Patents by Inventor Timothy Michael Beadnell

Timothy Michael Beadnell 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: 5910637
    Abstract: A fuel vapor storage canister including a mass of carbon granules in a carbon bed chamber of the canister, a liquid trap having a polygonal internal chamber between a vapor inlet port and the carbon bed chamber, and a purge duct traversing the polygonal chamber. The polygonal chamber includes a plurality of three sides which define the gravitational bottom of the chamber in respective ones of a plurality of three orientations of the vapor storage canister. A pick-up tube in the polygonal internal chamber has an outboard end at the convergence of the aforesaid plurality of three sides and an inboard end surrounding an orifice in the vapor purge duct. The inboard end of the pick-up tube is vertically above the maximum level of liquid fuel in the polygonal internal chamber in each of the aforesaid plurality of three orientations of the vapor storage canister.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 8, 1999
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Charles Meiller, Timothy Michael Beadnell, Charles Henry Covert
  • Patent number: 5776227
    Abstract: A fuel vapor storage canister having a screen assembly between a mass of carbon granules in the storage canister and a purge port of the storage canister. The fuel vapor storage canister includes a cup-shaped plastic body defining a carbon bed chamber and a plenum in the canister body covered by the screen assembly. The screen assembly includes a pair of concentric cylindrical bosses around the plenum, a plastic foam screen over the plenum seated on a circular edge of each of the concentric cylindrical bosses, and a retainer having a plurality of flexible barbs and flexible reinforcements resiliently biased against opposite sides of the outermost one of the cylindrical bosses. Concentric circular segments of the plastic foam screen are compressed tightly between an annular planar side of the retainer and each of the circular edges of the concentric cylindrical bosses to positively prevent migration of carbon granules around the foam screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 7, 1998
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Charles Meiller, Timothy Michael Beadnell, Charles Henry Covert, Robert Augustine Zaso, Gordon Richard Paddock
  • Patent number: 5776228
    Abstract: A fuel vapor storage canister having a screen module between carbon granules in the canister and a purge port of the canister. The screen module includes a module body defining a plenum, a flat plastic foam screen seated on an uninterrupted edge of a raised boss on the module body around the plenum, and a retainer clamped to the module body over the flat foam screen. A tubular stem on the module body plugs into a socket in the storage canister. An interference fit between the tubular stem and the socket prevents migration of carbon granules between the socket and the tubular stem. The foam screen is exposed to the carbon bed chamber through a window in a planar side of the retainer which planar side, in a seated position of the retainer on the module body, cooperates with the uninterrupted edge of the raised boss in compressing a segment of the foam screen to define a seal around the window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 7, 1998
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Charles Meiller, Timothy Michael Beadnell, Charles Henry Covert, Robert Augustine Zaso, Gordon Richard Paddock