Alan David Miller

US Patent:

6521325, Feb 18, 2003

Filed:

May 31, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/583294

Inventors:

Lori P. Engle - Little Canada MN
Robert T. Fehr - St. Paul MN
Patrick R. Fleming - Lake Elmo MN
Alan G. Miller - Austin TX
Todd R. Williams - Lake Elmo MN
Caroline M. Ylitalo - Stillwater MN

Assignee:

3M Innovative Properties Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

B32B 300

US Classification:

428195, 428205, 428207, 428211, 428212, 428213, 428500

Abstract:

A receptor medium with a sheet having an optically transmissive microembossed imaging surface as one major surface thereof. The receptor medium can receive jettable materials, which include inks, adhesives, biological fluids, chemical assay reagents, particulate dispersions, waxes, and combinations thereof. The microembossed medium unexpectedly solves such common inkjet printing problems as feathering, banding, and mudcracking in inkjet printing systems by controlling how an inkjet drop contacts and dries on an inkjet receptor medium and also Moire effects but also provides sufficient optical transmissivity to be useful as overhead transparency media, backlit signage, and the like. Clear lines of demarcation between adjoining colors of a pigmented inkjet image graphic can be obtained without creation of the Moire effects. Methods of making and using the inkjet receptor medium are also disclosed.

US Patent:

6547229, Apr 15, 2003

Filed:

Nov 22, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/718549

Inventors:

Eric J. Hanson - Hudson WI
John R. Wheeler - Oakdale MN
Alan P. Miller - Woodbury MN
David B. Pritchard - Bloomington MN
Donald G. Peterson - Shoreview MN
John R. Jacobson - Newport MN
Jeffrey J. Missling - Mound MN
James N. Dobbs - Woodbury MN
David C. Kramlich - St. Paul MN

Assignee:

3M Innovative Properties Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

B32B 3116

US Classification:

270 5209, 221 73, 156230, 156361, 156540, 156541, 156584, 156542

Abstract:

A product stacking apparatus and method employs one or more stations, each including a stationary stacking platform or a conveyor upon which spaced-apart pucks are coupled for travel thereon. A product delivery apparatus drives one or more movable webs to which segmented product sheets are removably affixed. The product delivery apparatus includes one or more rotatable lamination interfaces associated with each of the stations for transferring product sheets from the webs to the pucks on a repetitive basis to produce a stack of product sheets on the respective pucks. Each of the segmented product sheets may define all or a portion of an electrochemical cell, all or a portion of a pad including layers of film or sheet material, wherein a portion of each of the layers is provided with a bonding feature, or all or a portion of a pack comprising layers of medical dressing. A puck need not be in motion during the transfer of the product sheet from the lamination roll to the puck. The puck may or may not be attached to a conveyor, but the conveyor need not be in motion during the lamination or stack building process.

US Patent:

6585846, Jul 1, 2003

Filed:

Nov 22, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/718584

Inventors:

Eric J. Hanson - Hudson WI
John R. Wheeler - Oakdale MN
Alan P. Miller - Woodbury MN
David B. Pritchard - Bloomington MN
Donald G. Peterson - Shoreview MN
John R. Jacobson - Newport MN
Jeffrey J. Missling - Mound MN
James N. Dobbs - Woodbury MN
David C. Kramlich - St. Paul MN

Assignee:

3M Innovative Properties Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

B32B 3100

US Classification:

156264, 156269, 156517, 156519, 156522, 296233, 296234

Abstract:

An apparatus and method provides for rotatably cutting and/or laminating layered structures or sheet material supported by webs. A rotary converting apparatus and method of the present invention converts a web comprising a cathode layered structure and a web comprising an anode layered structure into a series of layered electrochemical cell structures supported by a release liner. Employment of a rotary converting process of the present invention provides, among other benefits, for the creation of a product having a finished size, without need for downstream or subsequent cutting.

US Patent:

6616714, Sep 9, 2003

Filed:

Sep 10, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/393493

Inventors:

Michel Gauthier - La Prairie, CA
Ginette Lessard - Longueuil, CA
Gaston Dussault - St-Benoît-de-Mirabel, CA
Roger Rouillard - Beloeil, CA
Martin Simoneau - Montréal, CA
Alan Paul Miller - Woodbury MN

Assignee:

Hydro-Quebec - Montreal
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

H01M 600

US Classification:

296231, 296233

Abstract:

A stacking of battery laminate is prepared, each battery consisting of anode, polymer electrolyte, cathode films and possibly an insulating film, under conditions suitable to constitute a rigid monoblock assembly, in which the films are unitary with one another. The assembly obtained is thereafter cut in predetermined shape by using a mechanical device without macroscopic deformation of the films constituting the assembly and without inducing permanent short circuits. The battery which is obtained after cutting includes at least one end which appears as a uniform cut, the various films constituting the assembly having undergone no macroscopic deformation, the edges of the films of the anode including an electronically insulating passivation film.

US Patent:

6830846, Dec 14, 2004

Filed:

Nov 29, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/997944

Inventors:

David C. Kramlich - St. Paul MN
Alan P. Miller - Woodbury MN

Assignee:

3M Innovative Properties Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

H01M 1036

US Classification:

429162, 429149, 429306, 4292311

Abstract:

A unique discontinuous cathode sheet structure is incorporated within thin-film electrochemical halfcells and full cells. A thin-film electrochemical cell structure includes a cathode sheet layer comprising a series of discontinuous cathode sheets. In a monoface configuration, each of the cathode sheets includes one cathode layer in contact with a current collector layer. In a biface configuration, each of the cathode sheets includes a pair of cathode layers each contacting a current collector layer. A gap is defined between adjacent ones of the cathode sheets. A solid electrolyte layer contacts a surface of one or both cathode layers, depending on the configuration, and extends across the gaps defined between the adjacent cathode sheets. The cathode sheets may be arranged in a number of rows to define a matrix of the cathode sheets.

US Patent:

6913722, Jul 5, 2005

Filed:

Dec 23, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/324850

Inventors:

Lori P. Engle - Little Canada MN, US
Robert T. Fehr - St. Paul MN, US
Patrick R. Fleming - Lake Elmo MN, US
Alan G. Miller - Austin TX, US
Todd R. Williams - Lake Elmo MN, US
Caroline M. Ylitalo - Stillwater MN, US

Assignee:

3M Innovative Properties Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

B29C039/02
B29C041/02
B29C059/02

US Classification:

264134, 264293, 264299, 264320, 425394

Abstract:

A receptor medium with a sheet having an optically transmissive microembossed imaging surface as one major surface thereof. The receptor medium can receive jettable materials, which include inks, adhesives, biological fluids, chemical assay reagents, particulate dispersions, waxes, and combinations thereof. The microembossed medium unexpectedly solves such common inkjet printing problems as feathering, banding, and mudcracking in inkjet printing systems by controlling how an inkjet drop contacts and dries on an inkjet receptor medium and also Moire' effects but also provides sufficient optical transmissivity to be useful as overhead transparency media, backlit signage, and the like. Clear lines of demarcation between adjoining colors of a pigmented inkjet image graphic can be obtained without creation of the Moire' effects. Methods of making and using the inkjet receptor medium are also disclosed.

US Patent:

7097673, Aug 29, 2006

Filed:

Jun 7, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/876567

Inventors:

William R. Dudley - Geneseo NY, US
Alan P. Miller - Woodbury MN, US
Robert A. Yapel - Oakdale MN, US

Assignee:

3M Innovative Properties Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

H01M 4/04
H01M 2/08
H01M 2/14
H01M 4/66
B05D 5/00
H01M 10/40

US Classification:

296235, 429245, 429246, 429185, 427286

Abstract:

Described are methods and products prepared from the methods, each of which include methods of coating certain materials onto a substrate, including coating a coating material and an edge material onto the substrate in a manner which may provide an improved thickness profile of the overall coating, and that may do so by using the edge material to augment the thickness of the coating material edge, or that may do so by improving the coating material edge by using the edge material to affect the shape of the coating material edge, the products being useful, for example, in electrochemical cells.

US Patent:

55892698, Dec 31, 1996

Filed:

Apr 25, 1995

Appl. No.:

8/428276

Inventors:

Mahfuza B. Ali - Mendota Heights MN
Omar Farooq - Woodbury MN
Mohammed Iqbal - Austin TX
Alan G. Miller - Austin TX

Assignee:

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company - St. Paul MN

International Classification:

B41M 500

US Classification:

4284111

Abstract:

An improved ink-receptive sheet comprising a substrate bearing on at least one major surface thereof an ink-receptive layer which comprises at least one ink receptive polymer and an effective amount of polymeric mordant having the general structure: ##STR1## wherein A is selected from the group consisting of a COO-alkylene group having from 1 to about 5 carbon atoms, a CONH-alkylene group having from 1 to about 5 carbon atoms, --COO--(CH. sub. 2 CH. sub. 2 O). sub. n --CH. sub. 2 --, --CONH--(CH. sub. 2 CH. sub. 2 O). sub. n --CH. sub. 2 -- and. paren open-st. CH. sub. 2 CH. sub. 2 NH. sub. 2 Cl. paren close-st. n, wherein n is from 1 to about 5; E and D are independently selected from the group consisting of alkyl group having from 1 to about 5 carbon atoms; or A, E, D and N are combined to form a heterocyclic compound selected from the group consisting of ##STR2## R. sub. 1 and R. sub. 2 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, phenyl, and an alkyl group containing from 1 to about 5 carbon atoms; R is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, phenyl, benzimidazolyl, and an alkyl group containing from 1 to about 5 carbon atoms, y is selected from 0 and 1, and X. sub. 1 and X. sub. 2 are anions.