Recent Patents on Mechanical Engineering - Volume 2, Issue 3, 2009

The fast evolution of computing power together with the improvement of electronics and sensors in the last decade has resulted in the introduction of vehicle automation at a consumer level; therefore, every day, an increasing amount of commercial solutions are reaching the global market. The special shape in which agricultural fields are structured, on the other hand, makes off-road vehicles one of the best candidates for d Read More

In many applications, the transmitted power by a gearbox is fluctuating strongly. For example, in wind energy converters the rotor torque depends on the wind velocity and therefore varyies over a wide range, whereas the rotor speed is constant. In automotive applications, both torque and speed vary according to the driving conditions. It is evident, that in order to test such gearboxes, test rigs are needed that enable torque Read More

Lithium bromide-water absorption cooling technologies is underpinned by the continual circulation of water, which is the refrigerant, powered by the hygroscopic nature of aqueous lithium bromide solution. The present energy and global warming crises engender a renewed interest in thermally driven cooling systems, for which lithium bromide-water absorption chiller is an archetypal example forming the focus of this r Read More

Patent records document a continuous development of trace gas/particle preconcentrators for use in particle detection systems. The most common application proposed for the inventions is the detection of biological agents, chemical agents, or explosives for security purposes although other applications are clearly possible. Existing particle detection systems such as gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) syste Read More

Combustion processes are main constituents of several energy technologies. A key issue in combustion researches is the improvement in reduction of harmful emissions. Besides, the achievement of high-energy-efficiency processes through advanced heat recovery systems is desirable. When recirculated systems are utilized those two aspects can be achieved simultaneously. Therefore, the current review describes recent pate Read More

Fluidic mixing is the process of mixing at least two liquids. It plays a very important role in many fields, including high-throughput synthesis, analytical chemistry, and microbiological analysis systems. In a microfluidic system, fluidic mixing is difficult because the scale of the channel generates laminar flow. The liquid is thus mixed only by molecular diffusion, which is too slow for many applications. In recent years, sev Read More

The patents annotated in this section have been selected from various patent databases. These recent patents are relevant to the articles published in this journal issue, categorized by different analytical methods, designs, manufacturing and analysis of automobiles, aircrafts, manufacturing plants, industrial instruments, machines, heating and cooling systems and processes involved and related to mechanical Read More