Patents by Inventor Heinrich Hofmann

Heinrich Hofmann 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: 8425122
    Abstract: A double row roller bearing which has an outer and inner bearing ring and ball rollers, which have lateral faces and are arranged next to each other in rows, arranged between the bearing rings. The rollers roll in raceways incorporated into the inner face of the outer bearing ring and outer face of the inner hearing ring. The raceways run in parallel and have pressure angle axes that are pitched at a pressure angle relative to a bearing radial axis. The rollers have a distance relative to each other which excludes mutual frictional contacts. For this purpose, the distance of the pressure angle axes of the raceways is enlarged and both rows of rollers are guided in separate bearing cages, while the raceway of the rollers of the row with the larger reference circle arranged on the inner bearing ring has a one-sided axial extension using the distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG
    Inventors: Andreas Bohr, Horst Doeppling, Heinrich Hofmann, Peter Martin
  • Patent number: 8419289
    Abstract: A radial bearing configured as a single-row spherical roller bearing is provided that includes an inner and outer bearing ring, and rollers arranged between the bearing rings. The rollers have two side faces which are flattened symmetrically from a spherical base shape, and roll in two groove-shaped raceways which are defined by two axial rims. The width of the rollers between their side faces is at least 70% of the diameter of the spherical base shape and is greater than the distance between the axial rims. The rollers are in full linear contact with their running faces in the bearing rings at an operational pressure angle of up to 25° on both sides of the bearing longitudinal axis. The distance between radially opposite axial rims when the bearing rings are arranged eccentrically to each other is less than the diameter of the spherical base shape of the rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2013
    Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Horst Doppling, Rainer Eidloth, Georg Goppelt
  • Patent number: 8393081
    Abstract: A method for filling a ball roller bearing with roll bodies, and a ball roller bearing, which is filled according to the method and has an outer and an inner bearing ring and a plurality of ball rollers, which are arranged between these bearing rings and have two side surfaces, which are flattened symmetrically from a basic spherical shape, parallel to one another and held at uniform distances from one another by a bearing cage. The ball rollers roll in groove-shaped raceways recessed in the inner face of the outer bearing ring and the outer face of the inner bearing ring. The ball roller bearing is filled by an eccentric axial, tilting fitting of the ball rollers through the interval between the bearing rings in the form, that the filled ball roller bearing is filled to the extent of about 94% and has a service life of up to 253%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG
    Inventors: Horst Doeppling, Ernst Geiger, Heinrich Hofmann, Joachim Muser
  • Patent number: 8382379
    Abstract: A ball roller bearing and to a method for the installation thereof. The ball roller bearing has an outer bearing race, and an inner bearing race, and a plurality of ball rollers, which are disposed between the bearing races and are held at equal distances to each other by a bearing cage. For this purpose, the ball rollers have a width of approximately 70% of the diameter of a spherical shape thereof, and roll with bearing surfaces thereof in two groove-shaped raceways, the depth of which is smaller than the distance between the outer and inner bearing race. The cage pockets of the bearing cage have a cross-sectional contour of a ball roller disposed in the longitudinal and transverse directions to the circumferential direction. The method for installation of the ball roller bearing is a cross/oblique pivot mount between the inner and outer bearing races and the ball rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG
    Inventors: Horst Doeppling, Ernst Geiger, Heinrich Hofmann, Werner Wirth
  • Patent number: 8309113
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing a porous coating with structures in the micro or nano-size domain characterized by the following steps:—providing a support having a surface,—depositing on the surface one mono-layer of temporary particles,—depositing a coating on the temporary particles in such a way that the thickness of the coating is less than the particle diameter,—eliminating the temporary particles and thereby obtaining a porous coating, the pores of the coating corresponding to the spaces previously occupied by the temporary particles and at least a part of the pores communicating with the external environment,—applying a coating fixation step, characterized by the fact that it furthermore comprise a filling step where the pores are at least partially filled with a liquid or solid substance. The invention also concerns a coating and an object which can be obtained with this process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignees: Debiotech S.A., Axis Biodental S.A.
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Frédéric Neftel, Laurent-Dominique Piveteau
  • Patent number: 8262293
    Abstract: A double-row angular contact bearing and which has outer and inner bearing rings with two rows of rolling elements disposed between the bearing rings that are held by two bearing cages interspaced at even distances. At least one row is configured as balls with parallel lateral faces that are symmetrically flattened. Both rows of rolling elements roll in adjacent races machined into the inner face of the outer ring and the outer face of the inner ring. The contact angle axes are pitched towards each other in an O-arrangement or X-arrangement and the races are axially delimited only on one side by shoulders. Additional clearance and supporting contours are formed at axial edge sections, opposite the shoulders, onto the races. The contours can be used to fit the balls into angular contact by axially inserting them into the clearance between the bearing rings and then tilting them into the races.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG
    Inventors: Andreas Bohr, Horst Doeppling, Heinrich Hofmann
  • Publication number: 20120183733
    Abstract: Element comprising a substrate and a nanoporous adherent coating made of at least one layer, said layer being in adherent contact with said substrate and comprising separate domains of nanoparticles, each of said domains having an average diameter between 1 and 1000 nm and being separated from its neighbor domains on the major part of its circumference by an average distance equal or less to its diameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2009
    Publication date: July 19, 2012
    Applicant: Debiotech S.A.
    Inventors: Arnaud Tourvieille De Labrouhe, Laurent-Dominique Piveteau, Heinrich Hofmann
  • Publication number: 20120177317
    Abstract: A ball roller bearing which has an outer and inner bearing ring and ball rollers arranged between the rings, which roll in two groove-shaped tracks in the rings and are held at a uniform distance to one another by a window cage. The cage has two lateral angle ribs, pocket bridges, which connect the ribs and cage pockets separated by the pocket bridges. The pockets have a cross-shaped hole formed from a contour perpendicular to the circumferential direction and a cross-sectional contour of a ball roller arranged longitudinally to the circumferential direction. The side edges are formed from the pocket bridges, which have radii of arch-shaped guide surfaces corresponding to the running surfaces of two ball rollers. The pocket bridges have additional material profiling between the side edges and on the guide surfaces for axial stiffening of the cage and damping bearing noise.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2010
    Publication date: July 12, 2012
    Applicant: SCHAEFFLER TECHNOLOGIES AG & CO. KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Andreas-Johann Bohr, Ernst Geiger, Otmar Weber
  • Publication number: 20120170885
    Abstract: A roller bearing which has an outer and inner ring and ball rollers arranged between the rings, which roll in two groove-shaped tracks in the outer and inner rings and are held at a uniform distance to one another by a window cage that has two lateral ribs bent around two circumferential flanged edges to the inner ring and interconnected by pocket bridges. The cage pockets of the cage ribs have a hole formed from a cross-sectional contour of a ball roller arranged longitudinally to the circumferential direction and from a free contour incorporated therein and arranged perpendicular to the circumferential direction. The free contour in each cage pocket is expanded to a rectangle and the flange edges of the ribs each have reduced material thickness compared to the other material thickness of the cage by a circumferential, line-shaped burnishing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2010
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Applicant: SCHAEFFLER TECHNOLOGIES AG & CO. KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Andreas-Johann Bohr, Ernst Geiger, Otmar Weber
  • Publication number: 20120058328
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for fabricating a porous coatings with controlled structure in the micro and nano-size domain. In particular, but not exclusively, it relates to a process for fabricating coatings with an anisotropic pore size distribution and to coatings obtained using such coatings. It describes in particular the use of ink-jet method to deposit in a controlled way such coatings. It also relates to porous coatings with controlled structure in the micro and nano-size domain. The coating has a thickness between 10 nanometres and 10 millimetres and its porosity is created in such a way that the pore size distribution is anisotropic. It finally describes objects covered with this coating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2009
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Inventors: Arnaud Tourvieille, Heinrich Hofmann, Laurent-Dominque Piveteau
  • Publication number: 20110311174
    Abstract: A ball roller bearing, which has an outer and inner bearing ring with a groove-shaped raceways and ball rollers, which roll between the hearing rings in the raceways. The rollers are held at distances from each other in the circumferential direction by a hearing cage and which have a width that is dimensioned larger than the radial distance between the inside and the outside of the bearing rings. The raceways are divided into two segments by an axially centered annular groove such that a first ball roller rolls on two first diagonally opposed track segments and a second ball roller rolls on two second diagonally opposed track segments of the bearing rings. Both bearing rings are single-piece components, and the bearing cage is formed by two identical double prong-type cages acting independently of each other. The bearing is filled with the ball rollers by an axial tilt cam assembly method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2010
    Publication date: December 22, 2011
    Applicant: SCHAEFFLER TECHNOLOGIES GMBH & CO. KG
    Inventors: Horst Doeppling, Heinrich Hofmann, Ernst Geiger, Ernst Masur
  • Patent number: 8057104
    Abstract: The angular contact roller bearing has an outer bearing ring, an inner bearing ring, a plurality of ball rollers arranged between the rings, and a bearing cage. The ball rollers in the two adjacent rows have pressure angle axes extending parallel to one another and are arranged directly one next to the other with their side faces point toward one another. Adjacent ball rollers in the two rows are arranged on a common rotational axis. The ball rollers have diameters and widths which are dimensioned in such a way that envelope cones which form tangents with all the ball rollers at their diameters are arranged with their cone tips precisely at the intersection point of the common rotational axes of the bearing longitudinal axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Schaeffler KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Horst Doeppling, Rainer Eidloth, Gottfried Ruoff
  • Patent number: 8047723
    Abstract: A radial anti friction bearing (1) which is configured as a single-row spherical roller bearing, which includes an outer bearing ring (2), an inner bearing ring (3) and a plurality of spherical rollers (5) that are arranged between the bearing rings (2, 3). The spherical rollers have respectively two side faces (6, 7) which are flattened symmetrically from a spherical base shape, are retained with uniform spacing to each other a bearing cage (4) and roll with their running faces (8) in two groove-shaped raceways (11, 12) which are defined, respectively, by two axial rims (13, 14 and 15, 16). The width (bK) of the spherical rollers (5) between their side faces (6, 7) is smaller than the distance (aB) between the radially opposing axial rims (13, 15 and 14, 16), such that the spherical rollers (5) can be in the space therebetween via the axial mounting method in the radial anti friction bearing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Horst Doppling, Rainer Eidloth, Georg Goppelt
  • Publication number: 20110232094
    Abstract: A method for producing ball rollers. The following method steps are performed to produce the ball rollers: (A) cutting unfinished sections at a defined length from a round wire that has a defined diameter, (B) compression molding ball roller blanks that have end face depressions in the form of a die tool, and (C) grinding the ball roller blanks to the desired final dimensions in a ball grinding machine. The cut-off unfinished sections have a volume by which during compression molding an approximately tangential raceway transition from one ball roller half to the other ball roller half and material fibers extending under the running surfaces of the ball rollers parallel or approximately parallel to the running surfaces arise. In addition, the ball roller blanks are ground to the final dimensions in a horizontal ball grinding machine loaded exclusively with ball roller blanks of the same size.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2009
    Publication date: September 29, 2011
    Applicant: SCHAEFFLER TECHNOLOGIES GMBH & CO. KG
    Inventors: Kurt Besenbeck, Horst Doeppling, Heinrich Hofmann
  • Patent number: 8007180
    Abstract: The invention relates to a sealing arrangement that seals at least one radial intermediate space between at least one inner bearing ring and at least one outer bearing ring. Said sealing arrangement comprises at least one first support that supports at least one elastic seal and a second support which supports at least one encoder located outside the intermediate space. The encoder is radially oriented towards at least one sensor that is disposed above the encoder in a radially outward direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Schaeffler KG
    Inventors: Peter Niebling, Jens Heim, Heinrich Hofmann, Darius Dlugai, Roland Langer
  • Patent number: 8007185
    Abstract: The radial rolling bearing has an outer bearing ring, an inner bearing ring, and spherical rollers arranged between bearing rings. The spherical rollers have two flat side faces arranged parallel to one another. The spherical rollers are retained with uniform spacing to one another in the peripheral direction by a bearing cage. The spherical rollers have a width between their side faces of approximately 70% of the diameter of their spherical basic shape. The running faces of the rollers roll in two groove-shaped raceways which are formed in the inner side of the outer bearing ring and in the outer side of the inner bearing ring. At least one of the axial rims which delimit the groove-shaped raceways is reduced in radial height such that the radial bearing can be equipped with an increased number of spherical rollers in an axial assembly process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Schaeffler KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Horst Doppling, Georg Goppelt
  • Patent number: 7938585
    Abstract: A radial antifriction bearing which has an outer bearing ring, an inner bearing ring and a multitude of rollers, arranged between the bearing rings and held by a bearing cage. The rollers are configured as spherical disks that each have two parallel lateral surfaces which are symmetrically flattened from a basic spherical shape. The bearing cage has cage pockets in which the rollers are axially guided between the bearing rings via two low-friction point contacts between the center areas of their lateral surfaces and the longitudinal webs of the cage pockets. The rollers have a defined degree of freedom for tilt movements exerted at an angle to the running direction and a defined degree of freedom for self-adjustment to the pressure angle of the radial antifriction bearing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignee: Schaeffler KG
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Horst Doppling, Andreas Bohr, Rainer Eidloth
  • Patent number: 7901727
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing a porous coating with structures in the micro or nano-size domain characterized by the following steps: —providing a support having a surface, —depositing on said surface one mono-layer of temporary particles, —depositing a coating on said temporary particles in such a way that the thickness of said coating is less than the particle diameter, —eliminating said temporary particles and thereby obtaining a porous coating, the pores of said coating corresponding to the spaces previously occupied by the temporary particles and at least a part of the pores communicating with the external environment, —applying a coating fixation step, characterized by the fact that said temporary particles are deposited on said surface in such a way that, after particle deposition, more than 50% of the temporary particles are in contact with a maximum of two adjacent particles and otherwise are separated by an empty space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Debiotech S.A.
    Inventors: Heinrich Hofmann, Frederic Neftel, Laurent-Dominique Piveteau
  • Patent number: 7897253
    Abstract: The invention relates to a piece comprised in part or in full of a pigmented ceramic in which the pigment is comprised of nanoparticles based on a metal from column IB of the periodic table of the elements or of an alkaline metal, or an alloy of both, coated with a layer of silica, the silica being crystalline silica, particularly cristobalite or tridymite. The ceramic is preferably zirconia or alumina. The nanoparticle silica is crystallized, for example, by a thermal treatment in air or under inert gas at temperatures of between 900° C. and 1400° C. The piece is made by sintering a nanoparticle/ceramic mixture in air or under inert gas at temperatures of between 900° C. and 1250° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: Rolex S.A.
    Inventors: Alke Fink-Petri, Heinrich Hofmann
  • Publication number: 20110045081
    Abstract: The present invention relates to nanoparticles having a mean diameter of <500 nm and comprising, at their surface, a selected material. The nanoparticles are taken up by cells under physiological conditions and can be used to isolate interaction partners of the selected material within the cells. The present invention provides important advantages in that it opens up new ways of identifying cellular components and of delivering a substance of interest specifically to a selected cell compartment. The nanoparticles are also useful as a tool of diagnosis and for the constitution of chemical libraries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2007
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Inventors: Benedikt Steitz, Alke Fink, Jatuporn Salaklang, Andrija Finka, Heinrich Hofmann