Ballard Power Systems Corporation

Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies, Inc.

Other

Alliedsignal Inc.

Adar Medtech, Inc.

Vaporless Manufacturing, Inc.

Mark Christian Johnson

David P Wilkinson

Jason L Addink

Stephen A Campbell

Kevin M Colbow

Daniel William Thornton

Penrod C Geisinger

Scott D Klopfenstein

Gregory E Young

Henry H Voss

Olen Richard Vanderleeden

Eric G Pow

Nicholas J Fletcher

Yoseph Gebre-Giorgis

Bruce D Wilson

Frederick G Borns

Robert J Potter

Mehrzad Tabatabaian

John T Kenna

Michael J Kolodziej

Joerg Zimmerman

Eric G Medlin

Eric R Miller

Michael R McNamee

Bradley Rogers

Daniel M Voron

Myles L Bos

Kou-Rey Chu

Jorge L Rosales

Solomon Pena

Lawrence D Barr

Charles P Asman

A single use injector is a disposable injection device that is specifically optimized for production using the blow fill seal (BFS) manufacturing process and includes various mechanisms that render the device inoperable and facilitate its safe disposal after use. The single use injector incorporates an ampoule aseptically filled with a medication that is coupled to a hermetically sealed component system. The hermetically sealed component system incorporates various mechanisms that are actuated during the use of the injection device. The injection device is encased in a removable overtube that prevents contamination. upon removal of the overtube, the injection device is activated, by compression of a needle cap that irreversible punctures the ampoule in order to inject the medication through a needle. The injection device additionally incorporates a shield that deploys over the needle following injection of the medication into a patient.

Single use injector

Provided is a method and device for removing chemically dissolvable support material from objects created by a three-dimensional printing process. In one exemplary embodiment a tank for holding a cleaning solution has a cleaning section and a fluid handling section, and a full level below a top rim thereof. A generally box-shaped parts basket configured to be removeably installed within the cleaning section of the tank has four fluid impermeable walls, a bottom panel perforated throughout with an array of holes, and an openable top cover, wherein the openable top cover is below the full level of the tank and the bottom panel of the parts basket is supported above a floor of the tank when the parts basket is installed. A fluid pump disposed in a fluid handling section of the main tank is configured to inject a fluid stream into the parts basket at a downward angle with respect to horizontal, and at a lateral angle with respect to a line passing through a center of the parts basket, with sufficient velocity and flow rate to induce a fluid current that circulates around an interior of the parts basket as it continuously descends and exits the parts basket through the perforated bottom panel.

Method and apparatus for removing support material

A prefilled medical injection device with production specific elements is provided as a single use disposable injection device that is optimally suited for mass production through the Blow Fill Seal manufacturing process. The device utilizes a valve and a needle assembly fused to an insert. The valve and the needle assembly are positioned within the insert forming a conduit. The needle assembly is covered with a needle cap that is detachably coupled to protecting the needle assembly from contamination and a user from accidental needle stick. The insert is engaged to the bellows during the BFS manufacturing process and hermetically sealed by a parison layer that covers exterior portion of the insert and the needle cap. The parison layer is formed and trimmed creating exterior features that facilitate the use of the prefilled medical injection.

Prefilled medical injection device

An in-line motor and pump assembly is supported at the bottom of a fuel storage tank by a pipe and an internal concentric conduit for housing electrical conductors extending therewithin to the motor. An impeller, coaxial with the rotor of the motor, draws the fuel into an annular passageway surrounding the stator of the motor. Further passageways convey the fuel to an annular passageway defined between the pipe and the conduit for discharge external of the storage tank. A low pressure environment attendant the inflow of the fuel is used to channel fuel for lubrication and cooling purposes to a lower journal bearing and thrust bearing supporting a common shaft for the impeller and the motor. A high pressure environment attendant outflow of fuel is used to channel fuel for lubrication and cooling purposes to a journal bearing supporting the upper end of the shaft.

Submerged DC brushless motor and pump

Submerged motor and pump assembly

In an electrochemical fuel cell, a sufficient quantity of catalyst, effective for promoting the reaction of reactant supplied to an electrode, is disposed within the volume of the electrode so that a reactant introduced at a first major surface of the electrode is substantially completely reacted upon contacting the second major surface. Crossover of reactant from one electrode to the other electrode through the electrolyte in an electrochemical fuel cell is thereby reduced.

Method and apparatus for reducing reactant crossover in a liquid feed electrochemical fuel cell

The present invention provides a unitary sliding-vane type compressor-expander comprising a housing with a compressor inlet and outlet, and an expander inlet and outlet. A single rotor is disposed therein defining in cooperation with the housing a compression chamber on one side and an expansion chamber on the opposite side. The rotor includes a plurality of regularly spaced vanes slidingly disposed in slots about the periphery of the rotor. The bottoms of the vane slots may be vented through a passage in the housing to the inlet air, or alternatively through a groove between the vane and vane slot to the compression or exhaust chambers. Permanent magnets are used in the vanes and housing to increase or decrease the contact force between the vane tip and housing. An integral condenser-humidifier is provided in the path of the expanded gas exhausting from the turbine outlet for condensing water out of the expanded gas and returning the condensed water to the compressor-expander. The integral condenser may comprise a substantially vertically oriented spout or an internal chamber. In another embodiment of the invention an electrical generation system is provided comprising a unitary sliding vane type compressor-expander in combination with a fuel cell. The compressor portion of the compressor-expander provides compressed air to an oxidant inlet of the fuel cell, and the spent oxidant exhaust from the fuel cell is expanded through the expander portion of the compressor-expander.

Unitary sliding vane compressor-expander and electrical generation system

Flow fields comprising a set of fluid distribution channels may be employed in fuel cells for purposes of distributing fluid reactants to an electrochemically active area of the fuel cell. Water management and reactant distribution may be improved by increasing pressure gradients between adjacent channels. Such pressure gradients may be increased by engineering the channels such that the resistance to reactant flow differs along the length of adjacent channels.

Differential pressure fluid flow fields for fuel cells

The present invention provides a very compact, lightweight, turbomolecular pump for evacuating a chamber at volumetric flowrates of less than 10 liters per second. In one embodiment a turbomolecular pump is provided having a bladed rotor disposed within a housing, and mounted for rotation at one end on a passive magnetic main bearing and at the other end on a ball bearing. The pump is configured such that the magnetic bearing carries a majority of the rotor unbalance load. The rotor may be beneficially tapered from a larger diameter at the high vacuum end to a smaller diameter at the low vacuum end. The invention also provides a method of machining the blades of the rotor from a rotor blank using a single point tool in a two-step numerical control lathe operation. In another method of the invention, the rotor blades are individually cut using a high speed circular slitting saw by plunging the saw radially into the rotor blank.

Miniature turbomolecular pump

An electrochemical fuel cell stack is provided for converting a fuel reactant stream and an oxidant stream to a reaction product, heat, and electrical energy. The fuel cell stack includes manifolding endplates with a plurality of unit cells therebetween, each unit cell incorporating a smooth conductive cooling layer, and anode and cathode layers incorporating gas distribution layers formed of a central, porous, sheet material and a peripheral gasket material. The cooling layer conducts heat from distant regions of the unit cell to longitudinal cooling passages which run through the length of the stack defining a serial path through turnaround grooves in the faceplate and endplate. There is further provided a method for introducing reactant gases to the gas distribution layers. Longitudinal passages carry reactants the length of the stack and distribute gas through porous bridges to a lateral distribution channels formed along sides of the gas distribution layers, and through the gas distribution layers to exhaust. The layers of the unit cell are all relatively smooth and devoid of cooling channels.

Fuel cell stack with novel cooling and gas distribution systems

A turbine or compressor disk assembly comprises a plurality of blades attached to a central hub by means of the blade root of each blade engaging a corresponding slot in the hub. According to the principles of the present invention, a turbine or compressor disk assembly includes one or more locally bulging regions extending axially away from the surface of the disk in the vicinity of the bottom contact plane of the disk attachment firtree. The locally bulging regions reduce the peak Macke stress in the disk bottom fillet and blade attachment root. In an illustrative embodiment, two locally bulging regions are incorporated into the disk and the corresponding blades, one of which extends forward from the leading edge of the disk and the other of which extends rearward from the trailing edge of the disk. The rearward locally bulging region has an exaggerated extension which allows the stress reduction ring to form an aft flow discourager as well as functioning to reduce peak stress.

Turbine blade attachment stress reduction rings

A gas turbine engine cooling airflow pickup and delivery system which radially inwardly traverses the torque transmittal path of the compressor section at a relatively large radius location, then extends substantially farther inwardly to a significantly smaller radius location, all with minimal static pressure loss to the cooling airflow. Pressurized, substantially non-swirling air from the compressor stage is supplied to a collector, and from the collector thru pickup holes arranged at an angle of 45 degrees reversely to the direction of rotation of the shaft. The pressurized air is then lead into a vortex spoiler which has a plurality of blades smoothly curved reversely to the direction of rotation of the shaft, the radially outer end of each blade being inclined in matching relation to the pickup holes.

Cooling airflow vortex spoiler

Method and apparatus for reducing reactant crossover in a liquid feed

In an electrochemical fuel cell, an electrode substrate has an in-plane nonuniform structure. The electrode substrate having an in-plane nonuniform structure enables controlled transport of reactant toward the electrocatalyst layer and controlled transport of reaction product away from the electrocatalyst layer.

Electrochemical fuel cell with an electrode substrate having an in-plane

Growing community of inventors

Phoenix, AZ, United States of America

Mark Christian Johnson