| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| 7190146 |
Control system and method for an overhead bridge crane |
March 13, 2007 |
| Included herein is a system and method for controlling a velocity vector of an overhead crane. A motor is attached to the crane and is positioned to move the overhead crane and has an output vector including a rotational direction and a rotational speed. A variable frequency drive is |
| 6956339 |
Multiple hoist synchronization apparatus and method |
October 18, 2005 |
| A hoist synchronization apparatus and method using a master controller operating software that provides a pulse reference to a slave controller. The slave commands its motor to rotate at the speed conveyed by that pulse reference. The slave controller monitors the pulse feedback from bot |
| 6653804 |
Method and apparatus for controlling a bucket hoist using a flux vector AC drive |
November 25, 2003 |
| A dual hoist bucket crane controller for operating a closing motor and a holding motor using a close inverter adapted to control the closing motor and a hold inverter adapted to control the holding motor where the hold inverter and the close inverter are internally controlled and operate |
| 6598859 |
Multiple hoist synchronization apparatus and method |
July 29, 2003 |
| A hoist synchronization apparatus and method using a master controller operating software that provides a pulse reference to a slave controller. The slave commands its motor to rotate at the speed conveyed by that pulse reference. The slave controller monitors the pulse feedback from bot |
| 6588713 |
Anchor assembly for electrified conductor bar |
July 8, 2003 |
| The present invention provides an assembly for attaching a high current conductive line to a support. The assembly comprises a first interlocking member shaped to receive the conductive line and a second interlocking member removably attached to the first interlocking member and shaped t |
| 6274987 |
Power sensing lamp protection circuit for ballasts driving gas discharge lamps |
August 14, 2001 |
| A lamp protection circuit for smaller gas discharge lamps and for compact fluorescent lamps powered by a ballast. The circuit protects against several lamp failure modes that can cause overheating and cracking of the lamp. Power levels in the lamp are sensed and when a level is exceeded, |
| 6244544 |
Method and apparatus for holding a capacitor without separable fasteners |
June 12, 2001 |
| A capacitor holder for mounting capacitors used in electronics assemblies into a fixture, as well as mounting other types of components in other panels. The capacitor holder includes a support for receiving the capacitor and a cover for covering the capacitor. The cover and the suppo |
| 6204602 |
Compact fluorescent lamp and ballast assembly with an air gap for thermal isolation |
March 20, 2001 |
| A fluorescent lamp and ballast assembly is designed to thermally isolate a ballast circuit from the illuminated lamp and thereby reduce the heat surrounding the ballast circuit. The fluorescent lamp of the assembly is attached to a housing that reduces the heat transferred to the ballast |
| 6152273 |
Universal arm and mounting block for a current collector |
November 28, 2000 |
| A current collector assembly for positioning a current collecting shoe into electrical contact with an electrified rail for use with a mobile unit. The collector assembly includes a pair of identical mounting blocks which are used to mount the collector assembly to the mobile unit. The m |
| 6118223 |
Power supply for discharge lamps with balanced resonant circuit |
September 12, 2000 |
| The invention relates to a lamp arrangement having a resonant circuit arrangement that is balanced and has two LC series circuits each connected between a respective inverter output terminal and a lamp terminal. The two inductive elements being coupled together via a single core. |
| 6074263 |
Methods of manufacturing ballasts and starter assemblies used in gas discharge lamps |
June 13, 2000 |
| Methods of manufacturing ballasts and starter assemblies used in gas discharge lamps are disclosed. One embodiment of a starter assembly includes a one-piece plastic enclosure for a glow bulb which is used as a starter for a fluorescent lamp. The enclosure has a latching hinged lid, a |
| 6051940 |
Safety control circuit for detecting the removal of lamps from a ballast and reducing the throug |
April 18, 2000 |
| A series resonant ballast safety control circuit for controlling the operation of a ballast when a lamp is removed from a lamp fixture. The safety control circuit senses a diode clamp current and activates a transistor to ground one of the terminals of a dimming control circuit. The |
| 6031340 |
Device and method for capacitive bi-level switching of high intensity discharge lighting |
February 29, 2000 |
| A zero current crossing capacitive switching scheme for controlling the switching of a capacitor into and out of an HID lead ballast circuit at a time when a current through the capacitor is at or near zero. The capacitor switching enabling bi-level operation of an HID lamp such that |
| 5959408 |
Symmetry control circuit for pre-heating in electronic ballasts |
September 28, 1999 |
| A symmetry control circuit for a ballast driving a gas discharge lamp. The circuit controls the pre-heat time of a gas discharge lamp with heatable filaments by holding off the full striking voltage until the lamp has had sufficient time to pre-heat. The circuit is designed to work with |
| 5939837 |
Electronic ballast circuit for independently increasing the power factor and decreasing the cres |
August 17, 1999 |
| The device provides a power-supply section (3) connected to an AC source (21) and an inverter section (5) for supplying power to an electrical load (9, 11) through an oscillating circuit (13, 15). Two capacitors, a filter and a smoothing capacitor (27, 29) are arranged between a rectifie |
| 5932995 |
Dual buck converter with coupled inductors |
August 3, 1999 |
| This invention relates to a dual buck converter used to reduce an unregulated high input voltage without a ground reference to a regulated output voltage. This is accomplished by coupling the inductors of two independent buck converters. The input voltage is split across the dual buc |
| 5923128 |
Electronic ballast for high-intensity discharge lamps |
July 13, 1999 |
| An electronic ballast is used for providing a voltage with a varying frequency to fluorescent lamps. The electronic ballast has an inverter to supply a fluorescent lamp load with a voltage having a high frequency, with the inverter being controlled by a control which generates a swit |
| 5915306 |
Generator mounting assembly |
June 29, 1999 |
| A mounting assembly secures a generator and facilitates attachment to a railroad railcar on the end of the railcar axle. The generator produces electricity from the axle of a railroad railcar while it is traveling on a railroad track. A generator is mounted with a generator bracket and a |
| 5914547 |
Auxiliary bearing assembly for reduction of unwanted shaft voltages in an electric motor |
June 22, 1999 |
| An auxiliary bearing assembly is used to ground the shaft of an electric motor to reduce unwanted currents in the motor bearings. An auxiliary bearing is either initially mounted onto the housing of the motor or retrofitted to attach the motor, so that the shaft of the motor is in el |
| 5885676 |
Plastic tube and method and apparatus for manufacturing |
March 23, 1999 |
| A plastic tube and a method and apparatus for forming it in which a strip of relatively thin plastic sheet material is cut from a roll of the material and wound around a mandrel. Overlapping ends of the strip are sealed to form the tube. The edge of the strip is inwardly bent to form an |
| 5877592 |
Programmed-start parallel-resonant electronic ballast |
March 2, 1999 |
| A family of programmed start parallel-resonant electronic ballast circuits operate in a first mode during a preheat interval following application of power to the ballast, and then afterwards operate in a second mode. The ballast circuits can be based on any of the several forms of curre |
| 5852344 |
Enclosure for glow bulb starter used with gas discharge lamps |
December 22, 1998 |
| An one-piece plastic protective enclosure is provided for a glow bulb used as a starter for a fluorescent lamp. The enclosure has a latching hinged lid, a partition wall to isolate the glow bulb leads, and integral strain relief. The glow bulb enclosure is mounted inside a ballast assemb |
| 5838181 |
Pulse-width modulator circuit for use in low-cost power factor correction circuit |
November 17, 1998 |
| A pulse-width modulator is disclosed which can be used, for example, in a power factor corrected electronic ballast circuit. The pulse-width modulator circuit combines a reference waveform signal with a second signal to form a composite waveform signal. The composite waveform signal |
| 5831395 |
Three-way fluorescent adapter |
November 3, 1998 |
| A control circuit and ballasting means controls the light output of a gas discharge lamp in response to switches that are external to the ballast. The invention provides 3 levels of light output with single or multiple lamps. One embodiment of the invention can be mounted in a standard |
| 5825639 |
DC bus capacitor arrangement |
October 20, 1998 |
| A capacitor arrangement across a direct current bus provides a high ripple current capability and high capacitance at a low cost. The circuit is used in electronic power conversion devices such as electric motor drives and inverters. A combination of film capacitors and electrolytic capa |
| 5821649 |
Electrostatic shielding system for reduction of bearing currents in electric motors |
October 13, 1998 |
| An electrostatic shielding system is provided for an AC motor to eliminate generation of destructive motor bearing currents. Conductive end turn shields are layered over the stator coil end turns at each end of the stator. Conductive grounding clips mechanically and electrically engage |
| 5818181 |
Neon lamp isolation transformer for mid-point commoned neon lamps |
October 6, 1998 |
| A low cost power supply with enhanced safety protection for neon lamps connected in a midpoint commoned lamp configuration. The power supply has a return path which is isolated from the earth ground so that a fault current does not flow from the output terminals to the earth ground. The |
| 5817975 |
Housing with integral mounting bracket |
October 6, 1998 |
| A housing having a main section for holding an object, such as a ballast transformer, that has side walls and an open top. A lid having a shape conforming to that of the housing main section has side walls that fit over the main section side walls and covers the open top. The lid has an |
| 5788527 |
Electrical connector with improved safety latching for a fluorescent-lighting ballast |
August 4, 1998 |
| One half-connector terminates leads in the ballast, carrying electricity to and from the ballast coils. Another half-connector terminates leads outside the ballast, connected e. g. to carry power to lamp sockets. A hook extended from a first of the half-connectors engages a catch formed |
| 5742146 |
Drive circuit for a switched reluctance motor with improved energy recovery using a common dump |
April 21, 1998 |
| A drive circuit for a switched reluctance motor has phase circuits connected to a common dump capacitor which receives residual magnetic energy from each phase coil when it is switched off. One or more recovering phase circuits are connected to the dump capacitor and comprise a contr |
| 5737210 |
Bridge rectifier configuration and mounting for supplying exciter current in an AC generator |
April 7, 1998 |
| A rectifier module assembly for a conventional three phase AC generator is formed into two crescent shaped rectifier modules so that the rectifier assembly can be mounted directly to the housing of the exciter rotor. The positive and negative rectifier modules are thermally conductive so |
| 5735703 |
Recessed bushing style luminous tube transformer featuring versatile mounting configuration |
April 7, 1998 |
| A transformer enclosure design with a separate receptacle housing used for power transformers especially those used with neon lamps. The separate receptacle housing allows for multiple neon gas discharge tube mounting orientations and allows for multiple transformer mounting configuratio |
| 5731667 |
Hybrid sequence start ballast for an instant start discharge lamp |
March 24, 1998 |
| In accordance with the present invention, a hybrid sequence start circuit is provided for operating a plurality of instant start lamps. The circuit utilizes two coils, a primary and a secondary, and an electronic switch to start a plurality of series-connected, instant start lamps in seq |
| 5731666 |
Integrated-magnetic filter having a lossy shunt |
March 24, 1998 |
| A two-winding, integrated-magnetic EMI filter provides damped common-mode and differential-mode inductances. The preferred embodiment of the filter has a magnetic core structure that incorporates a high-permeability C-core, a high-permeability I-core, and a low-permeability, lossy shunt. |
| 5729450 |
Power converter with ripple current and bulk filtering supplied by high-current, high-microfarad |
March 17, 1998 |
| In a power inverter, ripple current and bulk filtering are provided by a high-current, high-microfarad film capacitor arrangement; there is no separate snubber capacitor section. In an alternative embodiment, a small high-frequency film capacitor is connected in parallel with the bulk fi |
| 5726513 |
Motor governor mounting assembly |
March 10, 1998 |
| An improved connection assembly for connecting a centrifugal governor to the shaft of a fractional horsepower electric motor. The end of the rotor shaft to which the governor is mounted is provided with a circumferential ring seat and is flattened on diametrically opposed sides at the ti |
| 5654620 |
Sensorless speed detection circuit and method for induction motors |
August 5, 1997 |
| The present invention provides a sensorless circuit for detecting rotational speed of a rotor in an induction motor. The circuit includes a switch between the AC source driving the motor and a motor phase winding. When the switch is closed, there is developed across the phase winding a |
| 5650925 |
Diode clamping arrangement for use in electronic ballasts |
July 22, 1997 |
| An electronic ballast includes a low cost circuit for power factor correction. A PWM circuit utilizes a wave form signal derived from the ballast inverter as a reference. The reference wave form signal is combined with a feed back signal to form a composite control signal that is com |
| 5642019 |
Safety protector for non-isolated ballasts |
June 24, 1997 |
| A protection circuit for non-isolated ballasts that drive gas discharge lamps to prevent shock hazards. The device acts to prevent excessive leakage currents from flowing between the ballast and ground by introducing a higher common mode impedance path in the circuit. A two stage com |
| 5625939 |
Method for assembling an inductive device |
May 6, 1997 |
| A method of assembling a leadless type ballast transformer having a connector at one end of the housing for accepting a mating connector which supplies voltage to the ballast and provides the operating voltage to the lamps controlled by the ballast. Uninsulated connection leads extending |
| 5583402 |
Symmetry control circuit and method |
December 10, 1996 |
| The present invention provides a method and circuit for controlling the flow of current through a load. In a preferred embodiment, an oscillator generates a pulse signal of constant frequency. A pulse width modulator adjusts the duty cycle of the pulse signal in response to a dimming lev |
| 5583398 |
Powerfactor correcting flyback arrangement having a resonant capacitor element connected across |
December 10, 1996 |
| A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a ballast circuit, comprising three sections: an input power section that receives a line AC signal as an input and provides a DC signal as an output; a pre-regulator section that conditions the DC signal; and a lamp driver section |
| 5568041 |
Low-cost power factor correction circuit and method for electronic ballasts |
October 22, 1996 |
| The present invention provides a low-cost power factor corrected electronic ballast circuit. A preferred embodiment includes a discontinuous conduction mode boost power factor correction circuit that is controlled with a simple pulse-width modulator (PWM) circuit comprising a few dis |
| 5535625 |
Integrated liquid level and auxiliary sensor system and method |
July 16, 1996 |
| A magnetostrictive liquid level probe in a double-walled liquid container develops liquid level data and external sensors in the space between the walls respond to the presence of liquid leaked into the space from inside or outside the container. Other sensors external of the liquid leve |
| 5510762 |
Simplified ballast transformer assembly |
April 23, 1996 |
| A leadless type ballast transformer having a connector at one end of the housing for accepting a mating connector which supplies voltage to the ballast and provides the operating voltage to the lamps controlled by the ballast. Uninsulated connection leads extending inwardly of the housin |
| 5497052 |
Isolated constant wattage lamp ballast |
March 5, 1996 |
| A constant wattage ballast transformer of the isolated type permitting the electrical grounding of a mounting shell of the lamp it powers in which a primary, secondary and auxiliary winding are provided with the primary winding inducing voltage into the auxiliary and secondary windings w |
| 5488268 |
Electrical connector with improved centering of mating terminal pins, for a fluorescent-lighting |
January 30, 1996 |
| One half-connector terminates a set of leads in the ballast, for carrying electrical power to and from the ballast coils. Another half-connector terminates another set of leads outside the ballast, connected e.g. to carry power to lamp sockets. Male contacts, preferably formed very i |
| 5482384 |
Anti-wallowing rotor mounting system |
January 9, 1996 |
| In a rotor mounting system, a tab is welded to the outer race of a bearing assembly extending in a radial direction beyond the diameter of the outer race. The motor bracket housing includes a boss projecting upward from the housing proximate to the receiving cavity for the bearing assemb |
| 5463522 |
Housing and mounting arrangement for thermal protector device |
October 31, 1995 |
| A housing of electrical insulating material for a thermal protector used with an inductive device, such as a ballast transformer, in which the housing has an open portion through which the case of the thermal protector is accessible to be placed adjacent a part of the inductive devic |
| 5405271 |
Apparatus and method for improving assembly of leadless ballasts into fluorescent luminaires |
April 11, 1995 |
| An assembly tool helps connect an electrical external half-connector to an internal half-connector at an aperture in a ballast case. The tool includes a fulcrum for stabilizing the tool against the case, and tongue for pushing the external half-connector into engagement while clearing th |
