Patents Examined by Jonathan M Peo
  • Patent number: 11628407
    Abstract: The invention relates to an undulated thermostable hollow fiber membrane of reduced wall thickness, wherein the wall thickness amounts to 20 ?m or greater and 30 ?m or less and the waveform of the hollow fiber membrane exhibits a wavelength in the range of from more than 1 mm and less than 5 mm. In particular, the invention relates to a method for producing an undulated thermostable hollow fiber membrane of lower wall thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
    Inventors: Torsten Keller, Roland Sander, Igor Raiko, Christian Finkler
  • Patent number: 11612861
    Abstract: A crossflow filtration unit for continuous diafiltration of a feed fluid for obtaining a retentate and a permeate, a corresponding method for diafiltration and the use of the crossflow filtration unit are provided. The crossflow filtration unit includes a diafiltration channel, a flat first filter material, a retentate channel, a flat second filter material, and a permeate collection channel, arranged such that the flat first filter material delimits the diafiltration channel and the retentate channel from one another, and the flat second filter material delimits the retentate channel and the permeate collection channel from one another. The diafiltration channel is fluidly connected to at least one inlet for the diafiltration medium, the retentate channel is fluidly connected to at least one inlet for the feed fluid and to at least one outlet for the retentate. The permeate collection channel is fluidly connected to at least one outlet for the permeate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: SARTORIUS STEDIM BIOTECH GMBH
    Inventors: Martin Leuthold, Ulrich Grummert, Peter Schmidt
  • Patent number: 11596883
    Abstract: A fluid filter comprises a housing, a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet, a filter element separating a raw side and a clean side from one another, and a valve unit. The valve unit comprises a valve plate arranged concentrically in the housing and having the shape of a circular ring disc, having valve openings and a flexible circular-ring-disc-shaped valve membrane arranged on the valve plate. The filter element comprises an axially protruding pressure-exerting ring shaped as a circumferential annular collar on the end face thereof facing the valve unit when installed. When installed in the housing, the filter element, with an end face of the pressure-exerting ring, presses the valve membrane axially onto the valve plate. The valve membrane, with the membrane region thereof pressed by the pressure-exerting ring onto the valve plate, forms a seal separating the raw side from the clean side of the fluid filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Hengst SE
    Inventor: Wilhelm Ardes
  • Patent number: 11598299
    Abstract: A fuel filter for a fuel system includes a cylindrical frame having a pair of circular openings at longitudinal ends of the frame and a filter membrane, with the frame including a circumferential wall having an aperture and the filter membrane being disposed about an outwardly facing side of the wall and over the aperture. The frame includes tabs, such as deformable tabs, disposed adjacent at the openings for retaining the filter membrane on the frame, and the filter membrane overlaps itself when circumferentially disposed about the wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Exergy Engineering LLC
    Inventors: Philip J. DeVries, Randall C. Harkema, Mike Van Allsburg
  • Patent number: 11554969
    Abstract: Reactive treatment cells (RTCs) are described in combination with sediment capping systems as a means for environmental remediation. RTCs include an impermeable housing defining an interior, a permeable ceiling and floor typically including filtration materials such as geotextiles, and at least one interior compartment for treatment reagents. One RTC includes a gabion-like cage structure retaining a geomembrane-supported geosynthetic clay liner (GM-GCL) housing, while a second embodiment includes a hard, cylindrical shell as a replaceable reagent cartridge. RTCs may be employed in initial capping system installations or retrofitted into existing capping systems. RTCs may include optional baffles, flow restrictors, floating discs, sensor probes, and two or more serial reagent zones or compartments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: AquaBlok Ltd.
    Inventors: Dennis Gregory Grubb, John H. Hull
  • Patent number: 11554202
    Abstract: Microbubbles detached from a blood circuit and a blood purification unit are discharged with the use of a backflow generated at the instant that a roller of a blood pump releases a squeezable tube. In a normal rotation step, a region filled with a priming solution after a priming step is closed by a closing unit, and a rotor of a blood pump is rotated normally until a roller of the blood pump releases a squeezable tube to generate a backflow. After the backflow is generated at the release of the squeezable tube by the roller of the blood pump, bubbles are moved by reversely rotating the rotor while disabling the closing by the closing unit. Thus, the bubbles are discharged through a discharge unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Nikkiso Company Limited
    Inventors: Shunichi Koda, Shunsuke Kawamura, Shingo Okamoto
  • Patent number: 11534719
    Abstract: A serial filtration system for liquid purification includes a preliminary-stage reverse-osmosis (RO) module and a first-stage, high-permeability, reverse-osmosis (HiRO) module. Both modules include (a) a chamber including an inlet, a retentate outlet, and a permeate outlet, and (b) at least one membrane separating the chamber into a retentate side on an upstream side of the membrane and a permeate side on a downstream side of the membrane. The membrane in the preliminary stage is an RO membrane, while the membrane in the first stage is an oxidized membrane. The first-stage inlet is in fluid communication with the preliminary-stage, retentate outlet; and the oxidized membrane in the first stage, comprises an oxidized polyamide active layer coated on a porous support, wherein the oxidized polyamide active layer has an atomic oxygen/nitrogen ratio of at least 1.5.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Gradiant Corporation
    Inventors: Omkar Lokare, Richard Stover
  • Patent number: 11530289
    Abstract: A crosslinked polymer that is in the form of a Mannich polycondensation product including reacted units of a cyclic diaminoalkane, an aldehyde, and bisphenol-S or melamine. Also disclosed is a method for removing heavy metals from an aqueous solution by contacting the aqueous solution having an initial concentration of the heavy metal with the crosslinked polymer to form a mixture, and filtering the mixture to obtain an aqueous solution having a reduced concentration of the heavy metal compared to the initial concentration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM AND MINERALS
    Inventors: Othman Charles Sadeq Al Hamouz, Mohammed Estatie, Tawfik Abdo Saleh Awadh, Mohamed A. Morsy
  • Patent number: 11524264
    Abstract: An aerator device and a filter system including the same are provided. The aerator device includes: a housing having an inner cavity defined therein, the housing including at least one sidewall and an upper surface connected to the at least one sidewall; a first partition formed within the inner cavity and extending from an upper end to a lower end to define a first cavity and a second cavity; and a second partition formed within the inner cavity between the first partition and a first sidewall of the at least one sidewall and extending from an upper end to a lower end to define a first chamber and a second chamber of the second cavity, and the housing includes an inlet opening communicating with the first cavity and an outlet opening communicating with the second chamber, and the second chamber gradually narrows towards the upper surface of the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignees: LOTTE CHEMICAL CORPORATION, LOTTE ADVANCED MATERIALS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ji Hye Kim, Fufang Zha, Young Lim Koo, Gyu Hong Min, Hyoung Wook Ahn, Byung Kook Hwang
  • Patent number: 11511234
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a vacuum filter that incorporates a large area pleated filter element having pleated hydrophilic membrane configured along slanting surface in pyramid shape and incorporated with in a filter housing that can be accommodated in neck of a filtrate container. The disclosed configuration reduces overall height of the filtering system improving its stability and reducing space requirement. Further, top portion of the filter housing is configured to receive either a feed cup for direct feeding of feed liquid by pouring in the cup or a fitting with tube that can be used to suck the feed from a feed solution container under action of a vacuum thus allowing universal use. In another embodiment, a single hydrophobic membrane is provided to avoid problems of low flow due to bubbles coming with the feed solution and also to allow restart of filtration without air lock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Inventor: Nalini K Gupta
  • Patent number: 11511218
    Abstract: A stirrer includes a stirring shaft; a plurality of mixing wings extending from the lower end of the stirring shaft and spaced from each other around the stirring shaft; and a conical hub connecting the lower ends of the mixing wings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Jongwoo Park, Sangjoon Lee, Seonwoong Hwang
  • Patent number: 11504657
    Abstract: A filter assembly and a method of operating the same to detect water leaks are provided. The filter assembly includes a filter housing for receiving a filter cartridge and at least partially defining a drain trough positioned below the filter cartridge for collecting leaked water. A light source is positioned proximate the drain trough for directing light through the drain trough and a light sensor is positioned proximate the drain trough for sensing the light directed through the drain trough. A controller uses the light sensor to monitor the light generated by the light source and determines that a leak exists when an intensity of sensed light is reduced by the leaked water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Praveena Alangar Subrahmanya, Sharath Chandra Prasad, Somak Chatterjee
  • Patent number: 11504656
    Abstract: An oil filter for a motor vehicle has a filter cartridge which is disposed in an oil filter housing of the oil filter. The filter cartridge has a channel for filtered oil which is surrounded at least regionally by a filter material in the radial direction. At least one through opening is formed in a wall of the channel. An emergence of filtered oil via the at least one through opening into a channel for the filtered oil provided on sides of the oil filter housing is preventable by bringing the filter cartridge into a first position. An inlet into the channel provided on sides of the oil filter housing fluidically connectable to the at least one through opening by bringing the filter cartridge into a second position in which the filter cartridge is shifted relative to the first position in an axial direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: Daimler AG
    Inventors: Markus Sander, Lionel Le Clech, Thomas Seemueller, Eric Schumacher, Michael Hoffmann, Philipp Boehning, Kai Knoll
  • Patent number: 11485912
    Abstract: Existing approaches to refuse handling are all based on historical approaches which rely on a network of refuse collection vehicles collecting waste from individual households and delivering this to a centralised landfill or MBI location. This is highly undesirable and wasteful. An alternative process is disclosed, relying on the thermal treatment of waste and like products produced or brought in to the residential property and processed within the domestic curtilage to produce fuel or other forms of energy. Thus, domestic waste will be thermally treated at the home instead of being collected by local authorities and disposed of. The waste input put material will be loaded into a domestically engineered thermal conversion unit either directly or after a pre-process such as shredding. The feedstock will be converted into fuels by a thermal treatment, such as pyrolysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: MANIK VENTURES LIMITED
    Inventors: Nik Spencer, Matthew Gibbon, Hussam Jouhara
  • Patent number: 11471574
    Abstract: A blood-purification-treatment support system is capable of making an accurate judgement of whether or not any treatment conditions for blood purification treatment should be changed. The blood-purification-treatment support system is capable of supporting blood purification treatment. The system includes a storage device that stores patient-specific patient data that are acquired on a plurality of days including at least no-treatment days on which blood purification treatment is not conducted, an estimating device that compares the patient data for the plurality of days stored in the storage device with one another and estimates a pre-treatment patient state regarding blood purification treatment, and a judging device that judges from the pre-treatment patient state estimated by the estimating device whether or not any treatment conditions for blood purification treatment should be changed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Nikkiso Company Limited
    Inventors: Hitoshi Goto, Kunihiko Akita, Masahiro Toyoda
  • Patent number: 11465078
    Abstract: A rod having a substantially-cylindrical shape with both ends being covered is provided to a lid body, which covers an upper end surface of a case having a bottomed substantially-cylindrical shape, the rod protruding in the case. A first hole is formed in a portion of a side surface of the rod, which is exposed to the inside of the case. Further, an air vent pit (passage) is formed in the lid body, and a second hole is formed in a portion of the side surface of the rod, which is exposed to the inside of the air vent pit. A moving member moves along the rod from a first position at which the moving member does not cover the first hole and a second position at which the moving member covers the first hole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: YAMASHIN-FILTER CORP.
    Inventor: Makoto Ishizuka
  • Patent number: 11420037
    Abstract: A method of operating an extracorporeal blood treatment system to infuse blood into a patient at an end of an extracorporeal blood treatment includes clamping an access line of an arterial line set. The method further includes, after clamping the access line, initiating an operation to generate negative pressure in the arterial line set. The method further includes, after generating the negative pressure in the arterial line set, unclamping the access line to draw fluid in the access line further into the arterial line set in a direction away from an end of the access line that is connectable to an arterial access of the patient. The method further includes initiating an operation of a fluid pump engaged with the arterial line set such that the fluid in the arterial line set is infused into the patient through a venous line set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignees: Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc., Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Martin Joseph Crnkovich, David Yuds, Christian Schlaeper
  • Patent number: 11413583
    Abstract: Provided is a method for cleaning a filtration membrane provided in a membrane filtration device that is immersed in a liquid to be treated and performs solid-liquid separation on the liquid to be treated. When a transmembrane pressure difference exceeds a first predetermined pressure difference P1, a first cleaning step W1 for cleaning a filtration membrane is performed using a first chemical solution; when the transmembrane pressure difference immediately after performing the first cleaning step W1 exceeds a second predetermined pressure difference P2 that is lower than the first predetermined pressure difference, a second cleaning step W2 for cleaning the filtration membrane is performed using a second chemical solution having a concentration higher than the first chemical solution; and when the second cleaning step W2 is performed, the concentration of the second chemical solution and/or the cleaning time is changed according to the temperature of the liquid to be treated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasunobu Okajima, Yuki Kawashima, Yuji Otsuka, Yukako Morita, Ken Tanaka
  • Patent number: 11407652
    Abstract: The invention relates to container bodies configured to be used in filter-as-you-pour systems, where filtering is achieved as the user pours water from the container. Such container bodies may have an undivided internal storage volume, so as to not include a reservoir compartment for unfiltered water. They may be part of systems configured to filter water both as water is introduced into a container body of the system and as water is poured from the container body of the system. The filter assembly may be attached to the container body at a location proximate the outlet of the system. Filter media of the filter assembly may comprise an activated carbon textile material that presents a curved surface to water passing through the filter assembly. The container body may be configured as a pitcher, carafe, water bottle, jug, or other shaped container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Brita LP
    Inventors: Nikhil P. Dani, Jonathan McDonald, Nicole Doan, Jonathan Taylor Wiegele
  • Patent number: 11396456
    Abstract: A water treatment system comprises a container, a closure system, at least one loop structure, and remediation media. The container defines a container chamber, a container opening, and at least one container edge. The container opening allows access to the container chamber. The closure system is arranged to allow the container opening to be selectively opened and closed. At least one loop structure is secured to the at least one container edge. The remediation media is disposed within the container chamber. The container is formed of material that allows water to pass from an exterior of the container to the container chamber and thereby come into contact with the remediation media within the container chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Inventors: Renel A. Anderson, Akila G. Karunanayake