An image processing apparatus divides data related to an image into bit-planes and performs a coding process on data of each of the bit-planes. The image processing apparatus includes a multi-layer generation part that divides codes obtained by the coding process into a plurality of layers sequentially from the codes corresponding to higher bit-planes such that the amount of the codes of each of the layers is equal to or less than a predetermined value. A code generation part generates coded data in units of the codes divided into the layers by the multi-layer generation part.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to image processing apparatuses that perform compression coding of image data and/or coefficient data obtained by performing frequency transform on the image data and, more particularly to an image processing apparatus chat performs compression coding in conformity with JPEG 2000.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, JPEG 2000 is known as a compression coding method suitable for handling high-definition images. In the coding process of JPEG 2000, image data are converted into data of each color component, Y, Cb and Cr, and thereafter a two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform is performed on each data for frequency analysis.
Wavelet coefficient data (e.g., 16-bit data) obtained by the wavelet transform are divided into bit-planes in units of subbands (e.g., in the case of a wavelet transform at a level 3, 3LL, 3HL, 3LH, 3HH, 2HL, 2LH, 2HH, 1HL, 1LH and 1HH), and the data of each bit-plane are scanned sequentially from the top in three ways for each subband, thereby performing an arithmetic coding process. The three ways are called a "significant propagation pass", a "magnitude refinement pass" and a "cleanup pass".
In the case of 16-bit data, for example, 15×3+1=46 coding paths are formed by the above-mentioned arithmetic coding process. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, the coding paths are referred to as CP1 through CP46 in such a manner that a coding path corresponding to a higher bit-plane is indicated by a lower number. Final coded data are formed by adding, for example, required header information to MQ codes obtained by the above-mentioned arithmetic coding process.
JPEG 2000 implements the concept of multi-layer. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, in multi layers, a layer 1 (L1) includes: MQ codes obtained from the top two coding paths CP1 and CP2 of each subband (3LL, 3HL, 3LH and 3HH) of a level 3; and a MQ code obtained from the top coding path CP1 of a subband (1HH) of the level 1. These data are handled as packet data 1. A layer 2 (L2) includes: MQ codes obtained from top three coding paths CP1, CP2 and CP3 of each subband (2HL, 2LH and 2HH) at a level 2; and a MQ code obtained from the top coding path CP1 of each subband (1HL and 1LH) at the level 1. These data are handled as packet data 2. Similarly, the data of the remaining coding paths of each subband are divided into plural layers, and the data of each layer are handled as one packet data.
In JPEG 2000, it is possible to freely define how to divide each code block of each subband into layers (on what basis grouping is to be performed).
It is possible to perform a so-called progressive reproduction process in which an image is gradually reproduced by using the above-mentioned multiple layers and sequentially decoding the data of the coding paths included in the layer 1, the layer 2 and the layer 3 . . . in this order. There are image processing apparatuses that perform the progressive reproduction process by using multiple layers of JPEG 2000.
As for progressive display of multiple layers using JPEG 2000, a detailed description is given in "ISO/IEC 15444, JPEG 2000".
As mentioned above, with the use of multiple layers of JPEG 2000, it is possible to realize progressive reproduction. However, the amount of MQ codes (MQ code amount) of each coding path obtained by an arithmetic coding process is not constant. Hence, even if the number of coding paths to be taken in each layer is made constant, the amount of codes of each layer becomes unstable, which is inconvenient in transferring data and/or storing data in memory.

Image processing apparatus that can generate coded data applicable to progressive reproduction


A heat exchanger is mounted external to a section of flue pipe or is an integral part of a section of flue pipe. The heat exchanger preheats a domestic hot water supply and boosts the return water temperature prior to reentry to the furnace coil. The heat exchanger reduces fuel use, pollution and wear of the furnace and burner. A typical heat exchanger installation includes an oil or gas burner located on a furnace or boiler having a flue pipe leading to a gaseous outlet, such as a masonry chimney. A short vertical flue section leads to a draft-regulating damper. The flue heat exchanger may be a coil of tubing wrapped around flue section, such that the tubing picks up heat from the heated flue gasses. Preheated water exits from the heat exchanger.

The present invention relates to heat exchangers, which are mounted external to a section of flue pipe or are an integral part of a section of flue pipe.
Heat exchangers are known, which direct water in a pipe through a flue.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,801 of Burns describes a heat exchanger which first encircles water pipes in 2 circular rings around an exhaust flue, but then directs the water into coils within the exhaust flue. The external rings appear to be for positioning the water flow headers equally around the flue, not to preheat the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,187 of Farris discloses an energy conservation system for heaters that uses a heat exchanger in a furnace chamber or duct.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,731 of DeBoer discloses a heat transfer apparatus for supplementing a building heating and cooling system, using a heat exchanger in a furnace flue. DeBoer suggests an external heat exchanger, but provides no enabling details thereof.
Japanese patent no. JA0031286 of Satou discloses a heat transfer pipe for high temperature gases. It has a shell with multiple, non-axial connected heat exchangers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,047 of Buchhave describes a heat exchanger for a sludge containment structure made of two rigid half shells, wherein sludge flows in the annular space enclosed by the shell halves and an inner sleeve in a spiral path external the spiral tubing with heating fluid flowing therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,564 of Erickson disclose a water heater utilizing exhaust gases from furnaces or stoves, but the recovery is through a coil inside an exhaust flue.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,990,056 of Van Daam describes passing water through a spherical corrugated chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,028 of Nicolai discloses a preheater with an internal wall parallel to an external side wall with a water tight seal with pressure restraining capability. It does not disclose a coil of hollow heat conductive tubing enclosed within a substantially dry cavity.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,992 of Borovina and U.S. Pat. No. 2,521,462 of Kinzelmann both disclose water heaters that pass water through a spiral coil within an exhaust flue.
Canadian patent no. CA1271380 of Hampden describes a heat exchanger for air, not fluids, which is heated in a replaceable flue section. Hampden uses a blower to draw air through fins in an annular space.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,567 of Torres proposes an exhaust flue over the water heater having a spiral coil for heating water therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,267 of Wood describe a tube and plate heat exchanger with water heating coils inside a chamber, such as a gas heat duct or flue.
German patent no. DE 3340281A of Grabietz describes a flue within a jacket wherein coiled water tubes wrap around the inner flue pipe. However, the space between the tubes positioned over the inner flue and within the outer jacket are filled with solid, cast molten metal, instead of fibrous insulation.
Soviet Union patent no. SU0779719 of Ukrorgtekhstroi discloses a heat exchanger with inner fins, not coils, which has heat resistant end caps enclosing a flue pipe. The fins are spiraled, but they are not hollow and do not carry fluid therein. Ukrorgtekhstroi does not contain tubing wrapped around a flue pipe.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,261 of Brown also discloses directing water coils inside of flues.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a heater exchanger for domestic hot water with ease of installation, maintenance and removal.
It is another object of the invention to provide a heat exchanger that is conveniently attached to an existing flue.
It is a further object of the present invention to preheat a domestic hot water supply.
It is yet another object of the present invention to boost return water temperature in a hydronic heating installation prior to reentry to a furnace coil.
It is still another object of the present invention to reduce fuel use and to reduce pollution and wear of the furnace and burner.
It is yet another object of the present invention to improve over the disadvantages of the prior art.
In keeping with these objects and others, which may become apparent, the present invention includes heat exchangers mounted external to a section of flue pipe or as an integral part of a section of flue pipe. The heat exchanger preheats the domestic hot water supply and boosts the return water temperature in a hydronic heating installation prior to reentry to the furnace coil. The heat exchanger reduces fuel use and reduces pollution and wear of the furnace and burner.
In a preferred embodiment, a split heat exchanger formed from two half shells forms a heat exchanger with conduits having flow reversals to enhance heat transference.
A typical heat exchanger installation includes an oil or gas burner located on a furnace or boiler having a flue pipe leading to a gaseous outlet, such as a masonry chimney. A short vertical flue section leads to a draft-regulating damper. The flue heat exchanger may be a coil of copper tubing wrapped around the flue section, which picks up heat from the heated flue gasses. The cold water source is coupled to a short length of convoluted flexible tubing with coupling flanges thereby allowing water to travel to and from the flue mounted heat exchanger.
In another embodiment two flue heat exchangers communicate with cold water entering the horizontal heat exchanger which is wrapped around a flue section having a mixture of hot flue gasses and some make-up ambient air from the draft regulating damper. This heat exchanger is plumbed in series with another heat exchanger wrapped around the vertical section of flue pipe below a damper. The second heat exchanger again increases the water temperature prior to entering the furnace hot water coil.
In another embodiment a heat exchanger is prefabricated as a standard flue section and substitutes for a length of flue. This heat exchanger has a central flue pipe section with heat exchanger tubing wrapped around its periphery. A tubular shell encases the tubing with openings allowing for both the water inlet and water outlet coupling flanges. A highly conductive conformable material fills the empty spaces within the shell to increase heat transfer.
In another embodiment, a hydronic heating system is a hydronic loop circulated by circulator pump forcing water into heating coil inside a boiler or furnace. In this system, it first flows through heat exchanger where it picks up waste heat from the flue.
In a further preferred embodiment a preformed heat exchanger coil is wrapped around a cylindrically shaped sheet larger in diameter than a section of flue. This sheet is not totally enclosed, but it has a small gap along its length.
In yet another embodiment, two coiled heat exchanger conduits are interleaved together around a flue pipe.
Each embodiment of the heat exchanger may include a safety pressure relief valve through which preheated water may exit.
Often when two or more different types of metals contact each other, the metals deteriorate, corrode or weaken at the point of contact. Therefore, each embodiment of flue heat exchanger may also be constructed such that both the metal tubing and the section of flue piping that the metal tubing is wrapped around are made from the same type of metal, preferably copper. In addition, each embodiment that contains this variation may also include gaskets located at each end of this flue section (preferably copper), such that the gaskets prevent direct contact between this flue pipe section and the flue pipe section made from a different type of metal.
In a further embodiment of this invention, the heat exchanger comprises of two identical sections, each essentially of the shape of a half cylindrical tube, with an internal diameter which matches the external diameter of a flue pipe. By just assembling the two halves around an existing flue pipe in-situ and bolting them together through flanges, it is unnecessary to disconnect flue pipe sections with the attendant debris usually encountered. Thus this embodiment is easier to install, lower cost (since the original flue pipe is retained), easier to package, and adaptable to single or split use, such as domestic hot water and hydronic heating.


An apparatus and method for a combustor, the combustor including combustor liner having a plurality of dilution openings. The combustor receives a flow of fuel that is ignited and mixed with dilution air to form a flow of combustion gases. The flow of combustion gases travels through the combustor to a turbine section of an engine.

Turbine engines are driven by a flow of combustion gases passing through the engine onto a multitude of rotating turbine blades. A combustor can be provided within the turbine engine and is fluidly coupled with a turbine into which the combusted gases flow.
The use of hydrocarbon fuels in the combustor of a turbine engine is well known. Generally, air and fuel are fed to a combustion chamber where the fuel is burned in the presence of the air to produce hot gas. The hot gas is then fed to a turbine where it cools and expands to produce power. By-products of the fuel combustion typically include environmentally harmful toxins, such as nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide (collectively called NON), CO, UHC (e.g., methane and volatile organic compounds that contribute to the formation of atmospheric ozone), and other oxides, including oxides of sulfur (e.g., SO2 and SO3).
Standards stemming from air pollution concerns worldwide regulate the emission of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), and carbon monoxide (CO) generated as a result of the turbine engine operation. In particular, nitrogen oxide (NOx) is formed within the combustor as a result of high combustor flame temperatures during operation. It is desirable to decrease NOx emissions while still maintaining desirable efficiencies.


Disclose a system for recording ridge patterns comprising a light source, a component which determines the position of a scanning surface, an optical system, a multi-element image sensor, an electronic memory and a processing device, wherein the output electronic image from the system is linked by means of merging in the processing device to at least two intermediate images which are linked to the optical image from the scanning surface.

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a typical system for recording ridge patterns. A source of light 1 radiates onto a component 2 which determines the position of the scanning surface 3 for the subject to be recorded, such as the ridge lines on the finger or the palm of the hand. On the scanning surface, the luminous flux from the source of light ends up carrying an image of this ridge pattern on the basis of the differences in the reflection of areas corresponding to the troughs and peaks of the ridge pattern. The optical system, as a rule including a collecting lens 4, a system of mirrors 5, an objective lens 6, protective glass 7 and microlenses 8 over the image sensor, takes this flux and creates an image of the ridge pattern on the light-sensitive surface 9 of a multi-element image sensor. The image sensor converts the image from an optical image into an electronic digital image in the form of an array of intensity values proportional to the radiant flux incident on the corresponding light-sensitive element, and transmits this image to the electronic memory 10. The processing unit 11 standardizes the scale of this electronic image, thus creating the output image of the system.
The component which determines the position of the subject to be recorded is, as a rule, designed as an optically transparent isosceles rectangular prism. However, there are variants in the design of the system for recording ridge patterns in which prisms of complex form, cylindrical components or plane-parallel plates act as the component determining the position of the scanning surface. In rarer variants, the body element of the system is the component determining the position of the scanning surface.
The number of mirrors in the optical system may vary and determines the shape and overall dimensions of the system.
The radiation sensor, as a rule, is constructed as a bar or matrix of metal oxide semiconductor transistors or charge-coupled devices.
One general disadvantage of said systems, as a consequence of very strict requirements on the quality of the image, is the necessity of using image sensors with relatively large light-sensitive elements, which leads to a considerable overall area of the sensor working surface and, as a consequence, to an extremely high cost of systems constructed with their use.
The considerable price of large-area sensors is due to the high cost of the silicon wafers from which they are manufactured and the low useful yield percentage of these wafers.
Thus, FIG. 2a shows the arrangement on the 150 mm diameter silicon wafer 12 of crystals 13 for a typical image sensor for a system for recording the ridge pattern of the palm of the hand with a distribution of 1000 dpi. A sensor of this kind has dimensions for its light-sensitive elements of 6.8 micrometers and contains 7216 elements along the horizontal and 5412 along the vertical. It may be seen from the figure that only four crystals of this nature may be accommodated on the wafer. Moreover; in this case, the useful area of the wafer usable for the manufacture of crystals accounts for around 50% of its total area. If a total of four critical production faults 14 are permitted during manufacture, but these are arranged as shown in FIG. 2a, for example, then not one serviceable crystal will be obtained from the wafer.
If a sensor is built with the same number of light-sensitive elements, but 1.4 micrometers in size, then the arrangement of the crystals on the 150 mm diameter wafer 15 may be, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 2b. In this case, the wafer accommodates 137 crystals 16 which occupy as much as 80% of the area of the wafer. At the same time, if a total of four critical production faults 17 are permitted during manufacture, arranged as shown in FIG. 2a, then 133 serviceable crystals will be obtained from the wafer. The losses due to defects thereby amount to just 3% of the total number of crystals on the wafer.
However, notwithstanding the obvious advantages, the use in systems for recording ridge patterns of sensors with small light-sensitive elements is constrained by the quality of the image formed, which is inadequate for compliance with current standards in the field of biometrics, particularly by noise and diffusion of the charge between the elements. FBI EBTS Appendix F is currently a key standard for ridge pattern recording systems.
There are a few variants for the design of systems for recording ridge patterns which bring about the required resolution and size of the scanning field whilst using relatively cheap image sensors.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,420, dated Dec. 1, 1999, classified under IPC G01B11/124, discloses a system in which the resolution of the system for recording ridge patterns is increased by subdividing the systems into a plurality of channels, each of which forms a separate part of the image of the subject to be recorded, after which the parts of the image are combined into the output image.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,195, dated Sep. 8, 2005, classified under IPC G06K9/32, discloses a system allowing an increase in the resolution of a system for recording ridge patterns without increasing the number of light-sensitive elements in the image sensor, by using a nutating mirror in the system to create a plurality of displaced intermediate images and forming an output image in which the elements of the intermediate images are interlaced.
This system is the closest analogue to the proposed invention. Its chief drawback is the presence of further elements and procedures which, although permitting the use of a relatively inexpensive sensor, do themselves make an additional contribution to the expense of the system and lower its reliability. As a consequence, a substantial reduction in the total cost of the system is not achieved, while at the same time reliability is reduced, the overall size is increased, the energy consumption is greater and the operating speed of the system is slower.


A system is provided. The system comprises a computer system comprising at least one processor, a thermodynamic state solver application, and a thermodynamic system solver application. When executed by the at least one processor, the thermodynamic state solver application computes a flash equilibrium state solution for each of a plurality of nodes in a thermodynamic network and determines for each of the plurality of nodes at least one sensitivity of a first thermodynamic property with reference to at least one second thermodynamic property. When executed by the at least one processor, the thermodynamic system solver computes a pressure at each of the nodes and flows between the nodes based at least in part on the sensitivities, wherein a result based on the pressures and flows is determined.

In the drive for ongoing improvements in operating efficiency, industrial plants such as chemical plants, refineries, food processing plants, pharmaceutical plants, breweries, and other batch and continuous plant systems may employ computer-based modeling and simulation of thermodynamic network systems to optimize plant operations. These modeling systems are typically used to simulate plant processes by defining components and equipment of plants in computer models and then using mathematical computations to project and/or to reveal the behavior of these systems as relevant parameters vary. An example of a thermodynamic network system is a pressure flow network comprising a plurality of nodes such as, for example, vessels, tanks, mixers and splitters, etc., and a plurality of flow components such as, for example, control valves, heat exchangers, etc.
This type of modeling may be used to aid in the design and operation of such plants, as well as to provide computer-based training of operators by simulating plant and process responses to variations that can arise in real-world situations without the hazards or costs associated with subjecting plants to these events. In addition, predictions can be made about plant behavior in order to devise tactics for handling such events, should they occur. This type of modeling can also be used to assist in controlling plant operations by predicting system changes and responding accordingly by tying the information produced by the models into control loops of plant equipment. Another use for this type of modeling is the optimization of tuning of process control elements in response to a system perturbation.

Dynamic simulation of fluid filled vessels


A first and a second fixed-frequency oscillator coupled in a ring topology to generate a variable frequency output is provided. Frequency variation is achieved by varying the coupling between the two oscillators. The coupling may be varied by using a variable current or voltage source. The first fixed frequency oscillator may generate a first signal which is ninety degrees out of phase with a second signal generated by the second fixed frequency oscillator. An apparatus is provided comprising a first oscillator which produces a first signal, a second oscillator which produces a second signal which is about ninety degrees out of phase with the first signal, and first and second coupling modules, coupling the first and second oscillators. A frequency control circuit is provided which varies the coupling of the first and second coupling modules and thereby varies the frequency of the first signal and the second signal.

High-frequency voltage controlled oscillators ("VCOs) are widely used in integrated circuits, ranging from clock recovery in high data-rate optical communications to frequency synthesizer in wireless communications. Frequency tuning for these VCOs can be achieved with varactor diodes. However, the frequency tuning range using this approach is limited by low supply voltages on integrated circuits and maximum variable capacitance available to varactors at high frequencies when inductors are used. Other frequency turning approaches include varying the current in the resonator of the oscillator to alter effective capacitance or varying the relative weighing between two different LC (Inductor-Capacitor) resonators. These techniques are not adequate for tuning frequency.

Two interconnected oscillators having adjustable coupling for controlling frequency


An X-ray image diagnosing apparatus has a radiating unit, a placement unit, a detecting unit, a supporting unit, a moving control unit, an obtaining unit, a calculating unit, and a frame rate control unit. The placement unit is placeable an object. The supporting unit supports the radiating unit and the detecting unit in opposing relationship across the placement unit. The moving control unit relatively moves the supporting unit and the object on a longwise direction of the placement unit so as to perform an X-ray imaging at different imaging positions along the longwise direction. The obtaining unit obtains X-ray image by performing the X-ray imaging. The calculating unit calculates blood-vessel data on the basis of the X-ray image and calculates a frame rate on the basis of the blood-vessel data. The frame rate control unit configured to change the frame rate on the X-ray imaging.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray image diagnosing apparatus and a controlling method of that for displaying a plurality of X-ray images acquired in different positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known X-ray image diagnosing apparatus for acquiring an image of blood vessels in which contrast is enhanced using a contrast medium includes an X-ray source and an FPD or an I. I. equipped at both ends of a substantially C-shaped holder (C-arm), respectively, and an image processing unit. This X-ray image diagnosing apparatus is generally also referred to as an angiography apparatus, which allows diagnosis and treatment (medical treatment), such as insertion of a catheter into an object such as a patient by a doctor, and acquisition of an X-ray image.
One of examinations using the X-ray image diagnosing apparatus is a lower-extremity angiography examination. In the lower-extremity angiography examination, an image of the entire long and narrow image-acquisition region from the abdomen to the tiptoe is acquired while a contrast medium injected through a catheter proceeded to the abdominal aorta is traced. In the acquisition of an image of the entire image-acquisition region, the entire image cannot be acquired at a time, so that images of the entire image-acquisition region are acquired in several times. In this case, injecting the contrast medium every image-acquisition exerts a large burden on the patient. Therefore, a method for acquiring an image of the entire image-acquisition region from the abdomen to the tiptoe by one injection of the contrast medium was devised. When a proper quantity of contrast medium is injected, the part dyed with the contrast medium flows from the abdomen toward the tiptoe in the blood stream. The image-acquisition is repeated while the stream is traced.
There are two kinds of image-acquisition method, that is, bolus-chase angiography and stepping angiography. The mask images of the entire image-acquisition region are collected using either of the two kinds of image-acquisition method, and after a contrast medium is injected into the patient, the contrast images of the entire image-acquisition region are collected to execute a digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Then, the mask images and the contrast images are subjected to subtraction processing in which they are differentiated every image-acquisition position to generate difference images (DSA images). When the plurality of DSA images at the image-acquisition positions are bonded together, a long image that displays the entire image-acquisition region from the abdomen to the lower extremity in which all the blood vessels are drawn is generated.
As an art related to the present invention, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-236910 is disclosed.
However, with this related art, if X-ray exposure is performed at a fixed frame rate, DSA images taken at a plurality of image-acquisition positions each include a portion that can be sufficiently checked (diagnosed) with one DSA image, which will increase the amount of X-ray exposure of the patient.
Moreover, in angiography of narrow blood vessels, such as those of a lower extremity, the narrow blood vessels are lost in the noise on the DSA images, thus sometimes making it difficult to view the running blood vessels.
Furthermore, it is necessary for the DSA to set (register) image-acquisition positions in advance, which is inefficient for the operator to execute X-ray diagnosis.

X-ray image diagnosing apparatus, and controlling method of X-ray image diagnosing apparatus


A piezoelectric resonator element including: a base formed of a piezoelectric material and having a given length; a plurality of vibration arms extending from one part of the base; and a supporting arm extending from another part of the base spaced apart from the one part of the base by the given length in a width direction, the supporting arm extending in a common direction with the vibration arms outboard the vibration arms.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improvement on a piezoelectric resonator element and a piezoelectric device including the piezoelectric resonator in its package or case.
2. Related Art
Piezoelectric devices, including a piezoelectric resonator, a piezoelectric oscillator and the like, have been widely used for small information equipment, such as hard disc drives (HDDs), mobile computers, and integrated circuit (IC) cards, and for mobile communications equipment such as mobile phones, car-phones, and paging systems, and piezoelectric gyro sensors, etc.
FIG. 17 is a schematic plan view illustrating an example of a piezoelectric resonator element conventionally used in the piezoelectric devices.
In FIG. 17, a piezoelectric resonator element 1, whose shape shown in the figure is formed by etching a piezoelectric material such as quartz or the like, is provided with a base 2, which is mounted to a package (not shown) or the like, and has a rectangular shape, and a pair of vibration arms 3 and 4, which extend from the base 2 in the vertical direction in FIG. 17. Long grooves 3a and 4a are formed on the main surfaces (front and back surface) of the vibration arms, and necessary driving electrodes are formed.
In the piezoelectric resonator element 1, when a driving voltage is applied via a driving electrode, the vibration arms 3 and 4 perform a flexural vibration so that their distal parts move closer and then spread apart, resulting in an output signal having a given frequency.
Here, the piezoelectric resonator element 1, in which lead-out electrodes are formed at the positions indicated at numerals 5 and 6 on the base 2, is fixed to a base substrate such as a package or the like with adhesives 7 and 8 applied on the lead-out electrodes.
After fixing and supporting the piezoelectric resonator element 1 with the adhesive, cut parts 9 are formed in the base 2 so that the flexural vibration of the vibration arms is prevented from being hindered by remaining stress caused by the differences in the linear expansion coefficient between the material of the package or the like, and the material of the piezoelectric resonator element.
In the piezoelectric resonator element 1, as a result of miniaturization, the width W1 of each of the vibration arms 3 and 4 is approximately 100 μm, the distance MW1 between them is approximately 100 μm, and the width BW1 of the base 2 is approximately 500 μm. These parts are miniaturized, so that the length BL1 of the base is accordingly shortened. As a result, the piezoelectric resonator element 1 is miniaturized.
See JP-A-2002-261575 for an example of this related art.
However, the piezoelectric resonator element 1, which is miniaturized, has the following problem in its temperature characteristics.
FIGS. 18 and 19 are graphs illustrating the temperature characteristics of the piezoelectric resonator element 1. FIG. 18 shows a temperature-frequency characteristic. FIG. 19 shows a temperature-crystal impedance (CI) value characteristic.
As shown in the figures, the temperature-frequency characteristic shown in FIG. 18 shows no problem. However, the temperature-CI value characteristic shown in FIG. 19 has a problem in that it is highly unstable.
It can be considered that the deterioration of the temperature-CI characteristic occurs due to the change of the stress condition at the positions of the base 2 in the piezoelectric resonator element 1, which are bonded with the adhesives 7 and 8, by temperature change. Similar influences can occur due to the change of the stress condition at the positions of the base 2, which are bonded with the adhesives 7 and 8, when they are affected by drop shock or the like.

Piezoelectric resonator element and piezoelectric device


A laminated material including a decorative or functional cover layer laminated to a porous material layer. The cover layer may include a rigid, semi-rigid or flexible material and the porous spacer material layer may include a reticulated foam, nonwoven textile, or a spacer fabric. The cover layer is laminated onto the porous material layer, increasing the seam strength, durability and dimensional stability of the material.

The present invention relates to a laminated spacer fabric.
Certain conventional fabrics include a padding or porous layer covered by an outer layer. The underlying padding or porous layer is typically sewn to the outer layer. The outer layer in the conventional sewn assembly may pucker or have other surface deformations resulting from the sewn seams. Additionally, in certain situations, pockets or gaps may be formed between the padding and outer layers. These problems create an undesirable appearance and may decrease the value of a seat or the object utilizing the sewn fabric. The puckering and air pockets may also create an uncomfortable surface when contacted by a person sitting or leaning against the sewn fabric.
The porous or padding layer may be a spacer fabric. The conventional covered spacer fabrics generally result in increased costs for the manufacturer. Rolls or cut pieces of the spacer fabric are produced, pre-cut, and shipped to an assembly plant. After shipment, the spacer fabric tends to lose its dimensions. As a result, the process of sewing a precut outer layer to the spacer fabric is difficult and time-consuming. Another drawback of the conventional spacer fabric is that the edges of the conventional fabric fray and lack dimensional stability.
These covered spacer fabrics have many uses such as, for example, seats, home furnishings, and shoes. Conventional spacer fabrics incorporated in seats may be found, for example, in DE 19931193 (hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety).
The spacer fabric is typically a padding or ventilation layer. Seats generally use spacer fabrics to cool or warm an occupant or remove perspiration. However, typical seats in spacer fabrics wear quickly and may chill or overheat an occupant due to improper air flow.
Spacer fabrics offer several advantages over other padding or ventilation layers such as, for example, foam. First, spacer fabrics are formed from textile fibers and filaments and many textile fiber and filamentary materials are recyclable. Thus, the use of spacer fabrics as a cushioning material overcomes the inability of foams to be recycled and the attendant problems associated with disposal of such materials. Also, spacer fabrics offer substantially enhanced air and moisture permeability over foams, which make such fabrics more desirable than foam materials for use in automotive and marine applications as well as home furnishing applications.
As described above, current textile technology includes spacer fabric materials with sewn on material coverings. Spacer fabrics covered with a sewn on material characteristically have the tendency for the opposing covering and spacer structures to shift and move in parallel with respect to one another. Moreover, there are inherent difficulties in mating a rigid or semi-rigid surface material (e.g. leather) with a non-rigid spacer material through a sewing process. One problem is that the dimensions of the cut pieces of spacer material tend to change size after cutting, typically shrinking in size. As a result, when the cut part of rigid or semi-rigid material is sewn around the perimeter to the cut piece of spacer fabric, the change in dimensions of the spacer material cause puckering and creasing in the rigid or semi-rigid cover layer. A large number of the sewn components have this problem. Present attempts to solve this specific problem have focused on using a more rigid, higher denier monofilament in the spacer fabric to improve the sewing performance and have not been successful. The use of a significantly heavier denier monofilament produces an uncomfortable fabric.
Other problems encountered in joining cut pieces of spacer fabric to cut pieces of a cover material include rough, jagged edges; fraying and shedding of monofilament pile; missing or misplaced notches (to guide the sewer); during sewing, the sewing needle and presser foot snag in the spacer fabric; and sewing "run off" or "raw edge" where the stitches of the joining seam do not grip the spacer fabric. The primary causes of these problems are inconsistent part dimensionality, inherent elasticity of the fabric, and jostling during transit.


Example seal glands for butterfly valves are disclosed herein. An example butterfly valve disclosed herein includes a valve body and a valve retainer mounted to the valve body, where the valve body and the valve retainer define a circumferential cavity. The example circumferential cavity includes a first surface substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of a flow path of process fluid through the butterfly valve, a second surface substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, where the second surface offset from the first surface, and a third surface extending between the first surface and the second surface. In the example butterfly valve, the first surface, the second surface, and the third surface enable a seal to translate within the cavity in a direction substantially parallel to the first surface.

Control valves (e.g., sliding stem valves, rotary valves, axial flow valves, globe valves, etc.) are commonly used in industrial processes, such as oil and gas pipeline distribution systems and chemical processing plants, to control the flow of process fluids. In some industrial processes, butterfly valves are used to control the flow of process fluids. Butterfly valves are favored in certain applications because they are usually inexpensive to manufacture, relatively lightweight and provide quick and tight shut off. Typically, industrial process conditions, such as pressure conditions, operation temperatures, and the type of process fluids dictate the type of valve components, including the types of butterfly valve seals that may be used.
Some butterfly valves include a circular disc disposed within a valve body to regulate the flow of fluid through the valve. A shaft, which passes through a bore in the valve body, is coupled to the disc to rotate the disc within the valve body. In a closed position, a sealing edge on one side of the disc engages a seal to prevent the flow of fluid through the valve body.


Hydrostatic adjusting device of a hydraulic machine, the swept volume of which can be adjusted by way of a servo adjusting unit, having a control unit which has a control cylinder which has at least one inlet for pressurized hydraulic fluid, at least one servo connector for a connecting line to the servo adjusting unit, and at least one outlet to a hydraulic fluid collecting region. A control piston is arranged in the control cylinder, which control piston can be displaced by means of at least one control piston actuator and has control edges. In interaction with control edges which are configured in the control cylinder, the inlet or the outlet can be alternately connected hydraulically to the connecting line, whereby the pressure which prevails in the connecting line can be returned hydraulically via a control line to at least one end side of the control piston.

The invention relates to a hydrostatic adjusting device of a hydraulic machine, the swept volume of which can be adjusted, in accordance with the precharacterizing clause of claim 1, in particular to hydraulic machines which can have their delivery volume or displacement set via a servo adjusting unit and via an adjusting element which is connected mechanically to the latter, for example a swashplate or a bent axis. Here, the concept of the invention comprises all types of hydraulic machines with a servo adjusting means which can be controlled by way of a control slide. The invention preferably relates to hydrostatic adjusting devices for hydraulic machines with a mechanical position return means of the control slide or control piston into the zero position after the adjustment of the hydraulic machine has taken place.
For example, in hydrostatic propulsion drives with a closed or open hydraulic fluid circuit, hydraulic pumps and hydraulic motors are used which usually have controlled servo adjusting means for setting the power output or power consumption of the hydraulic machine. Here, in many cases, the position or swiveling-out of the adjusting element, for example the swashplate or the bent axis, is controlled via a servo adjusting device and the delivery volume of the hydraulic machine is set in this way. This preferably takes place proportionally to an input signal to an actuator, which input signal can be a mechanical force signal, for example as a consequence of a lever movement, or else an electrically generated force signal, for example as a consequence of a current to a proportional magnet. Via a position return device which can be, for example, a mechanical position return means according to DE 10 2004 033 376 B3, the control piston which is deflected by the actuator is moved back into its starting position when the preselected delivery quantity/displacement of the hydraulic machine is reached, which starting position is preferably the neutral position. At the same time, a calibration between the input signal and the real position of the adjusting element is realized in this way, and a regulating circuit between the control apparatus and the adjusting element of the servo adjusting means is closed. In the starting position of the control piston, a return force of the position return apparatus is in force equilibrium with the actuator force.
A hydrostatic adjusting device which forms the generic type for the, for example, infinitely variable adjustment of the delivery flow of a hydraulic delivery device having two delivery directions is described, for example, in DE 10 2008 052 338 B3 and forms the precharacterizing clause of claim 1. The known adjusting device for centering control pistons has a control unit which exhibits a control cylinder which is provided with two inlets for pressurized hydraulic fluid, with two servo connectors for connecting lines to a servo adjusting unit, and at least one outlet to a hydraulic fluid collecting region. A control piston is arranged in the control cylinder, which control piston can be displaced by means of in each case one electromagnet which functions as an actuator and acts on its end faces. By way of an interaction of a plurality of control edges of the control piston with control edges which are configured in the control cylinder, the two inlets or the outlet to the tank can be connected hydraulically alternately to the connecting lines to the servo adjusting unit, as a result of which the servo pressure in the servo cylinders of the servo adjusting unit can be adapted to the performance requirements of the hydraulic machine. Via an adjusting element which is coupled mechanically to the servo pistons, the delivery volume of the hydraulic machine is set. Via a mechanical position return means, the control slide or control piston is returned into its starting position, preferably into the neutral position, by way of elastic prestressing forces after the preselected delivery output has been reached. At the same time, the servo pressure which prevails in the connecting lines to the servo adjusting unit is returned hydraulically at a reduced level via in each case one of two bypass lines to one of the two end sides of the control piston. Here, the pressure level which prevails in the servo chambers of the servo cylinder which are sealed per se is fed at a reduced level to the end faces of the control piston and is discharged further to a hydraulic fluid collecting region of the hydraulic machine, which hydraulic fluid collecting region is under discharge pressure. On account of the return of the servo pressure at a reduced level to the end sides of the control piston, the control piston is held or centred in its zero position in addition to the spring force of the mechanical position return means. The reduction of the pressure in the bypass lines takes place in a conventional way via orifice plates, throttles or nozzles.
The configuration of the hydrostatic adjusting device according to DE 10 2008 052 338 B3 serves exclusively to centre the control piston in the zero position, in the case of a preferably negative overlap of the control edges in the control cylinder. The hydrostatic adjusting device described in the patent DE 10 2008 052 338 B3 for centering control pistons exhibits a certain tendency towards load dependence despite a mechanical position return means which assists load independence of the hydraulic machine.
In the context of the present description of the invention, "load dependence" of an adjusting device is to be understood to mean that the level of the variable external loads which act in each case on the hydraulic machine has an influence via the adjusting device on the level of the pressures which prevail in the servo chambers, and the delivery volume of the hydraulic machine changes in a load-dependent manner as a result of a change in the relative position of the servo piston in the servo cylinder. If, for example, a work machine which is equipped with a hydrostatic drive changes from constant level driving to mountainous driving, the high pressure in the working circuit of the hydrostatic drive rises. The hydraulic pump of the hydrostatic drive tends to endeavour to avoid this pressure increase, by attempting to reduce its delivery quantity, the adjusting element of the servo adjusting means generating an increased force in the direction of the zero position of the pump. This force is supported on the servo piston which is loaded with hydraulic fluid under control pressure, and the servo piston tends to be displaced in the direction of a reduction in size of the servo chamber. If a movement of this type of the servo piston is not permitted as a result of the system, because, for example, a position return device counteracts a load-induced tendency to change the delivery volume of the hydraulic machine, this is called a load-rigid hydrostatic drive. If, in contrast, a load-induced movement of this type of the servo piston is permitted (in a controlled manner), this is called a load-flexible hydrostatic drive, since the load-induced tendency to change the delivery volume of the hydraulic machine is then followed at least partially.
The additional pressure forces on the control piston on account of the returned servo pressures according to DE 10 2008 052 338 B3 act counter to the forces which are exerted on the control piston by the electromagnets, as a result of which the position of the control piston in the control cylinder can be changed. As a further consequence, the pressures in the servo chambers of the servo cylinder and therefore the position of the servo pistons in the respective servo cylinders are adapted in a load-dependent manner. The associated positional change of the adjusting element brings about a load-dependent adaptation of the delivery volume of the hydraulic machine. For example, as the load on the hydrostatic drive rises, the delivery quantity of a hydraulic pump is reduced if the pressure in the working circuit of the hydraulic machine increases. The adjusting unit which is described in DE 10 2008 052 338 B3 is therefore "load-sensing" to a certain extent.
Whether a load-rigid or a load-flexible hydrostatic drive of a work machine is to be used depends, for example, on performance requirements during the use of the hydrostatic drive, the load situation and/or the performance reserves of the drive motor which drives the hydrostatic drive. In many applications, predominantly in the case of mobile work machines, a change between both types of servo adjustment in adaptation to the respective application would be advantageous, that is to say between load-rigid and load-flexible. For example, a load-rigid response of the hydraulic machine would be advantageous for driving at a constant speed, independently of, for example, uphill or downhill slope, and therefore independently of the external load. In another application of the same vehicle, the available drive power is always to be converted, for example, into the maximum possible driving speed depending on the uphill slope or the underlying surface, without overloading the drive, that is to say the drive motor. This load-flexible response is often called automotive driving. A road sweeper machine is to be mentioned as one example which does not restrict the concept of the invention, which road sweeper machine preferably drives at a constant (slow) speed during sweeping, in order to achieve a sweeping result which is as satisfactory as possible. However, the sweeping machine is to be capable of driving at a maximum possible speed during its journey from and to the location of use, for example on the journey to the storage site, in order to keep the time lost as low as possible. It is desirable here that the propulsion drive of the sweeping machine can be operated in a load-rigid manner in the first case and in a load-flexible manner in the second case depending on the use.
The patent DE 10 2004 033 376 B3 describes a load-rigid, hydraulic drive having a servo adjusting device and a mechanical position return means. A load-rigid adjusting device of this type can be controlled, for example, in a load-adapted manner if a microcontroller which is connected to a corresponding sensor system is provided with the corresponding information about the existing load and the available performance. The microcontroller then converts this information into adequate input signals for the proportional magnets of the adjusting device. Costs, reliability, reaction speed and controllability set limits for this embodiment, however.
Conversely, a load-dependent or load-flexible servo adjusting means can also be actuated via a suitable sensor system and a microcontroller in such a way that the load dependence is minimized. A microcontroller, for example, which is connected to a corresponding sensor system also requires the necessary information in this case about the existing load which it converts into adequate input signals for the adjusting unit. In addition to costs, reliability and controllability or control time, as is also the case in the load-rigid system mentioned above, the control operation which is based on electric signals is a technical problem with regard to rapid and precise controllability which can be managed only by the use of complicated and expensive electronics.
The invention is therefore based on the object of providing a hydrostatic adjusting device of the type mentioned at the outset which is suitable for being able to change, during operation of a hydrostatic drive, between a load-rigid and a load-flexible response of the drive and vice versa in accordance with a machine operator and/or the use conditions of the hydraulic drive. The technical solution for an adjusting device of this type is to be able to precisely and rapidly switch over the load-rigid response of a hydrostatic drive to a load-flexible response of the hydrostatic drive and vice versa, it preferably being possible for the sensitivity of the load-flexible response to be set, particularly preferably in an infinitely variable manner. Here, the adjusting device is to be capable of being realized in a robust way and such that it manages with few components with a low space requirement and low costs. Furthermore, the use of sensor systems and/or electronics is to be restricted to a minimum.


The disclosure provides embodiments processing and extracting compounds from cannabis. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a composition comprising the cannabis; inserting the composition into a treatment zone; applying a pulsed electric field to the composition within the treatment zone, wherein a portion of the cell membranes of the cannabis are lysed by electroporation to provide a product comprising a lysate; and separating at least a portion of a compound within the lysate from a remainder of the product.

In order to extract various compounds from cannabis, the process requires the breaking down, or "lysis," of the cell membranes of the plant material to release compounds such as cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), or terpenes, and/or other compounds stored therein. Following the lysis of the cell membranes, the released compounds are further processed and/or isolated from one another. Conventional methods of lysing the cells and extracting certain compounds include using hexane, benzene, butane, chloroform, supercritical fluid CO2, or other solvents. These methods also require drying of the material prior to extraction. These processes are slow, expensive, difficult to perform in a continuous flow process, and/or use dangerous and toxic materials.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide improved devices, systems, and methods for breaking down the cell membranes of the cannabis and extracting and/or purifying selected compounds.


An improved ink storage system for ink cartridges which allows operation in a rapid and continuous manner while avoiding deprimes. A flexible, resilient ink bladder is provided which consists of an elongate reservoir that is closed at the bottom and open at the top with a tubular side wall therebetween. The bladder is supplied with ink, and a negative pressure is maintained therein. Due to the negative pressure, the side wall collapses inwardly upon ink delivery. To ensure that the wall collapses properly, the bladder is designed so the side wall thickness varies, with some portions of the wall being thinner than others. As a result, the thinner portions collapse inwardly toward the thicker portions during ink delivery. This prevents undesired increases in back-pressure within the bladder, thereby eliminating ink cartridge deprimes.

The present invention generally relates to ink cartridge units, and more particularly to a cartridge having an internal ink storage bladder of improved design and operating efficiency.
The development of new and improved printing systems has created a corresponding demand for high-efficiency ink cartridges. High efficiency cartridges must be capable of delivering ink in a rapid and continuous manner without interruption. This is especially true with respect to thermal ink jet cartridges which use a collapsible ink storage bladder in combination with a jetting resistor assembly as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,895. The bladder used in these cartridges is designed to retain a substantial amount of ink therein. Likewise, an internal negative pressure is maintained within the bladder so that ink will not drip or "drool" from the jetting orifices when the cartridge is not in use.
When ink is delivered from the cartridge during printer operation, it is correspondingly drawn from the bladder. Because the bladder is air-tight, the withdrawal of ink causes a continuous collapse of the bladder walls inwardly until the bladder is empty. The ink cartridge is then discarded.
Systems of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,895 operate in an efficient manner. However, in certain cases, the bladder will collapse improperly, causing an unacceptably high degree of internal bladder back-pressure. If this occurs, the operating systems within the cartridge may not be able to deliver ink against the back-pressure generated by the bladder. As a result, ink delivery from the cartridge is interrupted, causing which is commonly known as a "deprime." A deprime is technically defined as a situation in which excessive bladder back-pressure causes ink to be pulled away from the delivery systems of the cartridge, thereby preventing ink ejection. The interruption of ink delivery as described herein reduces the operating efficiency of the entire printing system.
The present invention involves an improved internal sub-system for ink cartridges which is designed to eliminate the foregoing problems. Specifically, a uniquely-designed ink storage bladder is provided which is characterized by a high degree of reliability as described in detail below.

Collapsible storage bladder for ink cartridges


A technique for managing copy sessions in a data storage system supports active and inactive copy-session states and reclaims memory for inactive copy sessions to reduce their memory footprints. When a copy session transitions from the active state to the inactive state, the copy session persists certain copy-progress data in non-volatile storage and frees structures in memory previously storing that copy-progress data. The inactive copy session continues to run but performs no copying and consumes less memory. When the copy session later transitions back to the active state, the copy session reads the copy-progress data back into memory and resumes copying.

Data storage systems are arrangements of hardware and software that include one or more storage processors coupled to arrays of non-volatile storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives, electronic flash drives, and/or optical drives, for example. The storage processors service storage requests, arriving from host machines ("hosts"), which specify files or other data elements to be written, read, created, or deleted, for example. Software running on the storage processors manages incoming storage requests and performs various data processing tasks to organize and secure the data elements stored on the non-volatile storage devices.
A common function of data storage systems is to copy data from a source to a destination. The purpose of such copying may be to create a clone (i.e., a complete data copy) of a data object or to migrate a data object, e.g., from one storage pool to another.
A data storage system may store many data objects, and a storage processor in the data storage system may have multiple copies in progress at any given time. The storage processor may perform each copy in a respective copy session. The storage processor may start each copy session, copy the identified data, and end the copy session once copying is complete.

Managing copy sessions in a data storage system to control resource consumption


Method/system for determining location of a mobile device having modules that are part of a terrestrial-based location system and part of a satellite-based global positioning system. The system comprises a remote system. The mobile device activates one of the location determining modules of the mobile device, the type of activated module selected according to a location module type datum in a message received from the remote system. The mobile device establishes a connection with the remote system and the remote system receives the determined location. A type of location determining module next used by the mobile device is determined or a period of time before the module device next determines location is determined. A message is sent from the remote system to the mobile device, comprising determined type of location determining module to be next used and/or the period of time before the module device next determines its location.

Location-aware software applications are becoming of interest to deliver online content to users based on their physical location, as determined by their mobile device. Such mobile devices include, but are not limited to 'smart' mobile telephones and tablets. Various location determining technologies can be employed to determine the location of the mobile device and thus the user. These include satellite-based global positioning systems (GPS), cellular telephone infrastructure localisation systems (such as GSM localisation), or wireless access point positioning systems (WiFi-based positioning) to identify where mobile devices are. Localised beacon based technologies and other wireless technologies are also being employed.
Location awareness has many practical applications. One of particular interest is in sending targeted messages to the user based on their location as determined by the mobile device. In addition to the marketing opportunity for retailers, they also provide increased social connectivity and enhanced environmental awareness, offering users a location-based filter for online information.
Currently, when a location-aware application is running, it constantly transmits data and is constantly retrieving location information, usually with maximum accuracy from the GPS. When this occurs over a sustained period, the data transmission amounts to a significant portion of the data transfer of the device and also results in a significant battery drain. Location-tracking applications are notorious for blowing out data allowances and for draining batteries. This may account for why location-aware applications have not received wider adoption.
The present invention has been developed in the light of this background.
In this specification the terms "comprising" or "comprises" are used inclusively and not exclusively or exhaustively.
Any references to documents that are made in this specification are not intended to be an admission that the information contained in those documents form part of the common general knowledge known to a person skilled in the field of the invention, unless explicitly stated as such.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Location determination method and system


Provided are a method and an apparatus for receiving a query including a sequence of words. The sequence of words is converted into a sequence of feature vectors. A semantic meaning of the sequence of words is generated using a bi-directional long-short term memory (LSTM). The LSTM is regularized using a Gaussian mixed model (GMM) based on the generated semantic meaning of the sequence of feature vectors.

Unlike other fields, and due to privacy and protection of patients, medical data is more limited and more difficult to obtain. In a medical chatbot system, understanding the customers' question or intention is of high importance. With a limited amount of labelled data samples, directly training a deep learning model for accurate query classification is impractical. The present disclosure utilizes both deep learning and semi-supervised learning to improve the generalization of a supervised task under a limited labeled data scenario.
Semi-supervised learning approaches vary. A common solution is using a generative approach to model joint distribution between data examples and labels. Due to the diversity of Chinese expressions, deep semantic understanding of Chinese sentences is needed. Deep learning models are adept at capturing semantic meaningful features. Therefore, present disclosure uses a deep learning model and a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) as a regularizer to accomplish medical query classification with limited labels. Meanwhile, given a large amount of unlabeled data, the present disclosure assists in improving generalization on a supervised task.

Understanding a query intention for medical artificial intelligence systems using semi-supervised deep learning


The novel methods, apparatus and reworked rotary braking surface product, for example those exhibited on interior cylindrical braking surfaces of a cast iron brake drum, serve to replace manufacturing defects exhibiting residual tensile stresses and outwardly directed tool marks with smooth compressed braking surfaces in a final manufacturing stage. The plastically deformed surface shape with reduced roughness and surface irregularities furthermore presents improved braking strength above the yield point and approaching the ultimate material strength of the base drum material. An ultrasonic transducer drives individual freely moving impact elements of a set at frequencies up to 55 kHz into the braking surface to effect plastic deformation at surface and sub-surface layers. Physically, the small sized ultrasonic transducer is inserted into a drum cylinder and driven by a lathe producing relative motion between the braking surface and the ultrasonically vibrating impact elements scanning only the braking surface in a readily controlled ultrasonic impact machining cycle for attaining specified braking surface performance.

This invention relates to the machining of rotatable braking surfaces and, more particularly, it relates to machining of cast iron brake drums and disk brake rotors by ultrasonically machining the braking surface with an ultrasonic tool having a set of freely moving impacting elements driven by an oscillating ultrasonic transducer.
Braking surfaces, particularly those oriented on braking rotors, such as cast iron drums and disc brake rotors, have conventionally been tooled during primary manufacture by lathe cutting tools to present dimensioned machined surfaces having required tolerances. This manufacturing process produces in such braking rotors, in the form of brake discs or brake drums, a surface roughened with tooling marks and characterized by specific surface strength and hardness, a reformulated surface finish and tooling marks presenting a non-uniform stress profile and a source of tensile stress concentration. These tooling marks and tensile stresses limit the active service life of the braking surfaces thus encouraging fatigue cracks by heat checking and scuffing.
This problem has been addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,375, T. J. Meister, Mar. 16, 1993, entitled METHOD FOR ENHANCING THE WEAR PERFORMANCE AND LIFE CHARACTERISTICS OF A BRAKE DRUM and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,305, L. B. Hester, Oct. 4, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,648, L. B. Hester, Sep. 9, 1997, each entitled PRESTRESSED BRAKE DRUM OR ROTOR. These patents disclose a shot peening cold working method of treating the initially manufactured braking surface thereby inducing greater roughness in the braking surface. This peening creates a displacement of surface material about an impact point to establish a rim pattern of roughened peaks, to mask former tooling marks and tensile forces inherently introduced by the initial tooling procedure.
Objection can be taken to the roughened braking surface caused by peening. For example, such roughened braking surfaces require an intense burnishing process which develops heat checking when confronting the topography of brake pad surfaces thus encouraging heat checking hot spots which reduce the service life of the braking surface.
Furthermore, because of the nature of the product, particularly the confined and inaccessible interior braking surfaces of cast iron brake drums, it is physically difficult with peening methods to rework the braking surface areas without overlapping onto adjacent surfaces. Also precise and uniform control in the peening process to repeatedly meet different braking surface specifications is rarely feasible and practically impossible, thus leading to a low reliability of the peening method.
Proposed use of ultrasonic energy to restructure butt welded seams with an ultrasonic horn transducer directly in contact with the weld seam joining thin titanium sheets is taught by S. E. Jacke in U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,033, Sep. 20, 1966 for ULTRASONICS. However, the disclosed method and equipment would not be operable for processing the heavy cast iron structure used in brake drums and rotors, nor would it be able to process the sub-surface material to the depths needed for meeting braking surface specifications.
Furthermore, the ultrasonic treatment of welds requires a completely different relationship of ultrasonic impacts on the work body surface to strengthen welds. Rather, the processing of braking surfaces to achieve improvements of braking surface strength for the compressive interfacing between the braking surface and braking pads affects the work product in an entirely different way.
Prior ultrasonic impact treatment methods have been utilized for treating weld joints and fractures in structural iron, but it has not been known how to treat the topography and strength of braking surfaces ultrasonically to obtain greater strength and ability to perform the in-service role of compressively confronting brake pads.
Prior art brake drums are in general subject to thermo-mechanical fatigue, and propensity to develop cracks. The braking surfaces between drums and brake pads do not have appropriate shape and texture for service and thus need be subjected to extensive break-in procedures which themselves tend to produce cracking and thermo-induced stresses. The peening method of brake surface treatment leaves a roughened braking surface that reduces the amount of effective area of the braking surface in use, produces uneven distribution of individual peened peaks and contact area sizes to thus have the propensity to develop hot spots, thereby seriously limiting the maximum braking moment and contributing to early fatigue failures.
Further significant limitations of the peening method include the depth of allowable wear on the working surface and the uniformity of braking characteristics during the life of the brake drum.
One further limitation of the peening method is the inability to control the process to meet variable specifications. For example, the only control over braking surface roughness is the complicated matter of finding and implementing the appropriate shot sizes and accompanying striking forces. There is essentially no way to achieve a smooth cylindrical interface fit with an associated brake pad with the peening method.
Background technology for the application of ultrasonic impact energy to the surface of polypropylene and thermoplastic materials for welding or riveting, is evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,314, Nov. 2, 1999 by Manfred Sans for DEVICE FOR ULTRASONIC TREATMENT OF WORKPIECES. However, this teaching does not disclose a feasible system for the reworking of machined metal work pieces by ultrasonic machining methods in a manner reworking the sub-surface crystalline structure and establishing the surface texture of a metal workpiece, as does this present invention.
Similarly, various specialty ultrasonic metal working impact transducers, including hand operated tools, are disclosed in the prior art for surface deformation and subsurface plasticization of explicit shapes and contours, typically cylinders, rotating surface segments and planar sheets by direct mechanical interfacing of an ultrasonically vibrating head with a metallic surface work site. Typical disclosures are found in Russian inventor""s certificates including: SU 1447646 A1, published Dec. 30, 1988; SU 1263510 A2, published Oct. 15, 1986; SU 1756125 A1, published Aug. 23, 1992; SU 1255405 A1, published Sep. 7, 1986; SU 1576283 A, published Jul. 7, 1990; SU 998104, published Jan. 5, 1981; SU 1214396 A, published Feb. 28, 1986; SU 1481044 A, published Sep. 28, 1987; and SU 1703417 Al, published Jan. 7, 1982 relating to direct mechanical contact between an oscillating ultrasonic transducer head oscillating at the prescribed ultrasonic frequency and the treated metallic object surface.
French 2,662,180 filed May 7, 1991 relates to a system for applying ultrasonically oscillating thermal impulse energy to induce plastic surface deformation at weld sites to improve the initial weld strength in the plastic material. This system does not disclose how to successfully apply ultrasonic energy to correct braking problems by machining brake drum surfaces.
Statnikov, et al published documents IIW XIII-1617-96 and IIW XIII-1609-95 relating to the state of the art of hand held tools for applying ultrasonic impact energy directly from an oscillating transducer head at the impacting resonant frequency of the driving oscillator. These transducers are special purpose transducers with a single impacting needle adapted to a system configuration for achieving the particular functional treatment of strengthening welded structure of a specific workpiece configuration at a specific periodic ultrasonic resonant frequency.
Thus, this state of the ultrasonic transducer prior art will permit one skilled in the art to select and apply appropriate ultrasonic transducers for practicing this invention.
It is a general objective of the present invention to provide improved methods of machining metallic braking surfaces, typically cast iron by way of ultrasonic machining of the braking surfaces to restructure the surface strength and topography in a manner significantly increasing braking service strength and life.
It is a further object of the invention to overcome by ultrasonic machining methods the disadvantages of resident tooling marks on the braking surface, which produce tensile stress concentrations.
In general it is an object of this invention to process braking surfaces, typically cast iron brake drums, as a substantially final manufacturing step.
Another object of the invention is to machine the cylindrical interior drum braking surfaces with ultrasonic transducer assemblies which are small enough to be positioned inside the drum cylinder to establish precise working dimensions over braking surfaces that better mate with the drum confronting surfaces of the brake pads and which are confined to the braking surfaces only.
A more specific object of the invention is to plastically deform a braking surface by ultrasonic machining methods to increase contact area and strength of the braking surface metal and adjacent sub-surface region to a typical depth exceeding 500 microns and up to 3000 microns for meeting the designated wear depth tolerances of particular braking system surfaces.
Another objective of the invention is to develop improved smoothed braking surface topography on braking surfaces modified to remove roughened tooling marks which better conform with mating brake pads typically with macro-relief of less than 200 micro inch and a smoother finish micro-relief, thus advantageously providing a better surface for interfacing with the brake lining, better dissipation of heat build up, and increased surface contact for braking purposes.
It is another object of the invention to produce novel cast iron brake drums with ultrasonically processed modifications of the braking surface in the final manufacturing procedure therefore providing uniform distribution of residual deformations up to about 12 mm in depth, which deformations retain their distribution during life and afford greater braking strength.
Other objectives will be found throughout the following description, drawings, and claims.
The above identified parent applications are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.
The above objectives are achieved by employing novel ultrasonic machining methods as a final stage machining process in the manufacture of brake drums, in particular for removing former machine tooling marks. This results in novel braking surface re-manufacturing methods particularly related to cast iron surface structure of brake drums and brake rotors which produce designated smoothness of the braking surface configurations presenting greater brake surface contact area than obtainable by peening methods and thus producing much higher braking strengths.
To achieve these objectives, this invention introduces novel ultrasonic machining systems that uniquely machine braking surface structure to produce the desirable smooth rotor braking surfaces and strengthened braking surfaces which impart longer life braking service with increased braking forces.
Smooth braking surfaces are produced to facilitate mechanical abutment and engagement of the braking surface and its mating brake pads and thus provide more braking surface contact than the prior art peening-roughened surfaces.
These novel ultrasonic impact machining methods are interrelated and dependent upon ultrasonic tooling systems capable of working directly in the restricted access region of the drum brake internal cylindrical braking surface to precisely attain and repeatedly meet brake surface specifications over the entire braking surface in an efficient and low cost manner.
Thus, an ultrasonic transducer head adapted for efficient transfer of oscillating ultrasonic energy at frequencies up to 55 kHz from an ultrasonic periodically vibrating energy transfer surface is employed. A set of freely axially movable impacting elements is interposed between a transducer energy transfer surface and the braking surface being machined in a braking surface scanning mode to uniformly cover the entire braking surface.
A scanning system employing a lathe unit positions the transducer and impact members inside the cylindrical brake drum for ultrasonically impacting only the exposed braking surface without machining any other exposed surfaces as is required by the nature of the prior art peening methods. Thus the set of transducer driven indenter members scan the braking surface as the brake drum and transducer impact members are relatively rotated therewith to establish a substantially uniformly machined braking surface.
This novel mode of operation is thus advantageous over the former peening methods which by nature impact areas outside of the braking surface thereby dissipating available kinetic energy per unit of braking surface area. By producing smoother controlled braking surface macro and micro surface structure provides a much larger braking impact area to achieve plastic deformation and result in a higher braking strength of the cast iron braking surface. The prior art peening mode of operation serves to indent and reshape the impact area into the peaks and valleys of roughened surface texture which eliminates braking surface contact over a substantial portion of the braking surface.
The ultrasonic impact machining methods of this invention with associated ultrasonic systems features therefore produce a superior higher strength machining of the braking drum or rotor to present smoothed surfaces to accommodate specified braking system requirements and to provide higher braking forces in service with a larger mating surface interfacing with a brake pad in dry sliding contact with increased braking forces to effect frictional loading over a longer life of braking service.
The braking surface is plastically modified by the ultrasonic methods applied with the ultrasonic transducer to achieve a two-component surface texture with macro and micro components, and to strengthen the surface material, typically cast iron, beyond the yield strength and approaching the ultimate strength of the base material, thereby creating internally in adjacent sub-surface regions a normalized deflection mode of the material in the brake drum body realized by balancing of internal forces. Employment of an associated set of simultaneously oscillating indenters in the transducer head produces the novel characteristics of a smoother more uniform interfacing surface machined on the drum during a scanning operation.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be found throughout the following drawings, description and claims.

Ultrasonic machining and reconfiguration of braking surfaces


A sensor switch includes an insulated housing having an inner wall surface that defines a through hole. The through hole has a shoulder interconnecting large and small diameter hole sections thereof. A first conductive terminal includes a head portion embedded in the large diameter hole section and having a first contact surface. A plug portion of a second conductive terminal is embedded in the large diameter hole section spaced apart from the head portion and has a second contact surface facing the first contact surface. The inner wall surface and the first and second contact surfaces cooperatively confine a sensing chamber. At least one conductive member is rollably accommodated in the sensing chamber.

A sensor switch is a switch that uses a conductive member in an interior thereof to sense vibration so as to open or close a circuit. Because of its sensitivity and ability to detect vibration in all directions, the sensor switch has a very wide range of applications, and is an indispensable electronic component of many electronic products.
Currently, the conductive member of the sensor switch is confined in a cavity defined by a non-conductive shell and two electrodes. The connection between the non-conductive shell and the electrodes is strengthened through an embedding engagement.
One instance of such an embedding engagement is disclosed in FIG. 1 of Japanese Publication No. 2003-161653, wherein two electrode parts (A1, A2) are inserted into a cylindrical body (B) in two opposite mounting directions (10A, 10B), and a cylindrical enlarged head portion 3 of each electrode part (A1, A2) is engaged between annular projections 7, 8, 9 of the cylindrical body (B). However, in order to permit easy assembly of the electrode parts (A1, A2) with the cylindrical body (B), the ratio of the height of each of the annular projections 7, 8, 9 to the diameter of the cylindrical enlarged head portion 3 is too small, so that the electrode parts (A1, A2) cannot be firmly connected to the cylindrical body (B).
Another instance of the embedding engagement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,421,793 B2. In this disclosure, two end caps are frictionally fitted into a central member. However, the distal portion of each of the end caps must have a certain length, and the interference fit of the distal portions of the end caps with the central member must be considered at the same time to produce a suitable friction force. As such, not only is the complexity of the manufacturing process of the components increased, the cost associated therewith is also increased. Further, because the connection of the end caps with the central member may be too tight, air pressure generated during assembly thereof may push the end caps outward, so that the end caps may be unstably connected to the central member, even to the point of loosening therefrom.

Sensor switch and method of assembly thereof


Interlayer-coordinated communication-line switching in a network including two layers, each having a switching function. In the present invention, a communication apparatus which (1) is connected with a network including (i) lower layer apparatus which are connected with communication lines of a lower layer and communication lines of an upper layer and conducts line switching in the lower layer and (ii) upper layer apparatuses which are connected with the communication lines of the upper layer and have means for line switching in the upper layer and (2) detects line failure and coordinates line switching using failure information on the lower and upper layer communication lines.

The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and a communication system.
Data communication has recently become more and more important with the increasing use of the Internet, and its related applications. ATM networks in accordance with the ITU-T I.150 standard have been introduced in this field to integrate telephony and data communication. High-speed optical communication network technologies such as SONET defined by the ANSI T1.105 standard, SDH defined by the ITU-T G.707 standard, and OTN defined by the ITU-T G.872 standard have been introduced in this field. SONET and SDH have basically the same function, and OTN, an optical network, is based on the WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) technology to raise the transmission capacity in a fiber.
These networks are interconnected by prescribing upper and lower layers based on the layer hierarchy of the OSI (Open System Interconnection) reference model defined by ISO. According to the provisions of these individual networks, ATM is ranked at the top; OTN is ranked at the bottom; and SONET and SDH are ranked at the middle. Each network is also of hierarchic structure, consisting of subnetworks. For example, an ATM network consists of a virtual path and a virtual channel, and SONET/SDH and OTN are of hierarchic structures, consisting of subnetworks, as well.

Communication apparatus and communication system

Hitachi Communication Technologies, Ltd.


An electronic circuit includes a switchable circuit domain that operates in a RUN mode and a STANDBY mode and receives a supply current from a core power supply. A power regulator is connected between the core power supply and the switchable circuit domain to regulate the supply current provided to the switchable circuit domain when the electronic circuit is in the RUN mode. A capacitor is connected between the power regulator and ground and is charged by a refresh circuit when the electronic circuit is in the STANDBY mode. The refresh circuit maintains a voltage across the capacitor when the electronic circuit is in the standby mode, which reduces the time for the electronic circuit to transition from the STANDBY mode to the RUN mode.

The present invention relates generally to electronic circuits, and more particularly, to power supply circuits used in electronic circuits.
Electronic circuits such as microprocessors, microcontroller units (MCUs), system-on-chips (SOCs), and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are used in a wide variety of applications such as industrial applications, automobiles, home appliances, and handheld devices. These circuits often operate in different power modes such as a RUN mode, a STANDBY mode, and a STOP mode. An example of a conventional electronic circuit 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. The electronic circuit 100 includes an always ON circuit domain 102, a switchable circuit domain 104, a low power regulator 106, a power regulator 108, and a capacitor 110. The always ON circuit domain 102 receives a constant supply current from the low power regulator 106 and operates in a single mode, i.e., the RUN mode. The switchable circuit domain 104 can operate in a RUN mode and a STANDBY mode. The switchable circuit domain 104 receives a constant supply current in the RUN mode and the supply current is gated in the STANDBY mode. The STOP mode is common to both circuit domains 102, 104, in which case the power supply is shut off.
The switchable circuit domain 104 receives a supply current from a core power supply 112 in the RUN mode. The power regulator 108 is connected to the core power supply 112 and the switchable circuit domain 104 and regulates the supply current to the switchable circuit domain 104. The power regulator 108 is a high power regulator and includes a band gap voltage source 114, a buffer amplifier 116, and a switch 118, such as a p-channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor. The capacitor 110 is connected between the power regulator 108 and ground. The negative terminal of the buffer amplifier 116 is connected to the band gap voltage source 114 and the positive terminal of the buffer amplifier 116 is connected to a first terminal of the capacitor 110. The switch 118 is connected to the output terminal of the buffer amplifier 116, the core power supply 112 and the switchable circuit domain 104.
When the switchable circuit domain 104 transitions from the STANDBY mode to the RUN mode, the capacitor 110 must be charged to a predetermined voltage. The band gap voltage source 114 generates a voltage equivalent to this predetermined voltage (e.g., 1.2v). During the transition, the capacitor 110 is charged by the core power supply 112 and the voltage across the capacitor 110 appears at the positive terminal of the buffer amplifier 116. The initial output of the buffer amplifier 116 is about 3.3V and the switch 118, which is OFF, gates the supply current to the switchable circuit domain 104. While the capacitor 110 is charging, the buffer amplifier 116 compares the voltage across the capacitor 110 with the voltage generated by the band gap voltage source 114 and controls the ON/OFF status of the switch 118. The output of the buffer amplifier 116 gradually decreases from 3.3V to a LOW state and remains LOW as long as the voltage across the capacitor 110 is less than the voltage generated by the band gap voltage source 114. The LOW output of the buffer amplifier 116 turns the switch 118 ON and then the supply current is directed from the core power supply 112 to the switchable circuit domain 104. When the capacitor 110 is charged to the predetermined voltage, the output of the buffer amplifier 116 goes HIGH, which causes the switch 118 to enter a saturation state and thus continue conducting.
The time for the switchable circuit domain 104 to transition from the STANDBY mode to the RUN mode is known as wake-up time. The wake-up time is a function of the time taken by the capacitor 110 to be charged to the predetermined voltage. When used in automotive electronic circuits, the capacitance of the capacitor 110 can be as high as 40 microfarads (μF). The time for such a capacitor to charge to about 1.2v ranges between 400-500 microseconds. This high wake-up time degrades the performance of the electronic circuit 100.
The wake-up time can be crucial when such electronic circuits are used in time critical applications and should be as low as possible to reduce the chances of failure of the electronic circuit. One solution to reduce the wake-up time is to increase the in-rush current to the capacitor 110 (from the core power supply 112) when the switchable circuit domain 104 transitions from the RUN mode to the STANDBY mode. However, an increase in the in-rush current causes a decrease in the supply level to the switchable circuit domain 104, and decrease in supply level leads to a low voltage condition in the switchable circuit domain 104, which will trigger low voltage detectors (LVDs) and cause a system level interrupt. Such a situation is unwanted during the operation of the electronic circuit. Further, additional circuitry must be added to the electronic circuit 100 to mask the false triggering of the LVDs, which increases the size of the electronic circuit 100.
It would be advantageous to have an electronic circuit with a reduced wake-up time and that does not trigger system level interrupts.

Power supply circuit for reduced wake-up time


Methods and systems for use in connection with a fitness routine and/or an exercise apparatus. In one such method, fitness information is stored in a fitness analysis system and operative communication is established with an exercise apparatus and/or a wireless communication device. A fitness information request is received at the fitness analysis system, and the system sends a setting associated with the exercise apparatus to facilitate a workout using an exercise apparatus. The system receives exercise information corresponding to the workout, and updates fitness information during the workout. The updated fitness information is analyzed to generate associated with the exercise apparatus to facilitate a subsequent workout.

Wireless device users frequently bring wireless devices (e.g., cellular telephones, MP3 players, etc.) with them wherever they go to stay in touch with the outside world, to play music and so forth. Users commonly use a wireless device for these reasons while exercising.
When a user exercises in a gym, electronic and other exercise equipment may be present. Electronic exercise equipment usually has several settings that should be adjusted before a suitable workout can be provided to the user. For example, if a user wishes to use a treadmill, the user may need to set the user's age, gender, weight, desired speed, desired incline and/or desired pre-set exercise program. The more sophisticated and feature-laden the exercise equipment, the more involved the set up process typically becomes. Even in the case of non-electronic exercise equipment, settings must be remembered by the user, or written down for future use. Otherwise, the user will either risk using the equipment improperly, or will have to determine the proper settings every time he or she uses the equipment. For example, weight equipment typically has settings for weight, seat position and the like.
Various forms of feedback may be provided to the user once the user has completed the workout. For example, the number of repetitions the user performed, distance run, calories expended, average heart rate, etc., are all types of information that may be useful in determining future workouts or tracking a user's progress. Conventionally, such information may need to be recorded manually, such as in a paper notebook. Specialized exercise equipment, such as a heart rate monitor, may record feedback information that it recorded itself, but typically such specialized devices do not record information from other devices, such as electronic exercise equipment.

Fitness applications of a wireless device


A combination of a ski and a ski binding wherein a long part extends in the longitudinal direction of a ski, the long part being fixed at one end and movable at the other end in response to movement of the ski, with a damping device having a fixed part fixed to the ski and a movable piston movable in response to bending of the ski, and an easily removable adapter device for changing the piston. The fixed part of the long part can be changed in length. Guiding structure can also be provided for guiding movement of the long part on the ski.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a combination of ski and ski binding, in which bending movements of the ski can be influenced, or varied, by means of a long part which extends in the longitudinal direction of the ski outside, or above, a neutral bending plane of the ski and is essentially resistant to tensile and shear forces and which has a part, in particular an end part, which is arranged or can be attached in a fixed manner on the ski and at least one part which is spaced from said part in the longitudinal direction of the ski and is movable in the longitudinal direction of the ski and which can be connected in an essentially fixed manner to an associated part of a damping device consisting essentially of two parts movable relative to one another in the longitudinal direction of the ski, the other part of which, which is movable relative to the long part, is or can be connected to an abutment fixed on the ski.
2. Description of the Related Art
From EP 0 492 658 A1, a plate arrangement which can be mounted between the ski and the ski bindings is known, which has a flexible plate which is fixed on the ski at its one end arranged below the heel-side ski binding unit and is otherwise and in particular at its other end arranged below the toe-side binding unit guided displaceably relative to the ski in the longitudinal direction thereof. As soon as the ski performs bending movements, this displaceable end of the plate moves relative to the upper side of the ski in the longitudinal direction of the ski because the plate has a relatively great spacing from the neutral bending plane of the ski. According to EP 0 492 658 A1, in order for it to be possible to damp the bending movements of the ski, a hydraulic damper can be arranged between that end of the plate which is displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the ski and an abutment fixed on the ski.
A ski with variable handling characteristics is known from DE-OS 28 33 393. To this end, at least one pull and push rod, which is flexible with regard to the bending movements of the ski, is arranged in the ski above the neutral bending plane of the ski. This push and pull rod is, with one of its ends, attached to one ski end in a fixed manner in relation to the ski. The other end of the rod is, in the central area of the ski, i.e. below the binding mounting area intended for the arrangement of the ski binding, coupled to a hydraulic damper and spring unit which is arranged between said end of the push and pull rod and an abutment fixed on the ski.
Another ski with a device for damping bending stresses forms the subject of EP 0 639 392 B1. In this case, a flat-band-like plate, one end of which is connected to the ski in a fixed manner in relation to the ski, while the other end is fastened to the upper side of the ski with interposition of an elastomer body, is arranged on the upper side of the ski in each case in front of and/or behind the area of the ski binding. As soon as the ski performs bending movements, the latter end of the plate moves relative to the upper side of the ski in the longitudinal direction of the ski, the elastomer body being subjected to shear stress while damping the bending movement of the ski.