Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8056392 | Method, system, and device for optimizing a vehicle's suspension A method, system, and device for optimizing a vehicle's suspension includes: mounting at least one modified passive shock with a plurality of sensors onto a vehicle, where the shock is adjustable for a plurality of damping forces; connecting the shock to an electron... | 11/15/2011 |
| 8047049 | Conformal sensor tape A sensing device has at least two remote units mounted on an attachable tape, the remote units being mounted on separate branches of the attachable tape, a controller mounted on the attachable tape, electrical connections at least between each remote unit and the co... | 11/01/2011 |
| 7946163 | Methods and apparatus for developing a vehicle suspension An electronically adjustable shock absorber, and a system, method, and algorithm for developing a vehicle suspension. The shock absorber has damping characteristics that can be adjusted electronically to match a desired set of damping characteristics. The test metho... | 05/24/2011 |
| 7921713 | Test fixture A test fixture for testing a motor vehicle suspension, brake components and wheel components on a motor vehicle sub-frame is provided. The test fixture can include a lower frame attached to a base surface and be dimensioned for the motor vehicle sub-frame to be atta... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7735351 | Electronic shoe wear indicator A system measures an amount of wear in athletic footwear by measuring the amount of shock transmitted to a user. The measured shock is used to indicate an amount of how much cushioning has been lost by the footwear. The amount of wear is proportional to the loss of ... | 06/15/2010 |
| 7730762 | Device and method for testing isolation structure Provided is a device for testing an isolation structure comprising an isolation layer having an upper beam, a lower beam and a top beam plate, along with an upper portion, the device comprising a plurality of upper corbels, a plurality of lower corbels, a plurality ... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7716964 | Leak detector for a pressurized cylinder A leak detector apparatus for a pressurized cylinder having a cylinder of a radius (r) with a slidable piston in the cylinder with a gas filled chamber positioned between a cylinder end and the piston face. The length (L) of the chamber is calculated according to lo... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7469571 | Data storage device A data storage device is provided that is suitable for use under the environment where mechanical shock is frequently applied. The data storage device includes plural storage units as closed structures each of which houses a storage medium therein, the storage mediu... | 12/30/2008 |
| 7444853 | Impulse event separating apparatus and method An impulse event separating method, and an apparatus to perform the method, the method including dividing an input signal into frame units and dividing each frame into a plurality of frequency sub-bands; obtaining a power variation and phase variation of the signal ... | 11/04/2008 |
| 7398668 | Weight sensing system and method for vehicles with non-fluid springs A system and method of sensing a load on a vehicle that includes a plurality of wheel-engaging members is disclosed. The vehicle body is supported on the plurality of wheel-engaging members and receives a cargo having a cargo weight. The method includes providing a ... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7369966 | Methods and apparatus to design a wheel of a multiple-axle vehicle Methods and apparatus to design a wheel of a multiple-axle vehicle are disclosed. A disclosed method analyzes fatigue damage values of wheels, each to be installed at a number of axle positions on a vehicle, and includes determining for each wheel a fatigue damage v... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7363805 | System for virtual prediction of road loads A system is provided for full-vehicle analytical road-loads prediction, which reduces the time and cost of modeling tires and tire-road interface, using road load simulations rather than actual measurements. The system includes a method to perform tire tests in a vi... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7360443 | Test bench and method for carrying out aerodynamic measurements on vehicles A test bench for carrying out aerodynamic measurements on vehicles is equipped with at least one contact surface for detecting the vehicle weight, a running belt for simulating the roadway moving under the vehicle, and at least one measuring device for determining f... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7331211 | Apparatus for measuring suspension parameters which include roll center The present invention is a method with a 3-dimensional measuring apparatus for determining vehicle suspension parameters, which include roll center, scrub radius, etc. The apparatus measures the upper and lower control arm pivot locations, which include coordinate p... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7308738 | Releasable fastener systems and processes A releasable fastener system comprises a loop portion and a hook portion. The loop portion includes a support and a loop material disposed on one side thereof. The hook portion generally includes a support and a plurality of closely spaced upstanding hook elements e... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7305864 | Ball and socket joint for a motor vehicle A ball joint for a motor vehicle includes a housing (6) having a cavity (5), and with a ball pivot (1), which has a pin (2) and a joint ball (3) and which, with its joint ball (3), is mounted in the cavity (5) of the ... | 12/11/2007 |
| 7302825 | Vehicle suspension testing and demonstrating A suspension testing or demonstrating apparatus includes a first section of track having a first undulation that displaces a wheel of the vehicle by a first predetermined amount when the wheel traverses at least a portion of the first undulation. A second section of... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7299677 | Vehicle occupant analysis model for vehicle impacts A method of simulating a vehicle impact that involves generating a first finite element model of the vehicle, a multi-body model, and a partial vehicle finite element model. The method also involves generating a coupled model that includes at least a portion of the ... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7294595 | Silica glass A silica glass containing from 3 to 10 mass % of TiO2, which has a coefficient of thermal expansion from 0 to 100° C., i.e. CTE0 to 100, of 0±300 ppb/° C. and an internal transmittance per mm in thickness within a wavelength region of from 2... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7290352 | measurement device for a support land for a valve disc A measuring tool is designed to measure the relationship between an inner hub land and an outer land for a valve body. A locating face engages the inner hub land such that the measurements are taken with respect to the inner hub land. A probe is designed to engage t... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7256669 | Method of preparing electrical contacts used in switches Processes for preparing contacts on microswitches have been invented. The first is a wet process, involving the use of one or more acids, bases and peroxides, in some formulations diluted in water, to flush the contacts. The second process involves exposing the cont... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7234340 | Apparatus, method, and medium for detecting and discriminating impact sound An apparatus, method, and medium for detecting an impact sound and an apparatus, method, and medium for discriminating the impact sound using the same. The impact sound detecting apparatus includes: an onset detector separating an input signal of a frame unit into a... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7231846 | Magnetic fluid shifter damper mechanism A magnetic fluid shifter damper mechanism for a vehicle transmission may include a shift linkage having a first position and a second position, a magnetic fluid damper disposed between a substantially fixed point and a support point on the shift linkage, a fluid ins... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7233846 | Trouble diagnosing device An enlargement button that instruct enlargement of first to fourth buttons to is displayed on a display. The first to fourth buttons to are used to instruct the operation of a control device to be controlled by an electronic control unit to which a trouble diagnosin... | 06/19/2007 |
| 7194888 | Reducing drive file development time for a vehicle road test simulator A method of vehicle suspension testing includes conducting actual road testing of a vehicle including collecting data, and generating a drive file from the collected data for road test simulation. A vehicle suspension parameter is changed to result in a changed vehi... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7191637 | Method for testing vibration dampers in motor vehicle A method of testing a vibration damper mounted between a body and a wheel in a motor vehicle includes the steps of storing a parameter which corresponds to the damping force of a new vibration damper in a memory unit, wherein the parameter is the cushioning work of ... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7192041 | Suspension stop instrumented under deformation in order to measure forces The invention concerns a suspension stop for a motor vehicle wheel, comprising a device for measuring the forces applied to the vehicle wheel, the said device comprising at least one deformation sensor (12) which is associated with a fixed member (1, 6... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7178818 | Vibration damping device for use in automotive suspension system and suspension system using the same A vibration damping device for use in a automotive suspension system, adapted to be disposed at a linking portion between a body of the vehicle and a suspension member that connects and supports a wheel on the body is disclosed. The vibration damping device comprise... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7162399 | System for and method of selecting pneumatic device, and recording medium A pneumatic device selection system has a computer, first through sixth databases connected to the computer and storing data of at least pneumatic devices, a coordinate input unit and a keyboard connected to the computer, for entering input data based on an input ac... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7146690 | Releasable fastener system A releasable fastener system comprises a loop portion and a hook portion. The loop portion includes a support and a loop material disposed on one side thereof. The hook portion generally includes a support and a plurality of closely spaced upstanding hook elements e... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7140081 | Releasable fastener system A releasable fastener system comprises a loop portion and a hook portion. The loop portion includes a support and a loop material disposed on one side thereof whereas the hook portion includes a support and a plurality of closely spaced upstanding hook elements exte... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7137634 | Active control type mounting bushing device for vehicle An active control type mounting bushing device adapted to properly change the hardness of the mounting bushing according to a driving state, thereby obtaining a proper hardness of the mounting bushing for obtaining a comfortable ride during normal driving conditions... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7096170 | Method of assisting the design of a vehicular suspension To provide a method of assisting in the design of a vehicular suspension by allowing definition points inherent in suspensions to be easily recognized regardless of the different types and mechanisms thereof, and allowing specification values to be simply entered at... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7086507 | Controllable magneto-rheological elastomer vibration isolator A tunable vibration isolation device comprising a magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE), and methods of using such a device, are provided. By manipulating a magnetic field within the MRE the device's stiffness is controlled. The vibration isolator can be constructed t... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7066439 | Three directional support mechanism for vehicle wheels A device with at least a supporting arrangement is coupled to a movement-system making the upper-plate moving. The device is characterized in that it includes a mechanism by which the supporting arrangement may be moved vertically thanks to the operation of a moveme... | 06/27/2006 |
| 7062983 | Simulation apparatus A simulation apparatus is provided comprising a fixed main body; a carriage associated with the main body for movement relative to the main body; a first device coupled to the fixed main body for engaging a workpiece; a second device coupled to the carriage for move... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7054596 | Wireless vibration diagnostic instrument A vibration diagnostic instrument for use by an automotive maintenance mechanic. The vibration diagnostic instrument includes a sensor, which senses vibrations and generates a sensor signal in response thereto, and a controller. The controller is coupled to the sens... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7048280 | Hydropneumatic axle suspension for vehicles having greatly varying axle loads A hydropneumatic axle suspension for vehicles having greatly varying axle loads, in particular for front axles on tractors having hydraulic suspension cylinders, which are connected to hydropneumatic accumulators having a suspension circuit Z of the cylinder chamber... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7032453 | Method and apparatus for the diagnosis of natural vibrations in a mechatronic system A method for the diagnosis of natural vibrations in a mechatronic system, includes at least one rigid body (WT1, WT2), which is moved relative to another rigid body (S) by means of at least one numerically-controlled drive, whereby the natural vibratio... | 04/25/2006 |
| 7032436 | Method for estimating vehicular running state, vehicular running state estimating device, vehicle control device, and tire wheel The output level of vibration of a portion below the spring of a vehicle detected by a sensor, and its frequency is converted to obtain the frequency spectrum of the vibration level. Next, an operation is carried out on at least two vibration levels, at different fr... | 04/25/2006 |
