Patents by Inventor Brett Heher

Brett Heher has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240043335
    Abstract: A composition of matter for use in a binder jet is provided. The composition includes a binder, and the binder includes a polymer made from saturated monomers. The binder may be a reversible binder that decomposes during sintering. And, different binders may be used in different locations of a target object produced using the inventive compositions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2022
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Inventors: Rachel Dorfner, Shawn A McClintic, Brett Heher
  • Patent number: 11781469
    Abstract: An insert device includes a body having an upper body portion configured to couple with a cylinder head of an engine cylinder and a lower body portion extending from the upper body portion toward a combustion chamber of the engine cylinder. The body includes an interior surface extending around a central volume positioned to receive liquid fuel from a fuel injector. The body includes gas inlet channels and fuel-and-gas mixture outlet channels. The gas inlet channels direct gas into the central volume where the gas mixes with the liquid fuel to form the fuel-and-gas mixture. The fuel-and-gas mixture outlet channels direct the mixture into the combustion chamber. The interior surface includes concave surface portions between the inlet channels and the outlet channels along a center axis of the body that are shaped to direct the gas into the central volume toward the liquid fuel in the central volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Transportation IP Holdings, LLC
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, Manuel Licon Flores, Kevin Paul Bailey
  • Publication number: 20230311042
    Abstract: A filter system includes a body having an inlet and an outlet fluidly coupled with the inlet by one or more passageways. The one or more passageways are shaped to direct a fluid having particles through the body from the inlet toward the outlet. The one or more passageways may rotate the fluid in one or more cyclonic directions. A lattice component is disposed within the passageways and includes one or more openings through which the fluid passes as the fluid moves in the one or more cyclonic directions. The passageways are shaped to remove a first portion of the particles from the fluid, and the lattice component is shaped to remove a second portion of the particles from the fluid such that the fluid exiting from the body via the outlet has fewer of the particles than when the fluid entered the body via the inlet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2021
    Publication date: October 5, 2023
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Douglas Lee Locke, Jennifer Coyne, John E. Barnes
  • Patent number: 11725619
    Abstract: An alignment system includes an optical sensor device that may be inserted into a passage of a body that is located between a fuel injector and a combustion chamber of an engine cylinder. The body is shaped to transmit fuel ejected from a spray hole in a fuel injector into the combustion chamber of the engine cylinder. The system also includes a controller that may examine output of the optical sensor device and determine whether the passage of the body is aligned with the spray hole of the fuel injector based on the output from the optical sensor device. The controller may change a position of one or more of the body or the fuel injector responsive to determining that the passage of the body is not aligned with the spray hole of the fuel injector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: TRANSPORTATION IP HOLDINGS, LLC
    Inventors: Jay Richerson, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, Eric Dillen, Kevin Bailey, Kent Jeffries, Brett Heher, Manuel Licon Flores
  • Publication number: 20230243504
    Abstract: An insert device may include a body coupled with an engine cylinder head. The body has an interior surface shaped to receive and engage a distal tip of a fuel injector. The body has gas conduits and mixture conduits with gas conduits extending from inlets along an exterior surface to outlets that intersect the mixture conduits. The mixture conduits extend from inlets along an interior surface of the body to outlets on the exterior surface. The gas conduits are positioned to direct gases outside of the body into the mixture conduits. The mixture conduits are positioned to receive fuel from spray holes of the fuel injector. The mixture conduits can entrain the gas with the fuel into a fuel-and-gas mixture that is directed out of the outlets of the mixture conduits and into a combustion chamber of an engine cylinder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2023
    Publication date: August 3, 2023
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Kevin Paul Bailey, Manuel Licon Flores, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, John P. Dowell
  • Patent number: 11674431
    Abstract: A piston cooling jet is provided that may include a housing having an interior chamber that receives a fluid from an external source, and a conduit coupled with the housing and fluidly coupled with the interior chamber, the conduit having a bent shape to direct the fluid from the interior chamber of the housing toward an underside of an engine piston head. The piston cooling jet may also include a flow straightening nozzle coupled with the conduit and positioned to straighten flow of the fluid exiting from the conduit via the nozzle toward the underside of the engine piston head, the flow straightening nozzle having internal intersecting walls that intersect along a direction of the flow of the fluid in the conduit and out of the flow straightening nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Transportation IP Holdings, LLC
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Mahantesh Mallappa Hosur, Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, Kevin Paul Bailey, Sudeep Pradhan Sadananda Rao
  • Patent number: 11608803
    Abstract: An insert device includes a first coupling body inserted into an engine cylinder head. The first coupling body extends around a center axis to define a first interior volume of the first coupling body that is shaped to receive a distal tip of a fuel injector. The insert device includes a second mixing body coupled with the first coupling body and extending around the center axis. The second mixing body includes conduits that receive fuel from the fuel injector and air from a combustion chamber, combine the fuel with the air, and direct the fuel-air mixture into the combustion chamber. The first coupling body has a first end surface positioned to face the cylinder head and the first coupling body is tapered such that an outer diameter of the first coupling body is larger toward the first end surface than toward the second mixing body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: TRANSPORTATION IP HOLDINGS, LLC
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Kevin Paul Bailey, Manuel Licon Flores, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, John Patrick Dowell
  • Publication number: 20230052578
    Abstract: An insert device includes a body having an upper body portion configured to couple with a cylinder head of an engine cylinder and a lower body portion extending from the upper body portion toward a combustion chamber of the engine cylinder. The body includes an interior surface extending around a central volume positioned to receive liquid fuel from a fuel injector. The body includes gas inlet channels and fuel-and-gas mixture outlet channels. The gas inlet channels direct gas into the central volume where the gas mixes with the liquid fuel to form the fuel-and-gas mixture. The fuel-and-gas mixture outlet channels direct the mixture into the combustion chamber. The interior surface includes concave surface portions between the inlet channels and the outlet channels along a center axis of the body that are shaped to direct the gas into the central volume toward the liquid fuel in the central volume.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 12, 2021
    Publication date: February 16, 2023
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, Manuel Licon Flores, Kevin Paul Bailey
  • Publication number: 20230012000
    Abstract: An insert device includes a first coupling body inserted into an engine cylinder head. The first coupling body extends around a center axis to define a first interior volume of the first coupling body that is shaped to receive a distal tip of a fuel injector. The insert device includes a second mixing body coupled with the first coupling body and extending around the center axis. The second mixing body includes conduits that receive fuel from the fuel injector and air from a combustion chamber, combine the fuel with the air, and direct the fuel-air mixture into the combustion chamber. The first coupling body has a first end surface positioned to face the cylinder head and the first coupling body is tapered such that an outer diameter of the first coupling body is larger toward the first end surface than toward the second mixing body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Kevin Paul Bailey, Manuel Licon Flores, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, John Patrick Dowell
  • Publication number: 20220355383
    Abstract: A method includes forming one or more plug holes into a tool surface of a body. The one or more plug holes are partially formed around a landing surface portion of a plug in the body. The method also includes engaging a tool with the landing surface portion of the plug in the body, and using the tool to cut away the plug from the body and at least part of the body to form a tooled void into the body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2021
    Publication date: November 10, 2022
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Manuel Licon Flores
  • Publication number: 20220268248
    Abstract: An alignment system includes an optical sensor device that may be inserted into a passage of a body that is located between a fuel injector and a combustion chamber of an engine cylinder. The body is shaped to transmit fuel ejected from a spray hole in a fuel injector into the combustion chamber of the engine cylinder. The system also includes a controller that may examine output of the optical sensor device and determine whether the passage of the body is aligned with the spray hole of the fuel injector based on the output from the optical sensor device. The controller may change a position of one or more of the body or the fuel injector responsive to determining that the passage of the body is not aligned with the spray hole of the fuel injector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2021
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventors: Jay Richerson, Adam Edgar Klingbeil, Eric Dillen, Kevin Bailey, Kent Jeffries, Brett Heher, Manuel Licon Flores
  • Publication number: 20220008994
    Abstract: A method or process may be provided that includes forming a first sinterable equipment part using a first manufacturing method, and forming a second equipment part using a second manufacturing method. The sinterable first equipment part may then be heated while securing the first equipment part to the second equipment part to form a monolithic equipment part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Mahantesh Mallappa Hosur, Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, Kevin Paul Bailey, Sudeep Pradhan Sadananda Rao
  • Publication number: 20220010718
    Abstract: A piston cooling jet is provided that may include a housing having an interior chamber that receives a fluid from an external source, and a conduit coupled with the housing and fluidly coupled with the interior chamber, the conduit having a bent shape to direct the fluid from the interior chamber of the housing toward an underside of an engine piston head. The piston cooling jet may also include a flow straightening nozzle coupled with the conduit and positioned to straighten flow of the fluid exiting from the conduit via the nozzle toward the underside of the engine piston head, the flow straightening nozzle having internal intersecting walls that intersect along a direction of the flow of the fluid in the conduit and out of the flow straightening nozzle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Publication date: January 13, 2022
    Inventors: Brett Heher, Mahantesh Mallappa Hosur, Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, Kevin Paul Bailey, Sudeep Pradhan Sadananda Rao
  • Patent number: D965029
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: Transportation IP Holdings, LLC
    Inventors: Mahantesh Mallappa Hosur, Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, Sudeep Pradhan Sadananda Rao, Kevin Paul Bailey, Brett Heher