Patents by Inventor Donald P. Kochendorfer

Donald P. Kochendorfer 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).

  • Patent number: 4097096
    Abstract: A refrigerator cabinet feed-through grommet formed of resilient material comprising an outer sleeve section having one end formed with a double flange for sealingly connecting the grommet to the cabinet liner. The grommet has an inner socket section for supporting a rigid tube, enclosing an insulated electrical heater conductor, located in the space between the cabinet outer shell and inner liner. The socket portion includes stop means for seating the tube free edge so as to obviate any contact by the electrical conductor with the end of the tube. The interconnection of the socket section with the outer sleeve section is provided by a frusto-conical shaped lead-in section being sufficiently yieldable to permit the inner socket section to move out of concentrically spaced relation with the outer sleeve section so as to compensate for some misalignment of the tube with respect to the grommet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 1977
    Date of Patent: June 27, 1978
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Donald P. Kochendorfer
  • Patent number: 4086785
    Abstract: A two-piece electric fan motor mounting arrangement for use in a domestic refrigerator cabinet which is designed to provide improved dampening of motor torque vibrations while allowing for easy assembly by reducing the number of parts. The mount includes a blower orifice housing and a U-shaped bracket, each molded of plastic, with the result that the mount has no effect on the motor magnetic flux path, thus permitting more efficient motor performance at the designed R.P.M. of the fan impeller while eliminating the requirement for electrical grounding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 1977
    Date of Patent: May 2, 1978
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Donald P. Kochendorfer, Robert S. Hanson
  • Patent number: 3968906
    Abstract: An ice piece dispenser comprising a storage container having a longitudinally extending trough in its bottom wall with an ice dispensing closure means at the front end of the trough. A motor driven ram is positioned in the trough for combined reciprocating and oscillating travel wherein the ram has a stepped upper surface with a vertically extending ice piece agitating fin member formed integrally on one of the ram steps. The fin member is operative, in conjunction with the container's sloped front wall chute, to break-up ice piece clusters upon the forward thrust of the ram and whereby the ice pieces exert a downward gravitational force on inclined edges of the fin to maintain the ram in sliding contact with the trough base during its forward thrust.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 1975
    Date of Patent: July 13, 1976
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Donald P. Kochendorfer, Robert S. Hanson