Patents Examined by Paul Baillargeon
  • Patent number: 11050190
    Abstract: Connector assemblies having a housing, a pin, and a spring length having two free ends are used as a mechanical connector to secure two objects or components together or an electrical connector for placing two sources in electrical communication with one another. The spring length can be a canted coil spring in which the two free ends are not connected to one another and the coils can have an elliptical shape or a complex coil shape. The spring length can be used with a retaining component, can be used in a recessed slot formed with the housing or the pin, or both with a retaining component and with a recessed slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Bal Seal Engineering, LLC
    Inventors: Derek Changsrivong, Tony Quach
  • Patent number: 10483779
    Abstract: To accurately determine a deterioration state of a secondary battery with respect to a practical current value. Provided are a state determination device of a secondary battery, a state determination method of a secondary battery, a secondary battery system, and a charge and discharge control apparatus having the state determination device. In the state determination device of the secondary battery having a positive electrode and a negative electrode, a capacity reduction parameter group A is determined based on charge and discharge characteristics per reference quantity of the positive electrode and the negative electrode and a current value A, and a resistance increase parameter group B is determined based on the charge and discharge characteristics per reference quantity of the positive electrode and the negative electrode, the capacity reduction parameter group A, and a current value B which is larger than the current value A.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Kohei Honkura, Yutaka Okuyama
  • Patent number: 10431909
    Abstract: A coaxial connector, the coaxial connector interconnectable with a coaxial cable by a process including providing a connector body with a bore; inserting a leading end of the coaxial cable into the bore from a cable end of the connector body, and laser welding between the outer conductor and the connector body from a connector end of the connector body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: CommScope Technologies LLC
    Inventors: Ronald A. Vaccaro, Kendrick Van Swearingen, James P. Fleming, James J. Wlos, Nahid Islam
  • Patent number: 10361512
    Abstract: There is provided a connector in which a plug is put to a socket in any rotational direction around an axis and is guided to a normal position smoothly hereby providing proper connection with a simple structure. On opposite surfaces of the plug and the socket, there are provided a tilted cam surface and a cam follower with which the plug and the socket are slidably contacted to each other, rotated and positioned in a rotational direction around the axis when the plug is fitted onto the socket axially. At the center of one of the opposite surface of the plug and the socket, a pin-receiving hole is formed, and a center pin at the center of the other fits into the pin-receiving hole before the tilted cam surface comes in contact with the cam follower.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2019
    Assignee: WITCO OF JUPITER DENTSU CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Seido
  • Patent number: 10297843
    Abstract: A MEA is set in a state where a hydrogen gas is continuously supplied to both an anode-side electrode and a cathode-side electrode. In this state, a current is applied from an external power supply unit to the anode-side electrode and the cathode-side electrode so that the cathode-side electrode has a higher potential and that the current value gradually increases. Upon applying the current in this way, measured voltages between both electrodes measured by a voltage measurement unit are plotted in time series, thereby measuring the voltage transition across the inspection object MEA. A power generation performance inspection of the inspection object MEA is carried out based on the measured voltage transition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Michito Norimoto
  • Patent number: 10283882
    Abstract: A grounding clamp includes a safety lock-out which locks the operation of the clamp in the absence of a hot-stick. A clamping member cooperates with a frame having an arm, and is selectively biasable by a user to translate the clamping member relative to the frame to clamp a conductor between the clamping member and arm. The lock-out cooperates with the clamping member to prevent the translation of the clamping member unless in the presence of an insulating tool such as a hot-stick.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: Quanta Associates, L.P.
    Inventors: Phillip Howard Quaedvlieg, David Karl Wabnegger, Janos Csaba Toth, Daniel Neil O'Connell
  • Patent number: 10199668
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a processing unit configured to perform an activation process of temporarily reducing a cathode potential of a single fuel cell to a target potential for a duration time at a processing frequency; a cationic impurity amount estimating unit configured to estimate an amount of cationic impurities included in an electrolyte membrane of the single fuel cell; and a process degree determining unit configured to determine, when the amount of cationic impurities is large, a degree of the activation process which is higher than that determined when the amount of cationic impurities is small by performing at least one action among actions of changing conditions of the activation process, the actions including an action of reducing the target potential, an action of increasing the duration time, and an action of increasing the processing frequency. The processing unit performs the activation process to the determined degree.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shinji Jomori
  • Patent number: 10177485
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes: a cylindrical metal shell having a mating portion extended from the front end to the rear end; and an inner sealing member that is brought into contact with a housing and the metal shell and hermetically seals between the housing and the metal shell. The mating portion is sealed by an outer peripheral joint and an inner peripheral joint so as to prevent the flow of a liquid from the front end side to the rear end side. Here, the outer peripheral joint is formed to some midpoint from the outer peripheral surface of the metal shell toward the inner peripheral surface of the metal shell, and the inner peripheral joint is formed from the inner peripheral surface to the outer peripheral joint on the contact portion with the inner sealing member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: SMK Corporation
    Inventors: Naoyuki Ono, Osamu Hayashi
  • Patent number: 10170786
    Abstract: A modular planar interconnect device for a solid oxide fuel cell includes a planar interconnect body, a pair of upper shielding plates, and a pair of lower shielding plates. The planar interconnect body includes a right lateral surface and a left lateral surface. The right lateral surface includes a right lateral slot to fluidly communicate with an introducing slot of the planar interconnect body. The left lateral surface includes a left lateral slot to fluidly communicate with an exit slot of the planar interconnect body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: National Taipei University of Technology
    Inventors: Sea-Fue Wang, Hsi-Chuan Lu
  • Patent number: 10170804
    Abstract: A monitoring device for a secondary battery includes: a detection part that detects a use state of the secondary battery; and a switching part, wherein the switching part switches a protection condition applied to the secondary battery in accordance with the user state of the secondary battery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: GS YUASA INTERNATIONAL LTD.
    Inventors: Tomohiro Kawauchi, Masashi Nakamura
  • Patent number: 10170773
    Abstract: A modular planar interconnect device for a solid oxide fuel cell includes a planar interconnect body, a pair of upper shielding plates, and a pair of lower shielding plates. The upper shielding plates are configured to be respectively fitted between front and rear boundary wall surfaces of a first inlet region of the planar interconnect body and between front and rear boundary wall surfaces of a first outlet region of the planar interconnect body. The lower shielding plates are configured to be respectively fitted between right and left boundary wall surfaces of a second inlet region of the planar interconnect body and between right and left boundary wall surfaces of a second outlet region of the planar interconnect body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: National Taipei University of Technology
    Inventors: Sea-Fue Wang, Hsi-Chuan Lu
  • Patent number: 10164378
    Abstract: To address the issue of radio frequency interference with high-speed connectors, a communication port connector for use in a computing device is provided. The communication port connector may include a shell that defines a void that is configured to receive an electrical plug. Port-side electrical contacts in the shell may be configured to make electrical connections with plug-side electrical contacts. One or more double leaf spring fingers may be formed in a side of the shell, with each double leaf spring finger including a first spring finger coupled to a second spring finger. The first spring finger may be configured to contact the electrical plug, and the second spring finger may be configured to contact a chassis of the computing device, thereby creating a ground path to ground the electrical plug to the primary ground plane of the device when it is inserted into the communication port connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Akash Atul Shah, Daniel Beirne, Mark Gerard Rice, Kurt David Wrisley
  • Patent number: 10164392
    Abstract: A towing vehicle/towed vehicle connection system for operably electrically coupling a towing vehicle to a towed vehicle, the system includes a first transceiver disposed on the towing vehicle to provide a wireless electric power signal. A second transceiver is disposed on the towed vehicle and is wirelessly coupled to the first transceiver to receive the wireless electric power signal. The second transceiver is further coupled to the provide energizing electric power to the towed vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Kobi J. Scheim, Nadav Levkovich
  • Patent number: 10158133
    Abstract: A fuel cell system is provided. The system includes a fuel cell stack, a plurality of valves operated to be selectively opened or closed to supply fuel to the fuel cell stack and remove impurities, and a pressure sensor that detects a state of pressure of fuel supplied to the fuel cell stack. A fuel cell controller then determines whether the pressure sensor or the plurality of valves are faulty by comparing increase or decrease time of the pressure detected by the pressure sensor with a reference range of time delay, as the plurality of valves are operated to be opened or closed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company
    Inventors: Sungsuk Ok, Kyuil Lee
  • Patent number: 10153571
    Abstract: A connector system includes a cage with an intermediate section. The cage support a connector and the resulting connector system includes an upper port and a lower port. A heat sink is provided in the intermediate section that is configured to cool a module inserted into the lower port. Apertures can allow air to flow through the connector system so as to allow for improved cooling by more directly cooling the inserted module. The heat sink can be urged into the lower port by a biasing element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: Molex, LLC
    Inventor: Jerry D. Kachlic
  • Patent number: 10150384
    Abstract: Provided is a power control apparatus for a fuel cell vehicle which includes a fuel cell and which is driven by an electric motor that is supplied with electric power from the fuel cell. The power control apparatus includes an accelerator sensor that detects an operation of an accelerator, and a control unit that controls the fuel cell to increase the output power of the fuel cell so as to correspond to an increase in a requested acceleration output based on the detected accelerator opening degree. When the accelerator opening degree is less than a first accelerator determination value that is set in advance, the control unit controls the fuel cell to suppress an increase in the output power thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI JIDOSHA KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yusuke Hiramitsu, Kazuyoshi Nakane, Chikara Takei, Keisuke Tashiro
  • Patent number: 10153523
    Abstract: An exemplary method includes circulating a fluid along a fluid circuit that extends through a heat exchanger and a battery pack, and, during the circulating, heating the fluid with a flow of exhaust gas and using the fluid to heat the battery pack. An exemplary vehicle system includes a battery pack, a heat exchanger, a fluid circuit configured to circulate a fluid between the battery pack and the heat exchanger, and a valve moveable back and forth between a heating position and a cooling position. The valve in the heating position permits more flow along an exhaust circuit to heat the fluid in the fluid circuit than the valve in the cooling position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Steven Michael Cyr, Ray C. Siciak, Allen Dennis Dobryden, Michael Reibling
  • Patent number: 10153566
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes: an insulative housing comprising a base portion and a tongue portion extending forwardly from the base portion; a number of upper and low terminals mounted in the insulative housing and exposed to an upper surface and a lower surface of the tongue portion, the upper terminals and the lower terminals being equal in number, both the upper terminals and the lower terminals comprising five intermediate terminals arranged centrally in succession and one grounding terminal spaced from the five intermediate terminals by two terminal positions, each of the five intermediate terminals having a reserved space for not arranging a terminal, the five intermediate terminals comprising an auxiliary terminal; and a shielding plate disposed between the upper terminals and the lower terminals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: FOXCONN INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
    Inventors: Jian-Li Zhang, Tao Yao, Jun Zhao
  • Patent number: 10148034
    Abstract: An electrical connector matable to and unmatable from a separable mating electrical connector includes a housing having a terminal channel and an auxiliary terminal channel with a power terminal received in the terminal channel and an auxiliary power terminal received in the auxiliary terminal channel. A TPA device is movably coupled to the housing between an open position and a blocking position for blocking removal of the power terminal from the terminal channel. A protective thermal coupler is held by and movable with the TPA device. The protective thermal coupler has a variable resistive member electrically coupled between the power terminal and the auxiliary power terminal. The variable resistive member provides a shunt so that arcing does not occur when the power terminal is disconnected from the mating power terminal of the mating electrical connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Zachary Wood Lyon, Abraham Louis Shocket, Jeremy Christian Patterson
  • Patent number: 10135163
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes: an insulative housing defining a mating cavity upwardly communicating with an exterior through a top mating face thereof along an up-to-down direction, the mating cavity including a pair of side walls facing each other in a lengthwise direction perpendicular to the up-to-down direction; and a pair of flat power terminals retained in the two side walls of the mating cavity, respectively; wherein each flat power terminal includes a pair of elastic arms extending on two opposite sides thereof in the up-to-down direction, the pair of elastic arms of each flat power terminal are staggered in a transverse direction perpendicular to the up-to-down direction and the lengthwise direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: FOXCONN INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
    Inventors: Xin-Tian Li, Bin Peng, Zhi-Jian Chen