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US 8,476,778 B2Granted
Energy generator
AssigneeMIW Associates LLC
InventorsMarvin Weinberger, Michael Balsamo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Inertia driven energy harvesters including a movable arm, suspension system, gearing system, generator and energy distribution system. The energy harvesters enable the efficient capture and conversion of kinetic energy to electrical energy.
Claims22
An inertia driven energy harvester comprising:
- a housing;
- a first arm comprising a body, said first arm coupled to said housing via a hinge connection permitting said first arm to swing responsive to a force of a surrounding environment from movement of the housing;
- a first mass attached to said first arm to swing with said first arm responsive to the force of the surrounding environment;
- a bumper that restricts the motion of said first arm as it swings;
- a first spring coupled to said housing and to an upper surface of said first arm to suspend said first arm from said housing, wherein said first spring has a spring rate of about 0.01 Nm/Deg to about 5.0 Nm/Deg adapted for capturing low frequency vibrations of said surrounding environment from the movement of the housing;
- a gearing system connected to said first arm for transferring a kinetic energy of said first arm as it swings;
- and
- a generator connected to said gearing system for transforming said kinetic energy transferred by the gearing system to the generator into electricity.
5 more elements
An inertia driven energy harvester comprising:
- a housing;
- an arm rotationally coupled to said housing to permit said arm to rotate responsive to a force of a surrounding environment from movement of the housing;
- a mass attached to said arm to rotate with said arm responsive to the force of the surrounding environment;
- a spring coupled to said housing and to an upper surface of said arm to suspend said arm from said housing;
- a gearing system connected to said arm for transferring a kinetic energy of said arm as it rotates;
- and
- a generator connected to said gearing system for transforming said kinetic energy transferred by the gearing system to the generator into electricity, wherein said generator is operable as a motor to provide an initial driving force to said arm to induce movement of said arm from an initial rest position.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.