Patents Examined by Thomas E. Dunn
  • Patent number: 5520317
    Abstract: An adjustable turning bar for a material web is provided with an adjustably positionable tube that has a plurality of compressed air discharge openings. A slide tube is disposed within the turning bar tube and is also provided with a plurality of air openings. The slide tube is shiftable axially within the turning bar tube to align selected ones of the slide tube's air openings with the appropriate compressed air discharge openings on the turning bar. Air openings not being used will be closed off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1994
    Date of Patent: May 28, 1996
    Assignee: Koenig & Bauer Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Gunther O. Eckert, Heinrich K. Grosshauser
  • Patent number: 5503318
    Abstract: A ticket releasing apparatus comprising two spaced lateral boards, an upper and a lower guiding plates inclinedly disposed between the lateral boards, a roller and a driving pulley respectively disposed at recessed front ends of the guiding plates and frictionally engaged with each other, and a motor disposed under the driving pulley. The tickets are fed through a space between the guiding plates toward the roller and driving pulley. The motor drives a gear set to drive two driven gears and a brake ratchet which via a transmission sleeve makes the driving pulley rotate and frictionally drive the roller to rotate in a reverse direction so as to send out the ticket between the two guiding plates. By means of the engagement between the brake ratchet and the driven ratchet, a linkage connected with the driven ratchet is able to make a stopper plate disposed above the roller prevent the roller from rotating and thus prevent the ticket from being pulled outside by an unauthorized person.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 2, 1996
    Inventor: Long-Shou Chou
  • Patent number: 5498208
    Abstract: A universal joint for the transfer of power between an input shaft and an output shaft. The joint comprises a modified Cardan or Hooke's joint that is driven by four bevel gears. A first bevel gear is mounted to the end of a fixed housing through which the input shaft passes. A drive bevel gear is mounted to the distal end of the input shaft. Two opposing planetary gears are driven by the drive gear and rotate about the fixed gear. The planetary gear axle is connected to an output yoke which is connected to the output shaft. If the drive, fixed and planetary bevel gears are of the same size, a 2:1 speed reduction joint is provided. Variations of the bevel gears sizes may provide input:output ratios ranging from about 2:1 up to about 10:1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 12, 1996
    Assignee: Oshkosh Truck Corporation
    Inventor: Eric E. Braun
  • Patent number: 5494205
    Abstract: Apparatus for festooning a traveling length of textile fabric or other web-like material comprises a frame supporting a pair of opposed spaced endless conveyor chains across which a plurality of fabric support rods are removably carried by the conveyor chains in succession with one another for supporting an individual festoon of the fabric depending between each successively adjacent pair of the rods. A secondary conveyor arrangement at the fabric entrance end of the frame is operative to temporarily remove each succeeding fabric support rod from the conveyor chains and, after a selected dwell time, to replace each removed rod onto the conveyor chains to control the festooning accumulation of the fabric on the support rods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 27, 1996
    Assignee: Guilford Mills, Inc.
    Inventors: Arne Nielsen, Majid Moghaddassi, Mark R. Keenan
  • Patent number: 5489056
    Abstract: A conveying device for transportation of extended line products such as cables or tubes has tension elements to exert a tension force on at least two tension chain wheels in the direction away from the driving chain wheels. A self-locking wedge prevents the tension chain wheels from moving back and forth. The automatic adjustment of the roller chains reduces wear of the conveying device and prevents speed changes during transportation of the extended line product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 6, 1996
    Assignee: kabelmetal electro GmbH
    Inventor: Harry Staschewski
  • Patent number: 5480085
    Abstract: A continuous web of sheet material is fed through the nip of a first pair of driven pull rolls around a series of idler rollers and through the nip of a second pair of driven pull rolls. The pairs of pull rolls are selectively rotated to exert a desired tension on the web in a tension zone formed between the pairs of rolls. One pair of pull rolls operates as feed rolls to advance a preselected length of the web to a rotating cutter mechanism so that envelope blanks of a selected length are cut from the web for each revolution of the cutter mechanism. The feed rolls are operated by a servo-controlled motor responsive to an operator initiated signal to adjust the feed length without interrupting the feed of the web to the cutter mechanism. The second pair of pull rolls operates as tension rolls and is servo-motor controlled to maintain a preselected tension on the web fed to the cutter mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 1993
    Date of Patent: January 2, 1996
    Assignee: F. L. Smithe Machine Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Eliot S. Smithe, Michael P. Lambert, Jason H. Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 5470005
    Abstract: A method of sensing tension changes in a sheet of material in a processing line, the material having a mass flow balance in the processing line. The method includes using a dancer roll for engaging the sheet and an actuator for mechanically and momentarily introducing changes in the mass flow balance of the sheet. A sensor is provided for detecting sheet tension at a location near that at which the sheet engages the dancer roll and for producing signals indicative of sheet tension. An algorithm is provided for processing the signals in a manner that determines the dynamic relationship between tension variations near the location of the roll and at other locations in the processing line. The signal processing is effective to identify the presence of the magnification of variations in sheet tension so that the causes of such magnification can be identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Assignee: Aluminum Company of America
    Inventors: Eugene O. King, G. Alfred Teasley
  • Patent number: 5460312
    Abstract: The travel of a fabric web is corrected by an image acquisition from a region thereof including a guidance criterium which can be interrupted to produce a single row of image points, the signals of which are digitalized and compared with a reference signal by relative shifting of the stored signals in two shift registers. The number of shifts required to bring about correlation is determined as a measure of the actual position of the web and compared to a setpoint position for operation of an effector restoring the web to its set point position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1993
    Date of Patent: October 24, 1995
    Assignee: Erhart + Leimer GmbH
    Inventors: Jurgen Brau, Jurgen Eisen, Hans Seibold, Martin Zeh, Gunter Franz
  • Patent number: 5452834
    Abstract: A turning bar for changing the direction of a running web or ribbon of paper exiting a printing press. The turning bar is defined by an axisymmetric cylindrical wall having two half surfaces, one half surface having air blow-holes distributed therealong. The turning bar includes a device for blocking the air blow-holes which includes a plurality of flexible membranes and a corresponding plurality of maneuvering handles. The flexible membranes have the shape of an axisymmetric cylindrical sleeve and are arranged inside the turning bar and distributed one after the other over the entire length of the turning bar. The maneuvering handles are arranged on the cylindrical half-surface opposite the blow holes of the turning bar, each maneuvering handle having one end disposed inside the axisymmetric cylindrical wall of the turning bar which is securely fastened to a flexible membrane allowing each flexible membrane to occupy two positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 26, 1995
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Jean Mariotti, Cherif Elkotbi
  • Patent number: 5449106
    Abstract: An intermittent terminal feed mechanism is provide in a machine for attaching terminals to electrical conductors. The terminals are fed, in strip form, along a feed track to a workstation by the intermittent feed mechanism that retracts away from the strip of terminals during the return stroke. The feed mechanism includes a support member that is threaded onto an adjustable coupling that is attached to and carried by the piston rod of a linear actuator. A pawl is pivotally attached at one end to the support member while the other end has a tooth that engages the strip of terminals for feeding. Another linear actuator is attached to the support member and is arranged to pivot the pawl into engagement with the strip of terminals during feeding thereof and out of engagement during the return stroke.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 12, 1995
    Assignee: The Whitaker Corporation
    Inventor: Richard A. Buckley
  • Patent number: 5447262
    Abstract: Apparatus for transporting a material web having lateral depressions (25, 27) arranged at regular distances from one another. For the transport of a material web (10, 35) of this type in the correct position, the web bears on a conveying drum (28) which has elevations (29, 30) for positive penetration into the depressions (25, 27). In a material web (10, 35) consisting of partially prepunched blanks (11), the conveying drum (28) serves, in cooperation with an auxilary drum (51), for forming bending points (49, 50), the material web (10, 35) being capable of being grasped by suction bores (52, 53), offset relative to one another in the circumferential direction, of the conveying drum (28), on the one hand, and of the auxiliary drum (51), on the other hand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 5, 1995
    Assignee: Focke & Co. (GmbH & Co.)
    Inventors: Heinz Focke, Henry Buse
  • Patent number: 5423467
    Abstract: A film registration gate assembly has a gate with focal positioning location for focal positioning of an image frame of a strip film with edge perforations. Undersized first and second pins enter a pair of transversely aligned perforations of the film to register the image frame with the positioning location. An undersized third pin enters a third perforation spaced along the film from the second pin and then pulls the film obliquely to a reference line extending between the first and second pins to nest against the first and second pins the perforations thereat and register the image frame precisely at the aperture. A plate with a window registering with the image frame and aperture clamps the film against the gate. The window, positioning location and image frame are of corresponding size and shape. The pins register the image frame precisely with the positioning location, and the plate maintains the image frame in precise focal position thereat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 13, 1995
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventor: Douglass L. Blanding
  • Patent number: 5405293
    Abstract: A device for transmitting torque between two rotatable shaft members (2, 3) in a stationary housing (1) contains a number of alternate clutch discs (10, 11) engageable to counteract differential rotational speed between the two shaft members, to which they are connected, a hydraulic clutch piston (12) to engage the clutch discs and a hydraulic pump arrangement (15-24) driven by the speed differential between the two shaft members. An annular control piston (15) is axially movably arranged in the housing and is in contact with control pins (17), which are rotatable together with one of the shaft members (3) and cooperate with a cam curve (20) in the other shaft member (2) in such a way that the control pins and thus the control piston are imparted an oscillating movement with a frequency directly proportional to the rotational speed differential between the two shaft members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 11, 1995
    Assignee: Ipumatic AB
    Inventor: Lars M. Severinsson