Patents by Inventor Debra Thurston-Slocum

Debra Thurston-Slocum 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: 20210380304
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a box or bag that is made of a substrate strip which includes a winder having a mandrel and posts that extend from the mandrel in a direction parallel to a winding and translation axis that rotate together as a unit around the translation axis. The apparatus also has a feeder that includes precursors and a gathering head used for forming the precursors into the strip and feeding the strip to the winder. A motor adjusts the feeder's angle relative to the winder in response to instructions from the controller based on the dimensions of the box or bag. This causes controlled overlap between adjacent windings of the strip on the posts. As the mandrel rotates, the posts draw the strip and wind the strip along a spiral having a length in excess of the depth. Zero waste of precursors is made possible by cutting the substrate perpendicular to its length and folding over the box or bag ends to form an angled seam with respect to the sides of the box.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Alexander Slocum, Debra Thurston-Slocum
  • Patent number: 10988279
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a box or bag that is made of a substrate strip which includes a winder having a mandrel and posts that extend from the mandrel in a direction parallel to a winding and translation axis that rotate together as a unit around the translation axis. The apparatus also has a feeder that includes precursors and a gathering head used for forming the precursors into the strip and feeding the strip to the winder. A motor adjusts the feeder's angle relative to the winder in response to instructions from the controller based on the dimensions of the box or bag. This causes controlled overlap between adjacent windings of the strip on the posts. As the mandrel rotates, the posts draw the strip and wind the strip along a spiral having a length in excess of the depth. Zero waste of precursors is made possible by cutting the substrate perpendicular to its length and folding over the box or bag ends to form an angled seam with respect to the sides of the box.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Inventors: Alexander Slocum, Debra Thurston-Slocum
  • Publication number: 20200399012
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a box or bag that is made of a substrate strip which includes a winder having a mandrel and posts that extend from the mandrel in a direction parallel to a winding and translation axis that rotate together as a unit around the translation axis. The apparatus also has a feeder that includes precursors and a gathering head used for forming the precursors into the strip and feeding the strip to the winder. A motor adjusts the feeder's angle relative to the winder in response to instructions from the controller based on the dimensions of the box or bag. This causes controlled overlap between adjacent windings of the strip on the posts. As the mandrel rotates, the posts draw the strip and wind the strip along a spiral having a length in excess of the depth. Zero waste of precursors is made possible by cutting the substrate perpendicular to its length and folding over the box or bag ends to form an angled seam with respect to the sides of the box.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Publication date: December 24, 2020
    Inventors: Alexander Slocum, Debra Thurston-Slocum
  • Patent number: 4878002
    Abstract: A multi-axis Digital Signal Processor based servo controller system in which all servo and sensor interface boards are connected to a common backplane bus system enabling inter-board communication, with parallel processing using dual port memory and multiple DSP chips, and with each servo board having access to position data from other axis feedback sensors as well as their own, and a self-tuning control software architecture that uses the hardware architecture high speed to allow it to self-tune control constants to optimize performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1988
    Date of Patent: October 31, 1989
    Assignee: Advanced Engineering Systems, Operations & Products, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Heatzig, Alexander Slocum, Debra Thurston-Slocum