Patents Examined by Mark A Laurenzi
  • Shape memory alloy actuators and methods thereof
    Patent number: 11199183
    Abstract: SMA actuators and related methods are described. One embodiment of an actuator includes a base; a plurality of buckle arms; and at least a first shape memory alloy wire coupled with a pair of buckle arms of the plurality of buckle arms. Another embodiment of an actuator includes a base and at least one bimorph actuator including a shape memory alloy material. The bimorph actuator attached to the base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: Hutchinson Technology Incorporated
    Inventors: Mark A. Miller, Nathaniel K. Behning, Dean E. Myers, Michael W. Davis
  • Devices, systems, and methods for generating power
    Patent number: 11199114
    Abstract: A heat pump includes a first chamber, a second chamber fluidly coupled with the first chamber, a first and a second spray devices. The first and second chambers contain working fluid flowable between the first and second chambers via a flow passage between the first and second chambers, and a first and a second space above a portion of the working fluid that is within the first and second chambers. First spray device is coupled with the first chamber to heat or cool the first space in the first chamber. Second spray device is coupled with the second chamber to heat or cool the second space in the second chamber. At least one of the heating and cooling of the first space may cause at least one of a compression or expansion of the second space, which may drive a power-extraction unit coupled with the second chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: TAIWAN HAPPY ENERGY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Chih Hung Wang
  • System, apparatus and method for clean, multi-energy generation
    Patent number: 11193431
    Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods in interoperating with multiple clean energy sources, such as pneumatic energy, electrical energy, hydrogen energy and steam energy, with engine configurations employing theses clean energy sources dynamically and synchronously. Further embodiments including fossil fuel energies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Inventor: Marvin W. Ward
  • Scroll compressor
    Patent number: 11193488
    Abstract: A scroll compressor includes a slider. The slider includes a cylindrical portion and a balance weight portion. The balance weight portion includes a counter weight part, a first main weight component, and a second main weight component. The counter weight part has a first outer circumferential surface that is a partial cylindrical surface about the axis of rotation of the slider. The first main weight component has a second outer circumferential surface that is a partial cylindrical surface about the axis of the cylindrical portion. The second main weight component has a third outer circumferential surface that is located radially outward of the second outer circumferential surface and that is a partial cylindrical surface about the axis of rotation of the slider and an inner circumferential surface that is a partial cylindrical surface about the axis of the cylindrical portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Koichi Fukuhara, Tomokazu Matsui, Yuji Takamura
  • Gas turbine engine airfoil
    Patent number: 11193496
    Abstract: A gas turbine engine includes a combustor section arranged between a compressor section and a turbine section. The compressor section includes at least a low pressure compressor and a high pressure compressor. The high pressure compressor is arranged upstream of the combustor section. A fan section has an array of twenty-six or fewer fan blades. The low pressure compressor is downstream from the fan section. An airfoil is arranged in the low pressure compressor and includes pressure and suction sides that extend in a radial direction from a 0% span position to a 100% span position. The airfoil has a relationship between a camber angle and span position that defines a curve with a decreasing camber angle within the range of 80% span to 100% span. The camber angle is less than 20° within the entire range of 40% span to 100% span.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Edward J. Gallagher, Lisa I. Brilliant, Joseph C. Straccia, Stanley J. Balamucki, Mark A. Stephens, Kate Hudon
  • Waste heat recovery lube oil management
    Patent number: 11187185
    Abstract: A waste heat recovery system comprising a thermal circuit. The thermal circuit includes a boiler and an expander fluidly coupled to the boiler. The thermal circuit further includes a power transfer system integrated to the expander. The power transfer system is configured to receive mechanical energy from the expander. The thermal circuit further includes an ejector fluidly coupled to the boiler and to the power transfer system. The ejector is configured to receive a motive flow of working fluid from the boiler. The ejector is further configured to receive a suction flow of working fluid from the power transfer system. The ejector is further configured to combine the motive flow of working fluid and the suction flow of working fluid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy C. Ernst, Jared Carpenter Delahanty, Nathan Thomas Honican
  • Mechanical system for generating mechanical energy from liquid nitrogen, and corresponding method
    Patent number: 11187114
    Abstract: The invention relates to a system for generating mechanical energy, comprising at least: a compressor; an expander; a heat exchanger; said system having a motor operative mode in which said system additionally comprises: means for the intake of pressurised liquid nitrogen in a liquid nitrogen intake inlet of said exchanger, means for the intake of air or gaseous nitrogen in an air or gaseous nitrogen intake inlet of said exchanger, means for discharging vaporised nitrogen at a vaporised nitrogen outlet of said exchanger, and means for discharging air or cooled nitrogen at another outlet of said exchanger for air or cooled gaseous nitrogen; means for the intake of said vaporised nitrogen into the interior of said expander in order to expand same; means for the intake of the air or cooled gaseous nitrogen into said compressor so as to produce compressed air or gaseous nitrogen therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Inventor: Eric Dupont
  • Scroll compressor
    Patent number: 11187231
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a scroll compressor capable of optimizing a position where a load is applied from a support member to an orbiting scroll. The scroll compressor includes a fixed scroll fixed to an inside of a body, an orbiting scroll configured to orbit in engagement with the fixed scroll, a rotary shaft configured to allow the orbiting scroll to orbit, a holding member configured to hold the fixed scroll from a side opposite to the orbiting scroll, and a support member arranged between the rotary shaft and the holding member to support the orbiting scroll by a load applied to a position away from a center of the orbiting scroll.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Samsung Electronic Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Uekawa Takashi, Yang Hee Cho
  • Electric heating type support, exhaust gas purifying device, method for producing electric heating type support, joined body, and method for producing joined body
    Patent number: 11187125
    Abstract: An electric heating type support includes: an electrically conductive honeycomb structure including a pillar shaped honeycomb structure portion composed of conductive ceramics, the pillar shaped honeycomb structure portion including: an outer peripheral wall; and porous partition walls disposed on an inner side of the outer peripheral wall, the porous partition walls defining a plurality of cells, each cell penetrating from one end face to other end face to form a flow path; and a pair of metal terminals disposed so as to face each other across a central axis of the pillar shaped honeycomb structure portion, each metal terminal being joined to a surface of the electrically conductive honeycomb structure via a welded portion so as to follow a surface shape of the electrically conductive honeycomb structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Inventor: Naoya Takase
  • Energy supply system
    Patent number: 11187211
    Abstract: Disclosed is an energy supply system using hot waste water that controls a supply of energy required according to a situation of agricultural facilities. The energy supply system includes a hot waste water pipe connecting a power plant and at least one facility so as to supply thermal energy to the at least one facility through hot waste water discharged from the power plant; a ground heat exchanger buried under a ground and connected to the at least one facility so as to supply geothermal energy to the at least one facility; at least one solar cell module disposed in the at least one facility and supplying electric energy to the at least one facility; and a server configured to individually control the thermal energy, the geothermal energy and the electrical energy supplied to the at least one facility according to an environmental state of the at least one facility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: INTERTECH Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jong Woo Kim, Yeon Ju Lim, Dae Young Kim
  • Hydraulic device using gravity and buoyancy forces and method for operating such a device
    Patent number: 11174832
    Abstract: The invention relates to a hydraulic device that uses gravity and buoyancy forces, in which during a rotation of the assembly, movable masses (M1, . . . , Mn) are displaced by means of a force acting on the masses that counteracts the weight force in such a way that said masses contribute to the rotational movement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Inventor: Erwin Mueller
  • Vane rotary compressor
    Patent number: 11174863
    Abstract: A vane rotary compressor includes a roller rotatably supported in a cylinder and including a plurality of vane slots formed along a circumferential direction with back pressure chambers formed at one end of each of the vane slots A plurality of vanes are slidably supported in the vane slots protruding toward an inner circumferential surface of the cylinder. A compression space formed by the vanes between the roller and the cylinder includes an inlet port and an outlet port formed at both sides of a contact point between the roller and the cylinder. A vane positioned between the inlet port and the outlet port is configured such that a front gap between a front surface of the vane and the inner circumferential surface of the cylinder is smaller than a rear gap between a rear surface of the vane and an inner surface of the back pressure chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventors: Joonhong Park, Kiyoul Noh, Seokhwan Moon
  • Energy conversion apparatus
    Patent number: 11174814
    Abstract: A monolithic engine assembly may include an engine body that includes a regenerator body. The engine body and the regenerator body may respectively define at least a portion of a monolithic body, or the engine body may define at least a portion of a first monolithic body-segment and the regenerator body may define at least a portion of a second monolithic body-segment operably coupled or operably couplable to the first monolithic body-segment. The regenerator body may include a regenerator conduit, and a plurality of fin arrays adjacently disposed within the regenerator conduit and respectively supported by the regenerator conduit in spaced relation to one another. The spaced relation of the plurality of fin arrays may define a gap longitudinally separating adjacent ones of the plurality of fin arrays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Kevin Michael VandeVoorde, Joshua Tyler Mook, Michael Thomas Gansler, Scott Douglas Waun, Aigbedion Akwara, Michael Robert Notarnicola, Jason Joseph Bellardi, Mohammed El Hacin Sennoun, Mary Kathryn Thompson, Mohamed Osama, Victor Luis Marrero Ortiz
  • Scroll compressor
    Patent number: 11168688
    Abstract: A scroll compressor includes a housing, a rotary shaft, a movable scroll, an eccentric shaft, an opposed wall, a looped elastic plate, a looped support portion, an annular protrusion, a back pressure chamber, and a back pressure supplying groove. The distance in the radial direction of the rotary shaft from the rotation axis of the rotary shaft to then outer end of the back pressure supplying groove in the radial direction of the rotary shaft is shorter than or equal to the distance obtained by subtracting the distance in the radial direction of the rotary shaft between the rotation axis of the rotary shaft and the axis of the eccentric shaft from the distance in the radial direction of the rotary shaft from the axis of the eccentric shaft to the part of the protrusion that contacts the elastic plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOYOTA JIDOSHOKKI
    Inventors: Shinji Koike, Takuro Yamashita, Yuya Hattori, Takumi Maeda
  • Scroll compressor
    Patent number: 11168687
    Abstract: A back pressure chamber forming portion forms a back pressure chamber configured to accumulate a high pressure refrigerant discharged from a working chamber and thereby generate a refrigerant pressure, which urges a movable scroll against a stationary scroll. A balancer is placed at an inside of the back pressure chamber and is configured to be rotated by a rotatable shaft. The back pressure chamber forming portion has a discharge hole that communicates between a radially outer side of the back pressure chamber, which is located radially outward in a radial direction of an axis of the rotatable shaft, and a suction chamber to discharge a liquid phase refrigerant from the back pressure chamber into the suction chamber when the liquid phase refrigerant flows from the working chamber into the back pressure chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Hayashi
  • Exhaust gas analysis apparatus, exhaust gas analysis method, and correction expression creation method
    Patent number: 11168629
    Abstract: The present invention is one that accurately measures an exhaust gas component regardless of variation in atmospheric pressure around a test object that is a vehicle or part of it, and an exhaust gas analysis apparatus that measures component concentration in exhaust gas discharged from the test object that is the vehicle or part of it. The exhaust gas analysis apparatus includes: an exhaust gas detector that mixes the exhaust gas and reactive gas together and detects the resulting phenomenon; a pressure gauge that measures the atmospheric pressure at the time of measurement of the exhaust gas or pressure at a predetermined point inside the exhaust gas analysis apparatus as measured pressure; and a correction part that, on the basis of the measured pressure by the pressure gauge, corrects the measurement error of the exhaust gas detector associated with a variation in the supply amount of the reactive gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: HORIBA, LTD.
    Inventors: Naoto Mizutani, Masahiro Nishikawa, Haruhisa Mohara, Shun Fukami, Yosuke Kondo
  • Geothermal energy recovery process with selective recirculation
    Patent number: 11168673
    Abstract: A system method of geothermal energy recovery includes injecting carbon dioxide into a geothermal reservoir through an injection well, extracting a working fluid including previously injected carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons entrained in a flow of the carbon dioxide within the reservoir from an extraction well, separating components of the heated working fluid based on chemical composition, selectively mixing the separated components according to the current conditions of the extracted working fluid to produce an output modified working fluid that having a chemical composition that is optimized for energy recovery efficiency, and expanding the modified working fluid to generate mechanical or electrical energy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Mourad Younes, Aadesh Harale, Aqil Jamal
  • System and method for a direct emission and diffusion of high-pressure combustion with exhaust into feed-water from a combustion barrel
    Patent number: 11143397
    Abstract: A combustion system with surface-less heat energy exchange for efficient heat energy capture and lower pollutant emission, comprising: a first line feeding an oxygen-rich reactive; a second line feeding a hydro-carbon fuel; a vessel containing feed-water; a combustion enclosure without a bottom wall submersed into the feed water contained in a vessel, the combustion enclosure configured to receive the feed from each of the first and second line and combust a mixture of the two feeds in a pocket formed between an inner top and side walls of the combustion enclosure and a top surface of the feed-water contained in the vessel; and the combustion within the pocket yielding a high temperature and high pressure combustion product and by-product directly into the feed-water of the vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Inventor: Paul Batushansky
  • Vacuum pump reed valve which will reduce cold start torque
    Patent number: 11143188
    Abstract: A vacuum pump suitable for mounting to an engine includes: a casing having a cavity, the cavity including an inlet and an outlet; a moveable member arranged for rotation inside the cavity, the movable member being movable to draw fluid into the cavity through the inlet and out of the cavity through the outlet so as to induce a reduction in pressure at the inlet; a valve seat at the outlet; and an outlet valve including a reed element and a stop for restricting movement of the reed element. The stop is movable between a first operating position, in which movement of the reed element is restricted to a first opening degree, and a second start-up position, in which movement of the reed element is restricted to a second opening degree, which is larger than the first opening degree.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: ZF CV SYSTEMS EUROPE BV
    Inventors: David Heaps, Simon Warner
  • Scroll compressor
    Patent number: 11143185
    Abstract: A scroll compressor includes a flow path that is disposed in a portion of a bearing holder, which corresponds to each formation position of a plurality of stator groove portions, and that penetrates the bearing holder in an axial direction, a first recess portion (72) disposed in a portion of a thrust bearing, which faces the flow path, and recessed from one side in the axial direction to the other side in the axial direction, and a first groove portion (74) disposed in an outer peripheral portion of the first recess portion (72), extending from a bottom surface (72a) of the recess portion (72) to a surface located on a side opposite to a surface having the first recess portion (72) formed thereon, and communicating with the first recess portion (72) in the axial direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES THERMAL SYSTEMS, LTD.
    Inventors: Yuki Ichise, Ichiro Yogo, Akinori Yoshioka, Manabu Suzuki, Takeshi Hirano