Erickson Tool Company v. Balas Collet Company

Decision Date31 July 1967
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. C 64-857.
Citation277 F. Supp. 226
PartiesERICKSON TOOL COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. BALAS COLLET COMPANY, Defendant.
CourtU.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

Walter Maky, Oberlin, Maky & Donnelly, Cleveland, Ohio, Edward A. Haight, Haight, Simmons & Hofeldt, Chicago, Ill., John Kennedy Lynch, Conway & Lynch, Cleveland, Ohio, for plaintiff.

Frederic M. Bosworth and Paul S. Sessions, Bosworth, Sessions, Herrstrom & Knowles, Cleveland, Ohio, for defendant.

KALBFLEISCH, Chief Judge.

1. The plaintiff in this action is Erickson Tool Company, a corporation of Ohio, having a place of business at Solon, Ohio. Ptf.'s Ex. 15.

2. The defendant in this action is Balas Collet Company, successor to Balas Collet Manufacturing Company the original defendant in this action, a corporation of Ohio having a place of business at Cleveland, Ohio. Ptf.'s Ex. 15. Defendant, Balas Collet Company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner & Swasey Co. of Cleveland, Ohio.

3. U. S. patent No. 3,035,845, ptf.'s Ex. 1, the patent in suit, was granted on May 22, 1962 to plaintiff as assignee of Milton L. Benjamin, and plaintiff has continuously been and still is the owner of said patent.

4. The complaint charged that defendant has infringed the patent in suit by making and selling collet chucks embodying the invention of claims 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the patent in suit.

5. The answer denies infringement of the patent in suit and alleges that said patent is invalid.

6. Defendant's first counterclaim is for declaratory judgment of invalidity of patent in suit and its second counterclaim is for declaratory judgment of non-infringement of the patent in suit by defendant.

7. Federal jurisdiction exists because this action arises under the patent laws of the United States and jurisdiction conferred by 35 U.S.C. § 281 and 28 U.S. C. § 1338. The Court has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter, and no issue is presented as to venue.

8. At pre-trial conference the plaintiff withdrew the charge of infringement based on claims 1, 4, 6 and 7, and the trial was confined solely to dependent claim 3 which, in accordance with 35 U.S.C. § 112 shall be construed to include all of the limitations of the claim 1 which is incorporated by reference into said dependent claim 3.

9. The Benjamin patent No. 3,035,845 in suit, ptf.'s Ex. 1, relates to a collect chuck, ptf.'s Ex. 16, adapted to grip a tool or work piece by a contractible collet. The chuck includes, as a first element, a shank adapted to be mounted in the spindle or turret of a metal working machine and having a tapered bore, as a second element, a contractible collect having a correspondingly tapered face adapted to engage the tapered bore in the shank, and as a third element, a nose piece assembly which is removably connected to the collect by a snap ring and connected to the shank by threaded engagement therewith. Rotation of the nose piece assembly in one direction will push the collet into the shank and effect gripping of the tool, and rotation in the opposite direction will pull the collet out of the shank to release its grip on the tool. The nose piece assembly of the patent comprises a nose piece having direct threaded engagement with the shank. It has two axially spaced apart radially inwardly extending flanges, one of which is the snap ring. Between these flanges are always retained a nose ring and an antifriction roller thrust bearing.

10. The collet chuck of the patent in suit is the same as the collet chuck of the prior Benjamin et al. patent No. 2,465,837, deft.'s Ex. A, as exemplified also in plaintiff's so-called Bulldog chuck, with the sole exception that the nose piece assembly of the patent in suit contains a Torrington roller needle thrust bearing, deft.'s Exs. E, L, NNN, OOO and R, between the nose ring and the outer flange of the nose piece. Benjamin, Tr. 40, 41; Lutz, Tr. 294-296; and Cox, Tr. 430 and 431.

In respect to the pull or retracting of the collet from the shank when the nose piece is unscrewed from the shank, the collet chuck of the patent in suit is substantially the same as the collet chuck illustrated in the Benjamin et al '837 patent, deft.'s Ex. A, in structure, function, mode of operation and results. Deft.'s Ex. V, plaintiff's answer to defendant's interrogatory No. 38. The pull-out of the collet is effected in the chucks of the patent in suit and of the Benjamin '837 patent and the Bulldog in the same manner and regardless of the presence of any antifriction bearing at the front of the collet in the nose piece assembly. Benjamin, Tr. 76 and 77.

11. The combination of elements in the '837 patent and the Bulldog chuck, on the one hand, is old and is the same combination as the combination disclosed and claimed in the patent in suit, on the other hand, except for the presence of the Torrington bearing in the nose piece assembly of the patent in suit. Lutz, Tr. 251, 252 and 295. All the elements of this combination fit together and coact with one another in the same way, do the same work with the same mode of operation and perform the same functions in the patent in suit as in the '837 patent for the Bulldog chuck. Lutz, Tr. 294-297. There is no difference in the interaction between the collet and shank and between the nose piece assembly and collet because of the addition of the Torrington bearing except that which is occasioned by rolling contact. Lutz, Tr. 296. Except for differences in degree of results shown in deft.'s chart, Ex. VV, due to the presence or absence of the antifriction bearing, the results are the same, and there is no difference in function and mode of operation between the patent in suit combination claimed on the one hand, and the combination comprising the Benjamin '837 patent and the Bulldog chuck, on the other hand. Lutz, Tr. 294-297; Cox, Tr. 430 and 431; and Benjamin, Tr. 40, 41, 76, and 77. The addition of the roller bearing to the prior '837 patent and Bulldog chuck did not make or comprise a new combination.

12. Claim 3 of the patent in suit is drawn to the old combination of a shank, a collet, and a nose piece assembly. All of the elements and parts thereof recited in claim 3 of the patent in suit were old at the time of the alleged invention of the patent in suit.

13. The combination in a collet chuck, of a shank, a collet, and a nose piece assembly was old in the art at the time of the alleged invention of the patent in suit as evidenced by the Buhr patent No. 1,973,942, deft.'s Ex. EEE, the Chittenden patent No. 2,272,185, deft.'s Ex. V2, the Benjamin et al patent No. 2,465,837, deft.'s Ex. A, and the Hunsdorf patent No. 2,609,209, deft.'s Ex. H.

14. In respect to the push or forcing of the collet into the shank to effect gripping of the tool, the collet chuck of the patent in suit is substantially the same as the collet chuck illustrated in the Hunsdorf patent No. 2,539,218, deft.'s Ex. H, in structure, function, mode of operation and results. Deft.'s Ex. V, plaintiff's answers to defendant's interrogatories Nos. 25, 26 and 28, and Benjamin, Tr. 75-77.

15. The antifriction roller thrust bearing of claim 3 of the patent in suit does not differ in function from the antifriction ball thrust bearing of the collet chuck of the Hunsdorf patent No. 2,529,218. Deft.'s Ex. V, plaintiff's answer to defendant's interrogatory No. 26, and Benjamin, Tr. 69.

16. The results obtained by the antifriction roller thrust bearing of claim 3 of the patent in suit do not differ from the results obtained from the antifriction ball bearing of Hunsdorf patent No. 2,529,218 other than by such differences as may be ascribed to the differences between roller and ball bearings. Deft.'s Ex. V, plaintiff's answer to defendant's interrogatory No. 28, and Benjamin, Tr. 71-72.

17. Mr. Benjamin, as he admitted, Tr. 78 and 79, was not the first to employ any antifriction bearing in a nose piece assembly (comprising a nose piece, snap ring, nose ring and antifriction bearing like the patent in suit and Hunsdorf). He claimed merely that he was first to employ a roller bearing in such a nose piece assembly. Mr. Benjamin admitted that the results were the same except for the difference attributable to the differences between ball and roller bearings, Tr. 71, a difference which has been known for 50 years at least. Benjamin, Tr. 71 and 72.

18. In the push-pull collet chuck of the patent in suit, and as embodied in plaintiff's patented TG chuck, the nose piece is provided with a pair of flanges, one of which, through the roller thrust bearing and the nose ring, pushes (without twisting) the collet into the tapered bore of the shank, and the other of which engages a flange or lip of the collet to impart a pulling and twisting action on the collet thus to pull the collet out of the shank to enable removal of a tool for replacement or resharpening.

19. In the defendant's accused pushpull collet chuck the nose piece is provided with a flange which, through the roller thrust bearing and the nose ring, pushes (without twisting) the collet into the tapered bore of the shank, and which engages a flange or lip of the collet to impart a pulling and twisting action on the collet thus to pull the collet out of the shank to enable removal of a tool for replacement or resharpening.

20. Insofar as no-twist push action and twist-pull action on the collet is concerned, it is a matter of indifference whether the nose piece has two flanges as in the patent in suit, or whether the collet has two flanges as in the defendant's accused chuck, since in either event (1) a nose ring and a roller thrust bearing are interposed between one flange of the nose piece and one flange of the collet to impose a no-twist push action on the collet; and (2) a flange (the same one or another one) of the nose piece radially overlaps a flange or lip of the collet to impose a twist-pull action on the collet. In the patent in suit as...

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