Patently Speaking highlights the technological achievements of Fort Wayne area residents.

Methods for the subterranean support of underground conduits

•U.S. Patent No. 7,771,140

•Invented by: John W. Jinnings, Leo-Cedarville, and Robert J. Wegener, McHenry, Ill.

•Assigned to: Terra Shield LLC, Fort Wayne

With all the road and sewer construction going on these days, this patent has apt timing. It addresses what to do if an underground water line needs burying underneath an underground electrical cable.

Just as wires and cables are crowding us above ground, they are likewise getting crowded underground. All sorts of cables and pipes supplying us with electricity, television and telephone service, water and gas now run underground.

A problem occurs when an underground water pipe must be installed underneath an existing underground electrical conduit.

Electrical conduits are pipes that contain electrical wires. Often, these conduits are clay tubes. Digging underneath the electrical conduit leaves no earth to support the conduit, which cannot support its own weight and therefore breaks.

One solution has been cutting and removing the conduit surrounding the electrical wires; then, after the water pipe is installed underneath, backfilling the hole up to the electrical wires; and lastly encasing them in concrete. Despite being effective, it is an expensive and cumbersome way to solve this problem.

This patent describes a new method to protect the underground conduits while water pipes are being installed underneath.

Curved sheets of metal are held on the end of a large excavator, like a backhoe using a special gripping tool. This gripping tool rapidly vibrates the curved metal sheet to work its way through the dirt and underneath the conduit.

Before more earth underneath the electrical conduit is dug, metal suspension rods are attached to the sheet and extended upward above the conduit. The rods then attach to a steel beam that sits above ground and spans the diameter of the hole.

When all the dirt is removed, the metal plate suspends the conduit in the hole. Workers are then free to install the waterline underneath without damaging the original conduit.

Anti-jam mechanism

•U.S. Patent No. 7,770,571

•Invented by: Dennis J. Tippmann Jr., Fort Wayne, and Jeffrey P. Douglas, Fort Wayne

•Assigned to: Tippmann Sports LLC, Fort Wayne

Just as it is for medical devices and car parts, northeast Indiana is a hub for paintball gun innovation. This patent is an anti-jam mechanism but for paintball guns.

Misloading can be a problem with these guns. Sometimes a paintball fails to properly load inside the gun’s firing mechanism. As a result, the paintball can accidentally rupture, causing a mess inside the gun.

A bolt inside the firing mechanism pushes a newly deposited paintball into firing position just before firing. But this is done with such force that if the paintball is not positioned just so, the force of the bolt will smash the paintball.

To solve the problem, this patent describes a lightweight spring system to push the bolt that engages the paintball.

The force of this spring system is enough to move the paintball into position but not enough to rupture the ball while doing so.

The preceding are lay descriptions of patents obtained from the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s public records and are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing contained herein is a legal description of any claimed invention, identification of novelty, or offer of legal advice.

Because issued patents are based on applications often filed years earlier, the subject matter of some patents may have been available on the market for some time prior to the issuance of the patent.

Additional information on these patents is available at www.uspto.gov.