A machine for depositing and dispensing coins includes a first portion containing devices for reception of the deposited coins and for recognition and sorting of the coins based on the denomination thereof, a second portion containing a plurality of internal hoppers configured to selectively contain the coins sorted by denomination and a third portion containing coin processing means for processing the coins in the dispensing step, a seat being present in the third portion for the temporary housing of a till configured to be filled with predetermined compositions of coins of the various denominations coming from the internal hoppers, the machine further including coin conveying means adapted to receive, at the seat, coins coming from the internal hoppers or from the recognition and sorting devices and to convey them to a higher zone of the machine, where a coin path selector is disposed at the end of the coin conveying means to the higher zone of the machine, the coin path selector being movable between a first position where it enables the conveyance of the coins into an internal collection container and a second position where it enables the dispensing of the coins outside the machine.

In the prior art machines capable of receiving and storing valuables inside them, for example coins, deposited by an operator are used. These machines, usually called "coin deposit machines", are generally provided with a portion for accepting the coins introduced by the user, a system for recognizing and sorting the coins based on their denomination and a plurality of internal hoppers for containing the coins sorted by denomination.
A typical example of use of these machines is in the commercial concerns, where the cashiers empty their till at the end of their shift, depositing the coins into the machine through a suitable inlet opening, which conveys them to the recognition and sorting system and then to the respective hoppers depending on the denomination of each coin.
These machines have the drawback that the deposited coins must then be removed from the respective internal hoppers, taken into the custody of workers authorized and trained in the transportation of valuables (CIT, or Cash-In-Transit) and finally managed in suitable ways for subsequent use at other locations.
Machines adapted to dispense coins, called "coin dispensing machines" are also used, in which there are internal hoppers dedicated to the various denominations, properly filled by authorized workers with the appropriate amounts of coins of each denomination, and means for dispensing coins in the amount required by the user, in single denominations or as a specific composition of various denominations. A typical example of use of these dispensing machines is for selectively filling the tills of cashiers at the start of shift, with each denomination introduced into the respective dedicated space of the till.
Also in these machines the main drawback is that the internal hoppers must be regularly refilled with coins of the various denominations by workers specialized in the transportation of valuables.
Finally, there are machines that combine the functionalities of depositing and dispensing coins, called "coin recycling machines", which are provided with a portion for accepting the coins introduced by the user, a system for recognizing and sorting the coins based on their denomination, a plurality of internal hoppers for containing the coins sorted by denomination and means for dispensing the coins from the hoppers to the user in the required amount. Of course, these machines must also have an accounting system of the coins deposited and of the coins dispensed, so as to keep track of all the operations carried out and always have the complete outline of the content of each single hopper.
In these machines it may be the case that, during the depositing step, more coins, of one or more denominations, are introduced than the respective internal hoppers can receive based on their content prior to the start of the depositing step.
In this case, it could in theory be necessary to suspend the depositing operation. Some machines, however, provide for the possibility of sending the excess coins (of the denominations for which the hoppers are unable to receive the total amount arriving) into a suitable container (overflow container) generally positioned at the bottom of the machine below the internal hoppers. The sending of the excess coins to such a container can take place either by making the just introduced and verified coins by-pass the hoppers, or by unloading a suitable number of coins from the respective hoppers directly into the overflow container, so as to free space inside them for the new coins.
It is clear, in any case, that coins of every denomination, mixed together, are eventually collected in the overflow container. This implies the need to take care of periodically emptying the container or removing and replacing it with an empty container, operations that should generally be entrusted to authorized workers for managing and transporting valuables (CIT), since the content of such a container (i.e. coins of various denominations mixed together) cannot be managed and reused without a suitable accounting and sorting procedure of the single denominations.
In particular, if after a certain number of withdrawals (without sufficient deposits occurring in the meantime) one or more hoppers end up in the condition of containing an insufficient number of coins of the respective denominations to deal with further dispensing requests, the coins present in the overflow container obviously could not be used directly to restore the level of the hoppers (because, as stated, it contains various denominations mixed together), but it would on the other hand be necessary to acquire from the outside (typically from CIT) suitable stocks of coins of homogeneous denomination to restock the corresponding hopper, with relative waits and additional costs.
An example of use of "recycling machines" is also described in application US 2016/0379432, where it is provided that, in order to allow people with disabilities to withdraw coins at a height convenient for them, a mode of operation can be selected that, instead of unloading the coins from the hoppers into the dedicated spaces of the till, selectively divided by denomination, makes them flow to an elevator that drives the coins to a dispensing mouth arranged at a suitable height, but dispensing them to the user mixed together without distinction of denomination.

Machine for depositing and dispensing coins


A dielectric ceramic composition comprising a main component composed of barium titanate, a first subcomponent including an oxide of AE (note that AE is at least one element selected from Mg, Ca, Ba and Sr), and a second subcomponent including an oxide of R (note that R is at least one element selected from Y, Dy, Ho and Er), wherein ratios of the subcomponents to 100 moles of the main component are, the first subcomponent: 0 mole less than the first subcomponent less than 0.1 mole, and the second subcomponent: 1 mole less than the second subcomponent less than 7 moles. According to the composition, a high specific permittivity can be attained, an insulation resistance lifetime can be maintained, the capacity-temperature characteristic can satisfy the X8R characteristic of the EIA standard, and firing in a reducing atmosphere can be realized.

The present invention relates to a dielectric ceramic composition having a resistance to reduction and to a multilayer ceramic capacitor or other electronic device using the dielectric ceramic composition.
A multilayer ceramic capacitor, a kind of electronic devices, is broadly used as a compact, large-capacity, high reliability electronic device. The number of capacitors used in each piece of electronic equipments has also increased. In recent years, along with increasing miniaturization and improving performance of equipments, there has been increasingly stronger demand for further reductions in size, increases in capacity, reductions in price and improvements in reliability in multilayer ceramic capacitors.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors are normally produced by stacking a paste for the internal electrode layers and a paste for the dielectric layers using the sheet method or printing method, etc. and then co-firing the internal electrode layers and dielectric layers in the stack together.
As the electroconductive material for the internal electrode layers, generally Pd or Pd alloys are used, but since Pd is high in price, relatively inexpensive Ni, Ni alloys, and other base metals have come into use. When using a base metal as the electroconductive material of the internal electrode layers, firing in the air oxidizes the internal electrode layers, therefore the co-firing of the dielectric layers and internal electrode layers has to be done in a reducing atmosphere. When being fired in a reducing atmosphere, however, the dielectric layers end up being reduced and becoming lower in resistivity. Therefore, non-reducing type of dielectric materials is being developed.
In multilayer ceramic capacitors using a nonreducing dielectric ceramic composition, insulation resistence (IR) remarkably deteriorates when an electric field is applied, more specifically, there is a disadvantage of short IR lifetime, or low reliabity.
There also arises a disadvantage that, when the dielectric composition is exposed to the direct-current electric field, a specific permittivity xcex5r declines over time. Also, a direct-current voltage can be superimposed on a capacitor and there is a disadvantage that when a direct-current voltage is applied to a capacitor having a dielectric composition wherein a strong dielectric composition is a main composition, a capacitance generally declines (DC bias characteristics). When a dielectric composition layer is made thinner in order to make a chip capacitor more compact and larger in capacitance, an electric field affecting the dielectric composition layer at the time of applying a direct-current voltage becomes strong, so the change of permittivity xcex5r over time, that is, the capacitance change over time becomes remarkably large and DC bias characteristics decline.
Further, a capacitor is also required to have excellent temperature characteristics. In particular, in some applications, it is desired that the temperature characteristics be smooth under harsh conditions. In recent years, multilayer ceramic capacitors have come into use for various types of electronic equipments such as the engine electronic control units (ECU), crank angle sensors, antilock brake system (ABS) modules, etc., mounted in engine compartments of automobiles. These types of electronic equipment are used for stabilizing engine control, drive control, and brake control, therefore they are required to have excellent circuit temperature stability.
These types of electronic equipment are used in the environment in which the temperature falls to as low as xe2x88x9220xc2x0 C. in the winter in cold areas or the temperature rises to as high as+130xc2x0 C. in the summer while an engine is working. Recently, there has been a trend toward reduction of the number of wire harnesses used for connecting electronic apparatuses and the controlled equipment. Electronic apparatuses are also being mounted outside of the vehicles in some cases. Therefore, the environment is becoming increasingly severe for electronic apparatuses. Accordingly, capacitors used for these electronic apparatuses have to have smooth temperature characteristics over a broad temperature range.
Temperature-compensating capacitor materials superior in temperature characteristics such as, (Sr, Ca)(Ti, Zr)O3 based, Ca(Ti, Zr) O3 based, Nd2O3-2TiO2 based, La2O3-2TiO2 based, and other materials are generally known, but these compositions have extremely low specific permittivities (generally 100 or less), so it is substantially impossible to produce a capacitor having large capacity.
To create dielectric ceramic compositions having the high permittivity and smooth capacitance-temperature characteristics, compositions comprised of BaTiO3 as a main component plus Nb2O5xe2x80x94Co3O4, MgOxe2x80x94Y, rare earth elements (Dy, Ho, etc.), Bi2O3xe2x80x94TiO2, etc. are known. A mechanism of smoothing the capacitance-temperature characteristic is not completely disclosed, but the Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 7-118431 proposes the way of smoothing the capacitance-temperature characteristic by dissolving Mg and rare earth elements inside a core-shell structure. However, in an article xe2x80x9cKey Engineering Materials Vols. 17 to 24, 157 to 158 (1999); A study on Capacitance Aging in Ni-Electroded, BaTiO2xe2x80x94Based MLCCs with X7R Characteristicsxe2x80x9d, it is reported that the core-shell structure is not essential to satisfy the X7R characteristic of the EIA Standards (xe2x88x9255 to 125xc2x0 C., xcex94C/C=xc2x115% or less).
Also, when looking at the temperature characteristics of a dielectric ceramic composition comprising BaTiO3 as a main component, because of the Curie temperature of pure BaTiO3 close to 130xc2x0 C., it is extremely difficult to satisfy the R characteristic of the capacitance-temperature characteristic (xcex94C/C=xc2x115% or less) in the region higher than 130xc2x0 C. Therefore, a BaTiO3 based high permittivity material can only satisfy the X7R characteristic of the EIA standard (xe2x88x9255 to 125xc2x0 C., AC/C=xc2x115% or less). Satisfaction of the X7R characteristic is not good enough to be used in an electronic apparatus of an automobile which is used in the above-mentioned harsh environments. The above electronic apparatus requires a dielectric ceramic composition satisfying the X8R characteristic of the EIA standard (xe2x88x9255 to 150xc2x0 C., xcex94C/C=+15% or less).
To satisfy the X8R characteristic in a dielectric ceramic composition comprised of BaTiO3 as a main component, it has been proposed to have the Curie temperature of the composition shift to the high temperature side by replacing the Ba in the BaTiO3 with Bi, Pb, etc. (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-25157 and No. 9-40465). Further, it has also been proposed to satisfy the X8R characteristic by selecting a BaTiO3+CaZrO3+ZnO+Nb2O5 based composition (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-295048, No. 4-292458, No. 4-292459, No. 5-109319, and No. 6-243721).
In each of these compositions, however, Pb, Bi, and Zn which are easily vaporized and scattered are used, so firing in the air or another oxidizing atmosphere is a prerequisite. Therefore, there are the problems that it is not possible to use an inexpensive base metal such as Ni for the internal electrodes of the capacitor and it is necessary to use Pd, Au, Ag, or other high priced precious metals.
On the other hand, to enable to attain the high permittivity, to satisfy the X8R characteristic and to be fired in a reducing atmosphere, the present inventors have already proposed a dielectric ceramic composition described below (The Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-154057). The dielectric ceramic composition at least comprises BaTiO3 as a main component, a first subcomponent including at least one compound selected from MgO, CaO, BaO, SrO and Cr2O3, a second component expressed by (Ba, Ca)x Sio2+x(note that x=0.8 to 1.2), a third subcomponent including at least one compound selected from V2O5, MoO3 and WO3 and a fourth subcomponent including an oxide of R1 (note that R1 is at least one element selected from Sc, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu). The ratios of the subcomponents to 100 moles of the main component are the first subcomponent: 0.1 to 3 moles, the second subcomponent: 2 to 10 moles, the third subcomponent: 0.01 to 0.5 moles and the fourth subcomponent: 0.5 to 7 moles (note that the number of moles of the fourth subcomponent is the ratio of R1 alone).
Also, the present inventors have proposed a dielectric ceramic composition described below recently (The Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-226862). The dielectric ceramic composition described in the filed specification comprises at least a main component including barium titanate, a first subcomponent including at least one compound selected from MgO, CaO, BaO, SrO and Cr2O3, a second subcomponent including silicon oxide, a third subcomponent including at least one compound selected from V2O5, MoO3 and WO3, a fourth subcomponent including an oxide of R1 (note that R1 is at least one element selected from Sc, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu), and a fifth subcomponent including CaZrO3 or CaO+ZrO2. The ratios of the subcomponents to 100 moles of the main component are the first subcomponent: 0.1 to 3 moles, the second subcomponent: 2 to 10 moles, the third subcomponent: 0.01 to 0.5 mole, the fourth subcomponent: 0.5 to 7 moles (note that the number of moles of the fourth subcomponent is the ratio of R1 alone), and the fifth subcomponent: 0 less than the fifth subcomponentxe2x89xa65 moles.
In any of the above inventions filed by the present inventors, the ratio of the first subcomponent such as MgO to 100 moles of the main component is not less than 0.1 mole.
The dielectric ceramic compositions of the above inventions filed by the present inventors are surely possible to attain the high permittivity, to satisfy the X8R characteristic, and to fire in a reducing atmosphere.
In the dielectric ceramic compositions of the above inventions, however, it was proved by the present inventors that when making a dielectric layer further thinner, it was difficult for the capacitance-temperature characteristic to satisfy the X8R characteristic and the insulation resistance lifetime was liable to decline. As to the capacitance-temperature characteristic, the capacitance change rate particularly on the high temperature side tends to increase, which is desired to be improved.
Also, among rare earth oxides, those including lanthanoids are high in price, so inexpensive substitutional elements capable of giving the same properties have been searched.
Furthermore, tendencies of higher integration and higher density of circuits have become increasingly stronger in recent years, and as a result, demands for compact and large capacitance capacitors have been increased. It has been demanded to make the dielectric layers inside further thinner.
An object of the present invention is to provide a dielectric ceramic composition having a high permittivity, capable of maintaining an insulation resistance lifetime, having a capacitance-temperature characteristic satisfying the X8R characteristic of the EIA standard (xe2x88x9255 to 150xc2x0 C., xcex94C/C=xc2x115% or less), able to be fired in a reducing atmosphere. Another object of the present invention is to provide a multilayer ceramic capacitor and other electronic devices using the dielectric ceramic composition, capable of realizing more compact body and larger capacitance, particularly with thinner layers.
To attain the above object, a dielectric ceramic composition according to the present invention comprises:
a main component including barium titanate,
a first subcomponent including an oxide of AE (note that AE is at least one element selected from Mg, Ca, Ba and Sr), and a second subcomponent including an oxide of R (note that R is at least one element selected from Y, Dy, Ho and Er),
wherein ratios of the subcomponents to 100 moles of the main component are
the first subcomponent: 0 mole less than the first subcomponent less than 0.1 mole, and the second subcomponent: 1 mole less than the second subcomponent less than 7 moles.
Preferably, ratios of the subcomponents to 100 moles of the main component are, the first subcomponent: 0.01 mole less than the first subcomponent less than 0.1 mole, and the second subcomponent: 1 mole less than the second subcomponentxe2x89xa66 moles.
Preferably, the ratio of the number of moles of the second subcomponent to the number of moles of the first subcomponent (the second subcomponent/the first subcomponent) is 10 less than (the second subcomponent/the first subcomponent) less than 500.
Preferably, the dielectric ceramic composition further comprises a sixth subcomponent including CaZrO3 or CaO+ZrO2, and a ratio of the sixth subcomponent to 100 moles of the main component is 0 mole less than the sixth subcomponent less than 5 moles.
Preferably, the dielectric ceramic composition further comprises a third subcomponent including MxSiO3 (note that M is at least one element selected from Ba, Ca, Sr, Li and B, x=1 when M=Ba, x=1 when M=Ca, X=1 when M=Sr, X=2 when M=Li, and X=⅔ when M=B), and a ratio of the third subcomponent to 100 moles of the main component is 2 molesxe2x89xa6the third subcomponentxe2x89xa610 moles.
Preferably, the dielectric ceramic composition further comprises a fourth subcomponent including at least one compound of MnO and Cr2O3, and a ratio of the fourth subcomponent to 100 moles of the main component is 0 mole less than the fourth subcomponentxe2x89xa60.5 mole.
Preferably, the dielectric ceramic composition further comprises a fifth subcomponent including at least one compound selected from V2O5, MoO3 and WO3, and a ratio of the fifth subcomponent to 100 moles of the main component is 0.01 molexe2x89xa6the fifth subcomponentxe2x89xa60.5 mole.
An electronic device according to the present invention is not particularly limited as far as it is an electronic device having a dielectric layer. An example is a multilayer ceramic capacitor element having a capacitor element body wherein dielectric layers and internal electrode layers are alternately stacked. In the present invention, the dielectric layer is comprised of any of the above dielectric ceramic compositions. A conductive material contained in the internal electrode layers is not particularly limited, for example, Ni or Ni alloy. In the present invention, the effect is large particularly when a thickness of the dielectric layer is less than about 10 xcexcm.
Operation and Effect of the Invention
The dielectric ceramic composition according to the present invention has a high specific permittivity and a capacitance-temperature characteristic satisfying the X8R characteristic of the EIA standard. Therefore, the ceramic chip capacitor and other electronic devices using the dielectric ceramic composition of the present invention can be preferably used in an environment of being exposed to a high temperature such as an engine room of vehicles.
Also, the dielectric ceramic composition according to the present invention does not include elements which vaporize and scatter, such as Pb, Bi and Zn. Therefore, firing in a reducing atmosphere is possible.
Namely, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a dielectric ceramic composition having a high specific permittivity, capable of maintaining an insulation resistance lifetime, having a capacitance-temperature characteristic satisfying the X8R characteristic of the EIA standard, and able to be fired in a reducing atmosphere.
When producing an electronic device such as a ceramic chip capacitor by using the dielectric ceramic composition of the present invention, Ni, Ni alloy and other base metals can be used as an internal electrode, so a low-cost electronic device can be realized. Moreover, even if the dielectric ceramic composition is fired in a reducing atmosphere, an electronic device to be obtained satisfies the X8R characteristic, wherein a capacitance aging characteristic under an application of a direct current electric field is preferable (namely, a change of the capacitance over time is small), a decline of an insulation resistance is small and reliability is high.
Namely, since an electronic device, such as a multilayer ceramic capacitor, having dielectric layers composed of the dielectric ceramic composition of the present invention can provide a stable operation in a variety of apparatuses used under severe environments, such as an electronic apparatus of vehicles, reliability of the apparatuses to which the electronic device is applied can be remarkably improved.
As explained above, the dielectric composition of the present invention can be expected to give an effect also as a method of suppressing a decline of a temperature change rate in a high temperature range caused by making the dielectric layers thinner.
Furthermore, the dielectric ceramic composition according to the present invention has a long insulation resistance lifetime, and moreover, it has a stable DC bias characteristic (dependence on direct current voltage application of the permittivity) and a TC bias characteristic (a capacitance-temperature characteristic on applying a direct current voltage).
Also, since the dielectric ceramic composition according to the present invention does not comprise any hazardous substances, such as Pb and Bi, adverse effects on an environment due to disposal and processing after use are small.
Accordingly, by using the dielectric ceramic composition of the present invention, multilayer ceramic capacitors and other electronic devices having excellent characteristics can be easily provided. Also, by using the dielectric ceramic composition according to the present invention, the X8R characteristic can be satisfied and a decline of an insulation resistance lifetime can be effectively prevented even if dielectric layers are made thinner. Thus, multilayer ceramic capacitors and other electronic devices having a more compact body and a larger capacitance can be realized, particularly by making dielectric layers further thinner. As a result, mounting those devices on highly integrated circuits can become easier.
In a dielectric ceramic composition of the related art, there was a tendency that a capacitance-temperature characteristic particularly on the high temperature side declines as the dielectric layer becomes thinner. Namely, the curve of the change rate of the capacitance-temperature at a high temperature side tends to approach to the clockwise direction. On the other hand, according to the present invention, it is possible to make the curve of the capacitance-temperature change rate on the high temperature side approach to the anticlockwise direction. When applying the phenomenon to an electronic device satisfying the X7R characteristic, a dielectric layer can be made furthermore thinner than in the related art.
As an electronic device according to the invention is not particularly limited. A multilayer ceramic capacitor, a piezoelectric element, a chip inductor, a chip varistor, a chip thermister, a chip resistance and other surface mounted chip electronic devices can be mentioned as examples.

Dielectric ceramic composition and electronic device


A mask assembly includes a mask frame, the mask frame having an opening and a frame surrounding the opening, a pattern mask on the mask frame, the pattern mask including a pattern portion having at least one pattern overlapping the opening and a welding portion attached to the frame, and at least one support bar crossing the opening and attached to the pattern mask.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a mask assembly and a deposition apparatus for a flat panel display using the same. More particularly, example embodiments relate to a mask assembly and a deposition apparatus for a flat panel display using the same that are capable of preventing deformation of a pattern of the mask assembly due to the weight of a substrate during a deposition process and improving deposition precision.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat panel display devices have been used as alternative display devices for cathode ray tube display devices due to their lightweight and slim characteristics. Examples of flat panel display devices may include liquid crystal display devices (LCDs), organic light emitting diode (OLED) display devices, and so forth. Among the flat panel display devices, e.g., the OLED display devices may have better brightness and larger viewing angle than the LCDs and may have a super-slim structure due to removal of a backlight unit.
The OLED display device may operate using a phenomenon in which an electron injected from a cathode into an organic thin film may be re-coupled with a hole injected from an anode to form an exciton. A specific waveform of light may be generated from the exciton energy to realize images. The OLED display device may include OLEDs having R, G and B organic emission layers in order to display full-color.
In order to selectively form a cathode, an anode, an organic thin film, etc., on a substrate of a conventional OLED display device, e.g., formed of glass, stainless steel or synthetic resin, a photolithography method or a deposition method may be used. For example, in the photolithography method, a photoresist may be applied to a certain region of the substrate, followed by wet-etching or dry-etching thereof to form predetermined patterns on the substrate. However, in the photolithography method, moisture may be introduced into the photoresist during a photoresist separation process or an etching process. Therefore, the organic thin film of the OLED display device may deteriorate due to the moisture in the photoresist.
In another example, in the deposition method, a mask assembly having a pattern including a plurality of slits may be aligned on the substrate, followed by material deposition, e.g., organic light emission layers emitting R, G and B colors deposited in a predetermined pattern, onto the substrate through the slits. However, in a conventional deposition apparatus for a flat panel display device using a conventional mask assembly, a center portion of the substrate may be bent toward the mask assembly due to weight of the substrate during the deposition process. As such, the pattern mask of the mask assembly may be pressed by the substrate and may be deformed, thereby causing inaccurate alignment and deposition of material on the substrate.

Mask assembly and deposition and apparatus for a flat panel display using the same


An agricultural vehicle crop feeder system having housings defining a crop passage, a conveyor assembly, a rotor, a guide plate, and one or more guide vanes extending from the guide plate. The conveyor assembly propels crop material along a feeder flow direction to the rotor. The rotor has inlet vanes that receive the crop material in a receiving region located below the rotor's axis. The leading edges of the rotor inlet vanes travel towards the receiving region on a first transverse side of the rotor axis and away from the receiving region on a second transverse side of the rotor axis. The guide plate is adjacent the receiving region. The guide vane extends into the crop passage on the first side of the rotor axis, and angled relative to the flow direction with its trailing edge closer to the first rotor axis, in the transverse direction, than the leading edge.

Agricultural combines are machines that gather crop materials and separate the desirable crop (grain, seeds, etc.) from the discardable material (straw, tailings, etc.). To do so, the combine typically collects all of the crop materials using a system including a header and a feeder. The header gathers a wide swath of material from the ground, and moves the material towards the feeder. The feeder conveys the consolidated crop materials to the threshing and separating system, which separates the desirable crop from the remaining material.
In a typical axial flow combine system, the threshing and separating system has a rotor that spins about a rotor axis that is aligned along the length of the combine. The inlet to the rotor faces the outlet of the feeder, and the rotor includes helical inlet vanes that receive the crop material and push it backwards towards the rest of the rotor. The feeder typically comprises a conveyor assembly that ends at a location vertically below the rotor axis, and extends across the width of the rotor at that location. The conveyor assembly carries the crop material in a parallel flow and ejects it across the width of the helical inlet vanes at the entrance location, in a manner referred to as "face feeding."
This description of the background is provided to assist with an understanding of the following explanations of exemplary embodiments, and is not an admission that any or all of this background information is necessarily prior art.


A liquid detergent composition comprising certain .beta.-aminoalkylboronic acids or esters (see compound structure below) as protease inhibitors, protease, and detersive surfactant is presented.

Protease-containing liquid detergent compositions are well known. A commonly encountered problem, particularly with heavy duty liquid laundry detergents, is the degradation by protease enzyme of second enzymes in the composition, such as lipase, amylase and cellulase. The performance of the second enzyme upon storage and its stability in product are thus impaired by the presence of protease in the liquid detergent product.
Boronic acids are known to reversibly inhibit protease. This inhibition of protease by boronic acid is reversible upon dilution, as occurs in wash water.
It is difficult to find an effective reversible protease inhibitor which is stable over time in a liquid detergent product. A search for a boronic acid which is a good reversible serine protease inhibitor and does not lose efficacy in product over time has now led to the synthesis of a novel compound of the structure described below. A new method for synthesizing .beta.-aminoalkyl and .beta.-N-peptidylaminoalkylboronic acids is also described below. Lastly, a new use for the subject compound or its derivatives as an effective serine protease inhibitor in a liquid detergent composition containing serine protease is described below.
Certain boronic acids are cited as subtilisin inhibitors in Phillip, M. and Bender, M. L., "Kinetics of Subtilisin and Thiosubtilisin", Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, vol. 51, pp. 5-32 (1983), and in Phillip, M. and S. Maripuri, "Inhibition of Subtilisin by Substituted Arylboronic Acids", FEBS Letters, vol. 133(1), pp. 36-38 (October, 1981). Many of these inhibitors, however, are arylboronic acids, which owing to protodeboronation may not be stable under the slightly alkaline conditions found in many liquid detergents. It is believed that alkylboronic acids, particularly those with atoms other than hydrogen on the .alpha. carbon, may not possess the desired stability due to autoxidation as discussed by Johnson, J., Van Campen, M., and Grummitt, O., Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 60, 111-115 (1938).
Known synthetic routes to prepare boronic acid compounds have been reviewed by D. Matteson in The Chemistry of the Metal Carbon Bond, vol. 4, chapter 3, pp. 307-409, edited by F. Hartley (1987) and in Tetrahedron, vol. 45, pp. 1859-1885 (1989). Most of the references cited in Matteson's review articles and in the review on the use of catecholborane by C. Lane and G. Kabalka, Tetrahedron, vol. 32, pp. 981-990 (1976) are to the hydroboronation of olefins that lack heteroatom substitution. A reference could be found that leads to the formation of a boronic acid possessing the nitrogen heteroatom two carbons removed (i.e. .beta.) from boron. This work was reported by Butler, D. and Soloway, A., Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 88, pp. 484-487 (1966). These authors demonstrated that it was possible to form .beta.-ureidoethyl and .beta.-carbamidoehylboronic acids from the corresponding N-vinyl urethan, and N-vinyl urea in three steps by hydroboration with borane followed by oxidation and hydrolysis. Later, Dicko, A., Montruy, M., and Baboulene, M. published on the formation of .gamma.-aminoboronic acids in Synthesis Communications, vol. 18, pp. 459-463 (1988). Synthesis of .alpha.-N-peptidylaminoboronic acids is described in EP 0293-881, Kettner, published Dec. 7, 1988.
The novel compounds and method of synthesis herein have not yet been described, nor have liquid laundry detergents containing them.

Liquid detergent compositions containing protease and certain .beta.-aminoalkylboronic acids and esters


A current collector in which, even in the case of using a copper substrate, an electroconductive layer comprising a thermoplastic resin and an electroconductive material and covering the copper substrate provides the same positive temperature coefficient resistance function as the case of using an aluminum substrate. The current collector may comprise: a copper substrate comprising a copper oxide layer that an average content of an oxygen element present within a thickness of 1.0 μm or less from a surface of the copper substrate, is 10.5 at % or more, and a positive temperature coefficient resistance layer comprising a thermoplastic resin and an electroconductive material and covering the copper oxide layer of the copper substrate.

A battery that is used as an in-vehicle power source or as a power source of personal computers and mobile devices, may be overheated when it is inappropriately used (e.g., short-circuit, overcharging) and may have a negative influence on the battery itself or on a device using the battery. Especially, with the advancement of technology, recent batteries have higher energy density and generate a large amount of heat. Therefore, measures against the inappropriate use of the batteries are very important.
A nonaqueous secondary battery is disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the battery comprising a current collector which has a positive temperature coefficient resistor function that increases a resistance value when the battery is heated to more than a predetermined temperature, and in which a surface thereof is covered with an electroconductive layer comprising a crystalline thermoplastic resin, an electroconductive material and a binder.
In "EXAMPLES" in Patent Literature 1, there is a description of batteries produced by use of aluminum and copper expand metals as the cathode and anode current collectors, respectively.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-357854

Current collector, battery and methods for producing the same


An electrical switchgear device includes a conductor, a base, and a current sensor positioned to detect current in the conductor and attached to the base using a support element. The device also includes an apparatus mounted to the base to interrupt current through the conductor when a signal from the current sensor indicates a predetermined condition. A housing positioned on the base encapsulates the current sensor, the support element, the current interrupting apparatus, and a portion of the conductor.

This invention relates to current sensors used in electrical switchgear.
Current sensors are used in the electric power industry to measure current flowing in electrical systems. In particular, current sensors may be used in electrical switchgear such as circuit breakers, reclosers, and switches to determine when a fault has occurred in the electrical system.
In one general aspect, an electrical switchgear device includes a conductor, a base, and a current sensor positioned to detect current in the conductor and attached to the base using a support element. The device also includes an apparatus mounted to the base to interrupt current through the conductor when a signal from the current sensor indicates a predetermined condition. A housing positioned on the base encapsulates the current sensor, the support element, the current interrupting apparatus, and the conductor.
Embodiments may include one or more of the following features. The housing may include a solid insulating material. The support element may include a rigid tube. The support element may be bent at an end coupled to the current sensor. The bent end of the support element may include a support strip shaped to match a curvature of the current sensor.
The current sensor may include a sensor conductor that produces a signal. The support element may be hollowxe2x80x94in this case, the sensor conductor is drawn through the support element to control circuitry. The sensor conductor and the support element may be hermetically sealed. The support element may be hermetically sealed to the base.
The support element may be metallic or non-metallic. In either case, the support element may be coated with a semi-conductive paint.
The housing may encapsulate the current sensor, the support element, the current interrupting apparatus, and the conductor such that there is no dielectric interface between the current sensor and the conductor.
In another general aspect, a method of producing an electrical switchgear device includes securing a support element to a current sensor. The current sensor is mounted relative to a main conductor by securing the support element to a surface of a mold that houses a current interrupter and a portion of the conductor. A prepared material is injected into the mold to encapsulate the support element, the current sensor, the conductor, and the current interrupter. The injected material is permitted to solidify to form a housing.
Embodiments may include one or more of the following features. The support element may be secured to the current sensor by drawing sensor conductors from the current sensor through a hollow passage of the support element. The support element may be secured to the current sensor by bending a first end of the support element and attaching to the first end a support strip shaped to match a curvature of the current sensor. The support element may be secured to the current sensor by securing the support strip to the current sensor.
The support element may be secured to the surface of the mold by connecting a second end of the support element to a post positioned at the surface of the mold. The second end of the support element may be connected to the post by hermetically sealing the second end to the post. The second end of the support element may be connected to the post by drawing sensor conductors from the current sensor through a hollow passage of the post. The method may include removing the mold from the housing and securing the housing to a tank that houses additional components.
The electrical switchgear exhibits improved overall dielectric performance because all of the components are encased into a single housing with no dielectric interfaces. Moreover, the electrical switchgear exhibits a longer life because of reduced failure associated with dielectric breakdown at interfaces. Manufacturing of the electrical switchgear is more economical due to simplification of the current sensor design.
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.


The invented system can be utilized as supplementary system for the intercom systems, when the inhabitant does not answer. This system links visitor to the inhabitant regardless of his/her location, via telephone line in activate mode, and provide possibility of remote door opening or telecommunication. The invented system consists of an electronic circuit board, LCD monitor, keypad, SIM card slot and telephone and power ports, which can accompany audio/video door intercom externally or can be used to make a unique indoor intercom and provide ever replying and opening the door possible for the inhabitant from any place.

The existing door opening systems usually consist of two sections: indoor intercom and outdoor intercom, which are connected with or without wires. In these systems, after ringing doorbell by a visitor, outdoor intercom will be linked to indoor intercom and the inhabitant can have Audio or Audio/Video communication with the visitor, depending on the audio/video features available in the system and can open the door by indoor intercom, if necessary. In the absence of inhabitant, obviously the system lost its capacities. In this case, the visitor usually leaves a note or inquiries about the location and the returning time of the inhabitant from adjacent doors and finally leaves the place without any results. In these systems, the inhabitant will only be informed on visitors when he/she is physically present in the place, Therefore in his/her absence can't be informed on people going to visit him/her.
On the other hands, the necessary of access to indoor intercom makes it difficult for disable or elderly people to use, even while they present at the home.
Other major disadvantage of these systems is the shortage of security level of the estate, because when a thief rings the doorbell and doesn't receive a reply, it ensures him/her that nobody presents and the estate is empty.

Infinite-range remote controlled intercom system


Systems and methods are disclosed for improving optical spectrum fidelity of an integrated computational element fabricated on a substrate. The integrated computational element is configured, upon completion, to process an optical spectrum representing a chemical constituent of a production fluid from a wellbore. The systems and methods measure in situ a thickness, a complex index of refraction, or both of a film formed during fabrication to generate a predicted optical spectrum. The predicted optical spectrum is compared to a target optical spectrum. Revisions to a design of the integrated computational element are conducted in situ to improve optical spectrum fidelity relative to the target optical spectrum. Other systems and methods are presented.

In producing fluids from an oil and gas well, it is often advantageous to learn as much about the fluids in the well as possible. In recent times, more and more information is being developed by downhole instruments and tools. Still, additional information and improvements are desired. Quick analysis of other fluids is desirable in other situations.

Systems and methods to improve optical spectrum fidelity in integrated computational elements


A surface cleaning apparatus has a cleaning unit that is mounted on a wheeled base.

Various types of surface cleaning apparatuses are known in the art. Such surface cleaning apparatuses include vacuum cleaners, including upright vacuum cleaners, hand-carryable vacuum cleaners, canister type vacuum cleaners, and shop-vac type vacuum cleaners. Some such vacuum cleaners are provided with wheels. For example, typical upright vacuum cleaners are provided with a surface cleaning head that includes wheels mounted to a bottom surface thereof. Upright vacuum cleaner are easy for a consumer to use since the consumer does not have to carry the vacuum cleaner but merely push it over a surface. However, depending on the size of the surface cleaning head, an upright vacuum cleaner may not be useable in smaller or crowded areas. Canister vacuum cleaners have a flexibly hose extending between a surface cleaning head and the canister body, thereby improving mobility of the cleaning head. However, consumers must separately move a canister body, which can add an extra step during the cleaning process.


A system and method for coupling read data signals and write data signals through I/O lines of a memory array. Precharge circuits precharge alternating signal lines to high and low precharge voltages. An accelerate high circuit coupled to each of the I/O lines that has been precharged low detects an increase in the voltage of the I/O line above the precharge low voltage. The accelerate high circuit then drives the I/O line toward a high voltage, such as VCC. Similarly, an accelerate low circuit coupled to each of the I/O lines that has been precharged high detects a decrease in the voltage of the I/O line below the precharge high voltage. The accelerate low circuit then drives the I/O line to a low voltage, such as ground.

This invention relates to digital systems, such as dynamic random access memories (xe2x80x9cDRAMsxe2x80x9d), and, more particularly to an accelerator system and method for more quickly coupling digital signals though capacitive signal lines.
The speed at which digital signals can be coupled between two nodes of a signal line is a function of the capacitance and resistance of the signal line and the distance between the two nodes. Digital signals can be coupled through signal lines that have a high resistance and a high capacitance relatively slowly, and therefore may incur a significant signal propagation delay particularly if the propagation path is long.
These signal propagation delays can be particularly troublesome in memory devices. On the one hand, it is important for memory bandwidth that signals be coupled with as little propagation delay as possible. On the other hand, it is important that memory devices be as compact as possible so that a large number can be produced on each wafer. Making memory devices compact not only minimizes the cost of the memory devices, but it also reduces propagation delays by keeping the distance between nodes be as short as possible. Yet a compact design can be achieved only by making conductors as thin as possible, thus making their resistance relatively high, and placing the conductors as close as possible to other conductors and circuit components, thus making their capacitance relatively high. For these reasons, there is a practical limit to the degree to which signal propagation delays can be reduced.
One application in which signal propagation delay is particularly problematic is coupling data signals through input/output (xe2x80x9cI/Oxe2x80x9d) or read/write (xe2x80x9cR/Wxe2x80x9d) lines extending though memory banks in a DRAM. With reference to FIG. 1, several memory banks 100, in this example, eight memory banks 100(1)-100(8), are fabricated on a semiconductor substrate 104. Each of the memory banks 100 includes two rows of memory cell arrays 108, 110 which, in this example, each contain 32 memory cell arrays 108(1)-108(32) and 110(1)-110(32). The memory cells (not shown) in each array 108, 110 are selectively coupled to column circuits 114 adjacent each of the arrays 108, 110. Each of the column circuits 114 includes a sense amplifier 116 for each column in the memory array and a column decoder 118. The sense amplifier 116 determines the voltage to which a memory cell that is coupled to the sense amplifier 116 is charged and outputs a corresponding data bit. The column decoder 118 decodes a column address and selects one of the sense amplifiers corresponding to the decoded column address. A data bit is then coupled from the selected sense amplifiers 116 in each array 108, 110 to a respective I/O line 120. Therefore, since there are 32 arrays 108, 110 in each of two rows, there are a total of 64 I/O lines 120, and each memory read access produces 64 bits of read data.
The column decoders 118 and I/O lines 120 are also used for write accesses. In a write access, 64 bits of write data are coupled through the I/O lines 120, and the column decoders 120 couple one bit of write data to a column of memory cells in each of the arrays 108, 120. The I/O lines 120 are therefore bi-directional since they are used to couple read data from the arrays 108, 110 and write data to the arrays 108, 110.
The rate at which memory read and write accesses can occur depends, at least in part, on the rate at which data bits can be coupled through the I/O lines 120. For a memory write, the 64 write data bits are coupled to the I/O lines 120 at substantially the same time. However, the memory write cannot be completed until a write data bit has been coupled all of the way to the farthest arrays 108(1), 110(1). Similarly, in a memory read, the 64 read data bits are coupled from the column decoders 118 to the I/O lines 120 at substantially the same time. But the read data cannot be coupled to other circuits until a read data bit has been coupled from the farthest arrays 108(1), 110(1). The increasing capacity of memory arrays 108, 110 and the increasing number of arrays 108, 110 in each bank, which is required to increase the storage capacity of memory devices, results in ever longer I/O lines 120. These longer I/O lines threaten to limit the memory bandwidth of memory devices.
The manner in which a digital signal is delayed as it is coupled through a capacitive signal line will be apparent from the graph shown in FIG. 2 in which time is plotted along the horizontal axis and signal level is plotted along the vertical axis. At time T0, one node of the signal line quickly transitions from low to high to produce the signal 130. However, because of the capacitance and resistance of the signal line, the line must be charged by the signal 130. As a result, the signal 130 produces a signal 134 at a distant node that increases much more slowly than the signal 130. If a circuit (not shown) coupled to the distant node detects a level transition at a transition voltage level VTRANS, the circuit will not detect the transition of the signal 130 until T1. Thus, the signal 130 is propagated between the two nodes with a propagation delay of T1. As mentioned above, such delays can be problematic in memory devices, such as in coupling signals through the I/O lines 120.
In the past, various attempts have been made to increase the speed at which digital signals are coupled through signal lines other than by altering the electrical properties of the signal lines. For example, one or more repeaters, such as inverters, have been coupled in series with the signal line to reduce the delay in detecting a signal transition. The manner in which an inverter can reduce propagation delays can be seen from the graph of FIG. 3. At time T0, one node of the signal line again quickly transitions from low to high to produce the signal 130. Again, the signal 130 must charge the line because of its capacitance. However, two inverters (not shown) are coupled to the signal line at first and second nodes that are one-third and two-thirds, respectively, the distance to a node where the signal 134 was produced in the example of FIG. 2. A signal 140 at the first node where the first inverter was located, a signal 144 at the second node where the second inverter was located, and a signal 148 at the node where the signal was produced in FIG. 2 are shown in FIG. 3 (this example ignores the inverting nature of the signal for purposes of clarity). Although the signals 140, 144 still initially increase relatively slowly, as soon as they reaches the threshold of the respective inverter they quickly transitions from low-to-high. As a result, the signal 148 increases faster than the signal 130 shown in FIG. 2, and it therefore reaches the transition voltage level VTRANS at time T2, which is an earlier time than the time T1, that the signal 134 reached the voltage level VTRANS.
Although inverters can reduce signal line propagation delays, the use of inverters can create other problems. For example, inverters convert what would otherwise be bi-directional signal lines to unidirectional signal lines so that twice as many signal lines are required to couple signals in two directions. The use of inverters, for example, would require that the 64 I/O lines 120 used in each memory bank 100 in the example of FIG. 1 be increased to 128 I/O lines 120. However, doing so would only serve to make the memory banks 100 less compact and/or the signal lines even closer together, thereby tending to increase signal propagation delays.
Another approach to reducing signal propagation delay in I/O lines 120 is to bias or equilibrate the lines at the midpoint of the voltages of the signals coupled through the lines. For example, the I/O lines 120 can be equilibrated to VCC/2, where the signals coupled through the signals lines will transition between VCC and zero volts. Equilibrating the I/O lines to VCC/2 reduces signal propagation delay because the voltage in each signal line must transition only half of the voltage between zero volts and VCC. In contrast, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the voltage in the signal line must transition between almost 100% of the two voltage levels of the signal coupled through the line. While biasing the I/O lines 120 to VCC/2 can reduce signal propagation delay, it requires additional circuitry and complexity, and it only marginally reduces signal propagation delay.
Still another approach to reducing signal propagation delays is to couple xe2x80x9caccelerator circuitsxe2x80x9d to the signal lines at spaced apart locations. Accelerator circuits are circuits that have both an input and an output coupled to the signal lines so that the signal lines remain bi-directional. Accelerator circuits therefore do not have the disadvantage of inverters, which require doubling the number of signal lines to couple signals in both directions. Examples of accelerator circuits are shown and described in an article by Dobbelaere et al. entitled xe2x80x9cRegenerative Feedback Repeaters for Programmable Interconnectionsxe2x80x9d, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 30, No. 11, November 1995, and in an article by Wu et al., entitled xe2x80x9cDelay Models and Speed Improvement Techniques for RC Tree Interconnections Among Small-Geometry CMOS Invertersxe2x80x9d, IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. 25, No. 5, October 1990. Although conventional accelerator circuit can reduce signal propagation delays without producing the disadvantages of inverter, they nevertheless still require a significant delay period before they can react to a signal translation at a distant node because of the time required to drive the signal line to the transition voltage level VTRANS of the accelerator circuit.
Although the problem of signal propagation delays in memory device signal lines had been primarily explained with reference to the I/O lines 120 shown in FIG. 1, the problem is not limited to signal propagation delays in these lines. For example, address lines are generally numerous and fairly long so propagation delays in these lines also adversely affect the performance of memory devices. Other examples will be apparent to one skilled in the art. Digital signal propagation delays are also a problem in digital system other than memory devices.
There is therefore a need for an accelerator circuit and method that can be more effective than conventional accelerators in reducing signal propagation delays, particularly in memory devices and particularly in relatively long signal lines like I/O lines and address lines.
A system and method of accelerating the coupling of digital signals through respective signal lines precharges each of the signal lines. Alternating signal lines are preferably precharged to respective high and low voltages so that each signal line precharged to a high voltage is adjacent signal lines that have been precharged to a low voltage, and vice-versa. After the signal lines have been precharged, the system and method detects whether the voltage of the signal line has changed from the precharged voltage. In response to detecting that the voltage of the signal line has changed, the system and method drives the signal line toward a voltage that increases the voltage change. Where alternating signal lines are precharged to respective high and low voltages, the signal lines precharged to a low voltage are driven to a high voltage and the signal lines precharge to a high voltage are driven to a low voltage. As a result, any coupling from one signal line to an adjacent signal line tends to change the voltage of the signal line in a manner opposite the detected change. The system and method is particularly useful for accelerating the coupling of digital signals in memory devices, such as read data and write data signals coupled through I/O lines in a memory array.

Method and system for accelerating coupling of digital signals


An attachment for a vacuum cleaning appliance, the attachment including a head divided into a first rotatable member and a second rotatable member, each rotatable member comprising means for sweeping dirt from a surface, a conduit connectable to a vacuum cleaning appliance for conveying an air flow from the head towards the appliance, a drive mechanism for rotating the head about a first axis while simultaneously rotating the first rotatable member about a second axis and the second rotatable member about a third axis, each of the second axis and the third axis being angled to the first axis, and means for dislodging dirt from the sweeping means with rotation of the head about the first axis so that dislodged dirt may become entrained within the air flow.

A vacuum cleaner typically comprises a main body containing dirt and dust separating apparatus, a cleaner head connected to the main body and having a suction opening, and a motor-driven fan unit for drawing dirt-bearing air through the suction opening. The suction opening is directed downwardly to face the floor surface to be cleaned. The dirt-bearing air is conveyed to the separating apparatus so that dirt and dust can be separated from the air before the air is expelled to the atmosphere. The separating apparatus can take the form of a filter, a filter bag or, as is known, a cyclonic arrangement.
Vacuum cleaners generally include cylinder, or canister, cleaners, upright cleaners and hand-held cleaners. A cylinder vacuum cleaner includes a main body supported by a set of wheels which is dragged along a floor surface by a hose and wand assembly extending between the main body and the cleaner head. The cleaner head is generally releasably attached to the end of the wand remote from the main body. An upright vacuum cleaner typically comprises a main body, a pair of wheels mounted on the main body for maneuvering the vacuum cleaner over a floor surface to be cleaned, and a cleaner head mounted on the main body. In use, a user reclines the main body of the upright vacuum cleaner towards the floor surface, and then sequentially pushes and pulls a handle which is attached to the main body to manoeuvre the vacuum cleaner over the floor surface. Upright vacuum cleaners are often also provided with a hose and wand assembly connected to the main body through which air can be drawn into the vacuum cleaner, and a changeover valve which is moveable to connect either the hose and wand assembly or the cleaner head to the fan unit depending on whether the main body is in an upright or reclined position. This enables an upright vacuum cleaner to be used in the manner of a cylinder cleaner.
A range of cleaning tools is often supplied with all types of vacuum cleaner so that a user can choose an appropriate tool for their cleaning task. These tools generally include crevice tools and brush tools. These tools can be attached to the hose and wand assembly of a cylinder or upright vacuum cleaner, or to the suction opening of a hand-held vacuum cleaner.
It is also known to provide a rotating brush tool for attachment to the hose of a vacuum cleaner. For example, the brush tool described in DE 19848787 comprises a tubular housing which is connected at one open end to the hose, and has a brush protruding from the other open end of the housing. The brush is located on one end of a shaft extending along the longitudinal axis of the housing. A turbine connected to the other end of the shaft is rotated by an air flow generated by the vacuum cleaner which passes through the housing. During use, dust and other detritus dislodged from a surface by the rotating brush can become entrained within the air flow and conveyed to the main body of the vacuum cleaner.
A problem associated with this sort of brush tool is that dust and detritus can become trapped between the fibres of the brush, resulting in the tool becoming rapidly clogged with dirt and dust. As a result, the rate of capture of dirt and dust from the surfaces to be cleaned can reduce rapidly during use of the tool. This trapped dust can only be released from the brush by subsequent manual agitation of the brush fibres following the completion of a cleaning process, releasing dust and detritus back into the atmosphere to re-settle on surfaces. Also, depending on the speed of the rotation of the brush dirt can be flung outwardly from the brush at such a velocity that it does not become entrained within the air flow generated by the vacuum cleaner.

Attachment for a vacuum cleaning appliance


Ionizable congeners of aromatic and aliphatic alcohols provide potent cytoprotective properties in vivo and in vitro. Alpha-tocopherol succinate, cholesteryl succinate, cholesteryl sulfate, dihydrocholesterol succinate, dihydrocholesterol sulfate, and ergosterol analogs are particularly good cytoprotective agents. In addition, the tris salts of these compounds have superior cytoprotective properties.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention generally relates to preventing cell injury and death and, more particularly, to administering ionizable congeners of aromatic and aliphatic alcohols to animals for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes including preventing carcinogenesis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general terms, cell injury is characterized by changes in cellular metabolic performance and alterations in cellular structure. Cell injury is assumed to be reversible upon termination of the insult or by the addition of a cytoprotective agent during the early stages; however, if the insult continues unchecked, the cell becomes non-functional and unrecoverable. Irreversible cell injury equates to cell death.
The pathological and physiological consequences of cell injury affect the functional and structural integrity of tissue and organ systems as well as the organism itself. Both endogenous and exogenous "insults"can cause cell injury. Endogenous insults are cellular factors, and they include the formation of reactive intermediates (i.e., oxygen free radicals generated during cellular electron transport processes), reduction in oxygen tension (i.e., in ischemia), and stimulation of inflammatory and immune processes. Exogenous insults are environmental factors, and they include exposure to drugs or chemicals, physical stimuli (i.e., radiation), or biological hazards (i.e., viruses).
Recent studies suggest that endogenous and exogenous insults cause cellular injury predominantly by generating reactive intermediates such as free radicals. The majority of reactive intermediates formed during cell or tissue injury are oxygen free radicals such as superoxide anion, hydroxyl free radical, or singlet oxygen and reactive oxygen containing compounds such as hydrogen peroxide. Once formed, both chemical and oxygen derived free radicals can react with a variety of cellular constituents including proteins, nucleic acids, and membrane lipids.
Cells contain endogenous protective systems to ensure viability and promote metabolic performance. For example, alpha-tocopherol is a free radical scavenger present in cellular membranes which binds free radicals in the cell. Alpha-tocopherol, which is often referred to as Vitamin E, is believed to protect against a variety of pathological processes including carcinogenesis, aging, chemical-induced toxicity, radiation-induced toxicity, ischemia-induced damage, and atherosclerosis. Alpha-tocopherol is not synthesized in mammalian cells, but rather, is derived from exogenous sources. Because unesterfied alpha-tocopherol is readily degraded when exposed to oxygen in the air, an ester derivative of alpha-tocopherol (alpha-tocopheryl acetate), is commonly used to provide a stable dosage form of alpha-tocopherol. Cellular esterases release the alpha-tocopherol in the cell by degrading the ester linkage.
The administration of succinate in high concentrations can protect cells from a variety of toxic insults. Providing the cell with additional quantities of succinate, a substrate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle, can result in energy production from oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis which produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and result in glucose production from gluconeogenesis. Kondrashova et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 109:376 (1982), reported that the addition of 6 mM succinate to isolated rat liver mitochondria increased the Ca.sup.2+ capacity and Ca.sup.2+ retention of mitochondria five to seven fold. Cellular absorption and accumulation of succinate is limited by the polarity of the succinate molecule except in the kidney where a transport system exists. Rognstad, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 230:605, (1984), has shown the cellular uptake of succinate can be advanced by administering a more lipophilic form of succinate (i.e., methyl ester of succinate). Cellular esterases will release the succinate moiety by degrading the ester linkage. Millimolar concentrations of succinate or methyl ester succinate are required to stimulate gluconeogenesis or ATP production to provide cytoprotection (See, Rognstad, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 230:605 (1984) and Sanders, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 130:1021, (1969)) .

Method for protecting animals against tacrine induced cytotoxic injury using sterol compounds


This invention provides a process for preparing hydroxybenzoic acid polyer resins with a high degree of heat resistance and a high degree of polymerization, and is characterized in that: with the aid of intermediate transformation of phenol and by means of esterification, polyester can directly be obtained by polycondensation from the only starting material hydroxybenzoic acid. The transfer medium phenol existing in the distillates mixture can directly and repeatedly be used without any compensation. The product obtained in this invention is low cost, having a high degree of polymerization, 80-90% yield and in less than 1 hr, with 3% weight loss percentage at 400.degree. C. It can be used for various industrial and engineering purposes wherever heat-resistant, abrasion-resistant, self-lubricating, good heat conducting, dielectric, solvent and radiation resisting properties are required.

More specifically, the hydroxybenzoic acid polyester resins of this invention are made of parahydroxybenzoic acid, the most useful one among the orth-, meta-, and paraisomers. The full name of this polyester is poly (phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate) or simply polybenzoate. Poly (phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate) is a wholly aromatic linear high polymer. The main chain of this high polymer consists of p-oxybenzoyl repeating units. The structural formula is as follows: ##STR1## n represents degree of polymerization. According to this invention, the value of n can reach 200-500. This high polymer has outstanding heat resistance and can be used at 300.degree. C. for a long period of time, besides it also has a series of other excellent properties such as abrasion resistance, self-lubrication, good heat conduction, dielectric properties, solvent resistance and radiation resistance. It is a special engineering plastic developed in the 1970's and can be used in various industrial and engineering fields wherever the above properties are required. From the viewpoint of the main chain structure, polybenzoate can be regarded as a homopolyester of the bifunctional p-hydroxybenzoic acid, however it was apparent from earlier research data that no high polymer could obtained from homocondensation of p-hydroxybenzoic acid because of the insufficient reactivities of the phenolic hydroxyl and carboxyl groups affected by the benzene ring, and when the temperature is raised to higher than 200.degree. C., p-hydroxybenzoic acid will readily undergo thermal decomposition and decarboxylation. In order to raise the reactivities of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in p-hydroxybenzoic acid, various approaches have been used such as acetylation of the hydroxyl group, esterification of the carboxy group with aliphatics and acylhalogenation of the carboxyl group before polycondensation. But all these methods could hardly be used in practical production. Some of them only gave product with a low degree of polymerization and insufficient heat-resistance, while others suffered from many side reactions and serious corrosion problems. A formable and machinable polybenzoate with number average molecular weight around 10,000 (degree of polymerization near 100) and good properties was first successfully produced by American Carborundum Co. in 1967. The technical line pursued was esterification of the carboxyl group with phenol to prepare phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate and then polycondensation. The reaction formula is: ##STR2##
The reasons for the success of using phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate as monomer for polycondensation are as follows: the reactivity is significantly raised as the H atom of the carboxyl group in hydroxybenzoic acid is substituted by the benzene ring; the decarboxylation can be suppressed since the carboxylic group is covered owing to the steric hindrance of benzene ring and also due to the high bond energy of the benzene ring. The heat-resistance of the high polymer will be better with hydroxyl group at one end and phenyloxy group at the other. Therefore up to now this technical line has been the principal practical line in this regard. There are several methods for preparing the polycondensation monomer phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate. Those that have been disclosed are:
1. P-hydroxybenzoic acid undergoes ester exchange reaction with phenylacetate (Fr. Pat. 1,568,152) ##STR3##
2. P-hydroxybenzoic acid undergoes similar ester exchange reaction with diphenyl carbonate (Jap. Pat. Appl. Laid Open No. 48-37,355) ##STR4##
3. P-hydroxybenzoic acid undergoes esterification directly with phenol (Jap. Pat. Appl. Laid Open No. 47-39,048) ##STR5##
Because of the very high price of phenylacetate and the need of gaseous HCl catalyst the production cost of method 1 is very high. Diphenylcarbonate used in method 2 is cheaper, nevertheless the input of diphenylcarbonate according to the mole ratio will be significantly increased owing to its high molecular weight, with the consequence that the production cost of method 2 is still very high. The phenol used in method 3 is much cheaper, and very high yield of phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate can conveniently be obtained in the presence of acid catalyst. Besides, the byproduct water is easy to handle, hence method 3 is a more favorable one.
After the formation of phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate, due to its high reactivity its oligomer is readily formed. Therefore, it will be difficult to separate and purify phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate from the reaction mixture by distillation. Recrystallizing or washing method is often used to separate and purify phenyl p-hydroxybenzoate before polycondensation (i.e. two step technique). Both the ester exchange methods of phenylacetate and of diphenyl carbonate had been successful one step techniques and were granted the related patents respectively. The one step technique means the reaction mixture can directly be used for polycondensation and need not to be separated and purified for the monomer. However, because of the difficulty in eliminating thoroughly the acid catalyst and other matters, the monomer mixture obtained from direct esterification of phenol (i.e., method 3) could not be used without purification for polycondensation; and up until 1981, it was still believed that the one step method would appreciably affect the polycondensation rate, and as a result polyester of a high degree of polymerization could hardly be obtained which led to the fact that the two step method was still in use, and with the addition of a special alkali metal compound polyester was produced (Jap. Pat. Appl. Laid Open 56-90-029). Hence up to now nobody has ever been successful in a one step technique by pursuing the above-mentioned technical line (i.e., method 3).
One purpose of this invention is to find out whether polyester with a high degree of polymerization can be produced directly from the monomer phenyl p-hydroxybenzoic acid prepared by reaction of p-hydroxybenzoic acid with phenol without further separation and purification.
Another purpose of this invention is to find out whether phenol, the by-product formed during polycondensation of hydroxyphenyl benzoate, can very simply be reused in the next esterification to form a new monomer phenyl hydroxybenzoate.
The last purpose and also the final goal of this invention is to find out the possibility of establishing a phenol recycling reaction system provided that the above two purposes have been realized. If it is possible, then hydroxybenzoic acid polyester resins of a high degree of polymerization can be obtained directly from the only starting material, hydroxybenzoic acid (i.e., the only reagent which must be replenished). This research problem having strong competitive potentiality in cost is very important and its solution has never been achieved by anyone before.

Process for preparing heat resisting hydrobenzoic acid series polyesters with high degree of polymerization

The First Branch of Chenguang Research Institute of Chemical Industry


The disclosure relates to a remote query and remote maintenance of a communications module. To this end, the invention provides a method and device is provided for querying data by means of a data call between a service facility and a communications module over a communications network. A data query of a first interface unit sent by a service facility and received via the communications network is forwarded to another interface unit of a communications module, where the data query is interpreted in the interface unit and the interpretation result is evaluated by an evaluation unit. Response data for the data query is, based on the interpretation result from the evaluation unit, sent via the first interface unit to the service facility.

US 2002/0112047 A1 describes a method, system and computer program product providing the capability to manage, control and configure a mobile radio telephone device over a mobile radio telephone network. This mobile radio telephone network has a server and the mobile radio telephone device. A communicative connection between the server and the mobile radio telephone device is sent over the communicative connection and executed by the mobile radio telephone device.
Communications modules are fitted inter alia into cars, machines and systems which are not under direct human supervision and may be remotely installed. In this case, a communications module can be a mobile radio telephone module in a cellular communications network, for example. Functionalities such as telephoning using handsfree equipment, automatic PCs with permanent access to the internet or intranet, fax, fleet management, automatic emergency calls, programmed diagnostic functions, dynamic navigation, local information services, on-board games and MP3 downloads are available with a mobile radio telephone module of this kind.
However, maintenance work for the commissioning of such communications modules can be very complicated, since there is usually no direct access to a data link. The remote maintenance of a communications module can at present be carried out only by means of an additional circuit in the form of an external microcontroller.

Remote interrogation and remote maintenance of a communications module


An apparatus for transferring electronic components, comprising a main rotary turret comprising a plurality of turret pick heads for conveying electronic components to multiple positions adjacent to the main rotary turret; a first rotary mechanism configured for picking up electronic components from a supply of electronic components, the first rotary mechanism being in operative communication with the main rotary turret at a first transfer position; and a second rotary mechanism that is in operative communication with the main rotary turret at a second transfer position, and which is further in operative communication with the first rotary mechanism at a third transfer position.

Electronic devices may be formed on a semiconductor wafer, which is subsequently diced into individual electronic components. After dicing, the individual electronic components are mounted on an elastic film, usually an elastic adhesive film, with their leads or electrical contacts facing away from the elastic film. After picking up these electronic components from the elastic film, the electronic components may have to be flipped so that subsequent processes such as functional testing or visual integrity checking can be performed on them.
A conventional apparatus for flipping the electronic components comprises a wheel that picks up an electronic component and rotates it 180°, thus flipping it for a subsequent process. However, the conventional apparatus would not be useful in a process that requires the electronic component to be flipped more than once.

Apparatus for transferring electronic devices


A wide-band multimode frequency synthesizer using a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) is provided. The multiband frequency synthesizer includes a multimode prescaler, a phase detector/a charge pump, a swallow type frequency divider, and a switching bank LC tuning voltage-controlled oscillator having wide-band and low phase noise characteristics. The multimode prescaler operates in five modes and divides a signal up to 12 GHz. The wide-band frequency synthesizer can be used in various fields such as WLAN/HYPERLAN/DSRC/UWB systems that operate in the frequency range from 2 GHz to 9 GHz. The wide-band multimode frequency synthesizer includes a frequency/phase detector for comparing a frequency and phase of a reference high-frequency signal with a frequency and phase of a feedback high-frequency signal; a charge pump for producing an output current corresponding to the result of the comparison performed by the frequency/phase detector; a loop filter for producing an output voltage corresponding to an accumulated value of the output current of the charge pump; a voltage-controlled oscillator for generating an oscillation signal having a frequency corresponding to the output voltage of the loop filter; and a variable frequency divider for dividing an output signal of the voltage-controlled oscillator by a designated integer value, and outputting the result as a feedback signal, wherein at lease two of an amount of unit pumping charges of the charge pump, an RLC value of the loop filter, an RLC value of the voltage-controlled oscillator, and a divisor value of the variable frequency divider are controlled according to a band.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimode frequency synthesizer using a phase-locked loop (PLL) that can be installed in 802.11 b/g HYPERLAN (HIgh PErformance Radio LAN), Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), 802.11 a, and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) systems having applications in a 2˜9 GHz frequency band.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Recently, as mobile communication services are becoming increasingly widespread, available frequency bands are becoming saturated, and several terminals are required to enjoy various mobile communication services. As a result, developers all over the world are working on a reconfigurable mobile communication system capable of reconfiguring mobile communication services in software and enabling access to various mobile communication services using one terminal regardless of encoding and decoding method. To access necessary services using one terminal regardless of time and place, a wide-band Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver of a mobile communication system is required.
To manufacture the multiband multimode RF transceiver, a wide-band Local Oscillator (LO) are required. FIG. 8 illustrates a conventional wide-band frequency synthesizer including a phase frequency detector 20, a charge pump 30, a low pass filter 40, a voltage-controlled oscillator 50, and a variable frequency divider 70.
To satisfy requirements that vary depending on field of application when the frequency synthesizer for multiband multimode is manufactured, there should be a certain amount of flexibility in selecting components of the frequency synthesizer. However, use of a voltage-controlled oscillator, a high speed prescaler, a charge pump, and a loop filter diminishes flexibility in the construction of the frequency synthesizer. Therefore, a plurality of voltage-controlled oscillators and phase-locked loop (PLL) loops are used to manufacture the multiband frequency synthesizer. However, using a plurality of voltage-controlled oscillators and PLL loops results in increased chip size and power consumption.

Wide-band multimode frequency synthesizer and variable frequency divider

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A device for heating a medium with which the device is in thermal contact for use in determining the thermal or flow properties of the medium. The device has a heater for supplying heat to the medium at an interface of the device with the medium and a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature at such interface.

It is often desirable to determine the thermal properties of a medium through which fluid may flow, such as is the case for blood flowing in body tissue, for example. Such properties include the thermal conductivity and the perfusion, i.e., blood flow, thereof. Two exemplary systems for such purpose have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,982, issued to H. F. Bowman on Nov. 29, 1977 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,027, of H. F. Bowman et al., issued on July 25, 1989.
In such systems a thermal transducer probe is inserted into, or positioned adjacent to, a medium whose properties are to be determined. The probe is normally in the form of an approximately spherical thermistor bead which is used both as a heating element and as a temperature sensing element. By passing a small current through the thermistor, temperature is passively sensed by the thermistor to establish a baseline temperature. During a subsequent heating mode a relatively larger current is passed through the thermistor to produce a resistive, or ohmic, heating thereof which is sufficient to maintain the mean volumetric temperature of the transducer at a specified incremental level above the baseline temperature. Such heating operation transfers heat energy to the medium whose thermal characteristics are to be determined. Measurements of the electrical power required to heat the thermal transducer probe and, thereby, the medium to the higher temperature level can then be made and used in a suitably programmed data processor to compute the thermal conductivity and the perfusion characteristics of the medium, as described in the aforesaid Bowman et al. patents.
The thermal transducer probe used in such systems presents a characteristic non-linear response of the heating power to the thermal conductivity k.sub.m of the medium, for example, and normally exhibits relatively low response sensitivity. Typically the non-linear power vs. conductivity response curves of exemplary devices are such that the inverse of the probe heating power is proportional to the inverse of the thermal conductivity of the medium. The general slope of the overall curve over its useful range tends to be relatively low, thereby indicating a generally low response sensitivity. Moreover, the probe displays a "saturation" effect which is such as to produce a further decrease in measurement sensitivity as the medium thermal conductivity increases, i.e., in effect the slope of the curve becomes relatively lower with an increase in thermal conductivity. Similarly, a non-linear and a low sensitivity response of heating power to perfusion also occurs.
The basis for the low sensitivity of such a probe can be understood in terms of effect of the temperature at the interfacial surface of the probe with the medium. As the medium thermal conductivity increases, the temperature at the thermistor/medium interface decreases since the medium environment surrounding the thermistor probe becomes more efficient in extracting thermal energy from the thermistor probe. Accordingly, as the thermal conductivity of the media increases, the measurable temperature field produced by the probe tends not to extend very far into the medium and transducer heating power becomes to a greater extent determined by transducer, rather than medium, thermal properties. Hence, the transducer's ability to thermally "interrogate" the medium becomes less effective, resulting in a thermal saturation effect.
Such undesired non-linearity and lower sensitivity response effects in previously used thermistor probes is a direct consequence of the transducer design, such probes being designed to regulate the transducer mean volumetric temperature rather than the temperature field within the medium whose thermal properties are under investigation. It is desirable to design a thermal transducer probe which provides effectively linear responses to heater power and which does not produce a reduced measurement response sensitivity as the thermal conductivity or perfusion of the medium increases. With such a probe it should be possible to simplify the computations necessary to determine the thermal properties of the medium under investigation and to provide a relatively high response sensitivity.

Thermal probe for measuring thermal properties of a flowing medium


This amplifier biasing circuit is used in a telecommunication ring trip circuit to control the bias of a sense amplifier (SA) having input terminals (I1, I2) coupled to output terminals (A, B) of a Herter bridge (R0/R5) which is also coupled to a telecommunication line (L) and to a ringing signal source (RC). The bias circuit is a negative feedback loop coupled between terminals I1 and I1, I2 of SA and regulates the voltage at the latter terminals to a reference value when the input voltage on terminal I1 exceeds a predetermined value in one direction, by connecting a variable bias impedance (R6, PNP1, R7, PNP2) between the amplifier input terminals and VBAT.

Such an amplifier biasing circuit is already known in the art and is for instance described in the published European patent application No 0455894 (which corresponds to commonly assigned copending application Ser. No. 07/699,954).
In this known biasing circuit the amplifier is a sense amplifier forming part of a telecommunication ring trip circuit also including a Herter bridge with a first pair of terminals coupled to a telecommunication line, with a second pair of terminals coupled to a ringing signal source and with the terminals of a third pair coupled to respective input terminals of the input of the sense amplifier. The purpose of this sense amplifier is to detect when during a ringing phase, i.e, when a ringing signal is applied to the line by the ringing signal source, a DC line loop becomes closed and to then provide a control signal to switch off the ringing signal, The biasing circuit connected to the input of this sense amplifier prevents the latter from being driven out of its operating range when the common mode voltage provided at its input by the ringing signal becomes too high. To this end the biasing circuit connects the bias impedance to the amplifier input via switches before the ringing signal is applied to it. Otherwise it disconnects this impedance via the same switches. This is correct since in this case the signal at the amplifier input is too small to drive this sense amplifier out of its operating range, thus making the need for biasing the input of the sense amplifier superfluous.
A first drawback of this known biasing circuit is that an outside control signal for driving the switches connecting and disconnecting the bias impedance must be available. A second drawback is that the impedance is varied in an abrupt way from infinite [switches open] in the absence of a ringing signal to a fixed value [switches closed, in the presence of such a signal. Indeed, by proceeding in this way the circuit may be active during a time longer than necessary and may therefore dissipate more power than strictly needed since when the ringing signal has low enough a magnitude in fact no biasing is needed.


An apparatus for the fabrication of a container (300), comprising a mold defining the form of said container (300) and configured to accommodate a substantially tubular preform, an injection head (115) configured to interface with the preform and establish fluid communication with a cavity thereof; an injection valve (202) configured to selectively permit fluid communication through said injection head (115), and a stretching rod (117) slideably disposed within the injection head (115); said apparatus (100) further comprising a displacement plunger (209) being disposed coaxially about and mobile relative to said stretching rod (117) between a retracted position substantially within the injection head (115) and an extended position wherein said displacement plunger (209) projects at least partially from said injection head (115).

It is commonly known in the art of container fabrication to fabricate containers by the stretch blow molding process. In the stretch blow molding process, a substantially tubular parison or "preform" is provided, being fabricated from a thermoplastic and having an open end near a mouth and a closed end opposite the open end. The preform is disposed within a mold having a cavity substantially defining the form and contours of a container.
The preform is expanded into the cavity of the mold by the action of a working fluid injected into the preform under pressure, and by the action of a stretching rod inserted into a mouth of the preform. The pressurized fluid causes the preform to inflate, expanding primarily radially. The stretching rod is advanced into the preform and presses against an opposite interior surface, stretching it longitudinally into the mold.
Conventionally, the pressurized fluid injected during the molding of the container is air, usually heated to facilitate the deformation of the preform. However, it is known to use a liquid as the working fluid, preferably the liquid which is ultimately to be packaged within the container. In this way, the process of forming a container and filling it with a product are effectively combined, realizing great advantages in equipment cost and production efficiency compared to an air-injection stretch blow molding system.
When filling a container with a liquid, it is necessary to leave a small void space at the top of the container. This void space enables the consumer to open the container without spilling any of the liquid contained therein, as well as provides compensation for any thermal expansion of the liquid during storage.
In processes where the fabrication and filling of the container are carried out in separate steps, providing this void space is a relatively trivial matter. In a process so configured, one need only dispense a volume of liquid product into the container during the filling step that is less than the total volume of the container by the desired amount, leaving the necessary void space in the container.
In a combined forming-filling container fabrication process, however, this is not a feasible option. Specifically, in order to ensure that the preform is fully expanded into the cavity of the mold and that all of the contours of the resulting container are fully formed, one must inject a volume of liquid equal to the full, final volume of the container. The resulting container is thus filled to the brim with the liquid product.
When using a combined forming-filling process combined with a stretching step of the preform, the stretching rod does occupy some volume within the container, and retracting it at the completion of the forming-filling process will create a small amount of void space in the container. The void space created by the displacement of the stretching rod, however, is not always sufficient for the prevention of spilling when the container is opened, especially where a particularly thin stretching rod is employed.
Increasing the diameter of the stretching rod will increase the volume of the void space ultimately created in the container; however, the space between the stretching rod and the interior surface of the mouth of the container are coordinately reduced, impeding the injection of the liquid during the forming of the container. It is therefore necessary to remove some of the liquid from the container upon the completion of the injection process.
One solution to this is to remove a small amount of the liquid by suction, in particular by sucking some of the liquid back through the means for injecting it into the preform during the fabrication of the container. In particular, the document WO 2010/003853 A1 describes a stretch blow molding system in which the stretching rod is hollow, and contains at least one port at a distal end through which this extra liquid may be aspirated from the beverage container.
While this system produces acceptable filled containers, it is disadvantageous in several aspects. First, the at least one port in the stretching rod must remain sealed during the injection of the liquid, which increases the complexity of the apparatus and the expense of its manufacture and operation. Furthermore, the channel within the stretching rod is difficult and time-consuming to clean as the apparatus must be at least partially disassembled to give access to the entire channel. In addition, dissolved material in the liquid will tend to form accretions in the narrow channel and ports, a particularly acute problem when the liquid is mineral water. These accretions reduce the flow through the hollow stretching rod, requiring time-consuming cleaning and maintenance to maintain efficient functioning of the apparatus.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method for fabricating and filling a beverage container which accurately provides a void space in a formed and filled container without the disadvantageous aspects of the apparatuses known in the art.

Apparatus and method for fabricating and filling containers