PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15867852
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-07
Patent Classification: ["060", "253000"]

Abstract:
A cylindrically-shaped hybrid rocket engine solid fuel grain defines an axial combustion port. A fuel grain material comprises a compounded blend of thermoplastic fuel and aluminum. The fuel grain comprises fused stack layers, each layer comprising a plurality of fused abutting concentric beaded structures arrayed to define the combustion port; the port exhibits a rifling pattern or rifling inducing geometry along the port wall. When an oxidizer is introduced into the combustion port combustion occurs along the exposed port wall. Each beaded structure defines a geometry that increases the combustion surface area while inducing a vortex flow of oxidizer and fuel gas. As each layer ablates, an abutting layer exhibiting a similar geometry, is revealed, undergoes a gas phase change, and ablates. This process repeats and persists until oxidizer flow is terminated or the fuel grain material is exhausted. The fuel grain may be manufactured by an additive manufacturing process.

Claim (Index 23):
A fuel grain for a hybrid rocket, the fuel grain comprising:\n a first fuel grain section comprising:\n a first plurality of concentric ring-shaped beads of different radii fused together to form a first disc, the first disc defining a first combustion port; \n an inner circumferential surface of each of the first plurality of circular ring-shaped beads comprising an irregular surface, such that as a ring-shaped bead forming a first combustion port wall ablates due to combustion in a combustion port, an inner circumferential surface of an adjacent ring-shaped bead comprising an irregular surface presents to form the first combustion port wall; \n a material of the first fuel grain section comprising a combustible substance; \n a second fuel grain section comprising:\n a second plurality of concentric ring-shaped beads of different radii fused together to form a second disc, the second disc defining a second combustion port; \n an inner circumferential surface of each of the second plurality of circular ring-shaped beads comprising an irregular surface, such that as a ring-shaped bead forming a second combustion port ablates due to combustion in a combustion port, an inner circumferential wall of an adjacent ring-shaped bead comprising an irregular surface presents to form the second combustion port wall; \n a material of the second fuel grain section comprising a combustible substance; and \n the first and second fuel grain sections bonded together and the first and second combustion ports aligned to form the fuel grain.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 68.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.88506
- Patent Class: 60.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15262661', '15818381', '15275423', '12052934', '13564463']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7477855255606334
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5682414219637542
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7298311152009455
- Mean Citation Score: 408.922596
- Max Citation Score: 495.2266
- Similarity Product: 392.3950665000916

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test