Thermal protection system for air/space vehicles; Arrowhead Products Corp.; U.S. Pat. No. 8,056,862

U.S. Patent No. 8,056,862, issued on November 15, 2011 to Arrowhead Products Corp. of Los Alamitos, CA, discloses a system to fasten ceramic heat-protection panels to the surface of an air or space vehicle.

According to the ’862 patent, air or space vehicles can benefit from having thermally protective structures to handle the high temperatures caused by friction between the vehicle’s outer surfaces and the surrounding atmosphere.  For example, NASA’s space shuttles were equipped with heat resistant and thermally insulating protective tiles or panels.  However, the adhesive attachment system used by the space shuttles were “plagued by recurring problems of reliability and excessive cost.”  Alternative thermal protection structures have used mechanical fasteners and standoffs that attach the thermally protective tiles or panels to the outside of the vehicle, but vehicles using such systems are vulnerable to the extreme heat if any of the tiles or panels are dislodged or displaced.  The ’862 patent discloses a system of latches and fusable plugs “which provides the economy and efficiency of metal fastener or standoff fabrication with the ease of repair and replacement of protective tiles and panels while safely maintaining a smooth substantially continuous thermal protection surface.”

The ’862 patent was issued only about 17 months after being filed with the USPTO.  This relatively rapid turnaround by the USPTO to issuance is likely due to the application receiving expedited examination by virtue of one of the inventors being at least 65 years of age.  Under a USPTO program, a patent application can be filed with a “Petition to Make Special” if the application satisfies one of a series of criteria, one of which is based on an inventor’s age or health.  Once the petition is granted, the application is given special treatment with regard to the speed at which it is examined, though the same standards of patentability still apply.  As the ’862 patent exemplifies, such petitions can be a useful way to get a U.S. patent in hand sooner rather than later.

According to its website, Arrowhead Products was founded in 1937 and has a long history in developing and marketing ducting systems, particularly in the fields of commercial, military, and space vehicles.  The company’s website does not describe any products that are related to the claimed invention of the ’862 patent, so the thermally protective system may still be in development, or perhaps was developed for a particular customer under its engineering services.  According to the USPTO database, the ’862 patent is Arrowhead’s fourth U.S. patent.