The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 22, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 14, 1997
Robert H Girvin, Holliston, MA (US);
Edward C Jones, Jr, Apple Valley, CA (US);
K2 Bike Inc., Vashon, WA (US);
Abstract
A dampener (628) for a shock absorber of a vehicle, such as a bicycle, is mounted within a telescoping front fork including a stanchion tube (116) and a coaxial slide tube (618). The dampener includes an internally received hydraulic fluid sleeve (640) that defines a hydraulic chamber (648) in which a piston assembly (732) is disposed. Movement of the piston assembly through hydraulic fluid within the hydraulic chamber is selectively adjusted by metering the flow of bypass hydraulic fluid to the back side of the piston assembly by adjusting a responsive valve assembly (670) disposed longitudinally within the stanchion tube. The responsive valve assembly includes a piezoelectric bender (702) that is controlled by circuitry (712) to change its biasing relative to a valve member (694) in response to sensed velocity and/or displacement of the piston assembly.