Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Richard M Schreck

June-Sang Siak

William Thomas Whited

Mei Cai

Mark Allen Datte

Xingcheng Xiao

Tao Xie

Peter S Lee

Robert Augustine Ottaviani

Dexter Dean Snyder

Kenneth B Gross

Gordon Alwin Tooley

Nicholas Edward Sargent

Bradley W Kibbel

James H Lindsay

Richard F Majkowski

David P Garner

Kush K Shah

One embodiment includes an application of multilayer thermo-reversible dry adhesives in robotic handling of objects.

Method for robotic handling using thermo-reversible dry adhesives

A method for making sand particle foundry mold members. Sand particles are coated with an aqueous dispersion of a suitable binder material such as a gelatin gel. The moist gelatin coated particles are gravity fed into a pattern box for the mold member and subjected to multi-axis vibration to pack the sand in the pattern box. The moist sand is then heated with radio frequency energy to promote binder flow to the corners of the particles, and air flow is initiated to transport water from the mass of particles to harden the mass of particles into the mold member.

Method of sand coremaking

A mold for a prototype metal casting or the like may advantageously be made by forming a casting pattern of adhesively bonded aggregate particles using a binder containing a principle constituent that is soluble in supercritical carbon dioxide; forming a rigid shell mold about the pattern of materials that are unaffected by supercritical carbon dioxide; thereafter exposing the pattern and mold combination to supercritical carbon dioxide to remove the pattern binder adhesive and leave unbonded aggregate particles in the mold and removing the aggregate particles from the mold to leave a mold cavity that faithfully defines the pattern shape.

Method of making a mold for metal casting

Method of making porous, fibrillose bodies from fibrils bonded together into a self-supporting structure. A mixture of fibrils and a viscous, non-newtonian, liquid vehicle including an organic hydrosorbent and water is (1) injected into a mold, (2) frozen in the mold to form a frozen precursor of the article, (3) ejected from the mold while still frozen, (4) freeze-dried, and (5) finally heated to remove the hydrosorbent and bond the particles together. The process is particularly effective for making fibrillose preforms for infiltrating with metal in the manufacture of metal matrix composites.

Method of making fibrillose articles

A foundry mold member made from a plurality of sand particles bound together with a binder which is concentrated at the contact points between contiguous sand particles and consists essentially of gelatins having a Bloom rating less than about 175 Bloom grams. The sand particles are first coated with a sol of the gelatin, cooled to ambient temperature and conditioned to a prescribed water content necessary to effect migration of the gelatin to the interparticle contact points upon heating of the coated particles in a pattern mold.

Sand mold member and method

According to a preferred embodiment of this invention, the exterior surface of an evaporator carries a coating of dried paint resistant to microbial growth and suitable for forming an adhered layer on cooling surfaces of an air conditioner. This paint comprises a pigment, a liquid, a binder to promote formation and adherence of the coating after the paint is applied and dried, and a metallic constituent which inhibits microbial growth. Preferably, the metallic constituent is inorganic and includes one or more of: copper, cupric carbonate, cuptic hydroxide, cuptic oxide, cuprous oxide, silver, silver oxide, zinc oxide, and zinc peroxide. The coating is preferably applied to the integral core after assembling and brazing the several plates and fins of the core.

Biostatic/biocidal coatings for air conditioner cores

A method is provided for forming a sand core which is suitable for use in casting processes, and in particular squeeze casting processes, to form internal features and intricate external features of a cast article. The core forming method involves the use of a single-component gelatin binder whose degradation at elevated temperatures is catalyzed by additions of a ferric compound. The gelating binder is a mixture of proteins derived from amino acids such as glycine, alanine, L-glutamic acid, L-aspartic acid, and/or small percentages of others, such that the gelatin binder is water soluble and therefore easily eliminated from the core sand at the end of the casting process. Due in particular to the presence of the ferric compound, the gelatin binder readily degrades at low temperatures, such as those associated with aluminum casting processes, such that the core degrades sufficiently to permit the sand to freely flow from the cast article without the need for core removal operations. Finally, the gelatin-based binder is nontoxic, such that its elimination from the sand to reclaim the sand for reuse does not pose an environmental hazard.

Expendable core for casting processes

A method is provided for precisely and concurrently measuring dynamic engine oil consumption and fuel consumption within an internal combustion engine in an automotive environment on a real time basis. Nonradioactive tracer compounds, such as bromine or chlorine in the form of organic bromo- or chloro-compounds are added to the engine oil in small amounts. Upon complete combustion, the bromine or chlorine is converted into either hydrogen bromide or hydrogen chloride. A sample of the exhaust gases generated by the internal combustion engine and comprising the hydrogen bromide or hydrogen chloride is collected and maintained at a pressure where distinction between an absorption line of the tracer specie and the absorption lines of a related isotopic species is discernible. Monochromatic radiation is then transmitted through the gaseous sample at the frequency of an absorption line particular to the tracer specie. Because of the high spectral power density and spectral resolution of the preferred tunable diode lasers, tunable diode laser spectroscopy may be used to measure the amount of tracer isotope within the resultant HCl or HBr gases in the exhaust gases. Corresponding fuel consumption may also be determined from the CO.sub.2 in the exhaust gases by similar methods.

Growing community of inventors

Bloomfield Hills, MI, United States of America

Richard M Schreck