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:
Apr. 16, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 09, 2000
Henry P. Offer, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Siamak Bourbour, San Jose, CA (US);
William F. Bowen, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Bryan K. Chavez, San Jose, CA (US);
Ron B. Ninomiya, San Jose, CA (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
An underwater exclusion device includes a housing for a welding torch having leading and trailing arrays of pivotal fingers for engaging in grooves along a work surface to exclude water from an exclusion area within the housing containing the welding torch. The fingers are pivotally mounted and independently and individually movable under the bias of springs between retracted and extended positions. The fingers have radiussed distal ends for engaging the work surface. Upon application of the device to the work surface, the leading and trailing arrays of fingers are displaced under spring pressure to engage their distal ends against the work surface, excluding water from within the housing. The side walls of the housing carry seals for seating along the work surface to prevent water incursion in gaps between the side walls and the work surface.