Patents by Inventor Robert D. Karl

Robert D. Karl 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: 4315408
    Abstract: A hose assembly is described for use in the transference of cooled liquified gas to a vessel, in a system that requires the flexible hose to lie in the water. The hose assembly includes a flexible inner hose forming a central passage through which liquified gas can pass towards the vessel and having walls that are permeable to the bleeding of vapor therethrough, to avoid damage by expanding liquid droplets that find their way into the inner hose wall. The assembly also includes an outer hose with substantially impermeable walls, the outer hose surrounding the inner hose and leaving an annular passage between them which can receive the vapor permeating the inner hose. The annular passage also can be used to carry vapor from the vessel back to a shore-based installation which reliquifies it.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1980
    Date of Patent: February 16, 1982
    Assignee: Amtel, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert D. Karl
  • Patent number: 4310937
    Abstract: A mooring and cargo transfer terminal is described, of the type which includes a buoy held at a predetermined height above the seabed as by a single anchor leg, to moor a ship which can drift in rotation about the buoy while a floating hose structure carries fluid to or from the ship, wherein the terminal is constructed to protect the buoy end of the floating hose structure from wave action, while facilitating maintenance of the fluid swivel which connects a nonrotating conduit extending up from the seabed to a rotating conduit connected to the floating hose structure. The fluid swivel is mounted at the top of the buoy for easy maintenance, and a rotating pipe connected to the rotating portion of the swivel extends therefrom and downwardly to an underwater depth below the troughs of waves, so that the buoy end of the floating hose structure is always below the waves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 1979
    Date of Patent: January 19, 1982
    Assignee: Amtel, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert D. Karl, James M. Kentosh, John Vitale
  • Patent number: 4148107
    Abstract: A buoy for mooring vessels, has a rotatable turntable on the top, which rotates about the vertical axis of the buoy. A mooring yoke which couples to ships at one end has the other end pivotably attached to the turntable so that it is pivotable about a horizontal axis. The mooring yoke has bumper equipment on either side of the location of the pivotable axis so that its pivotable motion can be restricted to a predetermined arc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 1977
    Date of Patent: April 10, 1979
    Assignee: Amtel, Inc
    Inventors: Robert D. Karl, William R. Reid, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4142767
    Abstract: A multi-product swivel assembly for carrying oil or other cargo and transmitting electrical power and signal currents, between a ship and stationary oil wells or other installations. The swivel assembly includes a non-rotating or stationary unit, a large upper unit that rotates about the stationary unit, and a center unit that rotates with the upper unit and which extends down within the stationary unit. The center unit includes a large vertical cylinder which surrounds a group of vertical pipes carrying inflammable fluids, and a vertical pipe filled with inert gas and surrounding a conduit that carries an electrical cable. In order to repair the upper rotating unit, as to replace one of the muliple seals thereon, bolts can be loosened to separate it from the center rotating unit. When the bolts are loosened, a shoulder on the stationary unit prevents the center unit from dropping, so that during later reassembly, the bolts will lift up the center unit to its rotating position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 1977
    Date of Patent: March 6, 1979
    Assignee: Amtel, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert D. Karl, Ian B. Engh, Harry Bennison
  • Patent number: 3956742
    Abstract: An offshore mooring terminal or buoy is provided with apparatus for indicating to a ship moored thereto that the stresses on the mooring equipment of the buoy reached a dangerous level and the ship should cast off in order to avoid serious damage to the buoy, possibly to the ship and also to avoid a possible cargo spill.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 1975
    Date of Patent: May 11, 1976
    Assignee: Imodco, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert D. Karl