A water supply apparatus is arranged inside a house body and includes a watering apparatus that performs watering to a cluster of plants from above. The watering apparatus supplies water to the plants and controls an ambient temperature of the plants due to heat transfer utilizing vaporization heat by watering. A control apparatus acquires an environment information including the ambient temperature of the plants from an environment sensor, and performs the watering by driving the water supply apparatus in a watering period determined according to the environment information, and prohibits the watering by the water supply apparatus in an idle period that is set after the watering period so as to obtain a temperature and a humidity appropriate for growth of the plants.

Heretofore, greenhouses referred to as vinyl houses or pipe houses have been used so as to enable the growth environment for plants to be controlled when growing plants. This type of agricultural house is used for the purpose of forming a growth environment appropriate for plants by enabling the plant growth environment such as temperature, humidity, light intensity, and the like to be managed while incorporating an external environment by enabling sunlight to enter.
Although, with this type of agricultural house, it has been conceived to have a pipe line for passing a heating medium such as warm water or cold water installed inside the agricultural house in order to manage the temperature of the internal space, there is a problem in that cost increases since a facility for controlling the temperature is required in addition to facilities for watering and ventilation.
On the other hand, in view of the fact that the agricultural house is configured by a frame, which is a structural material, and a covering material to cover the frame, a configuration has been proposed in which an outside surface of the covering material is a hydrophilic-treated surface, and water is made to flow down the outside surface (refer to JP 2007-300836A (hereinafter referred to as "Document 1"), for example). It is described in Document 1 that an effect of suppressing temperature increase inside the agricultural house during the daytime and suppressing temperature decrease during the night can be obtained by causing water to flow on the outer surface of the covering material.
The technique described in Document 1 can conceivably be implemented with a low facility cost compared with a configuration in which a pipe line is provided for passing warm water or cold water only for adjusting an internal temperature of the agricultural house. However, since a watering apparatus for causing water to flow down the outside surface of the agricultural house is required, a facility other than facilities for watering plants and for ventilating the agricultural house is still required. Moreover, the water that flows down the outside surface of the agricultural house is required separately from the water for watering plants, and thus there is a problem in using water only for temperature adjustment in that running costs increase even though a water amount used for this purpose is relatively small.
In particular, since the market price of delicate vegetables such as spinach, komatsuna, and mizuna is relatively low, it could become unprofitable if facility costs or running costs increase. Therefore, it is desired to suppress facility costs and running costs while enabling the growth environment for plants to be controlled.
If temperature control for plants becomes possible at a low cost, plants that are mainly cultivated in the winter could be cultivated in the summer, and plants that are mainly cultivated in the summer could be cultivated in the winter. As a result, it can be expected that the earning rate will improve by increasing the turnover rate of plant cultivation, and that high selling prices will be obtained by shipping in periods of short supply.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


Resin can be hydrolyzed enzymatically during the peroxy bleaching (e.g. with hydrogen peroxide) commonly used in pulp manufacture and the use of lipase in the manufacture of CTMP-fluff will afford several significant advantages, such as a pronounced reduction in fats, low time-consumption, since the process can be carried out in less than one calendar day, no losses in brightness or yield, or only marginal brightness and yield losses, and low handling costs. The enzyme treatment during bleaching necessitates little or no change of commonly used bleaching conditions. As a further advantage, the peroxy bleaching is mostly made at alkaline pH, whereby the liberated fatty acids remain ionized and can thus easily be removed from the pulp during subsequent washing.

It is known that some types of cellulose pulp made from wood have a high resin content, e.g. various types of mechanical pulp and pulp made by a sulphite process.
Mechanical pulping, alone or combined with a gentle chemical treatment, is widely used in the manufacture of pulps. Thus, chemithermomechanical pulps (CTMP) are produced by refining chemically pre-treated chips with yields of 85-95%. This chemical pre-treatment normally comprises impregnating the chips with an alkaline sulphite solution. The chips, thus impregnated with chemicals, are heated to temperatures above 100.degree. C. and thereafter refined under pressure. The pulp is then normally screened and bleached. Bleaching is most often effected with hydrogen peroxide in an alkaline environment. One use for CTMP is found in the manufacture of sanitary articles, such as disposable diapers and similar absorption products. The processes used for producing mechanical pulp (such as CTMP) occur at pH in the range 4-9, and the components of the wood undergo relatively small chemical changes; the pulp therefore has a considerable content of resin.
The resin can create disturbances in the process of pulp manufacture and may also have a negative effect on the properties of the final pulp product. The ability of fluff-pulp to absorb aqueous liquids is of particular importance. The rate at which absorption takes place is also of particular significance. Since fat has a water-repelling nature, a high fat content will have a negative effect on the absorption rate. Further, agglomerated resin may cause paper breakage during paper manufacture or during printing.
Resin of wood material is soluble in organic solvents and, to a large extent, is comprised of hydrophobic components. It is known that the hydrophobic part of resin contains considerable amounts of triglycerides, more commonly known as fats, and other esters. The triglycerides play a large part in rendering the resin hydrophobic, therewith making it less possible to wash the resin from the pulp. It would be desirable to hydrolyse these as the hydrolysis products are more easily removed in aqueous systems.
Triglyceride hydrolysis can be achieved by treating the wood with a strongly alkaline liquid, similar to what takes place during sulphate cooking. Such alkaline conditions cannot be permitted in the manufacture of CTMP-pulp, however, because of discoloration, reduction in yield, etc. CTMP pulp therefore has a considerable content of triglycerides and esters from resin. It would be beneficial to find a catalyst other than alkali for the triglyceride hydrolysis process.
A low fat content can be obtained to some extent, by storing chips or roundwood. Thus, GB 1,189,604 and U.S. Pat. No 3,486,969 disclose a process for removing resin constituents from wood chips by applying microorganisms to wood chips during storage. This process, however, takes a relatively long time to carry out (at least one month) and is difficult to control, as temperature, residence time, microbial flora etc. may fluctuate. Furthermore, the storage of chips results in discoloration (darkening), and the microorganisms may secrete cellulase and hemicellulase that decreases fibre strength and yield.
The hydrolysis of wood-fat (triglycerides) during storage has been ascribed to fat-hydrolysing enzymes, i.e. lipases. (Anders Assarsson: "Hartsets forandring under vedlagring", Svensk Papperstidning published -72, pages 304-311).
It is an object of the invention to provide a controllable process for hydrolysing resin in pulp to form free acids which can be readily washed from the pulp. It is also an object to provide fluff-pulp having improved liquid absorbency, produced by such a process.

Hydrolysis of resin in pulp with an enzyme and a peroxide


A device that prevents wrapping of long strands of fibrous material around an exposed rotating shaft has a stationary flange fixed to the chassis or bearing housing for the shaft and a rotating flange fixed to the shaft. The flanges are positioned to pass one another during each revolution of the shaft. When the flanges are nearest to one another, a loop of vegetation forms tightly around the flanges. Continued rotation of the shaft then stretches and tears the loop apart. This loop forming and tearing is repeated for each revolution of the shaft to effectively prevent fibrous material from wrapping around the shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device that prevents long strands of vegetation and fibrous material, including grass, from wrapping around an exposed rotating shaft of a machine. In particular, the device is useful for preventing the shaft of a cutting head or bailing roll from being wrapped with fibrous material during use.
2. Background of the Invention
Cutters and other machines having rotating shafts, such as bailers, frequently experience wrapping problems wherein the grass, vegetation or other fibrous matter being worked on wraps around the rotating shaft. If a sufficient amount of wrapping occurs, it impedes rotation of the shaft, and causes an additional strain to be placed on the engine and shaft bearings. The wrapping problem is particularly prevalent when a rotating shaft is exposed to long vegetation, such as field brush, vines, grass and hay, for example.
Conventional lawn mowers having steel blades do not encounter a wrapping problem when the grass being cut is relatively short. Lawn mowers are able to cut the grass strands more than just once and expel the clippings from the housing with a strong blowing force created by the rotation of the blades. This cutting action, which produces short pieces of grass in combination with the blowing of the clippings out of the housing prevents most of the grass from wrapping around the shaft. When steel blade mowers are used to cut tall grass, however, a wrapping problem can be experienced. One method for coping with this problem is to provide a shaft having primary and secondary cutting elements. The primary cutting elements are typically steel blades such as those found on a conventional lawn mower and the secondary cutting elements are typically short steel blades positioned vertically above the primary blades for cutting any clippings that reach the shaft above the primary cutting blade. Once all of the vegetation is cut to a sufficiently short length, it cannot wrap around the shaft.
The wrapping problem in general, has been recognized, and several attempts have been made to avoid the problem. One such attempt is to prevent the rotating shaft of a machine part from being exposed to the material being cut, bailed or transported, etc. To accomplish this, a shroud or seal is provided between the rotating shaft and the bearing housing. This is intended to prevent the shaft from being exposed. Despite such attempts, however, the best function that a shroud can perform is to minimize the exposure of the area of the shaft that is in contact with the stationary bearing housing. Thus, even when a shroud is used to prevent wrapping, long strands of fibrous material are built up on the stationary part so that eventually other strands are able to become wrapped around the rotating shaft by working around the shroud.
Another problem with using shrouds results from a fibrous material pulverizing action that takes place between the rotating and stationary parts of the shroud arrangement. This occurs because even with the most elaborate shroud design, there is some exposure to the fibrous material being cut, bailed, transported, etc. As this fibrous material is pulverized, the pieces can work their way into the bearing housing and cause overheating of the bearings. Thus, although the shroud may be effective to prevent a conventional wrapping problem, the bearings are not protected from the secondary effects caused by the minimal amount of wrapping that still manages to take place. Accordingly, the bearings eventually need to be replaced in any event.
The wrapping problem addressed by the present invention exists with all types of machines that work in an environment where there is exposure to long strands of fibrous material, such as grasses, vines and brush. The problem is present with mowers, trimmers, bush hogs and even harvesters and bailers since each of these machines has a rotating shaft that comes into contact with long strands of fibrous material during their operation. The wrapping problem is not dependent on the orientation of the axis of the shaft. The shaft axis can extend vertically, horizontally or in any direction therebetween, and the wrapping problem still exists if the environment in which the machine is working is exposed to long strands of fibrous material.


An electronic control unit includes: a wiring substrate having a first surface on which a conductor wire is formed; a first electronic component that is implemented on the first surface of the wiring substrate, and has a large heat generation amount; a second electronic component that is implemented on the first surface of the wiring substrate, and has a heat generation amount smaller than the first electronic component; and a resin that covers the first electronic component, the second electronic component, and the first surface of the wiring substrate, and a second surface of the wiring substrate that is opposite to the first surface. A distance between an outer surface of the resin immediately below the first electronic component, and the second surface of the wiring substrate is longer than a distance between an outer surface of the resin immediately above the second electronic component, and the first surface of the wiring substrate.

In recent years, for improvement of fuel efficiency, and highly precise control of automobiles, and construction machines, integration of mechanical components and electronic components that are directly mounted on actuators such as engines is demanded about electronic control units. Because the mounting location of an electronic control unit is limited in the case of mechanical/electric integration, size reduction becomes necessary, and along with size reduction, heat generation density of the electronic components increase, giving rise to necessity for high heat dissipation.
As electronic control units that can be applied to such uses, there is a known structure in which electronic components are implemented on a wiring substrate having a plurality of wiring layers and through-holes, and are supported by a metallic base, and the metallic base and the wiring substrate are sealed in by a thermosetting resin. It is described that, in this structure, the insides of the through-holes are also filled with the resin, the durability of the through-holes against heat stress improves thereby, and it is possible to attempt to increase the lifetime (see Patent Literature 1, for example).


The memory control unit includes a descriptor fetch block suitable for fetching a descriptor from a volatile memory; an instruction fetch block suitable for fetching an instruction set from an instruction memory through an address information, wherein the instruction fetch block obtains the address information from the instruction memory through an index information included in the fetched descriptor; and a memory instruction generation block suitable for generating a memory instruction by combining a descriptor parameter value included in the fetched descriptor to the fetched instruction set.

1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a data storage apparatus, and more particularly, to a memory control unit capable of efficiently generating a control signal to be provided to a memory device and a data storage apparatus including the same.
2. Related Art
In recent years, the paradigm for the computing environment has switched to ubiquitous computing, where semiconductor devices are being used anytime and anywhere. Thus, the use of portable electronic apparatuses such as portable phones, digital cameras, and laptop computers has increased rapidly. Portable electronic apparatuses generally employ data storage apparatuses using memory devices. The data storage apparatuses are used to store data for the portable electronic apparatuses.
The data storage apparatuses using the memory devices have no moving parts and are stable, robust, have fast information access rates, and lower power consumption. Data storage apparatuses having such advantages include universal serial bus (USB) memory devices, memory cards having various interfaces, universal flash storage (UFS) devices, and solid state drives (SSD).

Memory control unit for controlling semiconductor memory device and data storage apparatus including the same


A reclosable lid for use with an open-top container is disclosed. The reclosable container lid comprises a cover including an annular top wall having a channel integrally formed therein. A drinking spout in the top wall is adapted to dispense the contents of the container. The reclosable lid uses a slide lock closure feature that prevents spillage during transportation of the open-top container and easy access for opening and drinking. The slide lock closure is configured to engage with the channel to slide longitudinally along the channel between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the slide lock closure opens the drinking spout and in the second position, the slide lock closure closes the drinking spout to inhibit dispensing the contents of the container.

Containers lids for beverages and other substances intended for consumer products are well known. The container lids include a drinking spout that is adapted to permit the flow of the container contents through the drinking spout. Generally, such container lids are formed from a fusible plastic sheet material, and are designed to snap-fit over the top of the containers (i.e., cups) to keep the liquid contents from spilling during transport.
Existing container lid designs suffer from a number of problems including untimely spillage through the drinking spout due to the lack of a reliable means for sealing the drinking spout. The inability to effectively seal the drinking spout can also result in a significant loss of heat from the container contents through the drinking spout. To address these and other problems, a number of lid designs include a movable cover portion for the opening. However, most existing movable covers lack structural integrity and as a result, do not effectively seal the opening. Also, a number of movable covers are difficult to operate due to their complex design. In addition, a vast majority of movable covers interfere with a user consuming the container contents through the opening.
Therefore, there is a need for a reclosable container lid that reliably seals the drinking spout. In addition, there is a need for such a lid that is efficiently nestable for shipment in sleeves to wholesale customer, to maintain a raised lip for comfortable drinking, and to permit stacking of filled cups by a user.


Carbon monoxide is produced in a fast quench reactor. The production of carbon monoxide includes injecting carbon dioxide and some air into a reactor chamber having a high temperature at its inlet and a rapidly expanding a reactant stream, such as a restrictive convergent-divergent nozzle at its outlet end. Carbon dioxide and other reactants such as methane and other low molecular weight hydrocarbons are injected into the reactor chamber. Other gas may be added at different stages in the process to form a desired end product and prevent back reactions. The resulting heated gaseous stream is then rapidly cooled by expansion of the gaseous stream.

Carbon dioxide is a generally inert gas that is produced in abundance by combustion processes. Whether it is slash and burn deforesting that occurs in developing countries or it is the numerous combustion processes of industrialized nations, carbon dioxide is constantly being produced. Carbon dioxide is also often found in natural gas. As a natural gas component, carbon dioxide is a contaminant that lowers the burn efficiency of the natural gas. Natural gases that are being extracted from the North Slopes of Alaska may contain up to 20% carbon dioxide or more. At any amount, carbon dioxide acts as a contaminant for specific volume energy output. Additionally, in petroleum refining operations, natural gas is often flared and carbon dioxide is present in abundance in the combustion products.
If carbon dioxide could be used more efficiently, it could be converted to valuable feed stocks such as carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is also considered one of the primary culprits in global warming theory. As such, if carbon monoxide emissions were reduced in all processes where it is a product, the global warming rate would be affected.
Carbon monoxide is a valuable intermediate for many industries. The prior technology for production of carbon monoxide involved steam and/or catalytic reforming of natural gas to form the products of carbon monoxide and diatomic hydrogen.
It would be an improvement in the art to utilize the abundant carbon dioxide, that is produced by the large number of operations around the globe, to generate the valuable intermediate of carbon monoxide.

Thermal device and method for production of carbon monoxide and hydrogen by thermal dissociation of hydrocarbon gases


A combined blousing, stripping and sealing operation is disclosed for providing increased speed and efficiency to a form, fill and seal packaging system. An AC/DC brushless servo motor is utilized for driving the stripping/sealing carriage, as well as operating the sealing jaws to form the bags from a continuous film tube. Each servo motor drives a crank that is coupled for oscillating movement in response to a programmable index controller. Drive linkage connects the crank to the carriage/sealing jaws. The blousing function is provided by a pair of plates on the top of the sealing jaws. On the return movement of the carriage, the plates contact the bottom of the bag next in line to bulge the sides for receipt of the product. The programmable index controller provides a signal to the carriage/sealing jaws in dependence on an external signal indicative of the selected bag size being packaged.

The present invention relates to the field of form, fill and seal packaging systems, and more particularly, to an improved product stripper/bag sealing operation and/or bag blousing operation that may be used in conjunction therewith, and all of which may be computer controlled for forming different size bags for maximum packaging speed.
Machines and related methods for forming, filling and sealing of packages made from a continuous film are widely used to package a variety of loose products, such as snack foods, frozen foods and the like. These machines typically comprise a supply of packaging film in the form of a web, a former for converting the web of film into a continuous hollow tube and reciprocating jaws for stripping, sealing and cutting the tube into a consecutive series of filled packages, sometimes referred to as pillow-shaped bags. One of the most successful approaches for stripping/sealing calls for mounting of the reciprocating stripping/sealing jaws on a carriage that is driven for movement in the direction of the bag forming.
The sealing jaws in this typical packaging machine/method are brought together in two steps. The first step closes the jaws just sufficiently to bring the stripper plates, which are mounted below the sealing jaws, into engagement to flatten the package film tube. The stripper plates are moved in the longitudinal direction along the tube and relative to the film in order to strip any product from the zone of the tube to be subsequently sealed. The second step completes the closing of the bag by bringing the sealing jaws together to form the seal and to cut the leading bag from the tube.
After each bag is formed, the jaws are typically moved away from the film tube and in the reverse feed direction back to the home position in readiness for producing the next bag from the continuous film tube.
One of the primary areas of recent development in packaging for today's snack food industry is machine enhancement for increased speed of operation of this type of form, fill and seal packaging system. With the increased speed, there is also a demand among users for the machine to be even more efficient in terms of energy use and machine reliability. In response to these demands, new systems for improved feeding of the packaging film by the use of computer controlled stepper motors has been developed, as set forth in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,707, issued Mar. 1, 1988, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. The feeding of the film is maximized in terms of speed and efficiency and can be controlled in order to adapt the machine for an infinite variety of bag sizes. The film feed is maximized further in terms of speed and efficiency by constantly accelerating the film over the first half of the driving time and constantly decelerating the film over the remaining half. These features, along with others, provide a substantial amount of the increase in the efficiency and speed of the operation and, indeed, have been effective in obtaining substantial acceptance among the industry. The endless belt/stepper motor film drive is employed as the preferred approach in the present invention also.
In order to obtain even greater film feeding efficiency and speed, the next step turned out to be controlling the in and out movement of the stripper and sealing jaw apparatus on the machine. There has now been a successful approach for increasing the machine speed by limiting this movement to just the amount needed for a particular bag size. By use of a preferred servo motor and programmable index controller circuit, the packaging machine can be programmed to operate at the increased speed and efficiency over a broad range of bag sizes. In essence, the stripper/sealing jaws move with respect to the film tube only in the amount necessary to perform their operation on that particular bag and, thus, eliminate all unnecessary movement. This, in effect, compresses the time cycle for packaging. Furthermore, this has been accomplished for a new minimum cost of manufacturing while assuring the lowest energy cost and greatest reliability. This apparatus/method is disclosed and claimed in prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,808, issued June 21, 1988.
Many in the industry feel that with the development of the improved packaging operation brought about by the two foregoing advances in the art that the optimum operation speed and efficiency has finally been attained. However, I have recently discovered that additional advances are possible in the area of stripping/sealing of the bag as it is formed. More specifically, the improvement is possible in the area of controlled driving of the movable carriage which performs the stripping and sealing operation. Furthermore, my discovery has included using the movable carriage for assisting the bag filling function which has heretofore not been considered or discovered.

Combined blousing, stripping and sealing for bag forming and method


A plurality of image parts, each having a different gloss level, are formed on the same recording material by electrophotographic technology. The plurality of gloss levels are visually recognized due to the plurality of image parts. The image forming method includes: developing electrostatic latent images on respective image carriers using a high softening point clear toner and a low softening point clear toner, to form a toner image by the high softening point clear toner and a toner image by the low softening point clear toner; transferring the toner images onto a recording material; and heat-fixing the toner image for low gloss and the toner image for high gloss transferred and formed onto the recording material, wherein a softening point Tm(a) of the high softening point clear toner and a softening point Tm(b) of the low softening point clear toner satisfy Tm(a)−Tm(b)>6° C.

A system to which electrophotographic technology is adopted has conventionally been used in a copying machine, a printer, a multifunction printer, a production printer and the like. In recent years, it is sometimes required to form various value-added images, for example, a see-through design image (watermark) using a clear toner.
By forming a plurality of image parts each having a different gloss level, a watermark can be recognized based on a difference in gloss level, not in color tone, among the plurality of image parts.
Also, in an image forming method in which a color toner is used, an image containing a photograph image part and a letter image part, for example, is formed by increasing the gloss level of the photograph image part and relatively decreasing the gloss level of the descriptive text (the letter image part). Accordingly, the photograph image part is vividly seen, while the descriptive text is easy to read. In this manner, it is sometimes required to form a plurality of image parts each having a different gloss level on the same image.
As a formation process of an image having varied gloss levels, there are known a process of, in case of using two or more types of toners, varying a laminating order or a toner attachment amount of toner images (see Patent Literature 1), a process of heat-fixing toners each having a varied melt viscosity (see Patent Literature 2) and the like.
However, in the above Patent Literature 1, the gloss level can be varied within some range from a certain predetermined gloss level, but the range of a gloss level that can be varied is up to 5 or so at 20° gloss. This range is not necessarily sufficient to form a gloss level difference among the image parts on the same image for exerting design features. Also, the above Patent Literature 2 discloses an image forming method of using two types of clear toners, which are a clear toner capable of forming a high gloss level image and a clear toner capable of forming a low gloss level image. In this case, one of the clear toners is selected in an alternative manner in order to simply form either the high gloss level image or the low gloss level image. Thus, there has been a problem that a plurality of image parts each having a different gloss level cannot be formed on the same image.
Also, there has been a problem that process conditions associated with image formation become complicated in both processes when attempting to realize the image forming method described above using the method disclosed in Patent Literature 1 or 2.


A fuel injection system is disclosed which incorporates a plurality of bowl or shroud members extending upstream of an end wall of the combustion chamber between the end wall and an air swirler in which the shroud member has an end joined with the end wall of the combustion chamber having a substantially elongated elliptical cross-sectional configuration. The end wall of the combustion chamber defines an elliptical shaped opening corresponding to the shape of the end of the shroud or bowl member to enable the fuel/air mixture to be atomized as it enters the combustion chamber. The bowl or shroud member may also define a plurality of openings to enable additional air to be mixed with atomized fuel cone.

The present invention relates to an aerodynamic fuel injection system for an annular combustion chamber of a gas turbine engine, the system having at least one injection head with a plurality of air and fuel injectors circumferentially arrayed at the end of the combustion chamber.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,159 and 4,045,956, as well as U.K. Patent 2028488 disclose combustion chambers wherein the fuel injectors are circumferentially arrayed around the end of annular combustion chamber and are alternately spaced with air inlets. The alternating array of injectors and air intake apertures results in a circumferentially heterogeneous local richness of the fuel/air mixture in the primary zone of the combustion chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,611 represents the state-of-the-art of such fuel injection systems and discloses an injection system wherein each of the fuel and air injection sets comprises a fuel injector, an air swirler located around the fuel injector to allow the fuel atomizing air to pass therethrough and a bowl-shaped unit which flares outwardly in a downstream direction from the swirler to the end of the combustion chamber and which defines a row of holes to allow air to mix with the atomized fuel cone. The bowls are arrayed circumferentially around the end of the combustion chamber and are spaced a set distance from each other. Since the bowls are circular in cross section, the number of injectors in the combustion chamber will be high.

Aerodynamic fuel injection system for a gas turbine combustion chamber

Societe Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de Motors d'Aviation


A system is provided for the coordination of at least one switchable vehicle function of a motor vehicle, at least one battery charge condition threshold value of the energy accumulator unit being assigned to the at least one vehicle function such that, when there is an exceeding of or falling below the battery charge condition threshold value, the assigned vehicle function can be activated. Different battery charge condition threshold values can be assigned to the at least one vehicle function as a function of the operating condition of the drive unit, the temperature of the energy accumulator, the temperature outside the vehicle, and/or the age condition of the energy accumulator unit.

The invention relates to a system for the coordination of at least one vehicle function of a motor vehicle, which vehicle function is further developed such that it can be activated and deactivated (in the following called a "switchable vehicle function").
Vehicles having an integrated, automatic engine stop-start function are known, where, as a function of existing first vehicle operating conditions (for example, triggered by a vehicle speed below a defined speed limit and the operation of the clutch pedal and/or brake pedal) an engine stop function is automatically initiated, by which the internal-combustion engine is switched-off and, where, when second vehicle operating conditions are present (based on an active engine stop function—for example, triggered by the simultaneous operation of the brake pedal and the gas pedal), the internal-combustion engine is automatically started by the automatic engine start function. Such an automatic engine stop-start function, as a possible switchable vehicle function in the sense of the invention, as a rule, is only switched active when the battery charge condition is a predefined minimum battery charge condition.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system for the coordination of at least one switchable vehicle function, which ensures a further reduction of the fuel consumption and, particularly, a further reduction of the emissions generated during the vehicle operation.
According to the invention, a system is provided for the coordination of at least one vehicle function of a motor vehicle, which vehicle function is further developed such that it can be activated and deactivated. A motor vehicle includes a drive unit constructed particularly as an internal-combustion engine, and an electric energy accumulator unit constructed particularly as a battery, wherein at least one battery charge condition threshold value of the energy accumulator unit is assigned to the at least one vehicle function such that, on exceeding or falling below the battery charge condition threshold value, the assigned vehicle function can be activated. Different battery charge condition threshold values can be assigned to the at least one vehicle function as a function of the operating condition of the drive unit, the temperature of the energy accumulator, the temperature outside the vehicle, and/or the age condition of the energy accumulator unit.
As a result of the fact that different battery charge condition threshold values can be assigned to the at least one switchable vehicle function as a function of the operating condition of the drive unit, and/or as a function of the temperature of the energy accumulator, and/or as a function of the temperature outside the vehicle, and/or as a function of the age condition of the energy accumulator unit, a best-possible use of the electric energy resources can be achieved for any operating mode of the vehicle (or for any operating mode of its drive unit) with the present invention.
Different operating modes (operating conditions of the drive unit), in which different battery charge condition threshold values are assigned to the at least one switchable function for its activability, are preferred: operation with a pollutant emission that is as low as possible, operation with a drive power (also called boosting operation) that is as high as possible, or an operation with a drive comfort that is as high as possible. Depending on the selected operation, which can be manually defined by the driver or can be set automatically on the basis of the vehicle handling detected over a predefined time period, different battery charge condition threshold values are assigned to one and the same switchable function, in which case the respective function can be activated only when these threshold values are exceeded (or reached). In this case, it is unimportant whether these are functions which can be demanded (switched-on) manually by the driver or whether they are functions which are demanded automatically because of existing operating conditions.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, at least one automatic engine stop-start function is provided for the coordination.
At any rate, in a further development of the invention, the respective battery charge condition threshold value of the function can be further developed to be variable independently of the type of the switchable function to be coordinated. The battery charge condition threshold values can preferably be varied as a function of whether a switchable function can be switched on or cannot be switched on within a predefined time period, and/or whether a switchable active function is probably switched off within a predefined time period.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

System for the coordination of at least one switchable vehicle function of a motor vehicle

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


A vacuum insulated refrigerator structure with a vacuum core material filled in around an elongated umbilical. The vacuum insulated refrigerator structure is made of a shell having a liner and a wrapper wherein the shell forms an internal cavity. A gas permeable casing surrounds the entire length of the elongated umbilical passing through the internal cavity of the shell. A vacuum tube is inserted at a first opening between the gas permeable casing and the elongated umbilical and a second end of the elongated umbilical is coupled to the shell at a second opening in the liner. A vacuum is formed in the internal cavity of the shell through the vacuum tube while adding the vacuum core material fill. In the shell, an elongated umbilical has one or more elongated internal passageways wherein the one or more utility lines may be routed through the one or more elongated internal passageways.

Various types of insulated cabinets and doors have been developed for refrigerators and the like. Refrigerator doors and/or cabinets may comprise vacuum insulated structures having an outer wrapper that is sealed to an inner liner to form a vacuum cavity that is filled with various different porous materials. In most refrigerators, utility lines such as power, refrigerant, and/or water lines may need to be run through the insulated structure to provide for various refrigerator components such as ice and water dispensers. However, routing such utility lines through insulated structures may be problematic.

Method for ensuring reliable core material fill around the pass throughs in a vacuum insulated structure


A mobile location device comprising geographical location circuitry to provide device geographical location information and motion detection circuitry to detect motion of the device, wherein the geographical location circuitry is arranged to provide device geographical location information according to whether motion of the mobile location device is detected by the motion detecting circuitry.

The invention relates to mobile location devices, which make advantageous use of wireless transmission methods to provide device location information. Such location information may be the current geographical location of the device, and/or location dependent information. The mobile location devices may be dedicated location devices, but may alternatively provide other functionality, such as the ability to make telephone calls or provide user diary services, for example, as that provided by a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
The term mobile is used in the sense that it describes a device, which is not fixed in any one geographical location but moves location over time. Such devices may be portable and/or may be temporarily or permanently attached to any moveable object, such as a vehicle, person or animal. With such devices being moveable, and thus not always located near an external power supply, these devices often incorporate a built-in power supply, which would require periodic recharging and/or replacement. Nevertheless, in certain cases, a mobile location device may be temporarily or permanently driven by an external power supply, such as mains power or a vehicle battery in the case of a mobile location device permanently fixed to a vehicle and arranged to obtain power from the vehicle battery. All such forms of devices are within the scope of the present invention.


A fuel conditioning system has a housing defining a chamber and provided with an inlet upstream of the chamber and an outlet downstream of the chamber. A hemispherical seat has a first end in communication with the inlet, and a second end in communication with the chamber. A valve body is moveable between a closed position and an open position where the valve body is spaced from the inlet to allow air to flow into the chamber. A biasing device biases the valve body toward the closed position.

The present Inventor is the Inventor of a fuel supply system described in International Application No. WO2003/056165. This system comprises a housing defining a chamber and provided with an inlet opening upstream of the chamber and an outlet opening downstream of the chamber. A fuel injector sprays a fuel mist into the chamber, and a heater heats air flowing into the chamber via the inlet to a temperature of between 110° C. to 260° C. Pressure within the chamber is negative relative to ambient temperature. The fuel sprayed into the chamber by the fuel injector is thermally cracked so that a mixture of cracked fuel and heated air flows from the outlet to a combustion chamber in an associated internal combustion engine.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A process for the production of a silicon-containing polymer having a main chain of oxygen atoms, organic groups and Sixe2x80x94H and a process for the production of a silicon-containing polymer having a main chain of oxygen atoms, organic groups and disubstituted silicon atoms are disclosed. The silicon-containing polymer may be produced by dehydrogenative polymerization of quinone and/or diol with trihydrosilane or dihydrosilane in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.

This invention is directed to a silicon-containing polymer and to a process for the preparation thereof.
Various types of silicon-containing polymers are hitherto known. Among them, a silicon-containing polymer having recurring structural units represented by the following formula (a):
wherein Ar represents an arylene group and R1 and R2 each represent a substituent such as an aryl group, an alkoxy group or an alkyl group, is excellent in resistance to heat and is studied for use as an aerospace material (J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 9, 295(1965); J. Polym. Sci., A, Polym. Chem., 32, 131(1994)).
The silicon-containing polymer having the recurring structural units represented by the above formula (a) is produced by polycondensation of hydroquinone with a di-substituted silane or dehydrogenative polymerization of quinone with di-substituted silane.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel silicon-containing polymer having a main chain which comprises organic groups, oxygen atoms and silicon atoms.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an industrially advantageous process for the production of a silicon-containing polymer having a main chain which comprises organic groups, oxygen atoms and silicon atoms.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a silicon-containing polymer represented by the following general formula (1);
wherein Ar represents an arylene group which may have a substituent, R represents a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent and n is a number average polymerization degree of 2-5,000.
The present invention also provides a process for the production of a silicon-containing polymer represented by the above general formula (1), characterized in that at least one compound selected from quinone and aromatic diols and at least one trihydrosilane represented by the following general formula (3):
wherein R represents a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent, are subjected to dehydrogenative polymerization in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.
The present invention further provides a process for the production of a silicon-containing polymer represented by the following general formula (2):
wherein A represents an aralkylene group which may have a substituent or an alkylene group which may have a substituent, R1 and R2 each represent a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent but one of R1 and R2 is an aryl group and n is a number average polymerization degree of 2-5,000, characterized in that at least one diol represented by the following general formula (4):
HOxe2x80x94Axe2x80x94OHxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4)
wherein A represents an aralkylene group which may have a substituent or an alkylene group which may have a substituent and at least one dihydrosilane represented by the following general formula (5):
wherein R1 and R2 each represent a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent but one of R1 and R2 is an aryl group, are subjected to dehydrogenative polymerization in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.
The present invention further provides a process for the production of a silicon-containing polymer represented by the following general formula (6):
wherein Y represents a divalent hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent, R3 and R4 each represent a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent and n is a number average polymerization degree of 2-5,000, characterized in that at least one diol represented by the following general formula (7):
HOxe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94OHxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7)
wherein Y represents a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent and at least one dihydrosilane represented by the following general formula (8):
wherein R3 and R4 each represent a hydrocarbyl group which may have a substituent, are subjected to dehydrogenative polymerization in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.
In the above general formula (1), Ar represents an arylene group which may have a substituent. The arylene group has 6-18 carbon atoms, preferably 6-12 carbon atoms. The arylene group may be phenylene or naphthylene. The substituent may be a halogen atom (chlorine, bromine, iodine or fluorine), a cyano group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, etc. Specific examples of the arylene group include various 1,4-phenylenes and 1,4-naphthylenes such as 1,4-phenylene, 1,4-naphthylene, 2-t-butyl-1,4-phenylene, phenyl-1,4-phenylene, 2,5-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene, 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-phenylene, 2,5-dichloro-1,4-phenylene, 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-phenylene and 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-phenylene.
In the above general formula (1), R represents a hydrocarbyl group. The hydrocarbyl group has 1-18 carbon atoms, preferably 1-12 carbon atoms. The hydrocarbyl group may be an alkyl group having 1-18 carbon atoms, preferably 1-12 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group having 4-10 carbon atoms, preferably 6-8 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6-18 carbon atoms, preferably 6-12 carbon atoms or an aralkyl group having 7-17 carbon atoms, preferably 7-11 carbon atoms. The hydrocarbyl group may have a substituent such as a halogen atom, a cyano group, an alkoxy group or an aryloxy group. Examples of the hydrocarbyl group include phenyl, p-tolyl, m-tolyl, p-anisyl, p-chlorophenyl, p-fluorophenyl, p-trifluoromethylphenyl, p-cyanophenyl, methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, sec-butyl, hexyl and benzyl.
In the above general formula (1), n represents a number-average polymerization degree and is 2-5,000, especially 5-1,000.
The silicon-containing polymer of the above general formula (1) may be produced by subjecting at least one compound selected from quinone and aromatic diols and at least one trihydrosilane represented by the above general formula (3) to dehydrogenative polymerization in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.
The quinone includes various benzoquinones and naphthoquinones. Examples of quinone include 1,4-quinones such as 1,4-benzoquinone, 1,4-naphthoquinone, 2-t-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone, phenyl-1,4-benzoquinone, 2,5-dimethyl-1,4-benzoquinone, 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-benzoquinone, 2,5-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone, 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone and 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone.
The aromatic diol is not specifically limited but is preferably hydroquinone or resorcinol. Examples of hydroquinone and resorcinol include hydroquinone, methylhydroquinone, t-butylhydroquinone, chlorohydroquinone, 2-methoxyhydroquinone, phenylhydroquinone, 2,3-dimethylhydroquinone, 2,3,5,6-tetramethylhydroquinone, 2,3,5,6-tetrachlorohydroquinone, resorcinol, 2-methylresorcinol, 4-hexylresorcinol, 5-phenylresorcinol and 1,4-dihydroxynaphthalene.
The above-mentioned trihydrosilane is not specifically limited. Examples of trihydrosilane include phenylsilane, p-tolylsilane, m-tolylsilane, p-anisylsilane, p-chlorophenylsilane, p-fluorophenylsilane, p-trifluoromethylphenylsilane, p-cyanophenylsilane, methylsilane, ethylsilane, isopropylsilane, sec-butylsilane, hexylsilane and benzylsilane.
The palladium-containing catalyst for use in the present invention may be various kinds of conventionally known catalysts. A palladium complex having a tri-substituted phosphine ligand is preferably used. The substituent may be an alkyl group having 1-12 carbon atoms, preferably 1-6 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group having 4-10 carbon atoms, preferably 6-8 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6-12 carbon atoms, preferably 6-10 carbon atoms, an aralkyl group having 7-11 carbon atoms, preferably 7-9 carbon atoms. Examples of the palladium-containing catalyst include bis(triphenylphosphine)dichloropalladium, bis(triethylphosphine)dichloropalladium, bis(tricyclohexylphosphine)palladium, tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium, tris(triethylphosphine)palladium, (tetramethylethylenediamine)dichloropalladium, allylpalladiumchloride dimer, bis(benzonitrile)dichloropalladium, (1,5-cyclooctadiene)dichloropalladium, tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium, bis(acetylacetonate)palladium, palladium acetate, palladium chloride and palladium black.
The molar ratio of the quinone and/or aromatic diol to the trihydrosilane is not specifically limited. From the standpoint of the molecular weight of the polymer, however, the molar ratio of the quinone and/or aromatic diol to the trihydrosilane is preferably in the range of 1:5 to 5:1, more preferably in the range of 1:2 to 2:1. The molar ratio of the trihydrosilane to the palladium of the palladium-containing catalyst is not limited, either. For reasons of yield, however, the molar ratio of the trihydrosilane to the palladium of the palladium-containing catalyst is preferably in the range of 10,000:1 to 2:1, more preferably in the range of 2,000:1 to 5:1.
The reaction in the present invention may be carried out without using a solvent when one of the raw materials is a liquid. Generally, however, a solvent such as a hydrocarbon solvent (e.g. benzene, toluene or hexane), an ether solvent (e.g. diethyl ether, tetrahydrofuran (THF) or dioxane), a halogen-containing solvent (e.g. methylene chloride or chloroform) may be used. The reaction temperature is not specifically limited, either. For reasons of reactivity and stability of the raw materials, the reaction temperature is in the range of 0-150xc2x0 C., preferably 20-120xc2x0 C.
The silicon-containing polymer thus obtained is a polymer in which structural units of the following general formula (9):
"Parenopenst"Oxe2x80x94Arxe2x80x94O"Parenclosest"xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(9)
are alternately linked to structural units of the following general formula (10):
The plurality of Ar contained in the polymer may be the same or different. The plurality of R contained in the polymer may be also the same or different.
In the above general formula (2), A represents an aralkylene group, an alkylene group or a cycloalkylene group. The aralkylene group may include a phenylene alkylene group, a phenylene dialkylene group, a naphthylene alkylene group or a naphthylene dialkylene group and has 6-18 carbon atoms, preferably 6-12 carbon atoms. The alkylene group may be alkylene having 1-18 carbon atoms, preferably 2-12 carbon atoms. The cycloalkylene group may be cycloalkylene having 4-10 carbon atoms, preferably 6-8 carbon atoms. The substituent may be a halogen atom (chlorine, bromine, iodine or fluorine), a cyano group, an alkoxy group, an aryloxy group, etc. Specific examples of the divalent group A include ethylene, 1,3-propylene, 1,4-butylene, 1,3-butylene, 1,4-cyclohexylene, phenyl-1,2-ethylene, dimethyl-2,3-butylene, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-p-xylylene, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-m-xylylene and naphthylene-1,3-dimethylene.
In the above general formula (2), R1 and R2 each represent a hydrocarbyl group but one of R1 and R2 is an aryl group. The hydrocarbyl group may include an alkyl group having 1-18 carbon atoms, preferably 1-12 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group having 4-10 carbon atoms, preferably 6-8 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6-18 carbon atoms, preferably 6-12 carbon atoms or an aralkyl group having 7-17 carbon atoms, preferably 7-11 carbon atoms. The hydrocarbyl group may have a substituent such as a halogen atom, a cyano group, an alkoxy group or aryloxy group. Examples of the hydrocarbyl group include methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, hexyl, dodecyl, cyclohexyl, phenyl, naphthyl, benzyl, tolyl, anisyl or trifluoromethylphenyl.
In the above general formula (2), n represents a number average polymerization degree and is 2-5,000, especially 5-1,000.
Specific examples of the silicon-containing polymer represented by the general formula (2) include: poly[xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-p-xylylenedioxy(phenylmethylsilylene], poly[xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-p-xylylenedioxy(diphenylsilylene], poly[xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-m-xylylenedioxy(diphenylsilylene], poly[1,2-ethylenedioxy(naphthylmethylsilylene], poly[1,4-butylenedioxy(phenylmethylsilylene] and poly[1-phenyl-1,2-ethylenedioxy(diphenylsilylene].
The silicon-containing polymer represented by the above general formula (2) may be produced by subjecting at least one diol represented by the above general formula (4) and at least one dihydrosilane represented by the above general formula (5) to dehydrogenative polymerization in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.
Examples of the diol include ethylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butanediol, 1,3-butanediol, 1,4-cyclohexanediol, phenyl-1,2-ethanediol, dimethyl-2,3-butanediol, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-p-xylylenediol and xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-m-xylylenediol.
Examples of the dihydrosilane include phenylmethylsilane, naphthylmethylsilane, phenylbenzylsilane, tolylmethylsilane, anisylmethylsilane, trifluoromethylphenylmethylsilane, diphenylsilane, ditolylsilane, dianisylsilane, bis(trifluoromethylphenyl)silane, dinaphthylsilane and phenylethylsilane.
As the palladium-containing catalyst, there may be used various palladium-containing catalysts described above with reference to the silicon-containing polymer of the general formula (1).
The molar ratio of the diol to the dihydrosilane is not specifically limited but is preferably in the range of 1:5 to 5:1, more preferably in the range of 1:2 to 2:1. The molar ratio of the dihydrosilane to the palladium of the palladium-containing catalyst is not limited, either. For reasons of yield, however, the molar ratio of the dihydrosilane to the palladium of the palladium-containing catalyst is preferably in the range of 10,000:1 to 2:1, more preferably in the range of 2,000:1 to 5:1.
The reaction in the present invention may be carried out without using a solvent when one of the raw materials is a liquid. Generally, however, a solvent such as a hydrocarbon solvent (e.g. benzene, toluene or hexane), an ether solvent (e.g. diethyl ether, THF or dioxane), a halogen-containing solvent (e.g. methylene chloride or chloroform) may be used. The reaction temperature is not specifically limited, either. For reasons of reactivity and stability of the raw materials, the reaction temperature is in the range of 0-150xc2x0 C., preferably 20-120xc2x0 C.
The present invention comprises a process of producing a silicon-containing polymer represented by the above general formula (6). This process uses at least one diol represented by the above general formula (7) as the starting material diol.
In the general formula (7), Y represents a divalent hydrocarbyl group. The hydrocarbyl group has 1-18 carbon atoms, preferably 1-12 carbon atoms. The hydrocarbyl group may be an alkylene group having 1-18 carbon atoms, preferably 1-12 carbon atoms, a cycloalkylene group having 4-10 carbon atoms, preferably 6-8 carbon atoms, an arylene group having 6-18 carbon atoms, preferably 6-12 carbon atoms or an aralkylene group having 7-17 carbon atoms, preferably 7-11 carbon atoms. The hydrocarbyl group may have a substituent such as a halogen atom, a cyano group, an alkoxy group or aryloxy group. Examples of the hydrocarbyl group include ethylene, 1,3-propylene, 1,4-butylene, 1,3-butylene, 1,4-cyclohexylene, phenyl-1,2-ethylene, dimethyl-2,3-butylene, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-p-xylylene, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-m-xylylene, 1,4-phenylene, methyl-1,4-phenylene, t-butyl-1,4-phenylene, chloro-1,4-phenylene, 2-methoxy-1,4-phenylene, phenyl-1,4-phenylene, 2,3-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene, 2,3,5,6-tetramethylene-1,4-phenylene, 2,3,5,6-tetrachloro-1,4-phenylene, 1,3-phenylene, 2-methyl-,1,3-phenylene, 4-hexyl-1,3-phenylene, 5-phenyl-1,3-phenylene and 1,4-naphthylene.
The silicon-containing polymer of the above general formula (6) may be produced by subjecting at least one compound selected from those diols represented by the above general formula (7) and at least one compound selected from those dihydrosilane represented by the above general formula (8) to dehydrogenative polymerization in the presence of a palladium-containing catalyst.
Examples of the diol represented by the above general formula (7) include ethylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butanediol, 1,3-butanediol, 1,4-cyclohexanediol, phenyl-1,2-ethanediol, dimethyl-2,3-butanediol, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-p-xylylenediol, xcex1,xcex1xe2x80x2-m-xylylenediol, hydroquinone, methylhydroquinone, t-butylhydroquinone, chlorohydroquinone, 2-methoxyhydroquinone, phenylhydroquinone, 2,3-dimethylhydroquinone, 2,3,5,6-tetramethylhydroquinone, 2,3,5,6-tetrachlorohydroquinone, resorcinol, 2-methylresorcinol, 5-phenylresorcinol and 1,4-dihydroxynaphthalene.
Examples of the dihydrosilane represented by the above general formula (8) include those described with reference to the dihydrosilane of the above general formula (5) and, additionally, dimethylsilane, propylmethylsilane, butylmethylsilane, hexylmethylsilane, dodecylmethylsilane, dibutylsilane, dihexylsilane, dicyclohexylsilane, dibenzylsilane and dibenzylethylsilane.
The production of the silicon-containing polymer of the above general formula (6) may be carried out in the same manner as that of the silicon-containing polymer of the above general formula (2).

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for binding of particulate materials to manufacture articles including continuous panels or sheets. Particulate feed materials are mixed with a heat curable binder and the mixture is fed to and compressed in a die. A radio frequency (RF) field is applied across electrodes between which the mixture is held compressed to inductively or dielectrically heat and cure the binder. Prior to entering the die the mixture is first fed to an intake zone where the mixture is shaped into substantially the same shape as the shape of the mixture in the die so that any curing of the binder due to heating of the mixture in the intake zone occurs while the mixture is in the desired final shape. Operating parameters including shape and dimensions of the intake zone, mixture advancement lengths, are disclosed.

In Australian patent specification No. AU-48947/93 (Patent Serial No. 651285) there is described a process for manufacturing bodies composed of a binder mixed with a feed material including rice hulls and/or particles obtained by comminuting rice hulls. The binder comprises a beat curable composition. The mixture of the feed material and binder is formed into the generally desired shape of the body e.g. in a mould or in a press, and the binder is cured to form an adherent body having substantially the required shape, e.g. by applying to the formed shape an RF field of a suitable frequency and intensity and for a suitable period of time to cause dielectric heating within the mixture so as to cure the binder to form the final adherent body. The body is then removed from the mould or press. Reference may be made to this patent specification for further background information particularly in relation to rice hulls and their properties and preparation.
A further patent specification AU-2001100327 by the present applicant further describes processes for forming bodies by extrusion using rice hulls. This patent specification is also incorporated herein in full by cross-reference for the purpose of providing further background information about particulates, fillers, binders, additives, reinforcing, etc that can be used in such bound bodies.
The above references to and descriptions of prior proposals or products and processes are not intended to be, and are not to be construed as, statements or admissions of common general knowledge in the art.
Problems with RF heating and curing, particularly if continuous production of bound bodies is attempted, are outlined later in relation to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings. These figures however do not depict known or published apparatus to the applicant's knowledge, but rather they are used to illustrate difficulties the inventor faced and overcame with the present invention.

Binding of particulate materials to manufacture articles


A magnetic recording medium is disclosed. The recording medium comprises a support; a first magnetic layer provided at the position farthest from the support which comprises magnetic particles and a binder; a second layer contacted with the surface of the first layer faced to the support which comprises particles having a crystal size of S.sub.2 (nm) and a binder; and a third layer provided at a position between the second layer and the support which comprises particles having an crystal size of S.sub.3 (nm) and a binder, and the S.sub.2 and S.sub.3 have the following relations; EQU S.sub.2 .ltoreq.35 and S.sub.2 <S.sub.3.

In conventional magnetic recording media, a high quality has been tried to provide by making magnetic powder fine in one case, or by arranging a multilayered structure in which a magnetic layer is arranged to the upper layer and a non-magnetic layer, to the lower layer, respectively, in the other case. Refer to Japanese Patent Application Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as JP OPI Publication) No. 63-187418/1988.
In the former case, however, magnetic powder only is made fine and, in the latter case of JP OPI Publication No. 63-187418/1988, the dispersibility of magnetic or non-magnetic powder is inferior in a coating material for forming a magnetic or non-magnetic layer, because the configuration of the non-magnetic powder is inappropriate, and a calenderability is deteriorated in a calendering treatment, so that the surface property of a magnetic recording medium cannot be resulted in a satisfactory condition. It has, therefore, been difficult to obtain a magnetic recording medium excellent in electric property and running property required for serving as a digital recording medium.
Generally in a multilayered magnetic recording medium, the surface property of the uppermost layer is seriously affected by the surface property of the layer adjacent lower to the uppermost layer. This tendency becomes more apparent as the thickness of the uppermost magnetic layer is getting more thinner.
Therefore, for improving the surface property of the uppermost magnetic layer, it is required to improve the surface property of the layer adjacent lower to the uppermost layer. For satisfying the requirement, it is effective to make fine a powder applied to the layer adjacent lower to the uppermost layer so that the dispersibility of the powder can be improved by making use of a binder containing a polar group. Refer to JP OPI Publication No. 4-57217/1992. However, as the powder applicable to the lower layer is made fine, the physical properties such as Young's modulus are deteriorated so as to raise such a problem that a running property at a low temperature and a head-touch property, or an envelope property, are deteriorated. The problem is getting more serious as a tape is made more thinner for making it longer in length.

Magnetic recording medium having three layers each containing particles and a binder wherein the relationship of particle crystal size in the second and third layers is specified


A load-balanced network architecture is disclosed in which a traffic flow deliverable from a source node to a destination node via intermediate nodes is split into parts, and the parts are distributed to respective ones of the intermediate nodes. Path delay differences for the parts are substantially equalized by delay adjustment at one or more of the intermediate nodes, and packets of one or more of the parts are scheduled for routing from respective ones of the intermediate nodes to the destination node based on arrival times of the packets at the source node.

Circuit-switched network architectures, such as those based on synchronous optical network (SONET) or synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) standards, were originally designed to support voice traffic using dedicated fixed-bandwidth connections. Although such networks are advantageous in that they incorporate substantial reliability and protection mechanisms, their primary disadvantage has been a lack of bandwidth efficiency.
Packet-switched network architectures, which include those based on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) or Internet protocol (IP) standards, have traditionally been much better able than circuit-switched architectures to handle data traffic. Since data traffic is inherently bursty, it leads to underutilization of the fixed-bandwidth connections of conventional circuit-switched networks. Packet-switched network architectures provide the benefits of statistical multiplexing, which allows for better handling of bursty data traffic.
Recently, virtual concatenation (VC) and link capacity adjustment scheme (LCAS) protocols have been developed which allow more efficient use of the existing fixed-bandwidth connections associated with circuit-switched SONET/SDH network infrastructure. For example, these protocols are utilized in transmission of Ethernet over SONET (EoS) data traffic over metropolitan networks, and in numerous other data transmission applications. The VC and LCAS protocols are described in greater detail in, for example, ITU-T standards documents G.707 and G.7042, respectively, both of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Virtual concatenation generally allows a given source node of a network to form a virtually-concatenated group (VCG) which includes multiple members each associated with a corresponding data stream. The different data streams may then be transmitted over diverse routes through the network from the source node to a given destination node. The destination node recombines the streams to reconstruct the original VCG.
The LCAS protocol enhances the basic virtual concatenation functionality described above by allowing so-called "hitless" addition and deletion of members from a VCG, that is, addition and deletion of members without the introduction of errors into the transmitted data. The LCAS protocol also enables a VCG to operate at a reduced capacity after the failure of routes associated with one or more members, by allowing the temporary removal of members associated with failed routes from the VCG.
Despite the improvements associated with the recently-developed VC and LCAS protocols, there remain problems in both circuit-switched and packet-switched network architectures. Generally, existing architectures can be difficult to scale so as to accommodate large mesh topologies, and can still suffer from bandwidth efficiency or switching complexity concerns. For example, an architecture comprising an IP overlay over SONET may require an excessive amount of link bandwidth, while a pure IP network architecture will typically require a large amount of packet switching capacity at each network node.
The above-cited U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/785,352 discloses an improved network architecture that can provide bandwidth efficiency without requiring high packet switching capacities at each node. In an illustrative embodiment of this load-balanced network architecture, there are N participating network nodes. An incoming packet flow of rate R at a given one of the nodes is split into N substantially equal parts, each having a rate of R/N. The packet flow is split into the N parts in a manner independent of the particular destination node or nodes that may be associated with that flow. The N parts of the incoming packet flow are distributed to respective ones of the N participating nodes, such that each of the N participating nodes receives a corresponding one of the N parts. Pre-provisioned circuits, each configured to support a rate of R/N, are used to distribute the parts to the various participating nodes. At least a subset of the participating nodes then route their respective parts to the one or more specified destination nodes. This illustrative embodiment thus routes individual parts of the given traffic flow over respective two-hop paths from a source node to a destination node via intermediate nodes. By avoiding the need for high packet switching capacities at each node, this load-balanced architecture facilitates the implementation of large-scale networks for EoS data traffic or other types of traffic flows.
An important issue that may arise in the context of load-balanced architectures such as that described in the above-cited U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/785,352 relates to packet reordering. More specifically, by separating a given traffic flow into multiple parts, and routing the various parts to one or more destination nodes over different paths, the parts may arrive in an order other than that in which they were sent. This out-of-order packet arrival is attributable primarily to factors such as unequal delays in the various paths, and differences in the queuing of packets at participating nodes. Another factor which can influence this issue is the scheduling algorithm used at the intermediate node to schedule packets for transmission to a destination node.
A number of techniques are known in the art for dealing with the packet reordering issue in a two-stage network switch. However, these techniques exhibit a number of drawbacks, particularly in the load-balanced network architecture context described above. For example, an approach proposed in C. S. Chang et al., "Load balanced Birkhoff-Von Neumann Switches, Part II: Multi-Stage Buffering," Computer Communications, Vol 25, pp. 611-622, 2002, involves scheduling of packets based on their expected departure times in an equivalent output queued IP router. However, this approach fails to account for path delay variations, and is thus not readily applicable to a geographically-distributed network. Another approach, described in I. Keslassy et al, "Maintaining Packet Order in Two-Stage Switches," Proceedings of IEEE Infocom, New York, 2002, requires out-of-band communication that can result in a bottleneck.
It is therefore apparent that improved techniques are needed for dealing with the issue of packet reordering in load-balanced network architectures.

Packet reorder resolution in a load-balanced network architecture


A beam clamp system for securely engaging a pair of concrete form panels for maintaining them in generally vertical position against inadvertent dislodgment or dislodgment due to outward pressure from recently poured liquid concrete. Each clamp has a horizontal portion and two long vertical members, brackets to slidably engage concrete form panels, and rods to securely and adjustably hold these form panels in place while concrete is poured and is curing. The form panels include a frame and a sheet with at least one smooth synthetic surface. In addition, this system includes a scaffolding system built into the beam clamp system. The system also includes a hanger system for supporting and positioning "re-bar" between the concrete form panels while liquid concrete is being poured and while it cures. Also a shepherd crook-shaped truss strap is part of the system and attaches to the "re-bar" hangers and the re-bar.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for molding a concrete beam or a concrete header on an existing block wall, for use in home, store, and wall construction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 1,575,959, BARSTAD, discloses a substantially inverted "U"-shaped clamp apparatus having a transverse member, two elongated legs attached to the bottom of the transverse member, and a rod assembly through the elongated legs to engage a pair of essentially parallel, spaced forms. BARSTAD does not teach a means to receive the top end of the forms, confine them, and provide a pivoting point around which these forms can be slightly rotated so as to form a pronounced clamping action at the bottom of these forms.
In addition, BARSTAD teaches horizontal strips attached to the outside of the forms. However, no mention is made of combining horizontal, vertical, and stud pieces rigidly to form a solid frame to which can be attached a sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,288, MURPHY, also discloses a substantially inverted "U"-shaped clamp apparatus, but also has a wedge-shaped flange extending downward from the transverse member. The spacing between the flange, as well as the tapering of the flange cooperate with the elongated legs of inverted "U" part of the apparatus to allow a form member to be wedged between the leg members and the flange. While MURPHY teaches a confining of the top edge of the forms by wedging them between the flanges and the leg members, it does not mention a flange or other form containing piece that allows pivoting of the form around the flange or containing piece.
British Pat. No. 175,128 teaches recesses in forms, for receiving the free end of a rod directed through the legs of the clamp and into the recesses in the forms. The recesses provide a point of transfer of the forces between the rods and the forms. But, there is no mention of means by which the forms can be drawn away from the "cured" concrete. In particular, there is no mention of means whereby the forms can be adjustably positioned before the concrete is poured and then by the same means, aid in removing the forms from the concrete.


Embodiments disclosed herein include systems and methods for mounting electrical components in electrical systems. In one example, there is provided a heat-generating electrical component and base assembly configured to be secured to a component wall. The assembly comprises a base including an upper portion having a recess and a lower portion having a floating electrical connector, a heat-generating electrical component secured in the recess of the base and including an electrical lead in electrical communication with the floating electrical connector, and a gasket circumscribing a perimeter of the lower portion.

Electrical systems may include components including electronic components, for example, transistors or integrated circuits and heat-generating components including, for example, resistors, inductors, or transformers. These electronic components and heat-generating components may be electrically connected on a common circuit board. Cooling systems may be provided to facilitate maintaining the electrical system at a temperature within a desired range and to keep heat generated by one or more components of the system from damaging that component or other components of the system.

Electronics system and method of forming same

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC SOLAR INVERTERS USA, INC.


A pressure-sensitive adhesive composition comprising polymers and/or copolymers based at least predominantly on (meth)acrylic acid and/or derivatives thereof, wherein said composition possesses an outgassing level of not more than 50 μg/g in total, preferably less than 10 μg/g, when said composition is measured by the tesa method.

In the industry, hotmelt processes employing solvent-free coating technology are of growing importance for the preparation of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) compositions. Generally speaking, environmental regulations and rising costs are pushing forward this development process. As well as SIS (styrene-isoprene-styrene copolymer) systems, acrylic polymers are increasingly being applied from the melt as a polymer film to backing materials. Moreover, for specialty applications, there is a need for PSA tapes having very low outgassing characteristics. Such characteristics can be ensured only by means of hotmelt processes, since conventional coatings applied from a solution always contain small residual solvent fractions.
The hotmelt process commonly starts with a solution polymerization followed by a concentration process in which the solvent is removed. A variety of techniques are known for doing this.
The switch to hotmelt processes imposes particular requirements in respect of a downstream crosslinking procedure. Thus, for example, thermal crosslinking techniques using metal chelates or polyfunctional isocyanates, which are widespread with the solvent systems, can no longer be employed. At the present time, therefore, the crosslinking of polyacrylate PSA compositions is forced by exposure to ultraviolet light (UV) or electron beams (EB), the latter being known as electron beam curing (EBC).
For the production of acrylic PSA tapes with low outgassing characteristics, UV crosslinking is preferential. EB crosslinking is a random process which as well as actually crosslinking the polymer chains produces fragments which remain in the PSA tape and may subsequently outgas when the bond is exposed to temperature.
Generally speaking, UV crosslinking is a process which does not involve very complex apparatus, needing only a simple coating unit with a few low-pressure Hg lamps. UV crosslinking operates very effectively for polyacrylate compositions with film thickness up to 100 g/m2. The EBC technology, in contrast, is significantly more complicated.
For industrial applications, especially in the electronics sector, temperature-stable, shearing-resistant acrylic PSA tapes with very low outgassing are required. Residues of solvent and residual monomer may evaporate out during application at elevated temperatures, with the consequence that the atmosphere may contain solvent. This can give rise to a variety of problems. One is that certain monomers possess good conductivity, so that the risk of short circuits increases. Another is that the solvents and/or monomers may bring about the destruction of plastic parts and insulators. In this sector, therefore, attempts are made to use very high-purity acrylic PSA tapes which possess extremely low outgassing tendencies.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,654 has already described a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition having very low outgassing (fogging) characteristics. This PSA composition, however, was created specifically for applications in automaking, where relatively high levels of outgassing are tolerated. Moreover, this patent describes not acrylic PSA compositions but rather rubber adhesive compositions. These elastomers have a number of fundamental disadvantages relative to polyacrylates, such as, for example, the lower thermal shearing resistance and the tendency to age by oxidation of the double bonds present. Since in the electronics sector it is often possible for ozone to form (in copiers, for example), the rubber adhesive compositions specifically are completely unsuitable for such a use.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,184 described vibration-damping materials which likewise possess little tendency to outgas. The limit of tolerable outgassing, however, was not defined. Furthermore, for application of the damping material, a double-sided acrylic PSA tape was used. Here again, there was no more detailed characterization of the PSA tape nor investigation of the outgassing characteristics of the assembly.
DE 198 07 752 A1 introduces a nonfogging adhesive tape, fogging referring to the condensation of evaporated volatile components from the automotive interior trim on the windows. This self-adhesive tape comprises a nonfogging backing on at least one side of which a nonfogging PSA composition has been applied. The adhesive composition used is preferably one based on an acrylic hotmelt. For the residual solvent content, a preferred limit of at most 1% by weight is stated.
In addition to the abovementioned removal of the solvent from the polymerization process, therefore, for specific application of the polyacrylate composition produced it is necessary to conduct a postpurification in which not only remaining solvent residues but also residual monomer residues are removed. This postpurification process may be conducted in conjunction with the actual concentration process.
One proposal for a postpurification is given by DE 43 40 136 A1. That document describes a process in which the removal of the solvent takes place under reduced pressure and, toward the end of the distillation, entrainers such as steam, nitrogen, argon, and CO2 are supplied at temperatures of more than 100° C. For this process, however, it is necessary to pump the system in circulation in order to optimize polymer mixing. A disadvantage of this process is that the pump circulation procedure places limits on the viscosity of the solution to be concentrated, thereby making it impossible to prepare end products of relatively high viscosity.
BASF has developed a relatively low molecular mass acrylic hotmelt possessing a UV crosslinking mechanism [U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,611]. The copolymerized benzophenone photoinitiator is a type II photoinitiator, which does not release fragments under UV exposure and thus during crosslinking. These pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions possess little outgassing tendency. Nevertheless, owing to the concentration process, the residual monomer fraction is still too high and is situated above a preferred limit of 10 μg/g adhesive composition.
DE 43 13 008 A1 and EP 621 326 B1 describe the use of an extruder to concentrate a self-adhesive composition based on acrylic hotmelt. In this case an extruder is used to concentrate or devolatilize a self-adhesive composition of this kind having a K value of at least 60, to give a system which can be processed as a hotmelt for a plaster or for an industrial adhesive tape. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, furthermore, the residual solvent content is said to fall below 1% by weight.
It is an object of the invention to provide a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition, particularly for application in the electrical and electronics sectors, which does not have the disadvantages of the prior art. In particular, for pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions used in such applications, the intention is to reduce the presence of monomers and fragments which may lead to short circuits and the like.
Surprisingly and unforeseeably, pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions with significantly reduced outgassing characteristics have been prepared for the first time; consequently, these compositions are outstandingly suitable for use in this field of application.

Low-outgassing acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions


A method of making a magnetic recording and/or reproducing head having a head support and a head core. The head core is inserted in a slit defined in the head support and is retained in position on the head support by means of a fixing jig to hold the head core immovable relative to the head support. Thereafter, a glass frit for temporarily fixing the head core relative to the head support is fused by the application of a laser beam to partially connect the head core and the head support together. After the fixing jig has been removed and a glass frit has been mounted on the head support so as to cover the slit above the head core, the assembly is loaded into a heating furnace to fuse the glass frit thereby to permanently interlock the head core and the head support together.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the art of making a magnetic recording and/or reproducing head and, more particularly, to a method of making a magnetic recording and/or reproducing head of a type that requires a magnetic head core and a head fixture or support.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The necessity of providing magnetic recording and/or reproducing heads, hereinafter referred to as a magnetic transducer for short, has recently increased because they are one of the major component parts of a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus for recording or reproducing information on or from a magnetic recording medium such as, for example, a length of magnetic recording tape or a magnetic recording disc. Numerous attempts have concomitantly been made to reduce the size of the recording gap defined in the magnetic transducer to improve the recording density. Reduction in gap size often requires an accurate and precise fabrication of the magnetic transducer.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, the magnetic transducer of a type utilized in a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus, for example, a cassette tape recorder, comprises a head core and a head fixture or support on which the head core is fixedly mounted. In fixing the head core in position on the head support, various methods have hitherto been practiced in which the head core is rigidly connected with the head support by the use of a bonding agent, a metal weld or a glass frit, or a combination thereof. Of these methods, the method in which the glass frit is employed is generally considered reliable in that the head core can be rigidly secured in position to the head support.
Hereinafter, the prior art method in which the glass frit is employed for fixing the head core to the head support will be discussed with particular reference to FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings, which consists of FIGS. 4(a) to 4(d) showing the sequence of making the magnetic transducer.
Referring to FIG. 4, reference numerals 1 and 2 designate the head support and the head core, respectively. In the practice of the method, a heat-resistant fixing jig 3 for retaining the head core 2 in position on the head support 1 and a mold glass or glass frit 4 for fixing the head core 2 to the head support 1 when fused in a heating furnace and subsequently solidified are employed. The method is practiced in the following manner.
The head core 2 is, as shown in FIG. 4(a), first inserted in a slit defined in the head support 1 made of ceramics and is subsequently retained in position in the slit by the use of the heat-resistant fixing jig 3 used to hold the head core 2 immovable relative to the head support 1 as shown in FIG. 4(b). The mold glass or glass frit 4 is then placed on the head support 1 so as to fill up the slit in the head support 1 above the head core 2 as shown in FIG. 4(c). The assembly of FIG. 4(c) including the head support 1, the head core 2, the fixing jig 8 and the glass frit 4 is heated to and retained at an elevated temperature within the heating furnace 5, as shown schematically in FIG. 4(d), to allow the glass frit 4 to be fused. Consequent upon the heating of the glass frit 4 within the heating furnace 5, the glass frit 4 in a fluidized state flows into a gap delimited within the slit between the head support 1 and the head core 2 and, accordingly, when the assembly is subsequently cooled, the glass frit 4 solidifies to connect the head core 2 rigidly to the head support 1.
It has, however been found that the prior art method discussed above has some problems. Specifically, the volume of the heat-resistant fixing jig 3 tends to become a factor of some ten to some hundred times the volume of the head support 1. Also, since the red-hot zone within the heating furnace 5 is limited to a relatively narrow range, a number of assemblies cannot be loaded into the heating furnace 5 at a time and, therefore, a number of heating furnaces are required to accomplish a mass production for a given time.
Also, where the heat-resistant fixing jig is employed, the fixing jig is susceptible to thermal expansion within the heating furnace to such an extent as to result in an undesirable deviation of the head core from the predetermined position relative to the head support.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.