Patents by Inventor Ralph Tate

Ralph Tate 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).

  • Publication number: 20060260097
    Abstract: A door hinge arrangement for a door is provided including a hinge bearing and a hinge pin adapted to be received in the hinge bearing and being rotatable in the hinge bearing about a vertical axis of the hinge pin. The hinge pin has a protruding cam portion extending perpendicular to the axis and the hinge bearing has a recess formed in a side wall to receive a length of the cam portion when the hinge pin is in a first angular orientation relative to the hinge bearing corresponding to a closed position. When the hinge pin is rotated relative to the hinge bearing to a second angular orientation, the cam acts against the recess to translate the axis of the pin from a first axial position to a second axial position, such that the hinge pin will first be translated laterally as the hinge pin is rotated, and then the hinge pin will be rotated about the second axial position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 17, 2005
    Publication date: November 23, 2006
    Inventors: Ralph Tate, Joseph Coleman, Mural West, Randy Howell
  • Publication number: 20040134220
    Abstract: A refrigerator adapted for use in low ambient temperature conditions such as in an unheated garage or outdoors on a deck or patio. The refrigerator is provided with a low ambient heater to add heat to the refrigerated space when ambient temperatures outside the refrigerator are low enough that items stored in the refrigerator could freeze. The low ambient heater is controlled by an ambient thermostat located to sense temperatures outside the refrigerator. The low ambient heater and ambient thermostat are connected in the refrigerator control so that the ambient heater can not be energized when the cooling system is operating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2003
    Publication date: July 15, 2004
    Inventors: Brent A. Junge, Allan R. Steinkuhl, John R. Wisnoski, Ralph Tate, Marco Stura
  • Publication number: 20030070799
    Abstract: A method for cooking food in a refrigerated oven comprising a cool cycle, bake cycle, and warm cycle. The cool cycle maintains the food placed in the refrigerated oven at a temperature suitable to prevent the spoiling of the food prior to the initiation of the bake cycle. The food is cooked during the bake cycle. The warm cycle maintains the cooked food at a temperature suitable for serving on removal from the cooking chamber. In optional cool cycle can precede the warm cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2001
    Publication date: April 17, 2003
    Inventors: Dianne D. Mueller, Dale Lukens, David J. Anderson, Ralph Tate, Thomas J. Leichliter
  • Publication number: 20030070789
    Abstract: A refrigerated oven comprising a cooking chamber in which is provided a heating elements and a refrigeration unit chamber in which is provided a refrigeration unit. The refrigeration unit is fluidly connected to the cooking chamber. Both the heating element and the refrigeration unit are selectively operable to either cool or heat the cooking chamber to thereby cool or heat a food item located therein. The refrigeration unit as preferably modular refrigeration unit that the slid into and out of the refrigeration unit chamber. Preferably, the refrigeration unit includes an evaporator that is thermally isolate is from a condenser. The condenser as preferably conductively coupled to a base supporting the elements of the modular refrigeration unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2001
    Publication date: April 17, 2003
    Inventors: Dianne D. Mueller, Ralph Tate, Brent A. Junge, Joseph L. Coleman, Jan M. Watson, Steven R. Cawley
  • Patent number: 4288135
    Abstract: A french door refrigerator seal having vertically extending seal elements on the juxtaposed edges of the french doors defining an air space therebetween. Closure seals are provided at the upper and lower ends of the edge seals to close the air space and thereby define an insulative dead air space between the french door edge portions when the doors are in the closed position. The closure seals illustratively may be formed as overlapping flexible flaps carried by the vertical edge seal elements which illustratively may form pairs of flexible flaps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 1979
    Date of Patent: September 8, 1981
    Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
    Inventors: William J. Buchser, Ralph Tate, Charles W. Haag