Celebrity Inventors
Glam girl Heddy Lamar may have used her good looks to good effect on the silver screen, but she put her smarts to better use as an inventor. During World War II, she co-patented a frequency-switching system for torpedo guidance that was considered years ahead of its time.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8147143 | Bump foil hydrodynamic thrust bearing A thrust bearing for a rotary machine includes first, second and third layers. The second layer includes a corrugated foil arranged between the first and third layers. The corrugated foil includes a wall having peaks engaging the first layer and valleys engaging the... | 04/03/2012 |
| 7954998 | Thrust bearing A hydrodynamic bearing set, for use with a thrust disk disposed between planar surfaces of a housing, includes first and second topfoils disposed adjacent first and second thrust disk axial bearing surfaces and removably secured to the housing. An underspring is sec... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7497627 | Thrust bearing A hydrodynamic bearing set, for use with a thrust disk disposed between planar surfaces of a housing, includes first and second topfoils disposed adjacent first and second thrust disk axial bearing surfaces and removably secured to the housing. An underspring is sec... | 03/03/2009 |
| 7364363 | Bearing and turbo compressor comprising the same A thrust bearing designed to support a rotational shaft within a turbo compressor, and including foils subjected to a friction with gas. The bearing includes a plurality of elastic foils having different stiffnesses from each other. ... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7350819 | Pretensioner A gas generating system (24) is provided including a gas generant container (34) and an initiator (28). The initiator (28) is positioned exterior of the gas generant container (34) so as to enable fluid communication with the conta... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7261300 | Hydrodynamic foil face seal A foil thrust bearing forms the primary rotating interface for a film riding face seal. This face seal includes a spring system that will allow the entire assembly to translate axially relative to a static attachment. The complete assembly will form a hybrid foil/fi... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7189003 | Turbomachine A turbomachine has a rotor shaft, which is mounted in a bearing arrangement containing a hydrodynamic axial bearing, and a rotor disposed on the rotor shaft. A hydrostatic axial bearing is additionally provided in the immediate vicinity of the hydrodynamic axial bea... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7163368 | Hydrodynamic bearing runner for use in tilting pad thrust bearing assemblies for electric submersible pumps An electrical submersible pump runner having a core layer and a wear layer affixed to the core layer. One embodiment of the invention provides an electrical submersible pump that includes a motor section and a centrifugal pump section. A seal section and rotary gas ... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7112036 | Rotor and bearing system for a turbomachine A rotor and bearing system for a turbomachine. The turbomachine includes a drive shaft, an impeller positioned on the drive shaft, and a turbine positioned on the drive shaft proximate to the impeller. The bearing system comprises one gas journal bearing supporting ... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7108488 | Turbocharger with hydrodynamic foil bearings A turbocharger includes a foil bearing assembly mounted in a center housing between a compressor and a turbine of the turbocharger. The bearing assembly forms a unit installable into the center housing from one end thereof, and the center housing is a one-piece cons... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7003886 | Inner cutter unit and outer cutter unit for an electric shaver An electric rotary or reciprocating shaver including an inner cutter unit, with which inner cutter blades that make a sliding contact with the blade surface of an outer cutter, being provided with recesses that is filled with a synthetic resin. The outer cutter of a... | 02/28/2006 |
| 6997686 | Motor driven two-stage centrifugal air-conditioning compressor A two-stage compressor for generating necessary pressure differential for air-conditioning applications with air-cooled, water-cooled and evaporative-cooled condensing systems using low-pressure refrigerant, such as R134a, is provided. A rotating assembly is mounted... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6953283 | Foil bearing In a foil bearing (23) having a plurality of foils (26) disposed in a gap between a rotating member (12) and a stationary mount member (25), a moveable member (27) is disposed on a side of the stationary member opposite to the rota... | 10/11/2005 |
| 6948853 | High load capacity stacked foil thrust bearing assembly A stacked foil thrust bearing assembly provides a compact, lightweight, high load capacity, high temperature, oil-free foil thrust bearing for use in high speed rotating machinery. A stacked foil thrust bearing assembly comprises a plurality of thrust runners in adj... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6827493 | Turret support system and bearing unit The invention is a bearing unit and bearing system for supporting a large rotatable element, such as a mooring turret. The bearing unit includes a hydrostatic suspension system which enables the bearing unit to accommodate fabrication tolerances and also enables the... | 12/07/2004 |
| 6811315 | Compliant support for increased load capacity axial thrust bearing A compliant support for an axial thrust air bearing between a shaft and a housing with an annular thrust runner extending radially from the shaft having a runner bearing surface. The housing has a housing bearing surface and an air inlet in communication with a sour... | 11/02/2004 |
| 6752533 | Foil thrust bearing cooling An improved foil thrust bearing includes a cooling fluid flow turbulence generating disk placed between other foil thrust bearing elements, such as thrust bearing elements and underspring elements. The inventive turbulence generating disk generally provides improved... | 06/22/2004 |
| 6702463 | Compliant foil thrust bearing A compliant foil fluid thrust bearing has a single sided or two sided thrust disk rotor, an integrally formed compliant foil member, and an underspring member. The non-rotating but compliant foils are located adjacent to the thrust face or faces or the ro... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6354741 | Foil thrust bearing An improved foil thrust bearing includes a pair of members arranged for relative rotation with respect to one another. One of the pair of members is adapted to rotatably support the other. A thrust bearing disk is operatively disposed between the pair of ... | 03/12/2002 |
| 6261002 | Gas dynamic foil bearing A gas dynamic foil bearing comprises a plate (13) attached to a base (10), support members (14) fixed on the plate (13) at predetermined intervals, elastic foils (15) fixed to the support members (14) at one end thereof to overlap each other, a thrust dis... | 07/17/2001 |
| 6224263 | Foil thrust bearing with varying circumferential and radial stiffness An improved foil thrust bearing having a thrust runner and a thrust plate includes an underspring element positioned adjacent to the thrust plate. The underspring element comprises, in one embodiment, a plurality of alternating first apertures and spring ... | 05/01/2001 |
| 6158892 | Fluid film thrust bearing having integral compliant foils A compliant foil fluid film bearing having individual fluid film foils formed as arcuate segments by an inner circumferential slot, an outer circumferential slot and a transverse therebetween. The transverse slot may be radial, slightly displaced from rad... | 12/12/2000 |
| 6126414 | Thrust bearing arrangement for turbocharger A thrust bearing arrangement for a turbocharger including a thrust bearing unit having separate normal and reverse thrust bearings, and a thrust member provided on a turbine shaft and interposed between the normal and reverse thrust bearings. Both the nor... | 10/03/2000 |
| 5961217 | High load capacity compliant foil hydrodynamic thrust bearing A compliant hydrodynamic fluid film thrust bearing. A circumferential row of sectors of flexible sheets are positioned to face a shaft runner for relative rotation therebetween. The flexible sheets are supported by a flexible membrane which is in turn sup... | 10/05/1999 |
| 5938341 | Foil thrust bearing including a follower spring having rotated, elongated spring tabs A follower spring for a foil thrust bearing includes a plate and a plurality of spring tabs extending from the plate. The spring tabs are elongated and offset at angles between approximately 45 degrees and approximately 75 degrees. The spring tabs can be ... | 08/17/1999 |
| 5918985 | Compliant foil fluid thrust film bearing with a tilting pad underspring A compliant foil fluid film thrust bearing including a thrust disk rotor, fluid foils, spring foils, a thrust plate, and a housing thrust surface The non-rotating but compliant fluid foils, mounted on the thrust plate and/or housing thrust surface and pos... | 07/06/1999 |
| 5911510 | Bi-directional foil bearings A foil bearing allows bi-directional rotation of a shaft. The foil bearing includes a plurality of thin compliant foils secured to a housing, and spring segments underlying the foils. Each spring segment has a first stiffness profile in a first zone and a... | 06/15/1999 |
| 5871284 | Foil thrust bearing set A spring assembly for a foil thrust bearing set includes a stiffener disc and a plurality of spring segments. Each spring segment has at least two anchoring tabs. When inserted into a slot in the stiffener disc, the anchoring tabs anchor the spring segmen... | 02/16/1999 |
| 5833369 | High load capacity compliant foil hydrodynamic thrust bearing A compliant hydrodynamic fluid film thrust bearing. A circumferential row of sectors of flexible sheets are positioned to face a shaft runner for relative rotation therebetween. The flexible sheets are supported by a flexible membrane which is in turn sup... | 11/10/1998 |
| 5547286 | Hydrodynamic air thrust bearing with offset bump foils The leading edges of the segmented corrugated springs of each of the two bump foils of a hydrodynamic thrust bearing are offset such that the leading edge in the upper segmented corrugated springs are circumferentially spaced relative to the leading edge ... | 08/20/1996 |
| 5540505 | Top foil plate for hydrodynamic fluid film thrust bearings The top foil of a hydrodynamic fluid film thrust bearing is formed from a single flat annular disk with radial depressions extending from the outer diameter to the inner diameter of the disk that protrude toward the foil plate and define between adjacent ... | 07/30/1996 |
| 5529398 | Compliant foil hydrodynamic fluid film thrust bearing A compliant foil hydrodynamic fluid film thrust bearing is disclosed which is comprised of a two sided thrust disk rotating element, compliant fluid foil members that axially enclose the rotating element, compliant spring foil members that axially enclose... | 06/25/1996 |
| 5498082 | Bi-directional foil thrust bearing A bi-directional foil thrust bearing for use in a variety of turbomachinery devices and disposed between rotating and stationary members of the turbomachine. The thrust bearing comprises annular bearing stiffener, spring cluster, and follower spring disks... | 03/12/1996 |
| 5453869 | Light deflecting apparatus using a rotary polygon mirror In a light deflecting apparatus including a rotary polygon mirror in which a disc rotary polygon mirror is fixed to a shaft supported by a gas of a predetermined pressure. The rotary polygon mirror is fixed to the circumferential side of a shaft by direct... | 09/26/1995 |
| 5318366 | Foil thrust bearing with varying radial and circumferential stiffness A spring cluster disc (14) for a foil thrust bearing (10) is provided with a plurality of sets (52) of springs (62,64,66). The springs are configured to provide varying spring force and thus varying stiffness in radial and circumferential directions.... | 06/07/1994 |
| 5209579 | Thrust bearing device A thrust bearing device for an electric motor lubricated by liquid within a motor casing includes a rotary disk fixed on a primary shaft of the motor and a sliding shoe member having sliding surfaces slidably in contact with a sliding surface of the rotar... | 05/11/1993 |
| 5110220 | Thrust bearing underspring A foil thrust bearing including a thrust bearing underspring disk having a radially increasing spring force or load capacity. A plurality of spring sections formed in the underspring disk provided improved load capacity and pressure force distribution.... | 05/05/1992 |
| 4871267 | Foil thrust bearing A hydrodynamic process or gas bearing is disclosed which includes an integral thrust disk defining a plurality of foil elements, the radially outer edge of the disk being displaced from the major bearing surface to form a circumferential step having a var... | 10/03/1989 |
| 4743126 | Hydrodynamic bearings, and secondary assemblies for producing said bearings The invention provides a process for producing hydrodynamic bearings for supporting and guiding rotary machine shafts. The process consists in previously manufacturing a self-contained cartridge formed of thin foils fixed with respect to each other and pa... | 05/10/1988 |
| 4682900 | Thrust bearing underspring A foil thrust bearing having an underspring formed from a uniform thickness sheet wherein the underspring includes a plurality of arcuate tabs extending toward the thrust disk in the direction of rotation of the thrust runner.... | 07/28/1987 |
