Patents by Inventor Gerd Marhofer

Gerd Marhofer 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: 4932256
    Abstract: A heat transmission measuring instrument, namely a flow monitor for electric detection of heat losses in a flowing medium has a metal, circular-cylindrical measuring instrument housing (1) provided with an external thread (2), having a first temperature measuring element (3), having at least one heating element (4) and having a second temperature measuring element (5), wherein the first temperature measuring element (3), at least one heating element (4) and the second temperature measuring element (5) are applied to one side of a substrate foil (6) that is a good electrical insulator and a good thermal conductor, and the substrate foil (6) is put into thermally conductive contact with the measuring instrument housing (1) with its side remote from the temperature measuring elements (3, 5) and the heating element (4), at least in the regions in which the temperature measuring elements (3, 5) and the heating element (4) are applied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 1989
    Date of Patent: June 12, 1990
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4856329
    Abstract: A heat transfer measurement device, in particular a flow monitor for the electrical measurement of heat losses in a flowing medium, with a metallic, circular cylindrical measurement device housing having an outside thread, with a first temperature measurement element, a heating element and a second temperature measurement element. The flow monitor in accordance with the invention is on the one hand quick in a thermal sense and can be manufactured relatively simply on the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 1988
    Date of Patent: August 15, 1989
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4748740
    Abstract: An automatic machine for mounting leadless components such as chip components onto a substrate. The components are delivered on belts wound onto belt reels having a substrate holder operating as a feed device in the longitudinal direction. The machine has a "pick and place" device with a positioning unit and a mounting head, as well as a component delivery device for the components on the belt reels. The component delivery device has a holder unit for the belt reels, a belt guide having a plurality of belt guide tracks, a belt conveyor and a peel-off unit for peeling off the material covering the belts. The belt conveyor is a single unit. In each individual mounting operation, a separate belt is moved into the belt conveyor position specified by the belt conveyor unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 7, 1988
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4663542
    Abstract: An electronic sensor of the contactless type has a free-running oscillator with internal positive feedback supplemented by an external negative feedback including a capacitive path whose impedance is normally high but is lowered in the presence of an object to be detected, thereby reducing the output signal of the oscillator from a normal amplitude above a predetermined level to a diminished amplitude below that level. The negative feedback is provided through an IGFET, e.g. of n-channel depletion type, with the aid of a capacitor bridging its source and gate electrodes to form with the external capacitance a voltage divider for the output signal of the oscillator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 1984
    Date of Patent: May 5, 1987
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4543566
    Abstract: A contactless motion detector responsive to the approach of a ferromagnetic element, including an oscillator with a sensing coil, has an output lead connected to one input of a first Exclusive-OR gate having another input connected to a square-wave generator whose pulses appear in the output of that gate with or without phase inversion depending on the output voltage of the motion detector. These pulses are fed, via an amplifier, to one input of a second Exclusive-OR gate whose other input receives the output pulses of the square-wave generator directly but with a delay compensating a lag introduced by the first gate and the amplifier. In the absence of a malfunction, the inputs of the second gate are energized either cophasally or antiphasally to produce either a low or a high output voltage of substantially constant magnitude fed to a load; in the event of a malfunction interrupting the pulse transmission to either input of this second gate, its output becomes a pulsating voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 1982
    Date of Patent: September 24, 1985
    Assignees: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer, Hans-Dieter Gesthuysen
  • Patent number: 4525699
    Abstract: A contactless motion detector, specifically an oscillator whose signal amplitude is attenuated or enhanced by the approach of a monitored metallic element, is periodically switched for brief periods into its alternate state by a train of short test pulses giving rise to corresponding checking pulses that are superimposed upon the integrated output voltage of the oscillator whereby that voltage is intermittently increased when at low level and/or intermittently reduced when at high level. These checking pulses, whether of the voltage-increasing or the voltage-reducing kind, are integrated to provide an enabling signal allowing a controlled load to be energized or de-energized according to the mean value of the output voltage; an absence of the enabling signal indicates a malfunction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 1983
    Date of Patent: June 25, 1985
    Assignee: i f m electronic GmbH
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Michael B. Friedrich, Hans D. Gesthuysen, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4424458
    Abstract: A signal detector of a contactless proximity sensor feeds three voltage comparators with reference inputs connected to points of different threshold potentials. When the incoming signal exceeds only the lowest threshold, a light-emitting diode is flashed at a low frequency; when the intermediate threshold is surpassed, the diode flashes at a higher frequency, whereas its light emission is continuous in the presence of a signal level above the highest threshold. Only in the last two instances will a load-control circuit be switched.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 1981
    Date of Patent: January 3, 1984
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4225748
    Abstract: A switch assembly, especially for electronic contactless or proximity switches comprises a substantially two-part housing including the housing bottom and housing top which are separable from one another. The housing parts interfit to form a generally rectangular parallelepipedal structure provided at one end with a threaded connection for a threaded connector, pipe or conduit through which conductors may be passed to connect to the electronic device within the housing. The bottom housing portion is provided with the connecting circuitry while the top housing portion, interfitting with the bottom housing portion, has a part overhanging the latter and provided with the plug connectors forming a detachable electrical connection with the connecting circuitry permanently received in the lower housing portion. The upper housing portion contains all of the switch circuitry in its receptacle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 1978
    Date of Patent: September 30, 1980
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer
  • Patent number: 4193023
    Abstract: A contactless motion detector, such as an oscillator sensitive to an approaching metallic element, is connected across a storage capacitor which can be charged from a source of pulsating direct current through a constant-current unit whose current flow is throttled when the charging voltage of the capacitor reaches a predetermined level. A thyristor connected across the series combination of storage capacitor and constant-current unit has a gate connected to a tap on a voltage divider lying in parallel with the capacitor so as to fire when the capacitor voltage rises substantially above the aforementioned level in order to break down a Zener diode forming part of that divider. Such a rise occurs when a transistor, inserted between the capacitor and a higher-voltage output of the constant-current unit, is turned on by a switching transistor responsive to a trigger signal from the detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1978
    Date of Patent: March 11, 1980
    Inventors: Robert Buck, Gerd Marhofer