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ASTEC facilitates grant of patents to five innovators

By Ajit Patowary

GUWAHATI, March 8 - The Patent Information Centre (PIC) of the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) was instrumental in securing five patents from the Patent Registry of the country till October last year.

The latest being the one against a device developed by the city-based inventor Manjul Moni Goswami, which was granted patent in October, 2015. The above-mentioned five also include the two Muga-related inventions of the city-based mechanical engineer Dulal Choudhury and these are of the 57 patent applications filed by the Centre with the Registry.

According to ASTEC PIC sources, the noteworthy applications filed by the PIC among the aforementioned patent applications include the Mechanised Process of Manufacturing Muga Silk Fabric and the Process for Softening Muga Silk Fabric invented by Dulal Choudhury and granted patent respectively in 2006 and 2008.

The other noteworthy applications include � the Bamboo Reinforced Cement Concreting (Application No.1387/KOL/2013) on behalf of Manoj Kumar Das of Hajo Abhaypur; the Degree Adjustable Globe (Application No.134/KOL/2013) on behalf of Fakharuddin Ahmed of Dhubri Moterjhar; Power-Driven Brush for Cleaning Bend Commode Chute of Train Coach Lavatory (Granted No.268795) Manjul Moni Goswami, of the city�s Bishnupur area; Co-Axial Bicopter MAV with Hinged Body Gimballing (Application No.454/KOL/2014) Abhilekh Mukherjee of the city�s Rehabari area and the Foot-Operated Manual Page-Turning Machine (Application No. 1376/KOL/2013) of Swapnanil Talukdar of the city�s Kahilipara area.

Power-Driven Brush for Cleaning Bend Commode Chute of Train Coach Lavatory invented by Manjul Moni Goswami, which was granted patent (No. 268795), is designed to eliminate bad odour generated from the bent commode chutes of the railway coach toilets.

The device has five main components � one power-driven circular brush bigger than the diameter of the commode chute, one bent and suitable long handle that has two main components � a bent conduit and one flexible shaft which is inserted throughout the length of the bent conduit. The angle of the bend of the conduit has been made in such a way that it can easily negotiate the inside surface of the curved commode chute.

About 100 mm at both ends of the flexible shaft (upper and lower adaptors) are made rigid so that they can be fixed firmly inside the bent conduit with the help of bearings. Moreover, about 50 per cent of both the rigid ends of the flexible shaft remain outside the bent conduit. The lower adaptor of the flexible shaft holds flexibly the centre of the circular brush and the upper adaptor is connected with one AC/DC motor.

One rotary equipment fitted here is a light-weight motor that is energised by an inbuilt battery or 110-volt or 230-volt power supply. The motor is coupled to the upper adaptor to rotate the flexible shaft as well as the circular brush. One manually operated liquid cleaning agent container is provided on the bent conduit (handle) near the circular brush to supply requisite quantity of liquid cleaning agent to the brush while the brush is in operation. This container has one spring loaded one-way valve in the bottom, which is operated by a thread � one end of which is connected to the valve and the other end is fixed with one pulling arm to facilitate pulling and opening of the valve.

One control lever is provided near the rotary equipment for better control of the device during operation and to facilitate pulling and releasing of the thread with the help of one attached pulling arm for application of liquid cleaning agent on the circular brush. The rotary equipment rotates the flexible shaft and subsequently the flexible shaft rotates the circular brush.

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