Patents by Inventor Peter J. Whitfield

Peter J. Whitfield 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: 5370723
    Abstract: A glass melting tank has a melting chamber, a shallow uniflow conditioning chamber, a shallow refining chamber and a riser chamber between the melting chamber and refining chamber. Heat is input to glass in the riser chamber by electrodes located centrally in the riser chamber near the base of the riser chamber. Temperature sensors sense the temperature entering the riser chamber through a throat and near the base of a downstream wall of the riser chamber and the heat input is controlled to produce torroidal flow in the riser chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1994
    Assignee: Pilkington PLC
    Inventors: Robert E. Trevelyan, Peter J. Whitfield
  • Patent number: 5194081
    Abstract: A glass melting tank has a melting chamber, a shallow uniflow conditioning chamber, a shallow refining chamber and a riser chamber between the melting chamber and refining chamber. Heat is input to glass in the riser chamber by electrodes located centrally in the riser chamber near the base of the riser chamber. Temperature sensors sense the temperature entering the riser chamber through a throat and near the base of a downstream wall of the riser chamber and the heat input is controlled to produce torroidal flow in the riser chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1991
    Date of Patent: March 16, 1993
    Assignee: Pilkington plc
    Inventors: Robert E. Trevelyan, Peter J. Whitfield
  • Patent number: 5022905
    Abstract: An apparatus for depositing onto the surface of a moving ribbon of hot glass a coating formed from the reaction of at least two gaseous reactants. The apparatus includes an open-faced coating chamber in which the gaseous reactants are caused to flow in contact with the glass surface to be coated in a direction substantially parallel to the direction of movement of the glass so as to form the desired coating on the glass surface. The coating chamber opens downwardly onto, and extends across the width of, the glass surface to be coated, and has a first inlet means for providing a flow of a first gaseous reactant over the glass surface through the chamber over the width thereof, and a second inlet means constituted by an inlet channel which extends across the ceiling of the chamber over the width of the chamber for introducing a second gaseous reactant to the flow of the first gaseous reactant in the coating chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 1989
    Date of Patent: June 11, 1991
    Assignee: Pilkington PLC
    Inventors: Barry T. Grundy, Edward Hargreaves, Peter J. Whitfield