US PATENT CLASS 60
Class Notes
Current as of: June, 1999
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DEFINITION
Classification: 60/
This is the residual class concerned with the driving of a load by the conversion of heat, pressure, radiant, or gravitational energy into mechanical motion. It includes a motor in combination with its energy supply or its exhaust treatment. It also includes the motors, per se, combinations of motors, and elements specialized for use in such energy conversion that are not specifically provided for elsewhere.
(1) Note. The mere nominal inclusion with the motor of and element or machine driven by the motor is not generally considered sufficient to exclude the patent from the class.
LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES
Unless specifically provided for elsewhere, a combination of plural motors of types that would, per se, be classified in different classes is classified in Class 60.
Combustion products generators in which steam or water are added to the combustion zone are classified in Class 60, Power Plants, where it is the sole disclosure that the products of combustion are to be used to produce useful work. See Class 110, Furnaces, and Class 431, Combustion, for combustion products generators of general utility where steam or water is supplied to the combustion zone. Combustion products generators, per se, using solid fuel, having high pressure generator structure peculiar to the generation of high pressure fluid for motive power, are classified herein. Combustion chamber structure of general utility, and structure for fuel preparation and fuel feeding to a conventional combustion chamber not provided for in other fuel preparation classes, as Class 241, Solid Material Comminution or Disintegration, are classified in Class 110, Furnaces.
Combustion product generators in which hazardous or toxic waste is used as the fuel to produce useful work. See Class 588 for the processes of destruction or containment of hazardous or toxic waste.
LINE WITH CLASS 91 AND CLASS 418
See (4) Note of the class definition of Class 91, for a statement of the line between Classes 60 and 91, the same line being maintained between Classes 60 and 418.
REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
73, Measuring and Testing, appropriate subclass for a measuring and testing device in which the measuring or
testing means uses pressurized motive fluid that drives an indicator.
74, Machine Element or Mechanism,
16, for power tables or strands comprising portable power units.
91, Motors: Expansible Chamber Type, appropriate subclass for a fluid motor or a combination of such motors that has no more than a nominal pressure fluid source or nominal exhaust means. See (4) Note of the class definition of Class 91 for the line between Class 60 and Class 91.
92, Expansible Chamber Devices, appropriate subclass for an expansible chamber device or plural expansible chamber devices. See (4) Note of the class definition of Class 92 for the line between Classes 60 and 92.
122, Liquid Heaters and Vaporizers, for a liquid heater or vaporizer that generates hot fluid. The minimal inclusion of a motor as the source or utilizer of the treated fluid does not prevent classification in Class 122.
123, Internal-Combustion Engines, appropriate subclass, for an internal combustion engine, per se. A combination of internal combustion engines or an internal combustion engine with an exhaust treating or handling means is in Class 60.
173, Tool Driving or Impacting, appropriate subclass for subject matter directed to driving or impacting a tool when such subject matter includes combined features peculiar to tool driving, but which does not include features limiting the subject matter to a specific tool art, such as specific shape of the work contacting portion of a tool, related tools, or an opposed work support. A combination of plural motors of the same or different types, one of which causes or controls tool advance and the other drives or impacts a tool is classified in Class 173.
185, Motors: Spring, Weight, or Animal Powered, appropriate subclass for a spring, weight or animal powered motor and for plural or composite motor combinations consisting solely of arrangements of such motors. See the notes in the class definition of Class 185 for a statement of the line between Classes 60 and 185.
237, Heating Systems, appropriate subclass for a power plant combined with a heating system. 252, Compositions, appropriate subclasses particularly
67+, and 71+ for power transmission compositions. Patents are placed in Class 252, Compositions, (1) claiming admixtures of ingredients, or claiming an old compound, limited to use as a hydraulic or other type power transmission fluid, (2) processes of power generation claimed broadly and
distinguished solely by the composition or compound used, and (3) power plant apparatus distinguished by the composition of compound therein, i.e., where characteristics of apparatus structure are not claimed. The preceding are placed in Class 252, Compositions, even though freezing or boiling points, temperatures of use, or amount of power transmitted are specified.
290, Prime-Mover Dynamo Plants, appropriate subclass for the combination of a motor and an electric generator in which is included (1) any detail of the generator; (2) any relationship between a generator part and a motor; and (3) any control of the motor by part of the electricity produced by the generator. A motor electric generator combination in combination in which the electric generator is merely a nominal load driven by the motor is not precluded from Class 60.
303, Fluid-Pressure and Analogous Brake Systems, appropriate subclass, for the distribution of fluid to brake motors. See the notes to the definition of
533, of Class 60 for a detailed statement of the line between Classes 60 and 303.
310, Electrical Generator or Motor Structure, appropriate subclass for an electric motor, per se.
318, Electricity: Motive Power Systems, appropriate subclass for a system of electrical supply or control for one or more electrical motors. A residual system comprising an electrical and a nonelectrical motor is in Class 60.
374, Thermal Measuring and Testing,
187+, for temperature measurement in which the expansion or contraction of a sensing material drives an indicator.
415, Rotary Kinetic Fluid Motors or Pumps, appropriate subclass for (1) a rotary kinetic energy motor, per se, or one with a merely nominal load, motive fluid supply, or exhaust structure; (2) for a plurality of such motors. See the detailed statement of the line between Classes 60 and 415 in the class definition of Class 415, particularly the search class notes to Class 60 in References to Other Classes.
416, Fluid Reaction Surfaces (i.e., Impellers), appropriate subclass for a motor comprising an unconfined impeller driven by a flowing working fluid, e.g., windmill etc. 418, Rotary Expansible Chamber Devices, appropriate subclass for an expansible chamber fluid motor or a combination of such motors. See Lines With Other Classes and Within This Class, above, for the line between Class 418, Class 60, and an additional class.
588, Hazardous or Toxic Waste Destruction or Containment,
appropriate subclasses for the use of a hazardous or toxic waste as a fuel for power production combined with the destruction of the waste.