Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7648046 | Dispensing system for dispensing warm wet wipes In a dispensing system for dispensing wet wipes, a wet wipe has an aqueous solution and microencapsulated delivery vehicles including a temperature agent, and is disposed in a wet wipe container. A cartridge is held in assembly with the wet wipe container and has an... | 01/19/2010 |
| 7644838 | Food dispensing machine and method of use A food dispensing machine and method of use that includes separately loaded, conveyed, and heated first and second food portions. A first food portion, such as a hot dog, is dispensed from a chain of portions in an sealing film via a first dispensing device, which s... | 01/12/2010 |
| 7497352 | Method and apparatus for product agitation in a vending machine Heating devices and methods which are particularly useful in vending machines for hot products. Products such as beverages contained in individual containers such as cans are rapidly heated to serving temperature by induction heating for delivery to a customer. Vari... | 03/03/2009 |
| 7432479 | Method and apparatus for inductive heating of a food container Heating devices and methods which are particularly useful in vending machines for hot Foods. Foods such as beverages contained in individual containers such as cans are rapidly heated to serving temperature by induction heating for delivery to a customer. Various ty... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7406913 | Coffee bean roaster and method for roasting coffee beans using the same A coffee bean roaster and a method for roasting coffee beans using the roaster are disclosed. The coffee bean roaster includes an oven having a ceramic heating plate with a gate, and a rotary sliding unit to enter the gate so as to slide into the ceramic heating pla... | 08/05/2008 |
| RE40408 | Baby wipes warmer for maintaining moisture and coloration of baby wipes contained therein There is provided a baby wipes warmer comprising a housing which defines an upper housing wall. It also comprises a liquid tank assembly that has an upper tank surface defining at least one vapor aperture therethrough. The tank assembly is disposed within the hosing... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7329394 | High throughput incubation devices The invention provides an efficiently automated incubation device that reduces the number of powered moving parts in the device and the amount of air transfer between environments that are internal and external to the device. ... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7322166 | Apparatus for unwrapping and transporting frangible wafers for ice cream sandwiches and the like The present invention is an apparatus and method for unwrapping a package of frangible articles bearing a wrapping material, the wrapping material having a rear portion and a forward tab, the forward tab adapted to open the wrapping material when pulled, the apparat... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7303093 | Hot food vending machine A heated food vending machine has a front with a) slots for dispensing the food and for accepting money, b) a video screen and c) several depressible buttons. Inside the machine is a refrigerator with a roof having an openable door and a side having a fastenable doo... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7299943 | Automatic dispensing tip supply apparatus An automatic dispensing tip supply apparatus includes a tip storing box whose bottom has a tapered surface having a tip collecting position in a lowermost part thereof to collect a plurality of inserted dispensing tips in one spot, a tip individually-sending mechani... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7266423 | Facilitating vending of customer-configured pizza preparation kits A vending machine comprises a first product dispensing unit configured for dispensing packaged pizza crust product, a second product dispensing unit configured for dispensing packaged pizza topping product, and an information processing apparatus coupled to the firs... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7252209 | Inverted wet wipe dispenser A wet wipe dispenser is provided that includes a support having an open area adapted to be juxtaposed with the cover portion of a container of wet wipes in an inverted orientation, and a base portion supporting the support above a surface on which the base portion i... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7246720 | Condom dispensing device A condom dispensing device (10) including an outer hollow sleeve member (20) that slidably receives a feed unit (12) that includes a three sided feeder body member (30) having a spring biased elevator element (34) supporting a stac... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7205508 | Showcase A showcase including an electric heater in a rack. The rack can be inexpensively constituted to be light in weight, and processing of an electric heater leader line can be facilitated. The showcase includes the electric heater in the rack for displaying commercial g... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7184990 | Method and apparatus for selling an aging food product An automated kitchen apparatus determines a time until expiration of a food product. In one embodiment, the kitchen apparatus determines the time until expiration by receiving a start signal indicating that a food product is available to sell. Such a start signal ma... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7175046 | Merchandise output device of a vending machine A merchandise output device of a vending machine comprises a machine body; a groove body in the machine body; a rotary disk and a rotary disk and a guide plate installed above the rotary disk and being an approximate right-angled triangular plate. The guide plate is... | 02/13/2007 |
| 7163124 | Paper wipe cleaning system A customizable disposable paper wipe system in which the wipes are sold to the consumer in a dry state to permit the consumer to prepare customized pre-moistened wipes. In one embodiment, the dry wipes are provided to the consumer with a dispenser for dispensing the... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7093190 | System and method for handling parity errors in a data processing system A method and apparatus is provided for handling parity errors within a data processing system. Each occurrence of a parity error is attributed to an addressable memory location or a block of memory locations that was being accessed when the error occurred. A memory ... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7022359 | Packaging assembly for food products to be cooked or heated in microwave ovens It comprises an inner wrapper which contains the food product, an outer package of plastic material which encloses said inner wrapper, a layer of a heat-concentrating material, arranged adjacent the inner wrapper, and a substrate attached to an outer face of said ou... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7001626 | Automated grill An automated grill automatically transfers frozen food from a freezer component to grilling component by an automatic loading device in response to a signal. Frozen food is loaded in a loading side in the freezer component. When the signal is received indicating tha... | 02/21/2006 |
| 6933481 | Customer-engaging food merchandising module An apparatus and method are disclosed for penetrating convenience store food markets with a customer-engaging food merchandising module. The customer-engaging food merchandising module comprises three units: a food storage and display unit attached to a food prepara... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6903307 | Hygienic wipes steamer Provided is a hygienic wipes steamer for warming hygienic wipes. The hygienic wipes steamer comprises a housing assembly contains a liquid container, a roller assembly, a heater assembly and an ejector assembly. The liquid container stores a quantity of liquid. The ... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6877219 | Apparatus for placing components on printed circuit boards The apparatus and method of the present invention relates use a dry atmosphere in the component storage portion of the surface mount device placement machine. The dry atmosphere provides the benefit of eliminating the baking process and other moisture management iss... | 04/12/2005 |
| 6822204 | Thermal seat and thermal device dispensing and vending system employing RFID-based induction heating devices An RFID-based induction heating/vending system for quickly and efficiently heating, vending, and recollecting stadium seats (10) or other objects. The system includes a plurality of objects each including an induction-heatable body (22), a charging/ven... | 11/23/2004 |
| 6802433 | Food dispensing machine and method of use A food dispensing machine and method of use that includes separately loaded, conveyed, and heated first and second food portions. A first food portion, such as a hot dog, is dispensed from a chain of portions in an sealing film via a first dispensing device, which s... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6776305 | Device for warming and dispensing towels A towel dispensing device provides a device for warming towels prior to the towels being removed from the dispensing device. The dispensing device includes an electrically powered heating member, the degree of heat being controllable by the user, for warming the spa... | 08/17/2004 |
| 6683288 | Hot food vending machines A system for removing a food container tray from a sleeve, placing the food tray in an oven of an automatic hot food vending machine, removing the hot food tray from the oven and replacing it in the tray, including means for preventing the sleeve from dis... | 01/27/2004 |
| 6664520 | Thermal seat and thermal device dispensing and vending system employing RFID-based induction heating devices An RFID-based induction heating/vending system for quickly and efficiently heating, vending, and recollecting stadium seats (10) or other objects. The system includes a plurality of objects each including an induction-heatable body (22), a charging/vendin... | 12/16/2003 |
| 6546847 | Device for producing pizza The invention is an apparatus for producing pizza by a mechanical, automated system without using baking tins for the dough bases and without using pre-prepared or pre-shaped bases. Dough bases are individually prepared from fresh pre-proportioned dough i... | 04/15/2003 |
| 6526874 | Apparatus for making pizza An apparatus and method for making pizza includes a housing and a plurality of canisters containing fresh dough stored in the housing. A cutting blade is disposed in the housing and is movable between an upper limit position and a lower limit position to ... | 03/04/2003 |
| 6518553 | Food cooking device and method of use A device for treating sausage in a hot dog dispensing machine has a substantially closed chamber for receiving a sausage, a unit associated with the chamber and operative for providing a microwave radiation into an interior of the chamber so as to provide... | 02/11/2003 |
| 6497341 | Device for warming and dispensing towels A towel dispensing device provides a device for warming towels prior to the towels being removed from the dispensing device. The dispensing device includes an electrically powered heating member, the degree of heat being controllable by the user, for warm... | 12/24/2002 |
| 6495182 | Loader for conveyorized cooking apparatus A loader for a conveyorized cooking apparatus having a transverse partition spaced from an endless loading belt. The loader may include several longitudinal partitions defining a plurality of dispensing stations for loading hamburger patties and like food... | 12/17/2002 |
| 6464104 | Vending system A vending system has at least one storage compartment with at least one shelf for holding various food packets. A computer system, which may be linked to a remote sight, stores information about each food packet within the system, which information is mad... | 10/15/2002 |
| 6433320 | On-demand microwave heating system and method A dispenser for dispensing a heated wet food or beverage product that includes a housing capable of receiving the product, a heating device including an electrical power supply and a magnetron configured to supply electromagnetic energy in the microwave r... | 08/13/2002 |
| 6386098 | Pre-packaged food warmer Food preparation apparatus including a housing having a top wall and a front wall. Each wall having an aperture defined therein. A passageway for warming and storing pre-packaged food products extends from an entrance at the top wall aperture to an exit a... | 05/14/2002 |
| 6383542 | method and apparatus for preparing and dispensing a combination of food products in a vending machine Method and apparatus for preparing and dispensing a combination of food products in a vending machine from a selection of components prepackaged in a plurality of trays sealed with a single peel off tape. The method comprises dispensing a top component on... | 05/07/2002 |
| 6350974 | Handled, microwave popcorn service apparatus A handled, microwave popcorn service apparatus is provided for cooking and serving popcorn. A service bowl container is formed of a thermoplastic microwave penetrable material. The service container includes a dispensing tube and an access lid.... | 02/26/2002 |
| 6240832 | Assembly for feeding prepackaged coffee portions to a brewing unit of a coffee machine An assembly for feeding packed portions of coffee powder to a brewing unit is provided by the present invention. That assembly has a brewing chamber and a magazine adapted to receive the coffee portion to be brewed. The magazine is rotatable and adapted t... | 06/05/2001 |
| 6204491 | Automatic popcorn dispenser with microwave oven and method to operate the same An automatic dispenser and a method to operate the same dispenses food prepacked in packets, particularly popcorn. The dispenser includes a frame with at least one conveying unit, at least a microwave oven and a collecting container mounted on the frame, ... | 03/20/2001 |
