Patents Examined by Robert J. Spar
  • Patent number: 4697976
    Abstract: A boat trailer including a triangular frame comprised of a pair of identical, integrally formed frame sections connected by threaded fasteners. The running gear assembly and boat supporting structure is attached to the frame by fasteners to form a durable, inexpensive boat trailer that can easily be assembled and maintained by the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1982
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Inventor: Byron L. Godbersen
  • Patent number: 4697721
    Abstract: An improved pill storage and dispensing cassette includes front and back side walls, opposite end walls, and opposite top and bottom walls defining a storage chamber therein. A rotatable pill conveying wheel is positioned in the back side wall and has a plurality of openings for holding and conveying a pill to a discharge chute upon actuation of a remote vacuum source. A separator member is positioned over the openings of the conveying wheel to dislodge the pills from the conveying wheel and such that the pills fall through the chute into the desired receptacle. An adjustment shoe is provided so that only one pill is held and conveyed by each opening in the conveying wheel. A central wall is included within the cassette to divide the pill chamber into forward and rearward compartments with the pills being primarily stored in the forward compartment with a limited number of pills passing through a recessed area in the central wall to the rearward compartment for conveyance by the conveying wheel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Pharmaceutical Innovators Ltd.
    Inventors: Robert D. Johnson, John W. Havener, Mark F. Reyner, Franklin W. Reyner, Jr., Loren K. Whitver, Norman W. Kilburn
  • Patent number: 4697974
    Abstract: A rapid-load system for loading a series of pallets into a sputtering apparatus. The system comprises a magazine having a plurality of vertically spaced pallet supports whose spacing is sufficient to allow insertion of a pallet into the magazine directly without contact between the pallet and magazine. The magazine is removably supported in a load-in chamber of the sputtering apparatus by a chamber track assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Trimedia Corporation
    Inventor: Atef Eltoukhy
  • Patent number: 4697978
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to an industrial robot free from generation of dust, which is provided with and internal space formed by covering rotating portions and contact portions of its arm members, joint members, bearing members or driving source, by the arm members, joint members, bearing members, or a cover member, or by a combination of these members, and air throttling portions provided in air passages for connecting the internal space with external air so as to separate the internal spaced from external air by sucking the air in the internal space. By the above air throttling portions, air within the internal space is isolated from the external air, and thus, scattering of dust from the dust generating portions toward the atmosphere is advantageously prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Haruo Tada, Akiyoshi Nakada
  • Patent number: 4697694
    Abstract: The roller drive unit displays a drive roller (1), which is drivable by a motor (3) and rotatably borne in a guide equipment (5), by which it is pivotable with respect to a base (2) between a lower rest setting and an upper rest setting over a circularly arcuate movement path. A control equipment for the pivotation of the drive roller (1) is provided, which comprises a clutch device constructed for the transmission of a torque between a gear arrangement (50) driving the drive roller (1) and the guide equipment (5). The gear arrangement displays a first gear wheel which is driven by the motor and in opposite sense drives a second gear wheel mounted secure against rotation on the drive shaft of the drive roller (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Electro-Pneumatic-International GmbH
    Inventor: Thomas Huber
  • Patent number: 4697977
    Abstract: A stacker-retriever lift carriage is disposed to be raised, lowered and positioned, in selected positions with respect to a pair of spaced support masts, by a flexible wire cable one end of which is connected to a lift carriage drive and the other end of which is connected to the lift carriage through a pair of four bar linkages pivotally connected together in spaced parallel relationship to form a safety brake operating mechanism. The upward pull by the cable upon the brake operating mechanism retracts a pair of opposed brake arms, pivotally carried by the brake operating mechanism, to a brake deactivated position with the back ends of each brake arm abutting each other. Loss of the pull of the cable on the lift carriage, as would occur if the cable severed or if the lift carriage hung up, permits a spring housed between the brake arms to move the brake operating mechanism and the brake arms to a braking position with brake pads carried by the brake arms in friction engagement with the support masts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Litton Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Weston R. Loomer, Randall P. Coons
  • Patent number: 4697979
    Abstract: A safety method in a robot system including at least a robot (1), peripheral equipment (2-5) serviced by the robot, a robot control unit (6) which causes the robot to execute predetermined services for the peripheral equipment, and a teach control panel (9). A door (11) is provided at the entrance to a robot operating zone, and the door is provided with a safety switch (12) for terminating automatic operation of the robot when the robot is in an automatic operating state. When the safety switch is actuated by opening the door, robot motion in the automatic operating state is decelerated and stopped. During the time that the safety switch is in the actuated state, the robot is placed in a playback operation state to enable control that is performed through the teach control panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Fanuc Ltd.
    Inventors: Seiichiro Nakashima, Kenichi Toyoda, Shinsuke Sakakibara, Nobutoshi Torii
  • Patent number: 4697696
    Abstract: In a plate belt conveyor for steep conveying in the overlapping region of adjacent plates (5, 6), a pocket (15) is provided which is formed by a seam (12) and an upward projecting leg (8) of the lower rear plate end as well as a roof-like arch (9) projecting over the seam (12) and the leg (8) with downward directed leg (10) of the front upper plate end. The rising flank of the seam (12) is concentrically formed with respect to the chain fulcrum (14) in such a manner that when the leading plate (6) is angled relative to the trailing plate (5), the pocket (15) firstly remains closed and opens only on a further angling of the plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Aumund-Fordererbau GmbH Maschinenfabrik
    Inventors: Michael Howe, Waldemar Schwarz
  • Patent number: 4697690
    Abstract: Frusto-conical or cylindrical reels or cones are first oriented with their axes perpendicular or parallel to the axis of a conveyor belt. Then, by a tilting device actuated by a detector device for detecting the position of a through hole in a reel, the reels or cones are all arranged with their axes parallel to the axis of the conveyor belt. In the case of frusto-conical reels or cones a further detector actuates a device for rotating the reels or cones about a vertical axis. The system includes a slanting plate for rectifying the position of the reels or cones, the tilting device and relative detector and the rotating device and relative detector. All these devices can be removed selectively and a flag-shaped device is provided for fitting to the system in order to adapt it for use with disk-shaped reels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 1985
    Date of Patent: October 6, 1987
    Assignee: Officine Minnetti di Federico Minnetti & C.S.a.s.
    Inventor: Federico Minnetti
  • Patent number: 4696616
    Abstract: An apparatus for removing cylindrical articles such as kegs from a pallet on which the articles lie on their sides in a plurality of rows, has a pusher member which moves behind each row of articles in turn and pushes the row from the pallet to an adjacent discharge conveyor. The pusher member is suspended from a carriage that is movable horizontally in a sub-frame. The sub-frame is pivoted so that the pusher member can be raised to enable it to clear the remaining rows of articles on the pallet when it is moved back to its initial position after pushing one row of articles from the pallet. A pallet conveyor extending beneath and at right angles to the discharge conveyor moves the pallet after each row of articles has been removed so as to position the next row of articles for engagement by the pusher member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 1986
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1987
    Assignee: W & C Pantin Ltd.
    Inventor: Kenneth F. C. Avey
  • Patent number: 4696613
    Abstract: A positioning arrangement for use with a device having a fixed or movable crane arm includes a suction device for plate-shaped bodies which hangs from the free end of the crane arm, the suction device being provided with a tilting device. The tilting device is infinitely variable by a setting mechanism. In this way, the center of gravity of the suction device with the plate-shaped body attached by suction may be adjusted such that the plate-shaped body is kept vertically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1987
    Assignee: Glasbau Hahn GmbH & Co.Kg.
    Inventor: Thomas O. Hahn
  • Patent number: 4696517
    Abstract: A dumping mechanism for a dumping toy truck with a rear deck is disclosed, which is provided with a covering element for preventing invasion of dust and gravel through a large hole for a lifting rod, as well as a buffering pad for a bearing shaft for the rear deck and a flexible buffer at the lower end of the lifting rod for absorbing any sudden shock or loading applied by an infant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1987
    Assignee: Shinsei Kogyo Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Toshiaki Nagano
  • Patent number: 4696387
    Abstract: An apparatus for rolling over or positioning workpieces. The apparatus consists of two conveyor belt surfaces arranged to rotate a workpiece supported on a first conveyor surface in a vertical plane. The apparatus eliminates the need for complicated hoisting or lifting devices to position the workpiece or operations to be performed thereon. The apparatus can also include an electromagnet for retaining the workpiece on a first conveyor surface when it is being worked on. The apparatus may also include the ability to adjust a second conveyor surface which improves the stability of the workpiece when worked on in an inclined position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1986
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1987
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventor: Larry D. Durchenwald
  • Patent number: 4696614
    Abstract: An apparatus for automatically restacking palletized tiers of adjacent rows of loosely cubed laden produce boxes in a continuous fashion by recubing the boxes while automatically retrieving and stacking the successive pallets during the continuing recubing process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 29, 1987
    Inventor: Lenard E. Moen
  • Patent number: 4694948
    Abstract: A travelling hopper belt car has a feed chute and a throw-off conveyor belt that can pivot in a vertical plane around a horizontal axis in the area of the feed chute. The side walls of the feed chute are designed in two parts with the upper side section in each case foldable down around a horizontal axis at least to the height of the axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: O & K Orenstein & Koppel Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Sukru Ceylan
  • Patent number: 4694951
    Abstract: A loader inserts articles into a conveyor from underneath. Each article is received in a gripper and depends thereform. The gripper is supported from the conveyor facing down at the point of loading (insert station). A predetermined number of articles (here, three plastic preforms to be heated then blown into plastic bottles) is fed by gravity down a chute to a reception point where they are temporarily stopped forming a queue. The reception point is upstream of and lower than the grippers. The loader has a device to grasp a group (the first three in the queue) from the side (or cross-machine direction) and move the group horizontally and lineally downstream to the insert station underneath a corresponding number of grippers while at the same time increasing the center-to-center distances to the same as the center distances spacing the three grippers in the group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: Cincinnati Milacron Inc.
    Inventor: Joseph F. Gibbemeyer
  • Patent number: 4695214
    Abstract: An apparatus and method utilize liquid pressurized lock hoppers to feed solids to a high pressure vessel. Solids are introduced to a first lock hopper, and gases are passed to the first lock hopper from a second lock hopper which has previously discharged solids. Liquid is supplied to the first lock hopper so as to attain a pressure equivalent to the pressure of the high pressure vessel. Solids are discharged from the first lock hopper to a high pressure vessel after pressurization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: Phillips Petroleum Company
    Inventor: James Scinta
  • Patent number: 4694845
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a coin counter and wrapper holder for use with conventional paper coin wrappers and to a method of counting and wrapping coins. The device includes a base from which pedestals project upwardly, each pedestal terminating in a circular end face. Each pedestal fits inside and forms a support for the lower end portion of a conventional paper coin wrapper of a specific denomination. Also mounted to the base is an upper wrapper support which has a U-shaped slot proportioned to fit around the outside of each coin wrapper. Each of the pedestals is proportioned so that the distance from its top surface to the top surface of the upper wrapper support is the same as the height of a stack of coins intended for a particular wrapper. The distance between the top of each pedestal and the base is arranged so that each coin wrapper will abut the base at one end and be flush with the top surface of the upper wrapper support at its opposite end. An accurate and speedy coin count is thus assured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 1986
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Inventor: John Zay
  • Patent number: 4695217
    Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for the bulk transfer of pluralities of semiconductor wafers or slices from container to container. The device includes a stage adapted to receive a standard semiconductor wafer container and a plurality of vertical storage slots are provided above the stage. A pneumatically controlled elevation device is utilized to raise a plurality of semiconductor wafers from each container into the storage slots and an automatic wafer retainer is selectively rotated in response to each operation of the elevation device to retain the semiconductor wafers within the storage slots. In a preferred mode of the present invention the wafer retainer is designed to permit insertion and retention of a first plurality of semiconductor wafers into odd numbered storage slots while permitting insertion of a second plurality of semiconductor wafers into even numbered storage slots.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 1983
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Inventor: John J. Lau
  • Patent number: 4694950
    Abstract: An assembly tray is injection molded with an open bottom to provide access to articles supported by the tray during manufacturing. Gear teeth are included on the bottom of the tray in the shape of a timing belt for indexing the tray during manufacturing. Stacking ledges are provided in the rim on top of the tray so that one tray can be stacked on top of another without sticking. A torsion box is provided on the sides of the tray to provide torsional stability. The assembly tray can be selected from a stack of other trays, used in automated manufacturing and stacked in another stack. The assembly tray is particularly suited for assemblying components of tape cassettes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 1984
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: Shape Inc.
    Inventor: Robert B. Macleod, Jr.