Patents by Inventor Sergio Giordano

Sergio Giordano 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: 8994812
    Abstract: An optical sensor including a photo emitting element and a photo receiving element carried side-by-side by a supporting and feeding element either associated or associable in use with a support for a container, and a composite lens, either associated or associable with the container, designed so as to remain in use immersed in a liquid contained in the container and facing the photo emitting and photo receiving elements; the lens including: a first cylindrical body made of a light-permeable material, mountable in use vertically from the top of the container facing the photo emitting and photo receiving elements to a bottom wall of the container; and a second cylindrical body, arranged concentrically with and outside the first body and open towards the bottom wall; respective side walls of the first and second cylindrical bodies having the same length, that of the second body being separated from that of the first body by a predetermined annular clearance, and being made so as to be at least partially reflecti
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Illinois Tool Works Inc.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Alessio Chianura, Domenico Pietrafesa, Klemen Dobravec
  • Patent number: 8760659
    Abstract: An optical-type turbidity sensor including a casing accommodating photo emitting means and photo receiving means therein, wherein the photo emitting means and the photo receiving means are arranged side-by-side on a same side of the casing, preferably underneath a same lens-shaped, transparent portion of the same, and are facing to, and spaced from, a reflecting surface carried by the casing and adapted to receive a light radiation from the photo emitting means for reflecting it towards the photo receiving means; the reflecting surface is operatively associated with means for varying a distance existing between the reflecting surface and the side of the casing provided with the photo emitting and photo receiving means arranged side-by-side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Illinois Tool Works Inc.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Domenico Pietrafesa
  • Patent number: 8689626
    Abstract: A pressure sensor including a body, device for receiving pressure associable with a tube connected to a fluid-filled tank of an electric household appliance, wherein the level of the fluid is to be measured. It further includes a device for emitting electric frequency signal proportional to the pressure received; a device carried aboard the body, on which a plurality of response frequency values emitted by the emitting means associated with corresponding pressure values at the pressure receiving means, were recorded. The pressure sensor is used with a pressure reading system carried by the device for receiving pressure. The pressure reading system includes two devices for reading values recorded on the pressure sensor, i.e. pressure and frequency values; and electric frequency signals. The pressure reading system further includes a processing device for interpolating the pressure value associated with every signal on the basis of the values read by the reading device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: ITW Metalflex
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Patent number: 8516893
    Abstract: A modified inductive pressure sensor for detecting operating parameters of an electric household appliance such as a washing or drying machine, provided with a relatively movable component with respect to the carcass (tank or basket), of the type including a rigid casing accommodating a deformable membrane sensitive to hydraulic pressure, a core made of ferromagnetic material and operatively associated to the membrane, and a winding fixed to the casing and operatively coupled to the core to form a variable inductance inductor; wherein a mass is accommodated within the casing and in immediate proximity of said membrane, free to move with respect to the casing in at least one direction corresponding to the axis of the winding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Illinois Tool Works Inc.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Igor Kranjc
  • Patent number: 8353216
    Abstract: A fast-fit device for fluidically connecting a pressure sensor to a water collecting tank of an electric household appliance including: a supporting body securable to a housing of the electric household appliance and carrying a first, blind tubular element, having a first open end, opposite to a second blind end; a second tubular element integrally obtained in one piece with a casing of the pressure sensor, which overhangingly extends therefrom for the entire length thereof and which displays external diameter and length smaller than the internal diameter and length of the first tubular element; a closing plug of the first end provided with a through hole which fluid-tightly receives in use the second tubular element; and first and second fastening means which are reciprocally complementary and integrally carried by the supporting body and the casing of the sensor, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: ITW Metalflex
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Domenico Pietrafesa
  • Patent number: 8334643
    Abstract: A lamp for internal lighting of an electric household appliance includes an LED, a printed circuit for supporting and powering the LED, and a supporting body made of an electrically non-conductive material and provided, at a first end thereof, with a reflecting/diffusing element for light emitted from the LED. The LED is carried on a flat face of the printed circuit, at a first end of the printed circuit. The supporting body has a tubular shape and the printed circuit being supported inside the supporting body, with the flat face arranged substantially coplanar with an optical axis of the reflecting/diffusing element and the first end of the printed circuit overhangingly protruding from the first end of the supporting body, so that the reflecting/diffusing element collects at least a part of the light emitted from the LED. The printed circuit extends over an entire length of the supporting body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Illinois Tool Works Inc.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Domenico Pietrafesa
  • Publication number: 20120133759
    Abstract: An optical sensor including a photo emitting element and a photo receiving element carried side-by-side by a supporting and feeding element either associated or associable in use with a support for a container, and a composite lens, either associated or associable with the container, designed so as to remain in use immersed in a liquid contained in the container and facing the photo emitting and photo receiving elements; the lens including: a first cylindrical body made of a light-permeable material, mountable in use vertically from the top of the container facing the photo emitting and photo receiving elements to a bottom wall of the container; and a second cylindrical body, arranged concentrically with and outside the first body and open towards the bottom wall; respective side walls of the first and second cylindrical bodies having the same length, that of the second body being separated from that of the first body by a predetermined annular clearance, and being made so as to be at least partially reflecti
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 3, 2010
    Publication date: May 31, 2012
    Applicant: ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Alessio Chianura, Domenico Pietrafesa, Klemen Dobravec
  • Publication number: 20120017689
    Abstract: A modified inductive pressure sensor for detecting operating parameters of an electric household appliance such as a washing or drying machine, provided with a relatively movable component with respect to the carcass (tank or basket), of the type including a rigid casing accommodating a deformable membrane sensitive to hydraulic pressure, a core made of ferromagnetic material and operatively associated to the membrane, and a winding fixed to the casing and operatively coupled to the core to form a variable inductance inductor; wherein a mass is accommodated within the casing and in immediate proximity of said membrane, free to move with respect to the casing in at least one direction corresponding to the axis of the winding.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2009
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Igor Kranjc
  • Publication number: 20120002206
    Abstract: An optical-type turbidity sensor including a casing accommodating photo emitting means and photo receiving means therein, wherein the photo emitting means and the photo receiving means are arranged side-by-side on a same side of the casing, preferably underneath a same lens-shaped, transparent portion of the same, and are facing to, and spaced from, a reflecting surface carried by the casing and adapted to receive a light radiation from the photo emitting means for reflecting it towards the photo receiving means; the reflecting surface is operatively associated with means for varying a distance existing between the reflecting surface and the side of the casing provided with the photo emitting and photo receiving means arranged side-by-side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2010
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Domenico Pietrafesa
  • Patent number: 8082763
    Abstract: A system for detecting the operative parameters of a household appliance, such as a washing machine or dryer, provided with a relatively mobile component with respect to a load-bearing frame (tank or basket), including a pressure switch including in turn a rigid casing accommodating a deformable membrane sensitive to hydraulic pressure, a ferromagnetic material core engaged to the membrane and a winding fixed to the casing and operatively coupled with the core to form a variable inductance electrical inductor; in which the pressure switch is coupled to the relatively mobile member to follow its movements; and in which said variable inductance electrical inductor is operatively associated to a ferromagnetic material bracket integrally carried by the load-bearing body and arranged outside the pressure switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: ITW METALFLEX, druzba za proizvodnjo delov za gospodinsjke aparate, d.o.o. Tolmin
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Patent number: 8072210
    Abstract: A detecting device for detecting the angular position of an electric household appliance rotating member, including a generating apparatus of a magnetic field arrangeable in a fixed position with respect to the rotating member; an interaction apparatus with the magnetic field generating element integrally arrangeable in use on the rotating member in a position so as to transit periodically in front of the generating apparatus of the magnetic field and in position adjacent to the same to cause a spatial variation of the magnetic field flux lines between a first and a second field configuration; and a signal generating apparatus adapted to generate an electric signal when crossed by the flux lines of the magnetic field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: ITW Industrial Components S.R.L. Con Unico Socio
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Publication number: 20110241517
    Abstract: A lamp for internal lighting of an electric household appliance including at least one light source consisting of a LED, a printed circuit for supporting and powering the light source and a supporting body for the printed circuit made of an electrically non-conductive material and provided, at one first end thereof, with a reflecting/diffusing element of the light emitted by the light source and defining an optical axis arranged substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the supporting body; wherein the at least one light source is mounted at a first end of the printed circuit, fixed to a first flat face thereof, with a light diffusion axis thereof oriented substantially perpendicular to the first face; the printed circuit being supported inside the body, which is tubular in shape, with the first face arranged substantially coplanar with the optical axis of the reflecting/diffusing element and the first end overhangingly protruding from the first end of the supporting body, within a concavity of the ref
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2009
    Publication date: October 6, 2011
    Applicant: ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC.
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Domenico Pietrafesa
  • Publication number: 20110072907
    Abstract: A fast-fit device for fluidically connecting a pressure sensor to a water collecting tank of an electric household appliance including: a supporting body securable to a housing of the electric household appliance and carrying a first, blind tubular element, having a first open end, opposite to a second blind end; a second tubular element integrally obtained in one piece with a casing of the pressure sensor, which overhangingly extends therefrom for the entire length thereof and which displays external diameter and length smaller than the internal diameter and length of the first tubular element; a closing plug of the first end provided with a through hole which fluid-tightly receives in use the second tubular element; and first and second fastening means which are reciprocally complementary and integrally carried by the supporting body and the casing of the sensor, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2009
    Publication date: March 31, 2011
    Inventors: Sergio Giordano, Domenico Pietrafesa
  • Patent number: 7891257
    Abstract: A monitoring device including first detector means of a flow rate of operative fluid in an electric household appliance towards a tank of the electric household appliance and second detector means of the level of such a fluid in the tank; wherein the first and second detector means are operatively and reciprocally associated to issue a single signal (S) characterised by at least two different parameters, a first parameter (F) correlated to the flow rate of the fluid and a second parameter (A) correlated to the level of fluid in the tank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2011
    Assignee: ITW Industrial Components S.r.l. con Unico Socio
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Publication number: 20100307236
    Abstract: A pressure sensor including a body, device for receiving pressure associable with a tube connected to a fluid-filled tank of an electric household appliance, wherein the level of the fluid is to be measured. It further includes a device for emitting electric frequency signal proportional to the pressure received; a device carried aboard the body, on which a plurality of response frequency values emitted by the emitting means associated with corresponding pressure values at the pressure receiving means, were recorded. The pressure sensor is used with a pressure reading system carried by the device for receiving pressure. The pressure reading system includes two devices for reading values recorded on the pressure sensor, i.e. pressure and frequency values; and electric frequency signals. The pressure reading system further includes a processing device for interpolating the pressure value associated with every signal on the basis of the values read by the reading device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicant: ITW METALFLEX, DRUZBA ZA PROIZVODNJO DELOV ZA GOSPODINJSKE APARATE, D.O.O.
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Publication number: 20100164486
    Abstract: A detecting device for detecting the angular position of an electric household appliance rotating member, typically the drum of a washing machine, including generating means of a magnetic field arrangeable in a fixed position with respect to the rotating member, e.g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2007
    Publication date: July 1, 2010
    Applicant: ITW INDUSTRIAL COMPONENTS S.R.L. CON UNICO SOCIO
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Patent number: 7694573
    Abstract: An analogue position transducer, usable for example as a pressure switch in a household appliance, includes a rigid casing accommodating a deformable membrane sensitive to hydraulic pressure, a first element engaged to the membrane so as to be mobile along with at least one portion of membrane in a predetermined direction (A), and a second element fixed to the casing and operatively coupled with the first element to provide a signal variable according to the relative position of the first element with respect to the second element. Between the first element and a portion of the membrane, an element is interposed for varying, along the predetermined direction, the relative position of the first element with respect to the portion of the membrane. The transducer also includes a spring fitted and preloaded between the casing and the membrane, and a further element for adjusting the preload of the spring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: ITW METALFLEX, druzba za proizvodnjo delov za gospodinsjke aparate, d.o.o Tolmin
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Publication number: 20100032026
    Abstract: A monitoring device including first detector means of a flow rate of operative fluid in an electric household appliance towards a tank of the electric household appliance and second detector means of the level of such a fluid in the tank; wherein the first and second detector means are operatively and reciprocally associated to issue a single signal (S) characterised by at least two different parameters, a first parameter (F) correlated to the flow rate of the fluid and a second parameter (A) correlated to the level of fluid in the tank.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2007
    Publication date: February 11, 2010
    Applicant: ITW INDUSTRIAL COMPONENTS S.R.L. CON UNICO SOCIO
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Publication number: 20080264111
    Abstract: A system for detecting the operative parameters of a household appliance, such as a washing machine or dryer, provided with a relatively mobile component with respect to a load-bearing frame (tank or basket), including a pressure switch including in turn a rigid casing accommodating a deformable membrane sensitive to hydraulic pressure, a ferromagnetic material core engaged to the membrane and a winding fixed to the casing and operatively coupled with the core to form a variable inductance electrical inductor; in which the pressure switch is coupled to the relatively mobile member to follow its movements; and in which said variable inductance electrical inductor is operatively associated to a ferromagnetic material bracket integrally carried by the load-bearing body and arranged outside the pressure switch.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2006
    Publication date: October 30, 2008
    Applicant: ITW Metalflex, Druzba Proizvodno Delov ZA- Gospodinjske Parate, D.O.O.
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano
  • Publication number: 20080257055
    Abstract: An analogue position transducer, usable for example as a pressure switch in a household appliance, including a rigid casing accommodating a deformable membrane sensitive to hydraulic pressure, a first element engaged to the membrane so as to be mobile along with at least one portion of membrane in a predetermined direction (A) and a second element fixed to the casing and operatively coupled with the first element to provide a signal variable according to the relative position of the first element with respect to the second; in which between said first element and a portion of membrane there are interposed means for varying, along said predetermined direction, the relative position of said first element with respect to the portion of the membrane; the transducer also includes a contrast spring for the membrane fitted and preloaded between the casing and the membrane itself and means for adjusting the preload of the contrast spring.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2006
    Publication date: October 23, 2008
    Inventor: Sergio Giordano