Patents Examined by Thomas J. Brahan
  • Method for loading and unloading
    Patent number: 7287953
    Abstract: Method for loading and unloading long-distance transportation means (1, 2) and for temporarily storing a standardized cargo (18) in an intermediate storage facility (3) includes a rail-guided hoist (5) with gripper (8). The cargo is lifted from a long-distance transportation means (1) and transferred to a transfer zone (4), lowered and set down. The cargo (18) is then transferred to an intermediate storage facility (3) and stored therein, then removed, transferred to a predetermined location in the transfer zone (4), and lowered and deposited onto a rail-guided long-distance transportation means (2) by the hoist (5).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Rail Cargo Austria AG
    Inventors: Dietmar Schratt, Helmut Klaus Schimany
  • Load lifter for a motor vehicle
    Patent number: 7287948
    Abstract: A load lifter for a motor vehicle includes a vertically standing outer support firmly attached to the motor vehicle, having an outer support through whose interior a second load support can be pivoted around an axis located in the lower area. The load support is connected to the outer support by a block and tackle. A load can be suspended from the load support, and can be raised to a vertical position with the help of the block and tackle. Then it can be moved to the other side of the axis with a slight exertion of force, from where lowering is possible with the block and tackle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Inventor: Herbert Knoell
  • Buffer device for elevator
    Patent number: 7287626
    Abstract: In a buffer device for an elevator, a hydraulic buffer that alleviates shock generated when a traveling body impacts at the bottom of a hoistway is located at the bottom of the hostway. Provided between the traveling body and the bottom of the hoistway is an elastic member that is elastically deformed and that alleviates the shock generated by the impact of the traveling body with the hydraulic buffer. The elastic member is arranged so that, when elastically deformed, almost fall of the elastic member is positioned within a range of a vertical dimension of the hydraulic buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kigawa, Takashi Yumura, Sen Zhao, Chang-Ming Zhu
  • Automated processing system
    Patent number: 7278813
    Abstract: An automated processing system has an indexer bay perpendicularly aligned with a process bay within a clean air enclosure. An indexer in the indexer bay provides stocking or storage for work in progress wafers or articles. Process chambers are located in the process bay. A transfer robot moves wafers from a pod unsealed at a docking station into a carrier at a transfer station. The carrier has tapered or stepped outside surfaces engaging corresponding inside surfaces on a rotor within a process chamber. A process robot moves between the indexer bay and process bay to carry wafers to and from the process chambers. The process robot has a robot arm vertically moveable along a lift rail. Wafers are carried offset from the robot arm, to better avoid contamination. The automated system is compact and requires less clean room floor space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2007
    Assignee: Semitool, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffry A. Davis, Gordon Ray Nelson, Daniel P. Bexten
  • Library service port
    Patent number: 7273344
    Abstract: A data storage library and method of operation are disclosed wherein access at least to part of at least one robotics mechanism from the data storage library's exterior is permitted. Access is accomplished through a service port in the library's housing. Access to the storage cells, and thus the data cartridges sitting therein, from the library's exterior is blocked. Blocking access to the storage cells may be provided by a geometry of the service port itself, or by a combination of a door and the robotics mechanism being serviced filling the opening created by the service port. For robotics mechanisms operating on a track, part of the track may be routed through the service port to bring the robotics mechanisms to the exterior of the library for maintenance purposes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2007
    Assignee: Storage Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy C. Ostwald, Daniel James Plutt
  • Method for erecting an at least two-piece main boom for a lattice-boom crane and lattice-boom crane built accordingly
    Patent number: 7270243
    Abstract: The present invention substantially relates to a method for erecting and disassembling an at least two-piece main boom for a lattice-boom crane. The erecting and disassembling procedure results in that the geometric kinematic properties of the main boom (1, 2) are used in such a manner that during the erecting and disassembling, the effective lever arm (1?) of the main boom (1, 2) is reduced. This results from the main boom (1, 2) being bent at the hinge point (A), at which at least two boom portions (1, 2) are connected to each other, and thus an angle position is produced between the two boom portions (1, 2). Further, the invention relates to a main boom (1, 2), which can be erected by the method as well as a lattice-boom crane having such an main boom (1, 2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2007
    Assignee: Terex-Demag GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Stefan Diehl
  • Method for nonintrusive scanning of cargo containers in a buffer operation
    Patent number: 7267239
    Abstract: A method for nonintrusive scanning of cargo containers quay side while the containers are being transferred between ship and land transportation utilizing a mobile cargo container handling buffer crane having a bridge crane mounted thereon for transferring cargo containers between a ship and land transportation with an intermediate transfer position whereby a suspended container can be noninvasively inspected by a longitudinally reciprocating container traversing radiation emitter apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2007
    Inventors: Toru Takehara, Kinya Ichimura, Sun Huan Huang, Philip Alexander Tam
  • Method and device for maintaining a position of a load suspended from a lifting gear
    Patent number: 7267240
    Abstract: In a method for maintaining a position of a load on a lifting gear, a position of a load, which is suspended from a trolley of a lifting gear via at least four cables, is determined and a swinging motion of the load is counteracted by selectively adjusting the length of at least one of the cables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2007
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Peter Maurer, Peter Schulte
  • Device for determining a load on a hoist
    Patent number: 7267241
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for determining a load on a hoist of a crane for handling a container, including rope drum, drive motor as well as hoist transmission disposed between drive motor and rope drum and having a hoist transmission case which is swingably supported about an axis in parallel relationship to the rope drum axis and can be supported on its opposite end on at least one torque support, which a device for indirect determination of the load, suspended from the ropes, is assigned to.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2007
    Assignee: Gottwald Port Technology GmbH
    Inventors: Hermann Franzen, Jannis Moutsokapas
  • Device for slewing the column of a crane
    Patent number: 7264129
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device dedicated for slewing a crane column, which device comprises a fastenable crane base formed by a house which is open at the top and at the bottom and in which a lower tubular part of the crane column is rotatably journalled by means of a number of bearings, which have the abilities of absorbing the bending moment as well as the axial and-/or transversal forces. A power source is connected to the crane column via a power slewing in order to provide for a powered rotation of the crane column around a vertical axis of rotation. Characterizing for the invention is that the power transmission comprises an eccentric gear, which is integrated with the house by being seated in an annular space between the outside of the crane column and the inside of the house.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2007
    Assignee: Rilbe & Co. HB
    Inventors: Ulf Rilbe, Jan Palmcrantz
  • Overhead travelling carriage system
    Patent number: 7261510
    Abstract: The present invention provides an overhead travelling carriage system in which an overhead travelling carriage 110 is run along a running rail to convey a cassette 14 between processing devices 111. The overhead travelling carriage system is provided with an elevating space 8 for a platform 12 on which transfer means 51 is provided to transfer the cassette 14 and a storage space 10 in which a plurality of shelves are provided in a vertical direction to store cassettes 14. The elevating space and the storage space are arranged in a direction orthogonal to the running rail, as viewed from above. According to the present invention, the stocker requires a reduced space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2007
    Assignee: Murata Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoichi Motoori, Akito Tai, Hisanori Matsumoto
  • Method for aligning a loadport to an overhead hoist transport system
    Patent number: 7261508
    Abstract: A method for aligning a loadport of a process machine to an overhead hoist transport (OHT) system which can be carried out by first providing an OHT rail overhanging a cleanroom floor; setting a reference point in the cleanroom in proximity to the OHT rail; marking on the cleanroom floor boundary reference lines for each row of process machines based on the reference point; positioning a process machine on the cleanroom floor with a boundary line of the machine aligned to the boundary reference line; mounting a loadport onto the process machine; and fine tuning a center line of the loadport to a reference line on the floor that is 200 mm apart from and parallel to the boundary reference line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2007
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Li-Ren Lin, Shi-Ming Wang, Cheng-Chang Chang
  • Mobile crane boom having an autarchic hydraulic power unit mounted thereon
    Patent number: 7258242
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a mobile crane boom having a self-sufficient energy supply arranged on it for supplying hydraulic energy to at least one hydraulic load arranged on the mobile crane boom. The supply of the hydraulic load arranged on the mobile crane boom is therefore not carried out by means of a hydraulic unit arranged on the revolving superstructure of the crane, which provides the hydraulic energy to each hydraulic load via hoses, but by means of a hydraulic unit which is arranged in the upper reaches of the mobile crane boom or in the area of the linkage of any second boom section. By arranging the hydraulic unit directly on the boom, the hoses normally required for supplying the hydraulic loads can be eliminated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2007
    Assignee: Terex-Demag GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Michael Irsch, Bernd Backes
  • Substrate cassette mapper
    Patent number: 7255524
    Abstract: A mechanism for mapping the contents of a cassette which is used for delivering substrates to a system for processing semiconductor and similar materials which is independent of load port or loading robot movement. The mapping mechanism includes a U-shaped probe having a photo emitter/receptor mounted on opposing surfaces of its legs. The U-shaped probe is mounted on a carriage for rotation about its longitudinal axis. The carriage is, in turn, mounted on a track for movement over the height of the cassette. The mapping mechanism is mounted on the loading port frame of the processing system adjacent to the load port and is moved into and out of it sensing position by interaction with a cam.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Assignee: Brooks Automation, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher A. Hofmeister, Ulysses Gilchrist
  • Rapid assembly game blind transport trailer
    Patent number: 7255526
    Abstract: A rapid assembly game blind transport trailer that breaks at pivot points in folding fashion and stands upright along with the attached game blind as a driver moves in reverse, and which allows rapid standing and easy separation or attachment of the blind and trailer unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Inventors: Lawrence Friesenhahn, Sr., Lawrence Friesenhahn, Jr.
  • Transporting apparatus having vertically movable holding portion
    Patent number: 7255238
    Abstract: The present invention provides a transporting apparatus provided with a sensor for detecting information relating to a relative position in the vertical direction between an article to be transported and a holding portion for holding the article, and a controller that is linked to this sensor through signals, wherein the controller raises the holding portion by a set raising amount when the sensor detects that the holding portion is below a target lowering position. Thus, it is possible to provide a transporting apparatus with which the position of the holding portion can be automatically moved to a suitable position even if the holding portion is lowered too far with respect to the article.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Assignee: Daifuku Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masayuki Ikeya
  • Mobile crane having a superlift device
    Patent number: 7252203
    Abstract: A mobile crane with a carrier and a superstructure which is slewably arranged thereon has a superlift device with an SL counterweight for increasing lifting capacity. The SL counterweight can be lifted from the ground in order to execute slewing movements of the superstructure and its slewing radius is changeable. The crane has an electronic control device with a computing device and with a display. In order to avoid costly conversion work on the SL counterweight and to increase operating safety, a program is stored in the electronic control device, which program determines a permissible operating field for crane parameters from the parameters comprising load size and load radius, size of SL counterweight and SL counterweight radius while taking into account the stability criteria and capacity criteria of the mobile crane and displays this operating field graphically on the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2007
    Assignee: Terex-Demag GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Ralf Frankenberger, Jörg Lattwein, Manfred Kretschmer
  • Logging carriage with towline-operated grapple
    Patent number: 7246712
    Abstract: A logging system including a yarder, a skyline, a towline, a carriage riding on the skyline, and a grapple depending from the carriage for grabbing logs and carrying them back to a landing. The carriage and grapple are moved along the skyline for positioning the grapple above a log(s). A remote control device for controlling the slackening and tightening of the skyline and towline, as well as the turning and opening and closing of the grapple. The towline is attached to the grapple, so that when the operator signals the tightening of the towline, the grapple closes around the log.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Inventor: Scotty Baker
  • Logging grapple carriage
    Patent number: 7234605
    Abstract: A grappling carriage that is relatively lightweight and adapted to forcefully close first and second grapple legs with a log or a bundle of logs contained therein. The grappling carriage has a self-contained power supply that is remotely controlled by the operator. The grappling carriage is sufficiently lightweight to operate in a variety of cabling topographies given the relatively lighter weight of the unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Inventor: Lincoln Torgerson
  • Tire-detecting wheel chock apparatus
    Patent number: 7226265
    Abstract: A wheel chock apparatus includes a chock body for chocking a tire of a vehicle such as a semi-trailer prior to loading or unloading the trailer by a towmotor at a docking bay. When properly positioned, the chock body prevents movement of the vehicle away from the docking bay during the loading or unloading operation. Such movement poses a possible hazard to the cargo being loaded or unloaded, to the equipment performing the loading/unloading operations, and to the operator of such equipment. The chock body includes a sensor mounted on or embedded in the body, which is capable of detecting a properly chocked tire. The sensor is electrically connected to a microcontroller programmed to control an indicator, such as a visual light or audible alarm, that will alert an equipment operator on the docking bay as to whether the driver of the vehicle has properly chocked the tires.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: Hendrickson USA, L L.C.
    Inventor: James D. Wilson