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:
Jun. 18, 2013
Filed:
Nov. 19, 2009
James S. Gerber, St. Paul, MN (US);
Christopher Thomas Phelan, Philadelphia, PA (US);
Wei Qiu, St. John's, CA;
Donald Smith Spencer, Torbay, CA;
James S. Gerber, St. Paul, MN (US);
Christopher Thomas Phelan, Philadelphia, PA (US);
Wei Qiu, St. John's, CA;
Donald Smith Spencer, Torbay, CA;
Ocean Power Technologies, Inc., Pennington, NJ (US);
Abstract
A float structure for a WEC is designed to have a tapered underside to reduce the impact due to wave slam and bending moments while providing little reduction in the surface area responding to the wave surface in order to maintain the beneficial power generating capability of a 'flat' float. The underside of the float presents an inverted wedge section to decrease loads associated with wave slamming. The float may have a generally toroidal or elliptical configuration at and about the 'still' water line with the generally submerged underside of the float having a cross section shaped to have one or more inverted triangular sections extending between the outer perimeter of the float and its center to reduce impact loading due to wave slamming while maintaining power producing capability.