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:
Jul. 08, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 28, 2002
David L. Henderson, Millbrook, AL (US);
Jozef Boros, Montgomery, AL (US);
Rheem Manufacturing Company, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A water heater is provided with a specially designed molded bottom pad/foam dam member formed from a crushable material, such as polystyrene, which is received in a metal bottom pan and has concentric circular grooves formed in its top side to receive circular bottom end edge portions of the tank and outer jacket portions of the water heater. A circumferentially spaced plurality of rigid support members are imbedded in the bottom pad/foam dam member and underlie its tank groove to prevent the tank from crushing the member one of the support members is formed from an electrically conductive material and defines an electrical grounding path between the tank and the bottom pan, and the other support members are formed from a thermally insulative material to inhibit heat loss from the tank to the bottom pan.