Patents by Inventor Lloyd P. Flatland

Lloyd P. Flatland 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: 4213243
    Abstract: A rotary connector is insertable between a standard dental supply hose and a standard dental handpiece to carry the customary air and water supplies while permitting unlimited relative rotation between the hose and the handpiece around the longitudinal axis of the hose, the connector and the handpiece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 1979
    Date of Patent: July 22, 1980
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 4177564
    Abstract: A dental handpiece connector is adapted to be inserted between a standard dental handpiece and a standard supply tube for the handpiece. The connector allows rocking movement of the handpiece about a transverse axis and also allows rotary movement of the handpiece about a longitudinal axis, while continuing a supply of air or air and water from the supply tube to the handpiece. There is a detent to establish a preferred rocking position of the handpiece relative to the connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1978
    Date of Patent: December 11, 1979
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 4121342
    Abstract: A handpiece for dental use has primary and secondary housings arranged concentrically and slidably with respect to each other. A primary drive shaft mounted to rotate within the primary housing is connected slidably, preferably by splines, with a secondary drive shaft mounted to rotate within the secondary housing so that the handpiece can be extended and retracted for work. The primary housing may also have a planetary transmission, the planets in which drive a quill concentric with a motor shaft mounted to rotate in the primary housing and connected to the transmission. The primary shaft is slidable to engage the motor shaft directly and alternatively to engage the quill. Controls accessible from the exterior of the housings are effective to slide the housings relative to each other and to engage and disengage the planetary transmission and the motor shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1976
    Date of Patent: October 24, 1978
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 4053983
    Abstract: A prophylactic angle head for a dental handpiece having a driver in a threaded casing has a housing made up of an upper housing shell and a lower housing shell. The shells have faces meeting on a common plane. When put together the shells define an approximately spherical interior chamber having an opening to the outside and define a tube in communication with the chamber. The threaded casing engages matching threads on the housing shells to hold them together and to assemble them to the driving handpiece. A driver in the handpiece casing is coupled to a drive shaft in the housing. A bearing sleeve carries the drive shaft and is snugly seated between the two shells and assists in holding them against movement relative to each other. A bevel gear on the end of the drive shaft meshes with another bevel gear on an elongated hub and mounted for rotation on a hard, tungsten carbide pin seated in the upper shell and extending along an axis normal to that of the drive shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1976
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1977
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 3994544
    Abstract: A bearing for a high speed air turbine includes an inner race having and exterior ball groove. An outer race has an interior ball groove. Bearing balls in the grooves are engaged by a retainer between the outer and inner races. Each of a pair of sealing rings has an outer flange disposed in part between the outside of the retainer and the outer race. The inner edge of the outer flange is very close to the balls. Each of the rings also has a radial flange extending from the outer flange toward the inner race, passing the retainer and having a terminus spaced very close to the outer surface of the inner race.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1974
    Date of Patent: November 30, 1976
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 3962789
    Abstract: An air driven dental handpiece has a housing defining a rotor chamber and also defining an inlet duct leading into the chamber as well as an outlet duct opening from the chamber. There is a spindle mounted in the housing for rotation in the chamber about an axis. A rotor in the chamber is fast on the spindle. The rotor has a hub engaging the spindle and extending for a predetermined axial distance. A rotor web extends radially from the hub and is axially shorter than the hub. Blades extend radially from the web and are axially longer than the web to leave annular cutaway portions on opposite sides of the rotor between the hub and the blades.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 1974
    Date of Patent: June 15, 1976
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 3962788
    Abstract: A dental handpiece has a preferably spherical housing in which a pair of ball bearings are mounted with the exterior races of the bearings against the housing and the interior races of the bearings aligned on an axis. Mounted on the two inner bearing races is a hollow spindle accessible through axial openings in the housing on the opposite ends of the spindle. The spindle has an interior taper and interior threads. Fitting into the spindle is a hollow chuck tube having an exterior taper fitting the interior taper and having exterior threads fitting the interior threads. All of the threads are of only partial depth. One end of the chuck tube has a flange abutting a bearing interior race and has a wrench-receiving portion. The other end of the spindle also has a wrench-receiving portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 1974
    Date of Patent: June 15, 1976
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 3947965
    Abstract: A pressurized dental handpiece has a housing in which a shaft is journalled and from which the shaft projects to support a dental tool. A high speed air turbine runner is on the shaft and is propelled by air under superatmospheric pressure brought to a nozzle for the runner through a conduit. A tubular extension of the housing surrounds the conduit and is in communication with the housing to serve as the turbine exhaust duct to the atmosphere. An adjustable valve regulates the spent exhaust air flowing from the extension to maintain a superatmospheric pressure in the extension. Some spent air is allowed to flow from the extension around the discharge of a water tube passing through the extension and the housing in the direction of the projecting shaft and dental tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1974
    Date of Patent: April 6, 1976
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: 3932055
    Abstract: A vacuum turbine for a drill has a housing of tubular configuration about an axis and has a sleeve disposed within the housing and also of tubular configuration about the axis. The sleeve is spaced from the housing to provide an annular air passage between them. A pair of bearings within the sleeve supports a turbine shaft rotatable about the axis. At one end of the shaft is a turbine runner including blades extending across the air passage and also including a shroud at the periphery of the blades and having a rim face normal to the axis and in very close axial relationship to an end face on the housing to reduce the travel of air therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1974
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1976
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland
  • Patent number: RE31537
    Abstract: A dental handpiece connector is adapted to be inserted between a standard dental handpiece and a standard supply tube for the handpiece. The connector allows rocking movement of the handpiece about a transverse axis and also allows rotary movement of the handpiece about a longitudinal axis, while continuing a supply of air or air and water from the supply tube to the handpiece. There is a detent to establish a preferred rocking position of the handpiece relative to the connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1981
    Date of Patent: March 13, 1984
    Inventor: Lloyd P. Flatland