Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8154174 | Bending transducer device for generating electrical energy from deformations and circuit module A bending transducer device for generating electrical energy includes at least one elastically deformable support structure, one piezoelectric element, and a bearing device. The piezoelectric element is configured and situated on the support structure in such a way ... | 04/10/2012 |
| 8129885 | Electric generating unit as substitute for vehicle battery An electric generating unit as a substitute for a vehicle battery includes a housing including an air pressure control member to control air pressure in an inner space of the housing, at least a diaphragm unit configured to sufficiently fluidly-insulate the inner sp... | 03/06/2012 |
| 8120231 | Inertial drive actuator There is provided an inertial drive actuator in which, a small-sizing is easy, including a first displacement generating mechanism of which, one end is adjacent to a fixed member, and a first displacement is generated in the other end thereof, a second displacement ... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8044555 | Driving apparatus A driving apparatus comprises: an electromechanical conversion element that expands and contracts in an extending direction of a given fiducial line; a driving shaft mounted on one end of the electromechanical conversion element in the extending direction; a driven ... | 10/25/2011 |
| 7986076 | Energy harvesting device The present invention discloses an energy harvesting device that converts small magnitude and low frequency vibrations into electrical energy. The device can include a base, a low frequency element, and a piezoelectric element. The low frequency element can be movab... | 07/26/2011 |
| 7936109 | Non-resonant energy harvesting devices and methods Disclosed is an energy harvesting device which can produce electrical power from vibrational energy over a wide range of frequencies. The energy harvester includes a housing having opposing slots. A bendable substrate is at least partially positioned within the hous... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7868520 | Driving apparatus A driving apparatus includes a piezoelectric element which expands and contracts when a voltage is applied thereto, a driving shaft fixed to one end of the piezoelectric element in an expanding-and-contracting direction, a friction part frictionally engaged with the... | 01/11/2011 |
| 7692363 | Mass loaded dipole transduction apparatus An electro-mechanical transducer, which provides dipole motion from its housing which is driven by a bender transducer attached to the housing at the outer edge and attached to an inertial mass at its center providing a lower resonance frequency, lower mechanical Q ... | 04/06/2010 |
| 7608984 | Motion amplification using piezoelectric element A motion amplifier (22) comprises piezoelectric diaphragm (30) and drive electronics (26) for applying a drive signal to the piezoelectric diaphragm. The motion amplifier preferably comprises (in addition to the piezoelectric diaphragm) a reacti... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7443075 | Entrapment detecting system An entrapment detecting system includes a detection portion provided at an opening/closing apparatus for detecting an acceleration thereof on the basis of an output from a piezoelectric sensor for outputting a voltage corresponding to the acceleration and a control ... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7406757 | Method of manufacturing liquid ejection head The method manufactures a liquid ejection head comprising: a plurality of nozzles which eject liquid; a plurality of pressure chambers which are connected to the nozzles, respectively; a diaphragm which forms wall faces of the pressure chambers; and piezoelectric el... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7408289 | Piezoelectric actuator, and apparatus and method for actuating the same A linear actuator using a metal beam-type piezoelectric material, and an apparatus and a method for actuating the same. The piezoelectric actuator includes: a moving member having a predetermined length and moving in a forward or a backward direction; and a piezoele... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7373260 | Sensor infrastructure A device for use in detecting an event in a structure includes a sensor encapsulation, the encapsulation containing a sensor, an actuator positioned substantially in-plane to the sensor within the housing and a printed circuit board in communication with at least on... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369345 | Mobile hard disk drive free fall detection and protection A system provided for protecting a disk drive from impact damages. More specifically, a disk drive is provided that includes an accelerometer interconnected to a printed circuit board that detects free fall of the disk drive. In addition, the velocity of spinning di... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7363717 | System and method for using rotation sensors within a borehole A system and method for using a survey tool within a borehole is provided. The survey tool includes a plurality of rotation sensors each having a sensing axis and a direction of least acceleration sensitivity. The sensing axes of the plurality of rotation sensors ar... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7358646 | Piezoelectric actuator The present invention provides a piezoelectric actuator with excellent durability. In the present invention, a piezoelectric element 2 in which a plurality of piezoelectric layers that expand in accordance with an applied voltage, and internal electrode layer... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7348716 | Piezoelectric gyro element and piezoelectric gyroscope A piezoelectric gyro element including: a piezoelectric vibration body, which has a shape of a rectangular column with a rectangular section, the piezoelectric vibration body being fixed on one end; first driving electrodes formed on opposing first side faces of the... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7331414 | Protective structure for an electrical circuit device A protective structure for an electrical circuit device attached to a vehicle includes a resin case, an electrical circuit, and a rigid body. The electrical circuit is contained in the resin case. The rigid body is contained in the resin case. The rigid body protrud... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7323632 | Percussion transducer A ring-shaped percussion transducer for converting a striking impact into a representative electrical pulse triggering signal is suitable for mounting on the center axis of a percussion instrument. In a preferred embodiment, the transducer is formed of a piezo elect... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7305867 | Engine knock sensor The piezoelectric element of an engine knock sensor is held between upper and lower ring-shaped bases by two identical clips that extend through the piezoelectric element and engage each base. Each clip has a ring-shaped flange engaging a groove circumscribing the i... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7299695 | Acceleration sensor An acceleration sensor includes a weight and a vibrator that supports the weight at its center of gravity. When acceleration is applied to the weight, stress equivalent to the applied acceleration is generated in the vibrator. As the vibrator is arranged to support ... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7294777 | Electronic tone generation system and batons therefor An electronic tone generation system including a plurality of separate, portable, handheld transmitters, or batons, that are provided as “instruments” to one or more players. Each baton can be activated to send a signal, preferably a wireless signal, to a single... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7263884 | Vibration type gyrosensor device Disclosed is a small-sized vibration type gyrosensor device of high sensitivity provided with a cantilevered oscillator. A cantilevered oscillator 11, provided with a lower electrode, a piezoelectric film and an upper electrode, formed on a single-crystal sil... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7259499 | Piezoelectric bimorph actuator and method of manufacturing thereof An actuator is disclosed, which includes a piezoelectric bimorph. The actuator also includes a substantially moisture impervious and electrically insulating packaging having a cavity around the bimorph providing for a clearance around the bimorph. The packaging incl... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7253982 | Dynamic shock detection in disk drive using hair trigger timer Dynamically detecting off-track errors in a disk drive by adjusting transducer head position control parameters in response to shock events. In an embodiment, shock events with large magnitude trigger a severe shock timer which lengthens the write fault before write... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7219550 | Piezoelectric accelerometer A piezoelectric accelerometer comprising a housing with two complementary parts (2005, 2006) in which a metal mass (2002) and an abutting piezoelectric element (2003) movably mounted in place are sandwiched between two conductive contact element... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7216542 | Three-component piezoelectric vibration accelerometer provided with a sensor The inventive device comprises a piezo element, embodied in the form of a square based rectangular parallelopiped fixed to a substrate. A piezo module matrix is embodied in a given shape. A conductive layer is made of a conductive glue. The edges of said rectangular... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7207106 | Method of assembling cable modem device There is disclosed a cable modem device capable of reducing unnecessary signals inputted into a circuit substrate which processes signals and signal terminals from the outside and unnecessary radiation generated by the circuit substrate, the device having a hexahedr... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7205708 | Tuning-fork-type piezoelectric vibrating reed and tuning-fork-type piezoelectric vibrator A tuning-fork-type piezoelectric resonator element and a tuning-fork-type piezoelectric resonator are provided. The tuning-fork-type piezoelectric resonator element comprises a piezoelectric resonator element body including base and resonating arms extending from on... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7201038 | Knock sensor and manufacturing method thereof A knock sensor is constructed by putting and fitting components including an annular piezoelectric element, terminal plate, insulating sheet and weight onto a base consisting of a flange portion and a tubular portion, forming a groove part on a tip outer circumferen... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7196261 | Electronic percussion instrument for producing sound at intended loudness and electronic percussion system using the same An electronic drum includes a pad to be beaten with sticks, a circular piezoelectric converter for converting stress to an electric signal and a semi-circular filter element adhered at one surface to the pad and at the other surface to the circular piezoelectric con... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7183697 | Actuator An actuator, comprising a beam (2) including a laminated structure which has piezoelectric layers (30, 31, 32) and electrode layers (20, 21, 22, 23), a holding mechanism to hold the beam, a feeding terminal (10) to supply an exciting powe... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7178462 | Projectile with members that deploy upon impact A projectile includes members that deploy upon impact with a target. The projectile includes a nose piece with a portion that shears off upon impact with the target, causing the nose piece to be pushed inside the projectile. As the nose piece is pushed inside the pr... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7180221 | Piezo-electric assembly A piezo-electric type of assembly for effecting and interfacing relative motion between two surfaces. The assembly consisting of a first and a second transducer to be driven by electrical signals. Both transducers are coupled at one end to a low inertia member that ... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7168321 | Vibration-type piezoelectric acceleration sensor element and vibration-type piezoelectric acceleration sensor therewith The vibration-type piezoelectric acceleration sensor element includes a frame; and a diaphragm, support, and retentive part, provided in the frame. The diaphragm includes a bottom electrode layer, a piezoelectric thin-film layer formed on the bottom electrode layer,... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7167061 | Tuning fork shaped crystal oscillator and method of fabrication thereof The present invention provides a tuning fork shaped oscillator, an angular velocity sensor element, and an angular velocity sensor with improved breaking strength with respect to CI and drive power, CI stability, and frequency stability. The present invention relate... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7164221 | Piezoelectric/electrostrictive device and method of manufacturing same A piezoelectric/electrostrictive (P/E) device includes at least one actuator section secured to thin plate sections with an adhesive. The actuator section includes a multilayered member including at least three actuator films, each of which include a P/E layer and e... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7154208 | Control apparatus for vibration type actuator The present invention relates to apparatus achieving improvement in operation characteristics in the operation of stopping or reversing the direction of or decelerating movement of a vibrating wave actuator constructed to apply an alternating voltage to an electro-m... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7154690 | Dynamic shock detection in disk drive using accumulated average position error Dynamically detecting off-track errors in a disk drive by adjusting transducer head position control parameters in response to shock events. In an embodiment, shock events with large magnitude trigger a severe shock timer which lengthens the write fault before write... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7145286 | Wedge shaped uniform energy megasonic transducer A transducer comprising an acoustic energy generating means and a resonator. The acoustic energy generating means generates acoustic energy and is adapted for delivering an approximately uniform amount of acoustic energy to each unit of surface area on a substrate i... | 12/05/2006 |
