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'Dan McGalliard''James Daniel McGalliard July 7, 1940 - February 18, 2021 was an inventor and innovator of products and processes throughout a wide range of applications.
He became an industrialist during California’s electronic boom, where he developed inventions such as fluid sensitive micro-electrical switching circuitry and a patent for nylon hose.
Dan McGalliard was the inventor of the Solidstat, a single mount electrical control assembly, and issued a U.S. patent [1] February 8, 1978. The Solidstat is widely used for: resistance heater control, lighting control, motor speed control, pipe heating, tank & kettle heating, laminating press heater control, and medical equipment involving heating, lighting, and temperature controls. A single mounting connection at the potentiometer bushing not only mechanically mounts all of the elements but additionally provides a heat sink connection for the circuit. At the same time, the use of a printed circuit board in the combination permits automated assembly and soldering which substantially reduced the cost of the circuit.
Dan McGalliard was also issued other patents, mostly within the field of electrical engineering, including a solid state fluid sensitive switching member which utilizes fluid contained in a cavity to conduct the heat generated during high current switching operations away from the temperature-sensitive solid state elements of the switching member, [2] issued March 14, 1977, and a printed circuit fuse assembly. [3] issued October 20, 1981.
Outside the field of electrical engineering, Dan McGalliard was issued a patent [4] on February 2, 1978, for nylon hose [5] treated with a micro-encapsulation of hair-dissolving solution designed to remove hair from the legs of the wearer. In 2006, he developed a trailer delivery system for installing cement boat ramps, involving the laying of connected cement planks directly into the water, thereby not polluting the waters with dissolved cement mortar or having to construct coffer dams.
Dan McGalliard was born in Spear, North Carolina. His father was James Lafayette McGalliard, a rural North Carolina preacher, farm consultant, and graduate of Clemson University. Along with his father and mother, Edna Loy McGalliard, and his brother, David McGalliard moved to just outside Glen Alpine in Burke County, North Carolina where they owned and operated a dairy farm. Dan McGalliard also raised hogs and attended Oak Hill School, where he was honored for his athletic achievements on the football field and for graduating without missing a single day of school from first grade to high school graduation.[ citation needed ]
Dan McGalliard attended UCLA and worked in the field of electronics in California. In 1971 he opened his own company: Electramation with the tagline Innovations in Automation. The company represented controls to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) throughout California. In the course of representing and selling products, McGalliard often encountered design challenges of his customers. He gradually began to design and invent products to solve those challenges for his customers. His company became a manufacturer of proprietary products, usually farming out the assembly to associate companies. Proprietary products, as well as products sold by his company, Electramation, were often featured in the electronic Journals of the time. One of his product designs, the C-Pak, was the Product Design and Development - News for the Original Equipment Market [6] editor's front cover featured product on the June 1981 issue, and was described as "gating SCRs, not subject to line-borne-noise, which the company calls "regenerative gating" and displays a noteworthy thermal design”.
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification and rectification, which distinguishes it from classical electrical engineering, which only uses passive effects such as resistance, capacitance and inductance to control electric current flow.
A relay is an electrically operated switch. It consists of a set of input terminals for a single or multiple control signals, and a set of operating contact terminals. The switch may have any number of contacts in multiple contact forms, such as make contacts, break contacts, or combinations thereof.
In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of switch is an electromechanical device consisting of one or more sets of movable electrical contacts connected to external circuits. When a pair of contacts is touching current can pass between them, while when the contacts are separated no current can flow.
A thermistor is a type of resistor whose resistance is strongly dependent on temperature, more so than in standard resistors. The word thermistor is a portmanteau of thermal and resistor.
A printed circuit board is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers: each of the conductive layers is designed with an artwork pattern of traces, planes and other features etched from one or more sheet layers of copper laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a non-conductive substrate. Electrical components may be fixed to conductive pads on the outer layers in the shape designed to accept the component's terminals, generally by means of soldering, to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it. Another manufacturing process adds vias: plated-through holes that allow interconnections between layers.
A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load. As a result, power supplies are sometimes referred to as electric power converters. Some power supplies are separate standalone pieces of equipment, while others are built into the load appliances that they power. Examples of the latter include power supplies found in desktop computers and consumer electronics devices. Other functions that power supplies may perform include limiting the current drawn by the load to safe levels, shutting off the current in the event of an electrical fault, power conditioning to prevent electronic noise or voltage surges on the input from reaching the load, power-factor correction, and storing energy so it can continue to power the load in the event of a temporary interruption in the source power.
A switched-mode power supply is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator to convert electrical power efficiently.
Surface-mount technology (SMT), originally called planar mounting, is a method in which the electrical components are mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). An electrical component mounted in this manner is referred to as a surface-mount device (SMD). In industry, this approach has largely replaced the through-hole technology construction method of fitting components, in large part because SMT allows for increased manufacturing automation which reduces cost and improves quality. It also allows for more components to fit on a given area of substrate. Both technologies can be used on the same board, with the through-hole technology often used for components not suitable for surface mounting such as large transformers and heat-sinked power semiconductors.
A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by overcurrent. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow to protect equipment and to prevent the risk of fire. Unlike a fuse, which operates once and then must be replaced, a circuit breaker can be reset to resume normal operation.
A thermostat is a regulating device component which senses the temperature of a physical system and performs actions so that the system's temperature is maintained near a desired setpoint.
A DIP switch is a manual electric switch that is packaged with others in a group in a standard dual in-line package (DIP). The term may refer to each individual switch, or to the unit as a whole. This type of switch is designed to be used on a printed circuit board along with other electronic components and is commonly used to customize the behavior of an electronic device for specific situations.
In electrical wiring, a light switch is a switch most commonly used to operate electric lights, permanently connected equipment, or electrical outlets. Portable lamps such as table lamps may have a light switch mounted on the socket, base, or in-line with the cord. Manually operated on/off switches may be substituted by dimmer switches that allow controlling the brightness of lamps as well as turning them on or off, time-controlled switches, occupancy-sensing switches, and remotely controlled switches and dimmers. Light switches are also found in flashlights, vehicles, and other devices.
A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called pipes, or more generally tubing. The shape of a hose is usually cylindrical.
Hydraulic machines use liquid fluid power to perform work. Heavy construction vehicles are a common example. In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is pumped to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders throughout the machine and becomes pressurized according to the resistance present. The fluid is controlled directly or automatically by control valves and distributed through hoses, tubes, or pipes.
Electronic packaging is the design and production of enclosures for electronic devices ranging from individual semiconductor devices up to complete systems such as a mainframe computer. Packaging of an electronic system must consider protection from mechanical damage, cooling, radio frequency noise emission and electrostatic discharge. Product safety standards may dictate particular features of a consumer product, for example, external case temperature or grounding of exposed metal parts. Prototypes and industrial equipment made in small quantities may use standardized commercially available enclosures such as card cages or prefabricated boxes. Mass-market consumer devices may have highly specialized packaging to increase consumer appeal. Electronic packaging is a major discipline within the field of mechanical engineering.
A pressure switch is a form of switch that operates an electrical contact when a certain set fluid pressure has been reached on its input. The switch may be designed to make contact either on pressure rise or on pressure fall. Pressure switches are widely used in industry to automatically supervise and control systems that use pressurized fluids.
IPC is a trade association whose aim is to standardize the assembly and production requirements of electronic equipment and assemblies. It was founded in 1957 as the Institute of Printed Circuits. Its name was later changed to the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits to highlight the expansion from bare boards to packaging and electronic assemblies. In 1999, the organization formally changed its name to IPC with the accompanying tagline, Association Connecting Electronics Industries.
A battery holder is one or more compartments or chambers for holding a battery. For dry cells, the holder must also make electrical contact with the battery terminals. For wet cells, cables are often connected to the battery terminals, as is found in automobiles or emergency lighting equipment.
A timeline of United States inventions (1890–1945) encompasses the ingenuity and innovative advancements of the United States within a historical context, dating from the Progressive Era to the end of World War II, which have been achieved by inventors who are either native-born or naturalized citizens of the United States. Copyright protection secures a person's right to his or her first-to-invent claim of the original invention in question, highlighted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution which gives the following enumerated power to the United States Congress:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.