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. 09, 2010
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2006
Applicant:
James S. Gerber, St. Paul, MN (US);
Inventor:
James S. Gerber, St. Paul, MN (US);
Assignee:
Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., Pennington, NJ (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
F03C 1/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
In a wave energy converter (WEC) for capturing energy contained in surface waves on large bodies of water, one or both of the floats used in the WEC has an internal spring system including a weight suspended from a spring mechanism having a selectively variable spring constant for allowing vertical oscillations of the weight in response to bobbing motions of the float The mechanical impedance of the system is a function of the oscillations of the weight, hence the system is tunable to selected values of mechanical impedance for optimal coupling with the prevailing waves.