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:
Nov. 28, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 05, 1998
Edward Matthew Patton, Boerne, TX (US);
Jerry Allen Henkener, Canyon Lake, TX (US);
Lawrence Jon Goland, San Antonio, TX (US);
Timothy Stewart Rennick, San Antonio, TX (US);
Saipem S.p.A., Milan, IT;
Abstract
The present invention is directed to the formation of pressure resistant buoyancy structures with a given buoyancy efficiency at smaller sizes. The invention involves embedding into syntactic foam metallic spheres which preferably are substantially hollow and comprise high strength, high performance, light weight metal alloys which can be precision forged. The weight per unit space of the metallic spheres is less than that of the syntactic foam. As a result, the metallic spheres can decrease the size of the structure required to achieve a desired buoyancy efficiency.