The method, system and tangible medium storing computer readable software of the present invention, provide for program constructs, such as commands, declarations, variables, and statements, which have been developed to describe computations for an adaptive computing architecture, rather than provide instructions to a sequential microprocessor or DSP architecture. The invention includes program constructs that permit a programmer to define data flow graphs in software, to provide for operations to be executed in parallel, and to reference variable states and historical values in a straightforward manner. The preferred method, system, and software also includes mechanisms for efficiently referencing array variables, and enables the programmer to succinctly describe the direct data flow among matrices, nodes, and other configurations of computational elements and computational units forming the adaptive computing architecture. The preferred software includes dataflow statements, channel objects, stream variables, state variables, unroll statements, iterators, and loop statements.

The present invention relates, in general, to software and code languages used in programming hardware circuits, and more specifically, to a method, system, and language command or statement structure for defining adaptive computational units in reconfigurable integrated circuitry.
The first related application discloses a new form or type of integrated circuitry which effectively and efficiently combines and maximizes the various advantages of processors, application specific integrated circuits (xe2x80x9cASICsxe2x80x9d), and field programmable gate arrays (xe2x80x9cFPGAsxe2x80x9d), while minimizing potential disadvantages. The first related application illustrates a new form or type of integrated circuit (xe2x80x9cICxe2x80x9d), referred to as an adaptive computing engine (xe2x80x9cACExe2x80x9d), which provides the programming flexibility of a processor, the post-fabrication flexibility of FPGAs, and the high speed and high utilization factors of an ASIC. This ACE integrated circuitry is readily reconfigurable, is capable of having corresponding, multiple modes of operation, and further minimizes power consumption while increasing performance, with particular suitability for low power applications, such as for use in hand-held and other battery-powered devices.
Configuration information (or, equivalently, adaptation information) is required to generate, in advance or in real-time (or potentially at a slower rate), the adaptations (configurations and reconfigurations) which provide and create one or more operating modes for the ACE circuit, such as wireless communication, radio reception, personal digital assistance (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d), MP3 music playing, or any other desired functions.
The second related application discloses a preferred system embodiment that includes an ACE integrated circuit coupled with one or more sets of configuration information. This configuration (adaptation) information is required to generate, in advance or in real-time (or potentially at a slower rate), the configurations and reconfigurations which provide and create one or more operating modes for the ACE circuit, such as wireless communication, radio reception, personal digital assistance (xe2x80x9cPDAxe2x80x9d), MP3 or MP4 music playing, or any other desired functions. Various methods, apparatuses and systems are also illustrated in the second related application for generating and providing configuration information for an ACE integrated circuit, for determining ACE reconfiguration capacity or capability, for providing secure and authorized configurations, and for providing appropriate monitoring of configuration and content usage.
As disclosed in the first and second related applications, the adaptive computing engine (xe2x80x9cACExe2x80x9d) circuit of the present invention, for adaptive or reconfigurable computing, includes a plurality of differing, heterogeneous computational elements coupled to an interconnection network (rather than the same, homogeneous repeating and arrayed units of FPGAs). The plurality of heterogeneous computational elements include corresponding computational elements having fixed and differing architectures, such as fixed architectures for different functions such as memory, addition, multiplication, complex multiplication, subtraction, synchronization, queuing, sampling, configuration, reconfiguration, control, input, output, routing, and field programmability. In response to configuration information, the interconnection network is operative, in advance, in real-time or potentially slower, to configure and reconfigure the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements for a plurality of different functional modes, including linear algorithmic operations, non-linear algorithmic operations, finite state machine operations, memory operations, and bit-level manipulations. In turn, this configuration and reconfiguration of heterogeneous computational elements, forming various computational units and adaptive matrices, generates the selected, higher-level operating mode of the ACE integrated circuit, for the performance of a wide variety of tasks.
This adaptability or reconfigurability (with adaptation and configuration used interchangeably and equivalently herein) of the ACE circuitry is based upon, among other things, determining the optimal type, number, and sequence of computational elements required to perform a given task. As indicated above, such adaptation or configuration, as used herein, refers to changing or modifying ACE functionality, from one functional mode to another, in general, for performing a task within a specific operating mode, or for changing operating modes.
The algorithm of the task, preferably, is expressed through xe2x80x9cdata flow graphsxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cDFGsxe2x80x9d), which schematically depict inputs, outputs and the computational elements needed for a given operation. Software engineers frequently use data flow graphs to guide the programming of the algorithms, particularly for digital signal processing (xe2x80x9cDSPxe2x80x9d) applications. Such DFGs typically have one of two forms, either of which are applicable to the present invention: (1) representing the flow of data through a system where data streams from one module (e.g., a filter) to another module; and (2) representing a computation as a combinational flow of data through a set of operators from inputs to outputs.
A dilemma arises when developing programs for adaptive or reconfigurable computing applications, as currently there are not any adequate or sufficient methodologies or programming languages expressly designed for such adaptive computing, other than the present invention. High-level programming languages, such as C++ or Java, are widely used, well known, and easily maintainable. The languages were developed to accommodate a variety of applications, many of which are platform-independent, but all of which are fundamentally based upon compiling a sequence of instructions ultimately fed into processor, microprocessor, or DSP. The program code is designed to run sequentially, generally in response to a user-initiated event. However the languages have limited capabilities of expressing the concurrency of computing operations, and other features, which may be significant in adaptive computing applications.
Assembly languages, at the other extreme, tightly control data flow through hardware elements such as the logic gates, registers and random access memory (RAM) of a specific processor, and efficiently direct resource usage. By their very nature, however, assembly languages are extremely verbose and detailed, requiring the programmer to specify exactly when and where every operation is to be performed. Consequently, programming in an assembly language is extraordinarily labor-intensive, expensive, and difficult to learn. In addition, as languages designed specifically for programming a processor (i.e., fixed processor architecture), assembly languages have limited, if any, applicability to or utility for adaptive computing applications.
In between these extremes, and also very different than a high-level language, are hardware description languages (HDLs), that allow a designer to specify the behavior of a hardware system as a collection of components described at the structural or behavioral level. These languages may allow explicit parallelism, but require the designer to manage such parallelism in great detail. In addition, like assembly languages, HDLs require the programmer to specify exactly when and where every operation is to be performed.
As a consequence, a need remains for a method and system of providing programmability of adaptive computing architectures. A need also remains for a comparatively high-level language that is syntactically similar to widely used and well known languages like C++, for ready acceptance within the engineering and computing fields, but that also contains specialized constructs for an adaptive computing environment and for maximizing the performance of an ACE integrated circuit or other adaptive computing architecture.
The present invention is a system, tangible medium storing computer readable software, and methodology that facilitate programming of integrated circuits having adaptive and reconfigurable computing architectures. The method, system and tangible medium storing computer readable software of the present invention provide for program constructs, such as commands, declarations, variables, and statements, which have been developed to describe computations for an adaptive computing architecture, rather than provide instructions to a sequential microprocessor or DSP architecture. The invention includes program constructs that permit a programmer to define data flow graphs in software, to provide for operations to be executed in parallel, and to reference variable states and historical values in a straightforward manner. The preferred method, system, and tangible medium storing computer readable software also includes mechanisms for efficiently referencing array variables, and enables the programmer to succinctly describe the direct data flow among matrices, nodes, and other configurations of computational elements and computational units forming the adaptive computing architecture. The preferred tangible medium storing computer readable software includes software having dataflow statements, channel objects, stream variables, state variables, unroll statements, iterators, and loop statements.
Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims and from the accompanying drawings.

Method, system and software for programming reconfigurable hardware


The present invention discloses a safety trigger mechanism and functional frame for motion furniture for driving a drive mechanism of motion furniture. The safety trigger mechanism includes a mounting board, and a pull wire, a fork and a first restoring spring connected in turn. The fork is mounted turnably about a first rivet on the mounting board by the first rivet, and a bent hook is disposed on one end of the fork and interlocked with a driving arm of the drive mechanism. The safety trigger mechanism further includes a safety hook with a notch, which is mounted turnably about a second rivet on the mounting board by the second rivet. One side edge of the safety hook abuts against the bent hook of the fork, and the driving arm has an arresting pin disposed thereon. The initial position of the arresting pin is in the notch of the safety hook, and the arresting pin is detached from the notch of the safety hook when the safety hook turns clockwise. Since the arresting pin of the driving arm is hooked by the safety hook to ensure that the drive mechanism cannot be unfolded, the present invention has more safety. Even if a large external force acts on the driving arm, the drive mechanism won't unfold itself.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a trigger mechanism and functional frame for motion furniture, and more particularly to a safety trigger mechanism for unfolding a drive mechanism of motion furniture and functional frame for motion furniture therewith with higher safety.
2. Description of Related Art
Refer to FIGS. 1-5, a conventional trigger mechanism, for releasing a locked drive mechanism 13 of motion furniture which is shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, mainly includes a fork 3, a pull wire 1, a first restoring spring 4 and a mounting board 2. As shown in FIGS. 3-5, the operating principle of the conventional trigger mechanism is explained as follows: in FIG. 3, since a driving arm 9 cannot turn clockwise in the limit of a limiting rivet 21 mounted on the driving arm 9 after the drive mechanism 13 is mounted, rotating points A, B, C of the driving arm 9 and a push rod 20 of the drive mechanism 13 are designed on one line, and the point A is over the balance point, wherein the balance point is below the point A and the vertical distance between the point A and the balance point is 3-4 mm as experience, and the mechanism is in a locked state under the action of the driving spring 7 because the force produced by the driving spring 7 has an upward component force F1 and the driving arm 9 cannot turn clockwise being stopped by the limiting rivet 21. When it needs to unfold the drive mechanism 13, the conventional trigger mechanism is pulled left by the pull wire 1, in the direction of the pulling force F2 as shown in FIG. 1, so the fork 3 turns anticlockwise about the first rivet 5 (referring to FIG. 1) and its bent edge pushes the upper edge of the driving arm 9 so that the driving arm 9 turns anticlockwise about the square shaft B (as shown in FIG. 4) and overcomes the upward component force F1 from the driving spring 7 until the point A is over the balance point, as shown in FIG. 4 At this time, the push rod 20 of the drive mechanism 13 pushes the connecting rod 8 to turn anticlockwise and the drive mechanism 13 begins to unfold. Finally, the drive mechanism 13 is fully unfolded, as shown in FIG. 5.
However, the conventional trigger mechanism has the shortcomings as follows: the pulling force of the pull wire 1 must be large enough to overcome the upward component force F1 of the driving spring 7, and only when the point A is kept in the balance position, the pulling force is very small or there is almost no pulling force, however, in this situation, the drive mechanism is easy to unfold itself, which will hurt users, especially children.

Safety trigger mechanism and functional frame for motion furniture


A milling machine of the type having a horizontal milling attachment unit including an arbor and an overarm that is horizontally disposed on the machine body. The improvement includes respective guideways found in apparatus sides of the overarm. A vertical milling attachment units is disposed in and carried by each respective guideway for horizontal movement of the vertical unit. A vertical milling attachment is vertically movable in the vertical unit. In this fashion, the vertical milling attachment unit and the vertical milling attachment may be moved independently of one another.

Conventional multi-functional tool milling machines often include overarm (a cutter) to support an arbor (a horizontal mill cutter rod), a vertical milling attachment (spindle arm unit) with independent power, that is located in the front end of the overarm (cutter arm spindle), and a (cutter rod support arm) that is attached to the machine body. This, for practical applications, it may only allow to select either vertical or horizontal processing but not both types of processing for continuous processing. Besides, to select the horizontal process, a user is required to dismount the vertical milling attachment (spindle head unit) and therefore it is not convenient for operation. The improvement according to present invention relates to forming a guideway (guide rail) on one side or both sides of a horizontal overarm (cutter rod arm) to couple with a vertical milling attachment unit (vertical cutter spindle head unit) including a keyslotter and a milling attachment (including, for example, milling, boring, drilling, tapping, inserting, grinding spindle head unit) with independent power and enable the vertical milling attachment unit (vertical cutter spindle head unit) including a keyslotter and a milling attachment to shift to and fro for processing and rear locating storage. Thus, when the milling machine is engaged in processing the workpiece horizontally or vertically, the machine body can be easily adjusted to be suitable for processing and further be suitable to continue proceeding in vertical/horizontal process works.

Tool milling machine or the like type complex processing machine


Described herein are imidazolyl compounds which either act as pure antiprogestins and methods of using such pure antagonists for gynecological indications and breast cancer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel compounds that exhibit progesterone antagonism without any sign of partial agonistic activity. Such compounds have application in fertility control and the treatment of hormone dependent breast cancer. The present invention also relates to processes of preparation and the use in therapy of such novel compounds.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
In the past, progesterone antagonists have been postulated to be of potential benefit in the treatment of a variety of diseases including breast cancer and different forms of fertility control.
Up to now, only two compounds belonging to this class have been approved for clinical use. The prototype antagonist, Mifepristone (see FIG. 1), is indicated for the induction of abort and Ulipristal is approved for postcoital fertility control.
Both compound are characterized as progesterone receptor modulators indicating that there might be a partial agonistic component contributing to their overall activity.
Compounds that lack any partial agonistic activity whatsoever should exhibit a greater activity in the approved indications and potentially also in the treatment of breast cancer.

There is the general understanding that the substituent in the 11′ position is responsible for the progesterone receptor profile (Nickisch et al Steroids Vol 78, 255-267, 2013). Whereas the dimethyl amino group as found in Mifepristone and Ulipristal leads to compounds with a predominant antagonistic activity, aromatic substituents like furans or pyridins lead to compounds with a strong partial agonistic component (EP000002417148) that have potential in the treatment of gynecological indications like endometriosis but not for postcoital fertility control and breast cancer.
Substituents in the 17 position have an influence on the binding selectivity for the progesterone and glucocorticoid receptor. 17 moieties have been reported to lead to a high selectivity for the progesterone receptor are e.g. the perfloualkyl alkyl group as originally described in DE 197 06061.Different 11 substituents carrying the perfluoralkyl group in the 17 position have been reported later e.g. WO 2008058767, WO 2011005929, WO 2011009530, WO 2011009531, WO 2011009534, WO 2011098436 and WO 2011098437.Other 17 substituents with good specificity to the progesterone receptor include 17-spirofuran-3′-ylidene as described in EP 549041, 17 spirolactones as described in EP 558416 and difluro 17-spirofuran-3′yliden as described in WO 20100118025.In those patents a large variety of 11′ substituents including different heteroycles have been described, but surprisingly 11′N imidazols have not been reported, lost likely caused by the fact that such molecules need special methods for their synthesis, although the general structure has been claimed by Cook et al. In WO99/45022.It was therefore even more surprising that the described 11′N Imidazols exhibit very potent antiprogestational activity lacking any agonistic component, what make them ideal candidates for the induction of labor, postcoital fertility control, termination of pregnancy and breast cancer


Novel modified nylon-6 may be produced by using a combination of one or more dicarboxylic acids and triethylene glycol diamine and tetraethylene glycol diamine, but not a diethylene glycol diamine. A dicarboxylic acid/polyethylene glycol diamine salt may be reacted with .epsilon.-caprolactam to provide the modified nylon-6. The diamines have the formula NH.sub.2 --(CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O).sub.x --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 --NH.sub.2, where x ranges from 2 to 3. Surprisingly, the suitable diamines include triethylene glycol diamine (x=2; JEFFAMINE.RTM. EDR-148 Amine) and tetraethylene glycol diamine (x=3; JEFFAMINE.RTM. EDR-192 Amine), but not closely related bis-aminoethyl ether (x=1; BAEE). Unexpectedly, BAEE, which only differs from JEFFAMINE EDR-148 Amine by one --13 (CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 O)--group, did not give satisfactory product--the fibers were too weak. The resulting modified nylon-6 polymers of the invention, however, including fibers therefrom, have improved water absorbancy properties and greater flexibility. Polyamide products with a wide range of water adsorbancies may be obtained by adjusting the amount of amide.

It is well known that polyamides such as nylon-5, nylon-6, nylon-8, and nylon-12 have been produced by ring-opening polymerization of appropriate lactams. Nylon-6, also called polycaprolactam, was originated by I. G. Farbenindustrie in 1940. In one preparation technique, the polymerization of .epsilon.-caprolactam (also known as .epsilon.-aminocaprolactam or simply caprolactam), is carried out by adding water to open the ring and then removing water again at elevated temperature, where linear polymer forms. .epsilon.-Caprolactam may also be polymerized by ionic chain mechanisms.
Nylon-6 has properties similar to nylon-66, but has a lower crystalline melting point and is somewhat softer and less stiff. The major use for the polymer is in tire cord. Polycaprolactam accounts for about 25% of U.S. consumption of nylon.
Nylon-6 has been modified to improve its properties. See, for example, R. A. Lofquist, et al., "Hydrophilic Nylon for Improved Apparel Comfort," Textile Research Journal, June 1985, pp. 325-333 which teaches that a cotton-like moisture absorption level can be achieved by incorporating a telechelic water soluble segment, such as an amine-terminated polyethylene oxide (PEOD), into the nylon backbone, or grafting onto the nylon chain a low molecular weight poly(dimethylacryl-amide) (PDMAA). The JEFFAMINE.RTM. ED-Series amines were used as the amine-terminated polyethylene oxide glycols to produce a modified nylon-6. These amines are high molecular weight (600 to 2000) alkylene glycol diamines having the formula H.sub.2 NRNH.sub.2, where the radical R is a polyoxyalkylene chain of molecular weight of from about 200 to about 4000 having terminal carbon atoms to which nitrogen atoms are bonded. Moisture absorption was found to be greatest using the amines having the highest molecular weight.
See also European Patent 0 163 902 A1 which relates to high polymeriza-tion degree polyetheresteramides having no gelated materials and superior color tones. These polyamides are apparently quickly obtained through the polycondensing interaction carried out between (a) one or more than two polyamide forming components selected from lactams and aminocarboxylic acids as well as the salts of substantially equal quantities of diamines and dicarboxylic acid, and (b) the polyetherester forming components consisting of substantially equal quantities of dicarboxylic acids and poly(alkylene oxide) glycols, in the presence of 0.001 to 0.5 percent by weight of the mixtures composed of antimony oxides/organic tin compounds, and more preferably, in the co-presence of 0.0005 to 0.5 percent by weight of phosphoric compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,534 indicates that the hydrophilic characteristics of nylon 66 may be improved by adding a polyakylene glycol diamine to the molten polymer prior to spinning. The process involves producing polyhexamethylene adipamide where equimolar proportions of adipic acid and hexamethylene diamine are reacted together to form molten polyhexamethylene adipamide. The improvement involved introducing from about 0.3 to 3.0 weight percent of a polyalkylene glycol diamine into the molten polymer subsequent to polymer formation and prior to spinning. The polyalkylene glycol diamine has the formula: H.sub.2 N--(CH.sub.2).sub.3 --O--[R--O].sub.x --(CH.sub.2).sub.3 --NH.sub.2 where R is an alkylene hydrocarbon radical having a chain length of from 2 to about 8 carbon atoms, and x is an integer sufficiently large to confer a molecular weight of at least 1000. Note that propylene linkages are required and that the polyalkylene glycol diamine must have a molecular weight of at least 1000.
A new class of linear nitrogen-containing copolymers and especially elastic products are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,044,987. The substantially linear segmented copolymer consists of a multiplicity of intralinear segments of two classes connected by ester linkages, where the segments of the first class are the residues remaining after removal of the terminal ester-forming functional groups selected from the group consisting of hydroxyl, thiol, carboxyl, and acid halide from a difunctional polymer. The segments of the second class contain at least one repeating unit of a fiber-forming polymer, including a radical containing terminal nitrogens. The diamines suggested in this patent do not contain ether linkages.
Block copolymers of poly(oxa-amide) and polyamide are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,113,794; 4,130,602 and 4,136,133. The '794 patent discusses novel copolymers formed by melt blending a melt spinnable polyamide, such as nylon-6, and a block of random poly(dioxa-amide), such as a copolymer prepared from the mixture of caprolactam and the salt of adipic acid and 4,7-dioxadecamethylene diamine. Block copolymers formed by melt blending a melt spinnable polyamide such as nylon-6 and a poly(dioxa-amide) such as poly(4,7-dioxadecamethylene adipamide) is disclosed in the '602 patent. The '133 patent teaches block copolymers formed by melt blending a melt spinnable polyamide such as nylon-6 and a poly(oxa-amide) such as poly(4-oxaheptamethylene adipamide). As examples only, in the '133 patent, the poly(oxa-amide) groups have the formula: ##STR1## where R.sub.1, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 are hydrogen, C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 alkyls and C.sub.3 -C.sub.10 isoalkyls; R.sub.4 is selected from the group consisting of C.sub.0 -C.sub.10 alkylenes and C.sub.3 -C.sub.10 isoalkylenes, where y may range from 4 to 200. All of these materials are noted to have utility as fibers.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,044,071 and 4,045,511 describe methods for making the copolymers discussed in the previous paragraph. The '071 patent teaches a process for forming block copolymers by mixing a dry salt of a prepolyamide and a molten melt-spinnable polyamide. The mixture is heated to a temperature in the range of between the melting point of the higher melting component of the mixture to below the amide-interchange temperature of a blend of the melt-spinnable polyamide and the homopolymer which would result from the polymerization of the salt. Mixing and heating is continued until substantially all of the salt and the polyamide are converted into a block copolymer. The '511 patent teaches a similar process, but one that is lower in energy and uses a blend of dry particles of a melt-spinnable polyamide, rather than using the polyamide in the molten state.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,454 teaches a method for preparing a block copolymer of an ether-free polylactam and a polyetheramide, e.g., poly(4,7-dioxadecamethylene adipamide) involving polymerizing a lactam, e.g., caprolactam, in contact with the polyetheramide. At least one of the lactam and the polyetheramide are molten during the lactam polymerization and block copolymer formation. The materials prepared appear similar to those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. '794; '602 and '133, described above. Examples of polyetheramides mentioned in the '454 patent include poly(4,7-dioxadecamethylene adipamide), poly(4,7-dioxadecamethylene sebacamide), poly(4,9-dioxadodecamethylene adipamide), poly(4,8-dioxa-6,6-dimethylundecamethylene adipamide), poly(4,7-dioxa-2,9-dimethyldodecamethylene adipamide), poly(4,7-dioxadecamethylene-2-methylene adipamide), poly(4-oxaheptamethylene adipamide), and poly(4-oxa-2,6-dimethylmonomethylene adipamide).
Although nylon-6 has been incrementally improved as shown by the publications discussed above as examples, there remains a need for new polyamides having improved water absorbancy, but which retain the beneficial properties of the original polyamide materials, in this case, nylon-6.
Triethylene and tetraethylene glycol diamines may be continuously produced from glycols catalytically. The triethylene glycol diamine and tetraethylene glycol diamine products are known under the trade names JEFFAMINE.RTM. EDR-148 Amine and JEFFAMINE.RTM. EDR-192 Amine, respectively, as made by Texaco Chemical Co. These materials are useful as epoxy curing agents.

Nylon-6 modified with low molecular weight polyethylene glycol diamines


An apparatus and method is provided for forming shaped food products from an emulsion or batter. A stuffing tube includes a wall defining a central passage for emulsion, and a treating fluid passage positioned within the wall and radially outside of the central passage. The stuffing tube is slideably mounted coaxially within a mold tube. Emulsion and treating fluid are deposited into the mold tube during retraction of the stuffing tube from the mold tube, where the depositions occur substantially without relative motion between the emulsion and the treating fluid, or between the emulsion/treating fluid and the inside of the mold tube. A production machine incorporating an array of stuffing tubes can be indexed with a plurality of arrays of mold tubes.

The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for forming a proteinaceous emulsion or batter into shaped food products such as sausages, and more particularly to a method of stuffing and an apparatus including a stuffing tube slideably received in a mold tube.
Sausages and other formed meat products such as bologna, Vienna sausages, and the like typically are made by extruding a proteinaceous meat emulsion or batter into an artificial casing of a desired size and shape, and then cooking the batter within the casing. After cooking, the casing is peeled from the meat product and discarded. Once the casing has been removed, the shaped meat product can be cut into predetermined lengths and placed in suitable containers for distribution to consumers.
Various devices and methods for making casingless sausages have been proposed in order to form and process sausages and the like without the use of casings, which are undesirable because of added costs resulting from the requirements of providing casings and thereafter disposing of the used casings. Examples are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,056,425 and 5,118,519 to Mally. The Mally patents disclose an apparatus which ejects partially shaped products onto a conveyor assembly. According to Mally, batter is pumped into a molding tube, and a treating assembly is formed as a continuation of the molding tube. The treating assembly functions to introduce treating fluid, typically a food grade acid solution, which causes a proteinaceous skin to form about the batter. A piston or ram mechanism causes the batter with proteinaceous skin to be deposited onto a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt then continues into a cooking apparatus. Once cooked, the product is canned.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,053 to Townshend discloses a process of forming a skin on an extruded meat emulsion by applying an acid to the surface of the emulsion as the extrusion proceeds. Acid is pumped from an outside source into a conduit into which emulsion is extruded, where acid treatment, emulsion flow, and subsequent treatments all occur in a single conduit. Accordingly, while the device in Townshend can be used in a stand-alone procedure, it is not suitable for a high output production process.
U.S. Ser. No. 09/690,358 (hereinafter xe2x80x9c""358 applicationxe2x80x9d), filed on Oct. 17, 2000, and with a corresponding PCT application being published under Publication No. WO 01/30164, is directed to an apparatus and method for forming casingless sausages. The ""358 application and its PCT application are commonly owned with the present invention. The ""358 application describes a molding tube that is slideably mounted about a stuffing tube, the stuffing tube comprising concentric inner and outer tubes. Emulsion is pumped through the inner tube of the stuffing tube and forced against the closed end of the molding tube, causing the molding tube to move relative the stuffing tube. The ""358 application describes a stuffing tube with both inner and outer tubes, where the treating fluid flows in an annular passage between these tubes and is then released into the molding tube.
According to the ""358 application, the treating fluid deposition should be continuous so as to evenly coat the inside of the molding tube, thereby forming a proteinaceous skin about the surface of the emulsion. However, the ""358 application does not address controlling the relative amounts of emulsion and treating fluid which flow into the molding tube.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for forming a casingless food product of the type having telescoped stuffing and mold tubes, wherein a single stuffing tube is capable of making simultaneous depositions of emulsion and treating fluid, wherein the relative amounts of emulsion and treating fluid which flow into the mold tube are controlled and there is substantially no relative motion between the emulsion and treating fluid.
The present invention relates to an apparatus and methods for forming a proteinaceous emulsion or batter into shaped food products such as sausages without the use of a casing. In one exemplary embodiment, a supply of suitable proteinaceous emulsion is provided, and the emulsion is conveyed under pressure through an elongated hollow stuffing tube into a mold tube, where the stuffing tube is slideably mounted co-axially within the mold tube, and treating fluid is conducted through a conduit formed in the stuffing tube wall. According to one method of the present invention, the stuffing tube is fully inserted into the mold tube and then retracted as emulsion exits the stuffing tube. Preferably, the mold tube and stuffing tube move axially apart at such a rate that the emulsion substantially fills the mold tube but essentially does not slide on the walls of the mold tube.
As the emulsion exits the stuffing tube and enters the mold tube, the treating fluid forms a skin over the surface of the emulsion, such that the treating fluid evenly coats the emulsion being deposited in the mold tube. The treating fluid is directed to the interior surface of the mold tube in such a manner that the interior surface of the mold tube is continuously wetted by the treating fluid, as the mold tube moves relative to the stuffing tube. Depositions of emulsion and treating fluid occur substantially without relative motion between the emulsion and the treating fluid, or between the emulsion/treating fluid and the interior surface of the mold tube. This ensures that the entire outer surface of the molded emulsion is contacted by the treating fluid, thereby forming a coagulated proteinaceous skin on the molded emulsion and, hence, preventing the emulsion from adhering to the interior surface of the mold tube to any significant degree.
Preferred treating fluids include diluted food grade acids, including but not limited to the following: acetic acid, ascorbic acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, malic acid, hydrocholoric acid, and phosphoric acid. Any suitable acidic material having some lubricating properties and being capable of reacting with the proteinaceous skin on the molded emulsion to form a coagulated, cohesive skin surface is suitable. Both organic and inorganic acid materials can be used as the treating fluid.
Preferably there is provided a smooth, steady deposition of emulsion from the stuffing tube that is received within a thin coating of treating fluid on the mold tube surface, the emulsion deposition occurring substantially without folds, ripples, or sticking spots on the emulsion product. The present invention provides that depositions of treating fluid and emulsion occur substantially without relative motion between the treating fluid and emulsion, meaning that the emulsion does not slide on the mold tube wall to any significant degree, the mold tube remains free and clear of emulsion residue, and product having the desired surface characteristics can be easily ejected from the mold tube after subsequent thermal treatment.
After the mold tube is filled with emulsion and the stuffing tube is fully retracted, the mold tube is separated from the stuffing tube. The mold tube with molded emulsion product inside is then subjected to a heat treatment to cook the emulsion. A length of formed product (e.g. sausage) can be removed from the mold tube for further processing. The product can be formed to any desired length or shape, subject only to limitations in the type of equipment used. Times for heat treating different types of molded emulsion product are well known to those of ordinary skill in the food processing arts.
Preferably, there is an approximately constant ratio of treating fluid to emulsion in the mold tube. Typically, the amount of treating fluid is quite small compared to the amount of emulsion, and preferably the ratio thereof is set at a predetermined level. The relative axial velocities of the stuffing and mold tube can be set, i.e., a retraction rate of the stuffing tube from the mold tube can be fixed at a desired level. The volume flows of the emulsion and treating fluid must be closely regulated and synchronized with the relative axial motion between the stuffing tube and mold tube to assure that the treating fluid evenly coats the emulsion resident in the mold tube as the stuffing tube withdraws. Mechanisms and methods for determining and controlling relative velocities are well known in the art.
The time required to fill the mold tube is relatively short compared to the time for thermal treatment. Therefore, a single stuffing tube can be operated in conjunction with a much larger number of mold tubes. For example, a rotary arrangement can be provided with multiple sets of mold tubes for every one set of stuffing tubes. After a stuffing operation, the mold tubes preferably are held in heat treatment for a predetermined interval. The mold tubes and stuffing tubes can be arranged in a sequential, repetitive production process.
Based on the above-described methods, various mechanical configurations can be designed either to produce single pieces of product, such as sausage, on demand, or to produce a high rate of continuous product, e.g., by using automated equipment.
The herein described invention is directed to an apparatus for forming a casingless food product including a stuffing tube extending between an input end and a discharge end, the stuffing tube having a wall defining a central emulsion passage, a treating fluid passage positioned within the wall of the stuffing tube and radially outside of the central emulsion passage, and further including a mold tube for receiving the stuffing tube, the stuffing tube being slideable axially along the mold tube, wherein depositions of emulsion and treating fluid are made from the discharge end of the stuffing tube into the mold tube. Preferably, such depositions occur substantially without relative motion between the emulsion and the treating fluid.
A method according to the present invention is characterized by providing emulsion and treating fluid conveyed through a stuffing tube, the stuffing tube having a wall defining a central emulsion passage, and a treating fluid passage positioned within the wall and radially outside of the central emulsion passage; receiving the stuffing tube in a mold tube, the stuffing tube being slideable along the mold tube; depositing the emulsion from the central emulsion passage into the mold tube through a discharge end of the stuffing tube; and depositing the treating fluid from the treating fluid passage into the mold tube through the discharge end of the stuffing tube. Preferably the depositing steps occur substantially without relative motion between the emulsion and the treating fluid.
Additional optionally present parameters of the invention include providing a sliding seal positioned around the periphery of the stuffing tube, wherein the sliding seal can be an elastomer or a polymer. The mold tube preferably includes an output end having a valve member rotatable between an open and a closed position, wherein in the open position the valve member permits the food product to exit the mold tube, and in the closed position the valve member blocks the output end of the mold tube. Preferably the valve member forms a seal with the mold tube and is made of a polymer. The valve member also can include a valve support to counterbalance a pressure force in the mold tube, wherein the valve support can include a chamber within the valve support for receiving fluid to pressurize the valve support.
Further optional parameters of the invention include a central emulsion passage which is narrowed in a region for receiving the sliding seal. The central emulsion passage also can include a region of expanding surface area near its discharge end.
Preferably the treating fluid passage includes a conduit positioned within the wall of the stuffing tube that runs generally parallel to the central emulsion passage. The treating fluid passage also can include a circumferential groove for distributing the treating fluid through the discharge end of the stuffing tube. A guide ring can be positioned circumferentially around the stuffing tube in order to maintain a clearance between the stuffing tube and the mold tube. The guide ring can contain a plurality of grooves to distribute the treating fluid into the mold tube.
The apparatus can further include an emulsion pump for pumping emulsion from a delivery vessel to the stuffing tube, and a treating fluid pump for pumping treating fluid into the stuffing tube. A jacket can be provided to surround the mold tube for circulating hot or cold fluid. Preferably both the stuffing tube and the mold tube are made of stainless steel or a similar material of sufficient strength and wearability.
A production machine incorporating one or more of the above features can include an array of stuffing tubes and an array of mold tubes, where the mold tubes can be positioned in rows on a rotary wheel.
Further aspects of an exemplary method according to the present invention include a step of inserting the stuffing tube into the mold tube prior to depositing the emulsion and treating fluid. The stuffing tube preferably is retracted from the mold tube during the depositing steps. Accordingly, flow rates of emulsion and treating fluid are controlled, and can be provided in a fixed ratio. Further, the rate of retraction of the stuffing tube can be controlled, and can be linked in a constant ratio with the treating fluid flow rate. Additional steps of the method include heat treating the emulsion and treating fluid in the mold tube, and then opening an exit valve after heat treating to release the molded food product.
Other aspects and examples of the invention are more fully discussed below.

Apparatus and method for forming casingless sausages


The present invention provides a sliding lens cover mechanism for a projector, which enables enhancement in operability and prevention of noise, and the sliding lens cover mechanism includes: a front panel that allows the projection lens to be exposed from a part thereof; a lens cover that moves over said front panel, from fully-open state in which the projection lens is exposed and a fully-closed state in which said lens cover covers the projection lens; and a slide device unit that biases the lens cover to move to a fully-open state or to a fully-closed state or to an intermediate state, wherein the lens cover includes a pin that protrudes toward the front panel; and wherein the front panel includes a slide plate that abuts against the pin only in the fully open state or in the fully closed state.

For liquid-crystal projectors and projectors that generate image light using a DMD (digital micromirror device) and project the image light via a projection lens, lens covers that cover a projection lens are used in order to protect the projection lens when no projection is performed.
Examples of the lens covers include those having the shape of a cap, which are attached to the projection lens, and sliding-type ones in which a part of a chassis of the projector slides and covers the projection lens.
Although those that have the shape of a cap may be lost, the sliding covers will not be lost because they are integrated with the chasses of the projectors.
Examples of the sliding covers include one disclosed in Patent Literature 1 (JP2-44729U) and Patent Literature 2 (JP2008-102376A).
The one disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is a lens cover that is only manually slidable.
A lens cover that is only manually slidable, like the one in Patent Literature 1, may stop between a fully-open state and a fully-closed state, and thus, an operator needs to operate the lens cover in such a way that it is moved to the fully open state or to the fully closed state, because of lens cover may stop in the intermediate state, and such operation is troublesome.
The lens cover disclosed in Patent Literature 2 has been made in view of the problem arising in the above technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, and is provided with a biasing means for biasing a lens cover to move to a full open state or to a fully closed date.


This invention relates to a closure for sealing an opening of a container. In particular, the present invention relates to a closure (10) for sealing a mouth of a container, such as a bottle. According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a closure for sealing an opening defined by a mouth of a container, the closure comprising a body (12) adapted to overlie the mouth; and a discontinuous skirt (14) extending from the body, wherein the skirt is deformable between an open position and a closed position. The present invention also provides methods for applying the closure to a container.

The crown closure has been in existence since 1892 and is still the closure of choice for use on glass bottles, owing to its simplicity and effectiveness.
The crown closure, however, is not ideally suited to modern lightweight plastic or aluminium bottles because the bottle must be manufactured to the similar dimensions, in terms of thickness or strength, as a glass bottle to allow it to withstand the pressures and forces associated with the application of the closure, which is forced down and crimped around the top lip of the bottle. The standard screw closure has two main short comings in that the bottle must provide a tall and relatively heavy, in terms of material usage, thread form for retention of the closure, which reduces the opportunities to remove material, and hence weight, from the bottle. Particularly in the case of beer, the air volume entrapped in a screw closure, with its longer skirt length relative to a crown closure, has a detrimental effect on the keeping quality of the beer, because it is preferable to keep the levels of oxygen in contact with the product to a minimum.
Containers for fluids, in particular liquids, are commonly manufactured from aluminium, or a thermoplastic polymer resin such as polyethylene terephthalate [poly(ethylene terephthalate) or PET]. PET is often chosen in the manufacture of liquid containers, for its lightweight characteristic, high degree of impact resistance, and tensile strength. PET containers, especially bottles for liquids, are formed using two basic moulding methods, one-step or two-step.
In the two-step method, a first machine injection moulds a preform having a neck and a body. The neck of the preform has threads for applying a threaded screw cap, which threads are moulded into place in situ. The body of the preform is significantly thicker, because it is inflated into its final shape in the second step. In this step, the body of the preform is rapidly heated to high temperature, typically 95-115° C., and then stretched in the axial direction and inflated against a two-part mould to form the final shape of the bottle.
In the one-step method, the entire process from raw material to finished container is conducted within one machine, making it especially suitable for moulding non-standard shapes (custom moulding).
Bottles formed by either moulding method find utility in the food industry as containers for liquids such as carbonated drinks. The threads provided at the neck of the preform can, however, comprise a substantial weight, typically approximately 8-10% of the overall weight of the bottle.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a closure, which circumvents at least some of the shortcomings associated with the state of the art.

Closure comprising an inner section and an outer section for sealing an opening


There are provided a method and device for transmitting/receiving reverse data rate information in a mobile communication system supporting multimedia service applications including voice and data services. According to the present invention, upon receipt of information about the maximum data rate of an SCH, a mobile station determines the minimum number of bits to be assigned to the reverse data rate information according to the number of data rates less than or equal to the maximum data rate and then transmits the reverse data rate information with the minimum number of bits to a base station.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system that supports multimedia service applications including voice and data, and in particular, to a method and device for transmitting/receiving reverse data rate information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical mobile communication system, for example, a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) system based on IS-95 supports only voice service. Along with an increasing user demand for data communication and the development of mobile communication technology, the mobile communication system has been evolved to support data service. HDR (High Data Rate), for example, was proposed to support only high-rate data service.
The existing mobile communication systems have been deployed such that voice service and data service are considered separately. Due to an ever increasing demand for contemporaneous delivery of voice and data, the mobile communication technology has reached a position in which we should explore a mobile communication system capable of supporting voice and data services simultaneously. To meet this demand, a so-called 1xEV-DV (Evolution Data and Voice) system has been proposed recently.
The 1xEV-DV mobile communication system enables data transmission on both directions, forward and reverse. In this system, a mobile station transmits reverse data on an SCH (Supplemental channel) to a base station, along with information about the data rate of the SCH on an R-RICH (Reverse Rate Indicator Channel).
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional reverse data rate information transmitter. The transmitter transmits an R-RICH sequence representing the data rate of a reverse SCH from a mobile station to a base station in the 1xEV-DV mobile communication system, for example.
Referring to FIG. 1, a total of four or seven bits are assigned to an R-RICH sequence to indicate a reverse data rate. Information about the number of SCHs to be used for the mobile station and a set of data rates for each SCH is fed to a controller 101. Then, the controller 101 determines a mapping relation between R-RICH sequence values and the reverse SCH data rates. If up to two SCHs are used, two mapping relations can be set for the case of using one SCH and for the case of using two SCHs. After the mapping, the controller 101 outputs a 4-bit R-RICH sequence in the case of the one SCH, and a 7-bit R-RICH sequence in the case of two SCHs. The code rate of an encoder 102 varies depending on the number of bits assigned to the R-RICH sequence. Code rates of 4/24 and 7/24 are applied respectively to the four-bit R-RICH sequence and the seven-bit R-RICH sequence. In other words, the encoder 102 outputs 24 code symbols regardless of the number of bits of the R-RICH sequence. A sequence repeater 103 repeats the 24-code symbol sequence 15 times (i.e., 16 code symbol sequences occur). A signal point mapper 104 converts the 0s and 1s of 384 code symbols (24 code symbols×16) to +1s and −1s, respectively. A Walsh spreader 105 spreads the 384 code symbols received from the signal point mapper 104 with a predetermined Walsh code of length 64 assigned to the R-RICH. The spread signal is transmitted to the base station in a 20-ms reverse frame.
Table 1 below shows conventional mapping between data rates and R-RICH sequence values when one SCH is used for reverse data transmission. The data rates are listed in an ascending order and 4-bit R-RICH sequence values ranging from 0000 to 1000 are sequentially assigned to the data rates.
TABLE 1data rate (kbps)R-RICH sequence000009.6000119.2001038.4001176.80100153.60101307.20110614.4011110241000
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow between a mobile station and a base station in a typical call setup procedure.
Referring to FIG. 2, a call setup starts with power-on in the mobile station in step 201. The mobile station notifies a wireless network of its presence by mobile station registration and transmits signaling information to the base station in step 202. The base station determines call setup parameters needed for the mobile station to operate over the wireless network in step 203. The call setup parameters include the number of SCHs to be used for the mobile station and the maximum data rate of each SCH, which are determined considering the type and characteristics of the mobile station, the type of a service to be provided, and the condition of the wireless network. The base station transmits the call setup parameters to the mobile station in step 204. Upon receipt of the call setup parameters in step 205, the mobile station starts to transmit traffic data.
The conventional R-RICH transmitter shown in FIG. 1 considers only the number of SCHs to be used for the mobile station, excluding the maximum data rate of each SCH, in determining the number of bits to be assigned to an R-RICH sequence and the mapping relation between R-RICH sequences and data rates (or data rate combinations). For example, if one SCH is to be used for reverse data transmission, mapping between a particular data rate and an R-RICH sequence is carried out regardless of the maximum data rate of the SCH, as shown in Table 1. The maximum data rate of each SCH can be transmitted by a signaling message at a call setup as shown in FIG. 2, or it can be reset by the signaling message after a call is connected.
A drawback of the conventional R-RICH sequence bit number determining method is that a predetermined number of bits are assigned to the R-RICH sequence even if the number of available data rates is limited by the maximum data rate of each SCH. For example, if one SCH is used and its maximum data rate is 38.4 kbps in Table 1, the mobile station transmits data at or below 38.4 kbps. Therefore, the R-RICH sequence is one of 0000, 0001, 0010, and 0011. Though the four available data rates can be represented in two bits, an extra two bits are additionally assigned. This implies that the encoder 102 encodes data at a code rate 4/24 though a code rate of 2/24 is enough.

Method and device for transmitting/receiving data rate information in a mobile communication system


The present disclosure discloses a cylindrical or button battery. The battery includes a cap, a shell and a ring seal, wherein the cap and the shell are both of a tubular structure having a cover portion and are fitted together to form a hermetic space for accommodating a battery cell; the ring seal is located between a side wall of the cap and a side wall of the shell and is capable of shrinking or being torn when reaching a set temperature so as to form a slit between the side wall of the cap and the side wall of the shell to release pressure. The ring seal of the battery can shrink or be torn at the set temperature to release pressure, and therefore the battery is characterized by excellent safety.

Conventionally, a cylindrical or button battery includes a cap, a shell, and a battery cell. The cap and the shell are fitted together to form a hermetic space inside them. The cap and the shell are made of metal such as stainless steel. The battery cell is located in the hermetic space. The battery cell has a positive electrode tab connected to the cap, and a negative electrode tab connected to the shell. The cap serves as a positive electrode of the battery, while the shell serves as a negative electrode of the battery. There is provided a ring seal between the positive electrode and the negative electrode. With the ring seal, the cap and the shell are sealed, and insulated from each other.
In the case that short circuit, overcharging, overloading, or external heating occurs to the battery, a temperature inside the battery will rise, resulting in a gas pressure rise in the hermetic space. Typically in a conventional battery structure, when heated, a ring seal cannot be deformed or torn, or the ring seal expands. Therefore, the cylindrical or button battery is prone to explosion and ignition and as it is impossible to release high-pressure gas, causing a safety accident.

Guangdong Mic-Power New Energy Co., Ltd.


A series train of symmetrical dual rod-end double-action hydraulic cylinders with a cross sectional area in a series of powers of 2. The cylinders have corresponding computer controlled valves. The cylinders are switchable into three states. One state of shortcutting 2 fluid ports, another state of driving towards each opposite direction of reciprocation and the third state of idling. In the cylinder train all same polarity ports of the valve assembly are connected by hoses or pipes to align towards the same orientation to enable synchronous reciprocal motion and train power output.

As early as in 1880s, the two feuding geniuses Edison & Tesla waged a "war of currents" over which one of AC & DC electrical systems would power the world. Of course, nowadays everyone knows Tesla-advocated AC won.
In contrast, hydraulic power system is still struggling in localized applications, and only in DC form, i.e. almost all hydraulic pumps & motors work in one way direction of oil current. Thus there is no such thing of 3-phase hydraulic motor, not to mention the inexistent war of DC & AC oil current, though jealously 3-phase AC electrical motors omnipresent everywhere.
No matter electrons or oil, only AC current can be transformed from one magnitude to another one. To facilitate fluid power transmission, the concept of AC oil current must be introduced.
In a sense, a simple double-action cylinder is a good, cheap yet powerful oil-AC component, but modern industries prefer to use the extreme complicated & expensive pumps & motors, such as the type of swash plate variable displacement, in order to cope with ever-changing load conditions, because of the restrictivity of traditional oil-DC backbone.
It is possible to substitute a regular pump or motor with a regular cylinder. To get rotary motion, a regular cylinder should be combined with a special mechanism of linear-to-rotary motion, so as to rectify AC reciprocal motion to DC one way rotation. Here, cylinder rod reciprocal motion is rhetorically called as AC motion, and pump/motor unidirectional rotation as DC motion.
As a creative inventor, when to repair heavy duty machines, I sometimes tinker oil-DC to/from oil-AC system, so as to avoid of buying too expensive OEM parts, e.g. a radial piston hydraulic motor to swing excavator may cost more than $30K USD.
A cheap cylinder can easily output tens of tons thrust force, therefore same easy to get huge torque by applying the force to turn around something. The torque capacity can even be far larger than the expensive dedicated motor.
With the invention of constant high pressure hydraulic power supply system, one day, may it extend from engine-tethered application to near range or mid range distribution system, such as factory-wide, even community-wide, in partial replacement of electrical AC transmission.
Broad adaptivity does matter for efficient power system! That is why the switched-mode electric power supply replaced the linear-mode one. Nowadays a 5V output DC power supply can cheaply & widely adapt from 1.5V to 400V AC/DC input.
But there still lacks of a counterpart for those non-electric power systems. That is why once upon a time the sparkling startup company LightSailEnergy went out of business of CAES (Compressed Air Energy Storage) after 10 years harsh struggles. Sorry for my lateness to bring out this workable invention that would have saved the said company if early hello world.
Because a discharging air tank will drop pressure from 5000 psi to 0 psi, however, they have no means to harness this plummeting energy storage for stable generator output, and if the dead threshold is 4000 psi, then recharge will be too frequent even in fake "empty" status, as bad as the ideal energy density will discount 80% off, let alone the heat loss.
All energy storage systems confront same above-mentioned impasse, except the battery storage which empty voltage is just a little bit lower than full charge voltage, e.g. for lithium battery, 4.2V full voltage, and 3V empty voltage. For compressed air storage at 5000 psi, by common sense, even 100 psi is still useful and can at least power pneumatic tools.
Therefore, constant output+wide adaptivity non-electric power conversion technology is the undetourable gateway for all cleantechs.
Also vehicular powertrain loves this technology, however not as important as a gateway.
Although prior technology CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) can solve adaptivity by an extent, however its friction loss is still a demerit of lowering somewhat efficiency, and life expectation is another concern.
Just like electric powertrain, hydraulic powertrain can inherently integrate regenerative brake. Therefore, an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powered vehicle can greatly benefit from my subject inventions with economic brake energy reclaim!
Currently only pure electrical or hybrid powertrain with electrical partition have regenerative brake featured models in commercial massive production, though pure fossil powertrain is still under intense research & experiment on specific vehicles, such as municipal garbage trucks.
As to current developers on air cars, their efforts to invent better pneumatic air motor, in my humble opinion, it may be on the wrong way, because no matter how excellent the air motor, commercialization of air cars may never be possible without a wide adaptive transmission plus regenerative brake plus heat miser.
Although wind power utilization is listed at the forefront of cleantech enthusiast's or politician's Green New Deal, however none of current turbines can efficiently retard the superwide speed spectrum, but only fetch partial energy from a narrow middle bandwidth thereof, especially the waste is a regret for the long time lasting weak wind energy all year round. Indeed, proper kinetics retardation cannot be just made perfunctory, but really needs the unprecedented masterpiece works like a delicate art. I was motivated to invent something by and for such sad reality.
Dare to think bigger? Currently the uncontrolled nuclear fission-fusion tandem explosion is quite mature, even North Korea knows how to play it, but controllable model is still under long time theoretical & experimental research. Hopefully subject inventions can make whatever energy source's controllability no longer so important. Therefore, even uncontrollable, once the fed tiny fusion fuel is quickly burnt out in a few of seconds and in a confined space, as long as an engineered medium can safely store most released energy, this non-ideal but acceptable trade-off system can still automatically adapt the huge attenuation of input then maintain stable output for days even months until next nuclear ignition uncontrollable cycle. Of course, I am peace loving inventor, adamantly advocate civil nuclear power application.

Digital-switching fluidic power supply and hydrostatic transmission with regenerative brake


An optical information recording medium includes the first to the n-th information layers (where n is an integer not less than 3) arranged in this order from a laser beam incident side. Each information layer includes a recording layer containing Te, O and M, where M denotes at least one element selected from the group consisting of Al, Si, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, In, Sn, Sb, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au and Bi. Concentrations of oxygen atoms contained in the first to the n-th recording layers, namely C(1) to C(n−1), satisfy the following relationships: C(1)≧C(2)≧ . . . ≧C(n−2)≧C(n−1), and C(1)≠C(n−1). When two information layers are included, the oxygen atom concentration of the first information layer is made larger than that of the second information layer.

An optical information recording medium including a thin film formed on a transparent substrate, which enables recording/reproducing of an information signal by irradiating this thin film with a laser beam narrowed into a minute spot, is well-known. As a write-once type optical information recording medium, one including a TeOx(0<x<2) thin recording film formed on a substrate is known (See JP S50-46317A, for example), where TeOx is a mixture of Te and TeO2. This optical information recording medium allows a larger degree of reflectivity change to be attained by the irradiation with a laser beam for reproduction.
With the use of the TeOx thin recording film, initialization such as laser annealing can be eliminated, and a crystalline recording mark can be formed by irradiating the film that is in an amorphous state after the film formation with a laser beam. This is an irreversible procedure, so that correction and erasure by overwriting cannot be conducted. Therefore, a medium using this thin recording film can be used as an optical information recording medium enabling write-once only.
In the TeOx thin recording film, a certain duration of time is required until a signal becomes saturated after recording, i.e., crystallization in the thin recording film by the irradiation with a laser beam proceeds sufficiently. Therefore, the optical information recording medium using the TeOx thin recording film without any treatment is inappropriate for a recording medium required to have a quick response property, such as a data file for a computer in which data is recorded on a disk and the data is to be verified after one rotation of the disk. In order to compensate for this drawback, it has been suggested that Pd, Au or the like is added as the third element to the TeOx thin recording film (See JP S60-203490A, JP S61-68296A and JP S62-88152, for example).
Pd and Au are considered to have a function of promoting the crystal growth of Te in the TeOx thin recording film during the irradiation with a light beam. The addition of Pd or Au enables the generation of crystal grains of Te and Te—Pd alloy or Te—Au alloy at a high speed. Furthermore, since Pd and Au have good resistance to oxidation, these elements will not degrade the good moisture resistance of the TeOx thin recording film.
Meanwhile, as a basic means for increasing the amount of information that one optical information recording medium can deal with, there is a method for shortening the wavelength of a laser beam or increasing the numerical aperture of an objective lens for collecting the laser beam so as to decrease a spot size of the laser beam, thus enhancing a recording surface density. Furthermore, in order to enhance the recording density in the circumferential direction, mark edge recording has been proposed and introduced in which a length of a recording mark represents information. Moreover, in order to enhance the recording density in the radius direction, land & groove recording has been proposed and introduced, in which recording is performed with respect to both of a groove for guiding a laser beam and a land between the grooves. As a further means for increasing the amount of information, a multilayer structured optical information recording medium including a plurality of laminated information layers and a method for recording and reproducing with respect to the same also have been proposed (See JP H9-212917A, JP H10-505188A and JP 2000-36130A, for example).
In order to be ready for such high-density recording, an optical information recording medium with an improved composition of a recording material of a TeOx thin recording film containing Pd, Au or the like added thereto as a third element and an improved film thickness has been proposed for a write-once type optical information recording medium (See WO98/09823A1, for example).
An important challenge for making multilayer structured optical information recording media practical is to enhance the recording sensitivity. Optical information recording media generally adopt a general-purpose laser diode as a light source for recording/reproducing, so that the recording should be performed within a limited laser power output.
In the multilayer structure, however, recording/reproducing are performed by using a laser beam that is incident from one side to the plurality of information layers, and therefore recording is performed on an information layer located farther from a laser beam incident side with a laser beam that is attenuated during the passage through information layers located closer to the laser beam incident side. Therefore, an information layer disposed farther from the laser beam incident side is required to have a higher recording sensitivity. On the other hand, an information layer located closer to the laser beam incident side is required to have a higher transmittance.

Optical information recording medium and method for manufacturing the same


An apparatus for shielding a plurality of wafer registration surfaces 14, 30 and a wafer retention stage 26 from depreciative effects of a chemical etching process includes a pair of etching shields 32, 32' that are positioned along an outside edge of a wafer 10. The wafer 10 is registered to the wafer retention stage 26 by the registration surfaces 14, 30. The wafer retention stage 26, and hence the wafer 10, rotates about an axis 36 through the center of the wafer 10. A chemical etching instrument probe 18 is moved, with respect to the wafer 10, along a fixed wafer diameter 34 while the wafer 10 is rotating. The probe 18 is initially positioned above a first etching shield 32' and is moved, with respect to the wafer 10, across the wafer diameter 34 until it reaches a second etching shield 32. Thus, the probe 18 scans the entire surface of the wafer 10 without extending outside the wafer edge to depreciatively effect the wafer retention materials 14, 26, 30.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the deposition or removal of material to or from a workpiece, respectively, and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for shielding a workpiece holding mechanism from depreciative effects during workpiece processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In one particular application wherein the present invention is especially practical, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor wafer, or some other variety of substrate material such as gallium arsenide, germanium, fused silica, quartz, silicon carbide, or diamond, is undergoing a chemical etching process. During this process, a chemical etching instrument induces a removal of material from a surface of the SOI semiconductor wafer. The material is removed as a result of a chemical reaction that occurs between the surface material of the SOI wafer and a plasma that is generated by the chemical etching instrument. Such an instrument is described in a related patent application entitled, System for Removing Material from a Wafer, U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 7/696,897, filed on May 7, 1991. As described in this system, a chemical etching instrument probe is scanned over the surface of a wafer in a controlled pattern. While scanning the wafer surface, the probe emits a plasma that induces a material removing chemical reaction. The scanning technique that is use in this system is commonly referred to as a boustrophedon type scan, or an XY bidirectional rastor scan.
A boustrophedon type scan operates in two orthogonal directions; i.e., the X and Y coordinate planes. In the material removal system of the above related patent application, the boustrophedon type scan of the chemical etching instrument operates by scanning the probe across the surface of the wafer in a positive and a negative X-coordinate plane direction, while indexing in a positive or a negative Y-coordinate plane direction. For example, the probe may scan across the wafer surface in the positive X-coordinate plane direction, index a predetermined distance in the positive Y-coordinate plane direction, scan across the wafer surface in the negative X-coordinate plane direction, and then index a further predetermined distance in the positive Y-coordinate plane direction. This scan pattern is repeated until the entire surface of the wafer is scanned.
Although the boustrophedon type scan permits the material removal system to accomplish its basic objective of scanning the entire wafer surface, the boustrophedon method results in a depreciative etching of wafer retention materials. These wafer retention materials typically consist of a surround, upon which the wafer is placed, and several tooled registration surfaces. The surround is secured to a wafer retention stage and the tooled registration surfaces axe secured to the surround. The wafer is registered to the surround, and hence to the wafer retention stage, by the tooled registration surfaces. Furthermore, the surround and the tooled registration surfaces axe typically the same material type as the wafer to ensure a consistent chemical reaction between the surface material of the wafer and the plasma.
The depreciative etching of the surround and the tooled registration surfaces occurs when the plasma emitting probe is extended outside the edge of the wafer during the indexing steps. This depreciative etching results in damage to the wafer retention materials. Understandably, these damaged wafer retention materials must be periodically replaced resulting in an additional expenditure of capital and labor.
As described above, the use of the boustrophedon type scanning method in a chemical etching process results in depreciated material replacement problems. It is therefore desirable to use a wafer surface scan scheme that does not result in depreciated material replacement problems in a chemical etching process.

Apparatus and method for shielding a workpiece holding mechanism from depreciative effects during workpiece processing


Header for a heat exchanger and resulting heat exchanger are disclosed. The tubular header is of the type which can receive at least one connecting flange (5, 6) with an internal fluid passage (25), and is composed of: a header plate (8) with a longitudinally open wall, provided with slots intended to receive parallel fluid flow tubes; and a cover (9) which, after assembly, closes a longitudinal opening of said header plate, the wall of this cover having at least one external collar (28) delimiting a hole for the flow of fluid (27), said connecting flange (5, 6) being attached to said cover (9) and being configured in such a way that it can be crimped onto the header (3, 4), thereby bringing the internal passage (25) into fluid communication with the hole (27) in said collar. Advantageously, said collar (28) has a wall thickness (33) which is reduced relative to that of said cover (9) from which the collar extends, thereby maximizing the cross section of said hole (27) for the flow of fluid toward the internal passage (25) of said flange.

The present invention relates to a header or header box for a heat exchanger and to a heat exchanger provided with this header.
The heat exchangers in question are intended, although not exclusively, to be fitted to vehicles, and in a preferred application they form the condensers provided in the air conditioning loops or circuits of vehicles, or the radiators provided in the cooling loops or circuits of engines. However, other applications of these heat exchangers may also be envisaged without departure from the scope of the invention.
Generally, a heat exchanger for a heat loop of this type comprises a bundle of parallel tubes and two headers to which the corresponding ends of the parallel tubes are connected in a fixed and sealed way. Thus the fluid, for example the coolant used in the loop, can flow through the tubes from the upstream header, facing the compressor, toward the downstream header, facing the expander, the fluid being made to pass from the vapor phase to the liquid phase by the external forced air flow which sweeps the tubes whose surface area, increased by the addition of disrupters or dividers in the tubes and/or between the tubes, optimizes the heat exchange.
In the present case, the exchangers are of the type produced by brazing, and the headers used may be designed in two parts, being known as "two-part headers" or "two-part header boxes".
This type of header, which has a tubular overall shape, includes:
a header plate with a longitudinally open wall, provided with slots intended to receive the corresponding ends of the parallel fluid flow tubes; and
a cover which, after assembly, closes the longitudinal opening of the header plate, and which has a wall including at least one external collar delimiting a hole for the flow of fluid.
Additionally, a connecting flange is attached to the header in a known way in order to provide a connection between the header and a conduit leading to the expander or compressor of the loop concerned. In particular, the connecting flange has an inner fluid passage which is made to face the hole in the header provided for this purpose, and the flange generally surrounds the external collar of the cover. The flange is fastened by crimping, the edges of the header plate being bent onto the corresponding edges of the flange which rests on the cover. The exchanger is placed in a brazing furnace to ensure that, notably, the header plates, the header covers and flanges, and the tubes are assembled together and sealed.
Other flanges may also be fitted on these headers, such as flanges for fastening the exchanger to supporting parts of the vehicle, including, notably, other adjacent exchangers or the chassis of the vehicle.
Satisfactory results are obtained in this way, notably because of the collar which enables the flange to be positioned and brazed as a result of the provision of coating on the collar, and because of the crimping of the whole assembly, but this solution using a collar also gives rise to problems regarding the efficiency of the exchanger.
This is because the double thickness of the collar wall measured along the diameter tends to significantly reduce the available passage cross section. Consequently there is an increased pressure drop at this point.
This becomes more critical in the aforesaid case of a condenser-type exchanger in which the flange is crimped between the cover and the bent edges of the header plate of each header. Therefore, since the inside diameter of the collar, that is to say the diameter of the hole for the flow of coolant, is restricted by the width of the header (which cannot be increased, owing to unavoidable space constraints), or, in other words, is determined by the crimping width of the two edges of the plate which are bent toward one another, by the two thicknesses of the flange delimiting the passage, and by the two diametric thicknesses of the wall of the collar which extends from the cover, the cross section of the hole in the collar is limited.

Heat exchanger manifold and a heat exchanger equipped with such a manifold


A method for clarification and concentration of grape musts. Harvested and picked-up and crushed grapes are placed in a vinification vat, from which comes a must. The must then passes on to an apparatus where the solid phase and the liquid phase of the must are separated; and then the liquid phase is introduced into a flotation apparatus where it is clarified. The clarified must is then conveyed to a vat connected to a reverse osmosis concentration loop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clarification method of grape must.
2. Summary of the Invention
The method according to the invention is characterized in that it consists, in a first stage, of passing the must from a vinification vat where the harvested and crushed grapes have been placed on an apparatus where the solid phase and the liquid phase of said must are separated, then sent to a flotation apparatus from which, in a clarified state, it is introduced in a vat feeding a reverse osmosis concentration apparatus, and received by recycling the concentrated must in said last apparatus.

Clarification method for grape must, and the must thus obtained


A colored photosensitive composition is composed of a pigment composition, a binder polymer having an acidic group, a multi-functional monomer having at least two ethylenic unsaturated double bonds, and a photopolymerization initiator. The pigment composition is composed of an organic pigment, a dispersant, and an organic solvent. The dispersant is a copolymer of a polymerizable oligomer having an ethylenic unsaturated double bond in its terminal position and one or more monomers at least one of which has a nitrogen-containing group and an ethylenic unsaturated double bond.

A practically important pigment, which shows bright color tone and has high coloring power, generally is in the form of very fine particles. If the particle size is made to be much smaller so as to enhance the coloring power, however, the pigment dispersion liquid often exhibits such high viscosity that some troubles are apt to be caused in its industrial production process, that is, the dispersion liquid may hardly flow out of a dispersing apparatus, and it sometimes is impossible to transport the dispersion liquid through pipe lines. Further, the pigment dispersion liquid having such high viscosity may turn into gel in the course of storage.
A colored photosensitive composition containing the pigment is useful, for instance, as an image-forming material for producing color proofs or color filters. The pigment contained in the colored photosensitive composition is required to exhibit bright color tone and to show high coloring power.
In the process for forming a color image using the colored photosensitive composition, the composition is coated on a substrate to form a colored photosensitive layer, and then exposed through a predetermined pattern and developed. As the developer used in the developing procedure, an aqueous alkaline solution is more frequently employed than an organic solvent in consideration of environmental preservation. Hence, the unexposed photosensitive layer is required to be soluble in the aqueous alkaline solution. On the other hand, an organic solvent is advantageously used as a solvent (i.e., dispersing medium) of the coating liquid containing the colored photosensitive composition because the coating liquid in the organic solvent is easily dried. Therefore, a binder contained in the composition is generally required not only to have an acidic group but also to be soluble in an appropriate organic solvent, and in fact the conventional colored photosensitive composition comprises organic pigment particles dispersed in the binder having an acidic group.
Since the layer of a colored photosensitive composition is generally required to be very thin and to have high coloring power, the organic pigment must be very finely dispersed in the binder (which has an acidic group and further which is soluble in an organic solvent). As described hereinbefore, the colored photosensitive composition (i.e., a pigment dispersed photosensitive composition) is useful, for example, as a material for forming a color filter of a liquid crystal display unit.
The color filter comprises red, green, and blue colorants on a transparent substrate in the positions of respective pixels so that light can selectively pass through the pixels to display the desired color image. In the process for producing the filter, the colorants are placed on the substrate by various methods such as dyeing method, printing method, electrodeposition method, and pigment dispersion method. The pigment dispersion method is most preferred because the production process is reliable and it gives a color filter of high quality.
The pigment dispersion method comprises the steps of coating the transparent substrate with the colored photosensitive liquid composition containing the pigment composition to form a colored photosensitive layer; pattern-wise exposing the layer; developing in a developing solution the layer to form a pixel pattern of the first color, and then repeating those steps for each color to prepare a plural number of color image patterns each consisting of a large number of pixels. Since the colorant is a solid pigment in the form of fine particles (which is insoluble in ordinary solvents such as organic solvents) in this method, the pigment particles may scatter or absorb the applied light to lower the transparency of the filter if the particle size is large. Further, in that case, the axis of polarized light may be rotated by scattering and/or birefringence, and consequently the contrast of an image given by the liquid crystal display unit may lower (ref., "Seventh Color Optics Conference (1990)", a color filter for 10.4" size TFT-LCD display of 512 colors, Ueki, Koseki, Fukunaga and Yamanaka). Hence, the pigment particles are desired to be dispersed finely and uniformly enough and it is requried for the particle size to be appropriately small.
In order to make the pigment particles well dispersed and to give good fluidity to the pigment dispersion liquid, various kinds of dispersants are developed. Generally used dispersants can be roughly classified into two types, namely, a polymer type and a low molecular weight type. Examples of the polymer type dispersants include polyacrylate, sodium maleate-olefin copolymer, polyester having carboxyl terminal (Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-34009), a polyester having an acidic group and/or basic group derived from tetrakis (2-hydroxy-alkyl)ethylenediamine (Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H2-245231), and a copolymer derived from the following four kinds of monomer, namely, a macromonomer (i.e., an oligomer having an ethylenic unsaturated group in its terminal position), a monomer having a hydroxyl group, a monomer having a carboxyl group and other monomer (Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H8-259876). Examples of the low molecular weight type dispersants include a sorbitan fatty acid ester, a poly-oxyethylenealkylamine, an alkyldiamine and an alkanol amine derivative (U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,510).
The copolymer derived from a macromonomer and others is said to be useful for preparing a colored photosensitive composition for color filter or color proof. Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. H8-259876 discloses that the above-mentioned copolymer (which is derived from a macromonomer and others) makes the pigment particle size small enough and improves dispersing stability.
The present inventors have examined known colored photosensitive compositions and found that there are the following problems in the known compositions. In the case that organic pigment particles are dispersed in the binder which has an acidic group and is soluble in an organic solvent, the dispersion liquid is apt to show a high viscosity because of certain intermolecular interaction between the acidic group and the organic pigment particle. The viscous dispersion liquid is not preferred in consideration of dispersion of the pigment particles although the dispersion stability is enhanced, and hence more appropriate dispersant is needed so as to control the viscosity and to promote good dispersion of the particles. Among the above-described known lower molecular weight type dispersants, amine compounds are found to be relatively effective to promote the dispersion. However, since the amine compound easily reacts with the acidic group of the binder to form a salt, it sometimes causes some troubles in the developing procedure (for example, the photosensitive resin layer may turns to show less solubility in an aqueous alkaline developing solution). Further, it has been found that the known water-soluble dispersants and various alkaline dispersants have the same problem as the above-mentioned amine compound.

Pigment composition and colored photosensitive composition


An exhaust emission control device with a particulate filter and a selective reduction catalyst (exhaust purification catalyst) incorporated in an exhaust pipe such that the former and the latter are arranged on downstream and upstream sides, respectively, has a burner for generating high-temperature exhaust gas by combustion, an exhaust distribution pipe capable of guiding the exhaust gas from the burner to entry sides of the filter and the catalyst, respectively, and valves as a path switcher in the pipe for selectively sorting the exhaust gas from the burner any one of the entry sides of the filter and the catalyst.

Conventionally, some diesel engines have selective reduction catalyst incorporated in an exhaust pipe for flow of exhaust gas, the selective reduction catalyst having a property of selectively reacting NOx with a reducing agent even in the presence of oxygen. A required amount of reducing agent is added upstream of the reduction catalyst and is reacted on the catalyst with NOx (nitrogen oxides) in the exhaust gas to thereby reduce a concentration of the discharged NOx.
In a field of industrial plant or the like with flue-gas denitration, it has been well known that ammonia (NH3) is effectively used as reducing agent to reduce and depurate NOx. However, for automobiles, safety in carrying ammonia itself during travel is difficult to ensure, so that in recent years, use of nontoxic urea water as reducing agent has been in practical use. More specifically, if the urea water is added to the exhaust gas upstream of the selective reduction catalyst, the urea water is thermally decomposed in the exhaust gas into ammonia and carbon dioxide gas, and NOx in the exhaust gas is satisfactorily reduced and depurated by ammonia on the catalyst.
On the other hand, for exhaust emission control of a diesel engine, it is insufficient to remove only NOx in the exhaust gas; particulates (particulate matters) in the exhaust gas must be captured through a particulate filter. However, the exhaust gas from the diesel engine in a normal operation state rarely has a chance to obtain a temperature level at which the particulates combust by themselves; an oxidation catalyst having active species such as Pt and Pd is integrally carried by the particulate filter. Specifically, employment of such particulate filter carrying the oxidation catalyst facilitates an oxidation reaction of the captured particulates to lower an ignition temperature, so that the particulates can be removed by combustion even at an exhaust gas temperature lower than ever before.
However, even if such particulate filter is employed, an amount of captured particulates will exceed an amount of treated particulates in operation areas with low exhaust temperature levels. Continued operation with such low exhaust temperature levels may hinder satisfactory regeneration of the particulate filter, resulting in excessive accumulation of the captured particulates in the particulate filter.
Thus, it has been conceived to additionally arrange a flow-through type oxidation catalyst in front of the particulate filter; with accumulation of the particulates becoming increased, fuel is added to the exhaust gas upstream of the oxidation catalyst to forcibly regenerate the particulate filter.
Specifically, the fuel (HC) added upstream of the particulate filter undergoes the oxidation reaction during its passage through the frontward oxidation catalyst. The exhaust gas heated by heat of the reaction and flowing into the particulate filter just behind increases a catalyst bed temperature of the particulate filter to burn off the particulates, thereby regenerating the particulate filter.
However, in a vehicle such as a city shuttle-bus with travel pattern of traveling on congested roads for a long time, the frontward oxidation catalyst hardly has an elevated catalyst bed temperature enough for sufficient catalytic activity and thus an activated oxidation reaction of the added fuel in the oxidation catalyst, failing in effective regeneration of the particulate filter within a short time.
Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, it has been studied to arrange a burner 2 on an entry side of a particulate filter 1 incorporated in an exhaust pipe 10 and burn off captured particulates by combustion with the burner 2 regardless of an operating state of a vehicle, thereby efficiently regenerating the particulate filter 1 within a short time.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the burner 2 includes a fuel injection nozzle 3 for injection of a proper amount of fuel from a fuel tank (not shown) and an ignition plug 4 for ignition of the fuel injected through an injection port of the nozzle. Connected to the burner 2 is a combustion air supply pipe 5 branched downstream from a compressor (not shown) of a turbocharger such that a part of the intake air is guided as combustion air.
Further, arranged downstream of the particulate filter 1 is a selective reduction catalyst 6 with a property capable of selectively reacting NOx with ammonia even in the presence of oxygen. Arranged on an entry side of the selective reduction catalyst 6 is an urea water injector 8 so as to add urea water from an urea water tank (not shown) into an exhaust gas 7. Arranged between an added position of the urea water by the injector 8 and the selective reduction catalyst 6 is a gas mixer 9 so as to facilitate mixing of the urea water with the exhaust gas 7.
In the example illustrated, further arranged between the added position of the urea water by the injector 8 and the particulate filter 1 is an oxidation catalyst 11 which facilitates oxidation reaction of NO in the exhaust gas 7 into NO2. Arranged just behind the selective reduction catalyst 6 is an oxidation catalyst 12 for oxidation reaction of excessive ammonia.
There exist the following Patent Literatures 1 and 2 as prior art document information relating to this kind of technique on exhaust purification catalyst or on heating of exhaust gas by use of a burner.


A printing apparatus includes: a support section having heat transfer properties, the support section having a surface which serves as a support surface that can support a continuous sheet; a transporting section that transports the continuous sheet onto the support surface; and a print section that is disposed to face the support surface and performs printing onto the continuous sheet on the support surface. A plurality of suction holes are provided on the support section, at least one rib is provided to protrude at a position that does not interfere with the suction hole on a back surface of the support section, and a heat generator is provided on the rib.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as an ink jet printer that performs printing on a medium, for example, by ejecting liquid onto the medium transported on a support table which supports the medium.
2. Related Art
As disclosed in JP-A-2015-74090, this type of printing apparatuses are known to have a heat generator provided on the back surface of a medium support section having a surface which serves as a support surface that supports a medium in a support table so as to dry the liquid attached on the medium which is supported on the support surface. Further, in such printing apparatuses, a plurality of suction holes are formed penetrating both surfaces of the medium support section in the support table, and a fan is provided on the back surface of the medium support section so as to suction air via the suction holes to thereby suction the medium onto the support surface. Accordingly, the printing apparatus can perform printing on the medium while preventing the medium from being lifted from the support surface.
In the printing apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2015-74090, the plurality of suction holes are formed to penetrate the medium support section having a surface which serves as the support surface for the medium. This decreases an area on which the heat generator can be mounted on the back surface of the medium support section. Accordingly, when the medium which is supported on the support surface is heated by the heat generator mounted on the back surface of the medium support section, it is difficult to obtain a heating value of the heat generator that is required to increase the temperature to dry the ink attached on the medium. In this regard, there is a need for improvement.