Serpentine tube inspection positioning spine
CA 2073371 C · Owner: The Babcock & Wilcox Company · Inventors: Womack, Robert E.
Overview
Its claims, description and drawings are in the Canadian Patents Database.
Open the CIPO recordAbstract From the Canadian patent
A serpentine tube inspection positioning spine formed from a plurality of identical links. Each link has a convex first end and concave second end spaced along the longitudinal axis of the link whereby adjacent links may be mated together. An axially extending bore in each link receives a continuous cable maintained under tension by a spring attached to one end of the cable. This places pressure on the links that serves to maintain the mated links in a rigid straight configuration while under compressive forces during insertion into a tube to be inspected. The resilience of the spring also allows pivoting of adjacent links for travelling through a bend in the tube.
Read the whole patent
Listed from its CIPO record in Patent Yard's archive of Canadian patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the CIPO record and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.
Why it's free to use
- Filed July 8, 1992 and granted July 19, 1994. A Canadian patent filed from October 1, 1989 lasts 20 years from filing, so its term ended July 8, 2012.
- A certificate of supplementary protection adds at most two years for a drug, so even that would have ended by July 8, 2014.
- We check Canadian rights only. A patent in its family in another country could still be in force: check its family on Google Patents.
Timeline
Timeline From CIPO dates
Sources & verification
Official CIPO records
Everything on this page comes from the CIPO record linked above. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.