Steve van Dulken's Patent blog

The Toshiba Dynario fuel cell

The BBC news website is often the first to tell me of interesting innovations. It has a story about Toshiba's Dynario fuel cell, which is a revolutionary development.

Fuel cells work with cathodes and anodes and need a replenishable reactant. In this case it's methanol, which can be poured from a bottle into the hand-sized device. This contains a lithium ion battery which stores the generated power from the fuel cell and -- this to me is the clever bit -- transmits the power through a USB cable to the mobile phone or other device to recharge it in just 20 seconds.

A limited number, just 3000, will be produced for sale in Japan at about £195. The cost of the methanol has to be added.

I am not sure why such a limited number is being produced -- surely it's a test launch. After all, they have gone to the trouble of making quite a few patent applications.

Above is the main drawing from the Japanese-language Fuel cell patent application (not yet available in an English text), which was published in June 2007. In fact, there are quite a few by Toshiba on the subject -- this is a list of the 15 patent applications by the company in the "world" Patent Cooperation treaty system by them where "Fuel cell" is in the title and methanol is in the English summary. 

The Dyson Air Multiplier® fan

Dyson have produced an electric fan which they claim is the first in the world that works without blades.

The Dyson Air Multiplier® fan contains a small motor at the base of a large plastic loop. This creates a flow of air over the curved surface, which brings in more air to create a draught, much the same way as air flows over an aircraft wing. Dyson say that 15 times more air is blown out than is performed by its motor. Here is the main drawing from the patent specification, which was published in March. 

 

October may seem an odd time to launch a cooling product, but the company point out that it is the perfect time to launch in Australia. The UK retail price will be about £199 -- high, perhaps, but Dyson believe that people will pay for quality. CNET has an article about it.

 

 

Saving bathwater for the garden

I was looking through the October issue of Saga, a magazine for those over 50, when I came across a brief item (page 101) stating that "a reader wrote in last month with details of his patented invention".

Martin Clack of Chichester has invented a plug that allows bathwater to drain via a hose to a water butt, or to be sprayed directly on the garden. Water conservation is a serious issue here in the UK. The published patent specification is A bath plug, and here is the main drawing.

The plug blocks the plughole and the water goes instead into the hose. It is available from Mr Clack at www.droughtplug.co.uk.

The Saga piece said "patented" -- maybe their own enthusiastic interpretation. At present in fact only an application for British protection has been published, and it awaits a decision to grant, as shown by the entry for it, GB2448863, at the official Patent Status Information website. The product is called Droughtplug®.

To Arthur ! 250 years of the black stuff

Today marks 250 years since Arthur Guinness signed a 1000 year lease on the St James's Gate premises in Dublin, and successor company Diageo are throwing a party, with the slogan "To Arthur !". Here are two inventions by the company for pouring its famous black, bitter stout: one famous, one not (yet?) so.

Just about everyone has heard of the Guinness® “Widget”. This is the can of stout which on pouring gives a nice smooth head without any special equipment. It works with a device at the bottom of the can emitting gas. It won the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1991 for an invention which had been worked on since at least 1959. The patent application was published as A beverage package and a method of packaging a beverage containing gas in solution. Here is the main drawing.

In September 2002 successor company Diageo trialled a pint dispensing system Guinness® FastPour which claimed to deliver a perfect pint in only 25 seconds instead of the usual two minutes or so. It was tried out in pubs across London and Yorkshire, but was dropped after opposition from loyal drinkers: they enjoyed the ceremony of waiting.

Then Diageo came up with a new technique which it was promised would give drinkers at home the perfect head to a pint of Guinness®. The concept had been tested since 2003 in Japanese bars, which are often too small to have the usual keg-and-tap system for pouring stout. It uses a device which emits ultrasonic pulses through glasses holding specially prepared stout. The device is the Guinness® Surger® and it went on sale in some Tesco Extra stores in about the end of February 2006 at a price of £16.99.

The patent application was published as the Apparatus for forming a head on a beverage. Here is one of the drawings.

 

The kit as sold consists of a pint glass and two cans as well as the unit itself. It is plugged into the mains and a little water is added to its metal plate. Special cans of stout (using a different gas mix from normal stout), equipped with batteries, and costing £4.99 for a pack of four, are poured into a pint glass and placed on the device, which is then switched on. It takes between 30 and 90 seconds to create what the company describes as a “velvet pint with a creamy head”.

The water on the plate is there as, without it, even the best made glass would not be completely smooth at its base, and would therefore have air gaps at its base. This would reduce the contact between the bottom of the glass and the plate. Technically speaking, the ultrasonic transducer produces “excitation” and hence cavitation of the liquid which encourages the gas in the liquid to come out of solution.

Diageo spent £2.5 million in advertising the concept. The move towards non-smoking pubs may well encourage the existing trend to drink more at home rather than in pubs, so perhaps it is a smart move. Even in bars, many younger drinkers prefer not to wait and just order a premixed drink, and busy bar staff can find it a nuisance taking so long to prepare one drink.

There are likely to be problems. The cost of the apparatus for what may be seen as a laugh is surely a deterrent, and the users will need to remember to buy the correct cans. It will take between 30 and 90 seconds for the Surger® to work, but then Guinness® drinkers are used to waiting for, it is estimated, 119.5 seconds for the ritual to end in which the bartender holds the glass at a 45-degree angle, fills it three-quarters full, lets it settle and then tops it off with its signature creamy head -- an Irish variant on the Japanese tea ceremony, perhaps.

The company’s advertising has cleverly made a virtue of the wait, with slogans like “Good things come to those who wait”, and endless television shots of entranced would-be drinkers staring at the stout slowly settling. Diageo says that the device “creates the theatre and anticipation around the Guinness” that many drinkers expect and enjoy. It remains to be seen if the company gets the financial reward that they are hoping for.

Pressure exchangers in desalinization

I have found Forbes magazine, perhaps surprisingly, a good source for interesting articles about inventions.

Recently I read in it an interesting article about Leif Hauge of Norway and his research into using pressure exchangers in the desalinization of sea water. Using sea water as a source of potable water has long been desirable, but the problem is the amount of power involved.

The sea water is subjected to great pressure so that the water is forced through a membrane which enables the small water molecules to pass through but not the larger salt molecules. Traditionally, the story says, that pressure was allowed to go to waste. Hauge wanted to utilise it in a pressure exchanger where the pressure was used again.

Pressure exchangers do exist but Hauge's worked on a new principle. The exiting water enters chambers in a cylinder and, as water can't compress, transfers nearly all its momentum to water entering the chambers at the other end before exiting. The cylinder spins 1000 times a minute, and is the only part that moves.

The article says that the PX-300 pressure exchanger is 4 feet long and weighs 180 pounds. 13,000 gallons of water is handled an hour. The device costs $25,000 and has 70% of the market for desalination energy-recovery devices. It needs no maintenance and pays for itself in electricity savings in about six years.

Hauge eventually lost control of the company, Energy Recovery Inc. I can trace two relevant patents, the second being his Pressure exchanger patent application. 

Vibram FiveFingers® shoes

The latest big product in footwear seems to be Vibram FiveFingers® shoes.

The idea is a shoe that fits like a glove, with each toe having its own pouch. Vibram USA is a company that has been associated with mountain boots for many years. The inventor is Italian Robert Fliri, an industrial designer. Going barefoot gives more grip, but as it can lead to injuries the shoe acts like a second skin and protects the soles.

Reactions have been compared to Marmite® as people either love the sensation or hate it, having been used to their toes being crammed into shoes.

The patent application is called Footwear having independently articuable toe portions. Here is the main drawing.

There is more information on the Primal Lifestyle website.

Photoelectric controls on street lighting

It is always interesting to hear about the technology in well-known inventions. I was looking for something else when I came across an article from 2003 about Sean Noone and his method of switching street lighting on and off by using the presence or absence of light.

It used to be that lights were switched off when it was broad daylight. Noone was an electronics engineer who had returned to Belmullet in Mayo, Ireland. There was a lot of unemployment after a local factory closed. He learnt that the usual street lighting broke down a lot (possibly connected with commands to turn on and off ?), and devised his Photoelectric control unit with cooling chamber for which he filed a patent in 1984. This is the main drawing.

The patent makes it clear that minimising the need for repair was built in. This technology is used as the standard method in Britain and Ireland, and the company employed 64 people in Belmullet when the article was written.

The X-bow on ships

I was watching a TV programme last night about redesigning ships after disasters like the loss of the Titanic and the Estonia car ferry.

A new solution is the X-bow. The traditional ship's bow is narrow and raked, but this one is designed to form a huge snout, with the bow not sticking out at all. It is inverted, and is more like a bulge.

This means that as the ship moves through the water the bow's centre of gravity is lower than is traditional. Movement forward in rough seas is easier, and the bow does not move up and down as much as normal. The ship can also move forward faster.

Here is the main drawing from the patent application from Ulstein Design AS (of Norway), Foreship arrangement for a vessel of the displacement type. 

 

It shows the ship's bow as seen from the side. The programme said that when the engineers asked that a model be tried out for seaworthiness in a testing tank, the experts scoffed and said that it would sink. On the contrary: sensors showed that in heavy seas much less pressure was being exerted on the bow than in traditional designs. It was that kind of pressure that ripped off the doors of the Estonia car ferry.

It may seem strange that it has taken so long for a new design to be thought of.

The Great Exhibition

It's interesting to watch programmes about inventions but nothing beats going to see them in person, so that you can watch demonstrations and ask questions, frequently of the inventor in person.

The Great Exhibition will be held on the 29 September to 1 October at the Lawrence Hall, Royal Horticultural Halls, London. I know that there have been other inventions exhibitions but this is the first "great exhibition" so I don't know what to expect, but I'm sure it will be stimulating. The name relates to the 1851 exhibition which mainly featured industrial art and inventions.

I am on the judging panel but don't know yet what that entails. See you there !

The invention of the seatbelt

I read in the free newspaper Metro on the 13 August that it was the 50th anniversary of the seatbelt. This was a reference to Nils Bohlin of Volvo.

The brief article stated "His work was deemed so vital to safety that no patent was sought". Actually, they did get a patent, but it's true that they did not enforce it. The American patent was published as Safety belt in 1962.

There is a claim that the concept of the "across the chest" vehicle seatbelt dates back to Roger Griswold and  Hugh De Haven for Griswold Company in 1951, with their Combination shoulder and lap safety belts.

De Haven’s contribution was the inertia reel, where the belt is tightened by a fast movement (as in a crash) but not by a slow movement. This is done by a centrifugal clutch, which engages if the reel spins quickly.  

The idea of seat belts had a hard time being accepted at first, as consumers thought that its introduction by manufacturers meant that the car was unsafe. It was not until 1964 that most manufacturers supplied them as standard fittings. In the UK, their installation became compulsory in the front seats in 1967.