against the lower punch and pushes the workpiece to extrusion form the inner surface thereof through the orifice. An escape groove for excess metal can be provided in the bottom inside corner of the workpiece at the juncture of the circumferential panel and the bottom panel. The lower punch can be provided with an upwardly extending protrusion near the outer circumferential edge of the upper end surface thereof which has an outer chamfered circumferential edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1986
    Date of Patent: April 26, 1988
    Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshio Maki, Masao Kuramitsu, Kaoru Yamanoi
  • Patent number: 4735071
    Abstract: An apparatus for continuously producing a tube having helical grooves in its inner surface comprising a tube twising rotary frame, a pay-off drum mounted on the rotary frame for paying off a tube having straight grooves in its inner surface, a nozzle provided at the front end of the rotary frame and having an adjustable inside diameter for sending out the paid-off tube forwardly of the rotary frame, and at least one pair of catching rollers provided in front of the rotary frame and disposed close to the nozzle for holding the sent-out tube. Each of the catching rollers is formed in its peripheral surface with a groove of semicircular cross section in conformity with approximately one-half of the outer periphery of the tube. With the rotation of the rotary frame, the straight-grooved tube is twisted between the nozzle and the catching rollers, whereby the straight grooves are deformed to helical grooves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1987
    Date of Patent: April 5, 1988
    Assignees: Hamana Iron Works Co., Ltd., Showa Aluminum Corporation
    Inventors: Iwao Ueda, Minobu Sukimoto
  • Patent number: 4735032
    Abstract: For transporting cigarette groups (20) within or in conjunction with a packaging machine, a pocket conveyor (21) is used, and in this pockets (24), each receiving one cigarette group (20), are connected to one another so as to be free of play and free of wear by means of connecting joints (25) with rolling bearings. As a result, the pocket conveyor (21) can be used as a high-performance conveyor for cigarette groups with exact relative positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 1986
    Date of Patent: April 5, 1988
    Assignee: Focke & Co. (GmbH & Co.)
    Inventor: Heinz Focke
  • Patent number: 4733521
    Abstract: A cover forming apparatus for forming a sheet of material about an object to produce a decorative cover for the object. The cover forming apparatus includes a cover former having an object opening formed through a portion thereof which is adapted to receive the object. The cover former includes portions forming resilient contactors which are adapted to resiliently engage portions of the sheet of material for pressing the engaged portions of the sheet of material against the object when the sheet of material and the object are passed through the object opening. The cover forming apparatus particularly is useful for forming the sheet of material about flower pots to form a decorative flower pot cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1988
    Assignee: Highland Supply Corporation
    Inventors: Donald E. Weder, Erwin H. Weder, Herbert A. Weder, Franklin J. Craig
  • Patent number: 4731978
    Abstract: A closable bag of flexible material is provided with a separate inlet member (3) with an opening for filling the bag with a substance, for instance liquid, which inlet member is fastened to the bag. A separate member (7) is arranged for closing the filling opening from inside the bag. The closing member (7) for its closing of the filling opening is arranged for releasable sealing engagement with the inlet member (3), thereby enabling a subsequent partial discharge and reclosing of the bag. The separate inlet and closing members (3, 7) are substantially resistant to deformation and have means (6, 12) for engagement by respective elements of an operating equipment (13-16) arranged outside the bag. The operating equipment includes a filling member connectable to the inlet member, and means for sterilizing a space formed between the filling and closing members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 22, 1988
    Assignee: Alfa-Laval Food & Dairy Engineering AB
    Inventor: Karl Martensson
  • Patent number: 4732031
    Abstract: A method of forming a deep-drawn and ironed container having a bottom profile wherein a cup is formed by drawing an inverted cup and reverse drawing the cup and simultaneously imparting a bottom profile thereto while controlling the thickness of the material in the bottom. The method also includes providing support to the profiled bottom while ironing the cup thus formed. The method is accomplished by a system which includes a draw-redraw station wherein the inverted cup is adjustably held by a fluidly actuated lift out ring and draw pad in the bottom area against a punch during reverse drawing to control metal thickness in the bottom. A separate pressure sleeve is also engaged with the profiled bottom during ironing to prevent pulling material from the bottom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 1987
    Date of Patent: March 22, 1988
    Assignee: Redicon Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph D. Bulso, Jr., James A. McClung