MLGW Employees' Ingenuity Awarded U.S. Patent

MLGW EMPLOYEES’ INGENUITY AWARDED U.S. PATENT; MECHANISM COULD SAVE DIVISION $70K


Electric Shop Employees receive plaques recognizing their patent award at a Board of Commissioners meeting. Pictured from left to right: Curtis Washington, David Morton, Roderick Truitt, Al Bourell and Rick Cox.

In 2010, the last year for which statistics are available, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office issued 244,341 patents. That’s a little less than half of the 520,277 application requests the agency received. To put it another way, approximately one out of two patent applications was denied. Obtaining a patent is an arduous process—taking several years, but in 2011 MLGW employees joined the elite ranks of inventors granted a patent for their innovation.

Employees of the Electric Motor Shop received news on November 1, 2011 that the Solid State Sump Pump Control they created was patented. The people named in the patent were Al Bourell, then Supervisor of the Electric Motor Shop (now retired), Rick Cox, David Morton, Roderick Truitt and Curtis Washington. (Truitt and Washington transferred from the Electric Motor shop to other departments.)

MLGW has an underground network transformer system. When water seeps in from underground ducts into transformer vaults and manholes, sump pumps are used to expel the water. The Electric Motor Shop used off-the-shelf controls that often became waterlogged and failed. The sump pump controls would have to be replaced and man-hours expended to get flooded transformers operational.

In 2004, after investigating options from various vendors, the Shop began constructing its own Solid State Pump Control System with great success. The MLGW-created device’s unique design features a protective cap and can withstand submersion in 25 feet of water—all at an approximate cost of $300 per unit, resulting in a 33 percent cost-savings.

The Electric Motor Shop is a workgroup in Electric Substation Engineering; Michael Ray Russell is the manager. “The devices we were purchasing off the shelf were not as good in quality or design,” Russell explained. “The old style cost approximately $450 per unit. Last year we installed roughly 60, which equates to a savings of $9,000 per year in unit costs.” Russell estimates the Division will save $70,000 per year that would have gone to transformer vault maintenance costs when the old units failed.

In 2005, MLGW attorneys began pursuing the patent—cautioning all involved that the process could take years. Fast forward six years and Bourell, Cox, Morton, Truitt, and Washington are recognized for their hardwork. “[The Solid State Sump Pump Control patent] demonstrates this group of employees will make a way when a way does not exist to accomplish the task. It shows the ingenuity and initiative of these employees,” Russell affirms. “When they could not find a product that met their need, they did not give up. They made an extra effort to develop a solution which was unique enough to patent.”

Dennis Blankenship, Roger McNeary and James Sandidge are new employees in the Electric Motor Shop who are continuing the project, constructing the now patented Sump Pump Controls.


U.S. Patent # US8,047,805 B2, SolidStateSump Pump Control. See uspto.gov for more information.