Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8001866 | Electronic power steering apparatus An electronic steering apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a housing, a worm wheel provided in the housing, a worm axis engaged with the worm wheel in the housing, a bearing installed on the outer circumference of one side of the worm axis, and a resilient... | 08/23/2011 |
| 8001867 | Sheave and gear mechanism A gear mechanism includes a first gear mounted on a first shaft in meshing arrangement with a second gear mounted on a second shaft. A fixed sheave is mounted on the first shaft. A first sliding sheave and a second sliding sheave are mounted on the second shaft. The... | 08/23/2011 |
| 7926377 | Device for an industrial robot A device for adjusting the backlash in bevel gears in an industrial robot which includes a first conical gear wheel with a first axis of rotation and a second conical gear wheel. The device includes a displaceably arranged holder member adapted to fix and rotatably ... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7926376 | Rack guide and rack-and-pinion type steering apparatus having the rack guide A rack and pinion steering device has a pinion rotatable in the R-direction, a rack bar having rack teeth meshing with the pinion and rectilinearly movable in the A-direction, a housing for rotatably supporting the pinion, a rack guide for slidably supporting the ra... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7814808 | Worm gear mechanism and electric power steering apparatus equipped with the worm gear mechanism Worm gear mechanism includes a driving worm, a torque delivering worm wheel meshing with the worm, and an auxiliary worm wheel superimposed on the torque delivering worm wheel. The auxiliary worm wheel has a pitch diameter greater than that of the torque delivering ... | 10/19/2010 |
| 7752937 | Anti-backlash gear An anti-backlash gear includes a first gear and a second gear. The first gear preferably includes a gear plate, a plurality of snap projections and a finger hub. The plurality of snap projections and the finger hub extend from one face of the gear plate. The finger ... | 07/13/2010 |
| 7748288 | Gear-driven balance shaft apparatus with backlash control An apparatus for controlling backlash comprising an intermediate gear capable of adjustably meshed engagement between a first driving gear and a second driven gear, and a body rotatably supporting the intermediate gear and capable of movement in a direction that red... | 07/06/2010 |
| 7654166 | Apparatus for automatically adjusting yoke clearance in a steering device Apparatus for automatically adjusting yoke clearance in a steering device in a rack-pinion type steering device. ... | 02/02/2010 |
| 7530281 | Gear set for differential gear shafts of an internal combustion engine A gear set for differential shafts of internal combustion engines. The gear set includes a toothed wheel which can be moved parallel to its axis for adjustment of backlash. A spacer is arranged removably between tooth faces of interacting teeth of engaging toothed w... | 05/12/2009 |
| 7467566 | Anti-backlash device in a gear A driving element is divided into two coaxial toothed members elastically attached to one another. A first of the toothed members is fixed to a shaft. The second of the toothed members is freely mounted on this shaft. The second toothed member has a planar face, opp... | 12/23/2008 |
| 7467565 | Gearbox drive unit with an inclined stop surface The invention relates to a gear drive unit (10), in particular to adjust moveable parts in a motor vehicle, with a gear housing (15) and a shaft (18) positioned therein along a longitudinal axis (30), which shaft is supported on the housi... | 12/23/2008 |
| 7428846 | Shaft encoder with anti-backlash gears An encoder shaft assembly includes a drive shaft having a drive gear, and an array of encoder units each having an encoder shaft and anti-backlash gears which engage the drive gear. ... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7406892 | Plastic molded gear, and intermittent rotation transmission device and gear train using same A plastic molded gear capable of reducing teeth knocking noises due to backlash during engagement. A protruding portion 5 for eliminating backlash is formed so as to protrude from both end portions in facewidth directions on one tooth flank 6 of each t... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7383750 | Double flank delash gear mechanism A gear arrangement includes a first section having a first plurality of teeth and at least a portion of the first section is made of a compliant material. There is also a second section having a second plurality of teeth. The second section is made of a stiff materi... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7382107 | Shift range switching apparatus By utilizing a mechanical backlash generated between an electric actuator and a shift range switching mechanism, a specific region is obtained, in which a variation in the output shaft angle is relatively small with respect to a variation in rotor angle. In this spe... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7377194 | Worm gear mechanism and electric power steering apparatus equipped with the worm gear mechanism Worm gear mechanism is provided which includes a worm, a torque-transmitting worm wheel and an auxiliary worm wheel. In order to secure a sufficient face width of the torque-transmitting worm wheel, a pitch diameter of the auxiliary worm wheel is set to be greater t... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7357108 | Valve-operating mechanism A valve operating system for an engine that includes a piston that reciprocates along a piston axis. The valve operating system includes a valve member that is movable along a valve axis between a first position and a second position and a crankshaft that is rotatab... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7346992 | Hand-held power tool with angle drive A hand-held power tool (2) includes an angle drive (20) for connecting the motor-driven driving shaft (6) and the driven shaft (10) connected with a tooth holder (24) for joint rotation therewith, and having drive toothing (14 | 03/25/2008 |
| 7331895 | Composite planetary device A composite planetary speed reduction device (1), wherein gears (11), (12), and (13) and rollers (21), (22), and (23) forming a planetary gear speed reduction mechanism (10) and a planetary roller speed reducti... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7326322 | Apparatus and method for degrading a web in the machine direction while preserving cross-machine direction strength An embossing system is provided for embossing a web having a first embossing roll having embossing elements and a second embossing roll having embossing elements, wherein at least a portion of the embossing elements of the first and second embossing rolls are substa... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7322257 | Step down gear train for an adjusting device of an automotive vehicle seat A step down gear train for an adjusting device of an automotive vehicle seat which has an input shaft and an output shaft that is connected to a pinion. At least one first cogwheel and one second cogwheel are provided in the path between input shaft and output shaft... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7302873 | Angle drive with power distribution An angle drive having a housing (11) with a first axis (A1) for bearing means and a second axis (A2) for bearing means, which latter axis (A2) intersects the first axis (A1) at right angles, having an input shaft | 12/04/2007 |
| 7293481 | Single-motor power telescope and tilt steering column A drive mechanism is provided for a tilting and telescoping steering column. The drive mechanism can selectively tilt the steering wheel or telescope the steering column in response to input from the driver. A single drive mechanism controls the tilting movement and... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7291088 | Method for effecting low-loss torque transmission in planetary gears The invention relates to a method for effecting torque transmission in a single-stage planetary gear comprising 2-6 planet units. The arrangement and the interaction of individual gear elements in conjunction with a method for mounting and adjusting them result in a... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7284634 | Electric power steering apparatus An electric power steering apparatus comprises a rotary shaft member connected to a steering wheel, an elongate member, a rack-and-pinion mechanism, a ball screw mechanism constructed of a screw member, a nut member and a multiplicity of balls interposed between the... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7275872 | Adjustable bearing A bearing that can be reoriented to move its center is disclosed. The center of the bearing is offset from the center of its outer housing. Should the shaft extending through the bearing need to be raised or lowered the outer housing is simply rotated in its recepta... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7261082 | Throttle valve control device To make a throttle valve control device compact, by reducing a longitudinal directional length H and a side directional length L of a gear part comprising a motor gear, an intermediate gear and a drive gear, so as to improve mountability on a two-wheeled vehicle, a ... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7261667 | System and method for reducing backlash in a planetary gear set Systems and methods for reducing or eliminating backlash to control gear rattle include a planetary gear set with a planet carrier including a first part that supports at least one forward-torque carrying planet gear that has at least one tooth contacting a drive si... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7258036 | Bi-directional electric motor with endplay structure An endplay structure is provided for controlling endplay of a shaft 25 of a motor 19. The endplay structure includes a body 22 including a generally elliptically shaped recess 26 therein. The recess is constructed and arranged to be dispo... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7252581 | Power tools It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a technique of cooling a power tool which further improves cooling effectiveness of the power tool. According to the invention, a power tool is provided that includes a driving motor, a tool bit, a power transm... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7244214 | Speed change device and steering system A speed change device has an input member rotatable in opposite directions to transmit higher torque as its rotation angle becomes larger, and a variable angle-ratio change mechanism including rollers and teethed wheels that are arranged in parallel to each other. T... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7240764 | Steering unit for an electric vehicle A steering unit of an electric vehicle is equipped with an electric motor having a tubular output shaft assembled so as to rotate around its own longitudinal axis, and a steering rod assembled through the output shaft and connected to the same output shaft by means ... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7240762 | Electric power steering apparatus A gearing radius of a worm wheel is set corresponding to a neighborhood region of a steering neutral position, in such a way as to be relatively large. Thus, backlash is made to be relatively small. This prevents noises from being produced when an automobile travels... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7225699 | Gear drive mechanism with anti-rattle device A gear drive mechanism with two rotary gears meshing with each other has a first friction rim surface rotationally coupled to one of the two gears and a second friction rim surface rotationally coupled to the other of the two gears. The friction rim surfaces are in ... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7222550 | Adjusting device with automatic release mechanism An adjusting device has a carriage, at least one guide element, on which the carriage is mounted such that it can be moved, a shifting device for moving the carriage, and a securing mechanism for securing the carriage in a desired position. To provide an improved ad... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7213428 | Apparatus for locking and unlocking vehicle door An apparatus for locking and unlocking a vehicle door includes a cylinder lock having a rotor, a door lock mechanism including a key operation input shaft which rotates to switch a locked state and an unlocked state of a door, and a torque cable for transmitting rot... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7213677 | Motor-driven type power steering apparatus A motor-driven type power steering apparatus includes: a drive gear connected to an output shaft of a motor; a driven gear in mesh with the drive gear, which is connected to a steering unit; a bearing for supporting one end of the drive gear; a support portion in wh... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7210368 | Ultrasonic welded plastic retainer to secure yoke plug adjustment The toothed rack steering gear has an adjusting nut and a housing. An opening with internal thread of the housing is adapted to the adjusting nut and receives the adjusting nut in the assembled state. In the housing at least one recess is provided in direct proximit... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7210375 | Unitary case for an angular drive The application relates to a unitary case for a plurality of angular drives which comprises at least one bevel gear step with a first bevel gear and a second bevel gear, and which is provided for achieving various angles between a transmission input shaft and a tran... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7210853 | Gear shaft bearing assembly The invention relates to a shaft bearing assembly and also to an industrial gear unit (30) comprising this bearing assembly. The bearing assembly (34) comprises two taper roller bearings mounted axially spaced apart on the shaft (35) with the be... | 05/01/2007 |
