Patents by Inventor Fred L. Travelute

Fred L. Travelute 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).

  • Resilient molded preform made from staple fibers of self-texturing filaments
    Patent number: 5614296
    Abstract: A method of producing self-texturing filaments that exhibit a desirable tendency to coil rather than to bend sharply or zig zag. The method includes directing a quenching fluid at extruded hollow filaments of a liquid polymer predominantly from one side of the hollow filaments to thereby produce hollow filaments with different orientations on each side. Thereafter the temperature of the hollow filaments is raised to a temperature sufficient for the filaments to relax, but less than the temperature at which the filaments would shrink. When the relaxed filaments are cut into staple lengths, they tend to assume a form that provides a favorable degree of mechanical entanglement that is useful in forming resilient solid structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 25, 1997
    Assignee: Wellman, Inc.
    Inventors: Fred L. Travelute, Robert E. Hoffman
  • Method of forming staple fibers from self-texturing filaments
    Patent number: 5531951
    Abstract: A method of producing self-texturing filaments that exhibit a desirable tendency to coil rather than to bend sharply or zig zag. The method includes directing a quenching fluid at extruded hollow filaments of a liquid polymer predominantly from one side of the hollow filaments to thereby produce hollow filaments with different orientations on each side. Thereafter the temperature of the hollow filaments is raised to a temperature sufficient for the filaments to relax, but less than the temperature at which the filaments would shrink. When the relaxed filaments are cut into staple lengths, they tend to assume a form that provides a favorable degree of mechanical entanglement that is useful in forming resilient solid structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 1994
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1996
    Assignee: Wellman, Inc.
    Inventors: Fred L. Travelute, Robert E. Hoffman
  • Method of forming self-texturing filaments and resulting self-texturing filaments
    Patent number: 5510183
    Abstract: A method is disclosed of producing self-texturing filaments that exhibit a desirable tendency to coil rather than to bend sharply or zig zag. The method comprises directing a quenching fluid at extruded hollow filaments of a liquid polymer predominantly from one side of the hollow filaments to thereby produce hollow filaments with different orientations on each side. Thereafter the temperature of the hollow filaments is raised to a temperature sufficient for the filaments to relax, but less than the temperature at which the filaments would shrink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 1994
    Date of Patent: April 23, 1996
    Assignee: Wellman, Inc.
    Inventors: Fred L. Travelute, Robert E. Hoffman
  • Method of forming self-texturing filaments and resulting self-texturing filaments
    Patent number: 5407625
    Abstract: A method is disclosed of producing self-texturing filaments that exhibit a desirable tendency to coil rather than to bend sharply or zig zag. The method comprises directing a quenching fluid at extruded hollow filaments of a liquid polymer predominantly from one side of the hollow filaments to thereby produce hollow filaments with different orientations on each side. Thereafter the temperature of the hollow filaments is raised to a temperature sufficient for the filaments to relax, but less than the temperature at which the filaments would shrink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 18, 1995
    Assignee: Wellman, Inc.
    Inventors: Fred L. Travelute, Robert E. Hoffman