General Electric Company

Walter Whipple

Mark Edward Dausch

Vivek Venugopal Badami

Sudhir D Savkar

Jerome Johnson Tiemann

Andrew Philip Shapiro

David Anthony Schneider

Donald Thomas McGrath

Richard E Hornung

Timothy Scott Shaffer

Joseph Lucian Smolenski

James F Bedard

George Charles Goodman

Terry Clifford Cooper

Richard Leland Butsch

Eayre Bruce Voorhees

John Marshall Hooker

Steven Paraszczak

William Merritt Nall, Jr

Harry Kirk Mathews, Jr

Piero Patrone Bonissone

Marshall Gordon Jones

John Stanley Glaser

Thomas R Payne

Robert A Thompson

Robert P Alley

Raymond Alan White

Kamlesh Mundra

Austars Raymond Schnore, Jr

Richard DeVos

Aditya Kumar

Rollie Richard Herzog

Gregory Owen Miller

Robert E Sundell

Carl Edward Erikson

Richard J Keck

Dwight William Jacobus

John M Smith

Lawson P Harris

Hunt Adams Sutherland

Donald Richard Dickerson, Jr

Allan John Connolly

John M Reschovsky

Harold J Jenkins

Harold John Jenkins, Jr

Thomas Arthur Brownell

Marcus Preston Boron

Barbara D Molnar

Cynthia Fanning Forester

Theodore Henry Klotz, Jr

Marco Acosta Rodriguez

Daniel Joseph Flores

Angel Luis Ortiz, Jr

An icemaker assembly is disposed within a refrigerator having a freezer compartment, a fresh food compartment and respective freezer and fresh food door assemblies. The icemaker assembly comprises a conveyor assembly positioned within the freezer compartment having a flexible conveyor belt with a multiplicity of individual ice cube molds for creation of individual ice cubes. An ice cube storage bin is positioned below the conveyor assembly for storing the ice cubes and a fullness sensor is positioned for determining the fill level of ice cubes within the ice cube storage bin.

Icemaker assembly

In one embodiment of the present invention, a power controller for an AC load comprises: a user interface adapted to interact with a user to produce at least one user interface signal; and a control module adapted to electrically couple a line voltage supply, electrically couple the AC load, and provide electrical power to the AC load as a function of the at least one user interface signal by implementing a low-flicker, cycle-skipping control algorithm, the control algorithm comprising a plurality of cycle patterns, the cycle patterns comprising a plurality of main power levels.

Apparatus for cycle-skipping power control

An apparatus is provided for resiliently mounting a photomultiplier tube. The tube is sequentially tapped to move a debris particle therein. The tube is initially inclined for moving the particle to a staging site. The tube may then be re-oriented horizontally for moving the debris particle from the staging site to a target site for subsequent laser blasting thereof.

Photomultiplier tube particle positioner

A rotary doser valve includes a stator with a plurality of ports therein which cooperates with a rotor having a plurality of channels therein. The rotor is rotatable against the stator in first and second positions which alternately channel water to and from a doser for refilling an icemaker in a preferred use.

Rotary doser valve

A washing machine having a variable speed motor. The washing machine has a basket for holding articles to be washed and has a first axis of rotation. A basket drive shaft connected to the basket drives the basket. An agitator disposed in the basket along the first axis of rotation agitates the article in the basket. An agitator drive shaft connected to the agitator drives the agitator. A variable speed motor, having a second axis of rotation which is not coincident with the first axis of rotation, drives the basket drive shaft and the agitator drive shaft. A coupler couples motion of the variable speed motor to the agitator drive shaft and basket drive shaft.

Washing machine having a variable speed motor

An apparatus is provided for detecting movement of a vessel positioned on a cooktop surface. The apparatus includes a resonant circuit that has at least an inductive loop positioned proximate to the cooktop surface. A signal conditioner is connected to the resonant circuit for conditioning signals received from the resonant circuit. A processor is connected to the signal conditioner and compares the conditioned signals received from the signal conditioner to a reference signal whereby detecting movement of the vessel.

Apparatus and method for detecting vessel movement on a cooktop surface

A splice connector includes a first coupling electrically connected to a first cable or conductor and a second coupling electrically connected to a second cable or conductor. Both couplings include at least one electrically conductive spade. The second coupling engages the first coupling so that the respective spades contact each other, thereby electrically connecting the two cables or conductors. Due to its construction and mass, this connector can be used in high temperature, high-G environments.

Splice connector and method of using the same

A vibration sensing device including a strip bearing a pattern of markings. The strip is caused to slide back and forth in front of a sensor as the result of vibration or displacement of an object to which either the strip or the sensor is attached. By varying the spacing between the markings on strip, the direction and approximate speed of the motion can be sensed by the frequency of the signal generated by movement of the pattern past the sensor and its rate of change. The vibration sensing device can be made to sense out of balance (OOB) or vibratory motion of a piece of equipment such as a washing machine, motor engine or other device during use or transport.

Vibration sensing device

A temperature sensor system for a household appliance, such as a microwave oven, that provides for a non-contact self-calibrating measurement of the temperature of an object disposed in a chamber of the appliance. The system comprises an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver, as well as a distribution apparatus for coupling the transmitter and receiver to the appliance chamber. A scan pattern of infrared radiation is provided for the chamber and the detected infrared radiation from the chamber is used by a processor to generate an accurate measure of the temperature of the object in the chamber.

Infrared non-contact temperature measurement for household appliances

A washing machine with an improved mode shifter comprises a basket for holding an article to be washed, a basket collar coupled to the basket, an agitator disposed within the basket, an agitator collar coupled to the agitator, a brake for reducing a rotational velocity of the basket, a brake collar coupled to the brake, a first spring disposed around the basket collar and the agitator collar, and a second spring disposed around the first spring, the basket collar, and the brake collar. The mode shifter provides a mechanically simple, inexpensive, and reliable mechanism for shifting from the agitation mode to the spin mode to the brake mode in a wash cycle.

Mode shifter for a washing machine

An imager control system with contact detection capability for positioning a movable imaging element structure with respect to a subject includes a collar assembly disposed around at least a portion of the imaging element structure disposed towards a subject region; a plurality of sensor elements disposed in a sensing pattern in the collar assembly, each sensor element having a number elastomeric electrodes coupled together in series; and a processing unit coupled to the sensor elements so as to detect contact between the collar assembly and a subject of examination as a function of a change in resistance in one or more elastomeric electrode resulting from deformation of the electrode upon contact with the subject. The elastomeric electrodes are made of a flexible material in which conductive particles have been embedded such that electrode exhibits a change in electrical resistance in response to physical deformation.

Imager control system with contact detector

An energy-efficient refrigerator includes a refrigerator control system for generating refrigerator control signals responsive to cooling demands of respective refrigerator compartments; a refrigeration apparatus coupled to the control system; and a multiplex damper system disposed to selectively direct the cooling-air from the refrigeration apparatus to compartments in response to the refrigerator control signals. The multiplex damper system comprises a single movable control damper disposed to direct cooling-air flow to a single or multiple compartments. The evaporator and its associated fan and a variable speed compressor are independently controlled by the refrigerator control system. The variable speed compressor typically comprises a continuously variable speed motor such as an electronically commutated motor. The refrigeration control system is coupled to sensors, such as compartment temperature sensors, ambient condition sensors, and compartment access door sensors, so as to determine the cooling demands of respective refrigerator compartments, and generates control signals for the refrigeration apparatus, including, for example, compressor motor speed, evaporator and condenser fan operation, and other control functions.

Energy-efficient refrigerator control system

An energy efficient washing machine includes a control system that provides a cleansing fluid level that is optimized for effective cleaning of the soiled articles and includes a closed loop adaptive water level controller that controls the addition of water into the machine. The adaptive water level controller includes an agitator load signature monitor and an agitator work-determining processor, the processor being coupled to the agitator load signature monitor and a cleansing fluid supply system and adapted to generate a fluid supply control signal in correspondence with an agitator work signal, which signal is generated by the processor in correspondence with iterative respective agitator load signature values corresponding to strokes of the agitator. A method of determining the optimal fill level for the cleansing fluid in a washing machine includes the steps of operating an agitator disposed in the washer basket to displace articles to be cleansed; determining a plurality of respective agitator load signature values during the operation of the agitator; processing the respective agitator load signature values to determine an agitator minimal work point signal; and generating a cleansing fluid supply system control signal in correspondence with the agitator minimal work point signal to provide the optimal cleansing fluid fill level for the articles to be cleansed that are disposed in the washing machine.

Adaptive water level controller for washing machine

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Amsterdam, NY, United States of America

Walter Whipple