In a semiconductor integrated circuit wherein an interlayer insulating film is formed over a semiconductor substrate having a semiconductor device formed thereover; and an interconnection embedded in an interconnection groove in the interlayer insulating film is formed by the deposition of a metal film such as copper and polishing by the CMP method, another interlayer insulating film over the interconnection and interlayer insulating film is formed to have a blocking film, a planarizing film and an insulating film. As the planarizing film, a film having fluidity such as SOG is employed.

This invention relates to a technique for fabrication of a semiconductor integrated circuit device and the semiconductor integrated circuit device fabricated by using this technique. Particularly, the present invention pertains to a technique which is effective when applied to a semiconductor integrated circuit device having a metal interconnection, which has, as a main conductive film, copper or the like, and is formed by depositing a thin copper film in a groove and removing a portion of the thin copper film from a region outside the groove by the CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) method.
In the conventional semiconductor integrated circuit device, an interconnection film was formed, for example, by forming a thin film of a high-melting-point metal, such as aluminum (Al) alloy or tungsten (W), over an insulating film, forming a resist pattern having the same shape as that of the interconnection pattern over a thin film for interconnection by photolithography and then forming the interconnection pattern by dry etching using the resist pattern as a mask.
The conventional process using an Al alloy or the like is, however, accompanied with a drawback in that, attendant on miniaturization of the interconnection, the interconnection resistance shows a marked increase, which inevitably increases an interconnection delay, resulting in a deterioration in the performance of the semiconductor integrated circuit device. Such a drawback has led to a serious problem particularly in a high-performance logic LSI and represents a factor for disturbing its performance.
The IBM J. Res. Develop., 39(4), the July issue, 419-435(1995) or 1996 Symposium on VLSI Technology Digest of Technical Papers, pp48-49, describes a process (so-called damascene method) for forming an interconnection pattern in a groove, which comprises embedding an interconnection metal, which has copper (Cu) as a main conductive film, formed in an insulating film and then removing an unnecessary portion of the metal outside the groove by the CMP (chemical machine polishing) method.
The Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-297183, describes a technique which comprises forming an interconnection groove on an insulating film formed over a semiconductor substrate, overlaying another insulating film, overlaying a conductive interconnection film, forming a planarizing film made of SOG (Spin On Glass) so as to embed the interconnection groove with the planarizing film, and polishing the planarizing film the and conductive interconnection film, thereby leaving an interconnection made of the conductive interconnection film in the interconnection groove.
As a result of investigation on the above process which comprises embedding an interconnection metal having copper (Cu) or the like as a main conductor film in a groove formed in an insulating film and then removing an unnecessary portion of the metal outside the groove by the CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) method, however, the present inventors found that the process is accompanied with the following problems. The problems investigated by the present inventors will be described with reference to FIG. 73(a) to 73(c), in which FIG. 73(a) is a plain view, FIG. 73(b) is a cross-sectional view taken along a line bxe2x80x94b of FIG. FIG. 73(a) and FIG. 73(c) is a cross-sectional view taken along a line cxe2x80x94c of FIG. FIG. 73(a), and wherein only a problematic interconnection film is illustrated, while other members are omitted.
For the formation of an interconnection 202 over an insulating film 201, first, an insulating film 203 for interconnection formation is deposited over the insulating film 201 and an interconnection groove 204 is formed in the insulating film 203. As the insulating film 203, a silicon oxide film is usually employed. Second, a metal film (for example, copper (Cu)) which is to constitute the interconnection 202 is deposited over the insulating film 203 so as to embed the interconnection groove 204, followed by the removal of a portion of the metal film over the insulating film 203 outside the interconnection groove 204 by polishing, whereby only the metal film inside the interconnection groove 204 remains and the interconnection 202 is formed. When the silicon oxide film used as the insulating film 203 is compared with the metal (ex. copper) which constitutes the interconnection film 202, the polishing rate of the latter by the CMP method is generally greater. Such a difference in the polishing rate inevitably results in a concave portion 205 being formed on the surface of the interconnection 202, This concave portion 205 is known as dishing (concave). In addition, scratches appear on the surface of the insulating film 203 as a result of polishing by the CMP method.
If an insulating film 206 is formed over such a concave portion 205 or a scratch without removing it from the surface of the insulating film 203, another concave portion 205 or a further concave portion attributable to the scratch also appears on the surface of the insulating film 206. If a plug 207 is formed in the insulating film 206 by the CMP method without removing the concave portion, the conductive substance 208 which constitutes the plug 207 remains in the concave portion on the surface of the insulating film 206. Described more specifically, the plug 207 is formed by embedding a metal film, which is to constitute the plug 207, inside a connecting hole opened in the insulating film 206 and, at the same time, depositing the metal film over the insulating film 206; and then removing the metal film over the insulating film 206 by the CMP method to leave only a portion of the metal film inside of the connecting hole. If a concave portion (including a concave portion attributable to a scratch) exists on the surface of the insulating film 206, the conductive, substance 208, which is a residue of the metal film, also remains inside of the concave portion. Incidentally, there is a possibility that the metal film will remain in the concave portion attributable to a scratch, but this is not illustrated.
Such a residue of the conductive substance 208 is not intended and is undesired, because when an insulating film 209 is formed over the plug 207 and an interconnection 210 is formed in the interconnection groove of the insulating film 209, two adjacent interconnections 210, which are to be electrically disconnected, form a short circuit owing to the existence of the conductive substance 208, leading to a short-circuit problem in the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
Such a short circuit problem occurs similarly when an interconnection is formed by the so-called dual damascene method without using the plug 207.
An object of the present invention is to provide a technique for improving surface flatness of an interlayer insulating film over a first metal interconnection formed by the OMP method.
Another object of the present invention is to suppress a short circuit of a second metal interconnection over a first metal interconnection formed by the CMP method, thereby improving the yield and reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
The above described and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description herein and the drawings attached.
Among the aspects of the invention disclosed herein, representative ones will next be summarized simply.
(1) In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor integrated circuit device which comprises a semiconductor device formed over a principal surface of a semiconductor substrate; a first insulating film which is formed over the semiconductor device and has a first conductive member, which has been formed by the CMP method, embedded in each of first concave portions formed in the first insulating film; and a second insulating film which is formed over the first insulating film and has a second conductive member, which has been formed by the CMP method, embedded in each of second concave portions formed in the second insulating film, the second insulating film including a fluid insulating film having self fluidity.
According to such a semiconductor integrated circuit device, even if dishing (concave) appears in the first conductive member, which has been embedded in the first insulating film, as a result of polishing by the CMP method or the first insulating film has a scratch on its surface as a result of polishing by the CMP method, the surface is planarized because the second insulating film includes a fluid insulating film, and influence of the above dishing or scratch is not observed from the surface of the second insulating film, whereby a conductive member to be embedded in the second insulating film is formed evenly by the CMP method. In other words, if the fluid insulating film is formed, the second conductive member to be embedded in the second insulating film does not remain in the concave portion on the surface of the second insulating film, whereby a short circuit between two adjacent conductive members of the second insulating film, which otherwise occurs due to the residue, can be prevented. Consequently, the yield and reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit can be improved.
When a concave portion exists on the surface of the second insulating film, it becomes necessary to excessively polish a portion of the second insulating film for the formation of the second conductive member. In the present invention, since such a concave portion is not formed on the surface of the second insulating film, excessive polishing is not required. As a result, a short circuit can be avoided by preventing dishing of the second conductive member embedded in the second insulating film and evenly forming the conductive member to be overlaid for reasons similar to the above described ones.
Incidentally, it is possible to form the first or second insulating film as an interconnection-forming insulating film which has an interconnection formed in its concave portion or an interconnection interlayer insulating film which insulates between interconnection films; to form the concave portion as an interconnection groove formed in the interconnection-forming insulating film or a connecting groove formed in the interconnection interlayer insulating film; and to form a conductive member as an interconnection formed in the interconnection groove or a plug formed in the connecting hole.
In addition, it is possible to form the fluid insulating film to be included only in the interconnection interlayer insulating film positioned on the interconnection formed in the interconnection groove of the interconnection-forming insulating film; to be contained only in the interconnection-forming insulating film positioned on the plug formed in the connecting hole of the interconnection interlayer insulating film; or to be contained in both the interconnection interlayer insulating film positioned on the interconnection formed in the interconnection groove of the interconnection-forming insulating film and the interconnection-forming insulating film positioned on the plug formed in the connecting hole of the interconnection interlayer insulating film.
The concave portion may be made of an interconnection groove formed in the vicinity of the surfaces of the first and second insulating films and a connecting hole formed below the interconnection groove, and in the conductive member, an interconnection portion formed in the interconnection groove may be integrally formed with a connecting portion formed in the connecting hole. In other the present invention can also be applied to an interconnection (interconnection by the so-called dual damascene method) wherein a connecting hole portion and an interconnection groove portion have been integrally formed.
The second insulating film, interconnection interlayer insulating film and interconnection-forming insulating film each containing a fluid insulating film may have a three-layer structure of a non-fluid insulating film having no self fluidity, a fluid insulating film and a non-fluid insulating film.
As the fluid insulating film, an SOG film can be used. Examples of the SOG film include organic SOG films, inorganic SOG films and polysilazane SOG films. Among them, inorganic SOG films are particularly preferred. If an organic SOG film is used as the fluid insulating film, the shrinkage or heightening of water absorption of the organic SOG film occurs upon processing of the second insulating film, interconnection interlayer insulating film or interconnection-forming insulating film which contains the organic SOG film by photolithography and by removing the photoresist film, that is, a mask for photolithography by oxygen ashing, which adversely affects the reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit device. The use of the inorganic SOG film as a fluid insulating film, however, does not cause such an inconvenience.
As the fluid insulating film, it is possible to use a silicon oxide film prepared by forming a silanol in a gaseous phase and then reacting the resulting silanol on a low-temperature substrate.
The SOG film is formed by application in an air atmosphere. A silicon oxide film formed by silanol formation in a gaseous phase and the reaction of the silanol on the low-temperature substrate, more specifically, formed by allowing silanol (HnSi(OH)4-n), which has been prepared by the combination of a silane gas (SiH4) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under reduced pressure, to absorb to the surface of a substrate to form a film, can also be given as an example of the fluid insulating film. Here, a silane gas is exemplified as a raw material gas for the formation of a silanol, but methylsilane (dimethylsilane, trimethylsilane or the like) or ethylsilane (diethylsilane, triethylsilane or the like) having, as a substituent for a hydrogen group (xe2x80x94H), an alkyl group such as methyl (xe2x80x94CH3) or ethyl (xe2x80x94C2H5) may be used.
The width W of each of the concave portion, interconnection groove and connecting hole may fall within a range of from its minimum width Wmix to the maximum width Wmx and satisfy the condition of Wmaxxe2x89xa64xc3x97Wmin.
(2) In another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a semiconductor integrated circuit device which comprises a semiconductor device formed on a principal surface of a semiconductor substrate; a first insulating film which is formed over the semiconductor device and has a first conductive member, which has been formed by the CMP method, embedded in each of first concave portion formed in the first insulating film; and a second insulating film which is formed over the first insulating film and has a second conductive member, which has been formed by the CMP method, embedded in each of second concave portions formed in the second insulating film, the second insulating film including an insulating film planarized by the CMP method.
According to such a semiconductor integrated circuit device, the second insulating film is able to have a planarized surface owing to the insulating film planarized by the CMP method as described above in (1) and the second conductive member to be embedded in the second insulating film is therefore formed securely, whereby occurrence of a short circuit can be prevented. By preventing excessive polishing of the second conductive member embedded in the second insulating film, thereby overlaying another conductive member securely, occurrence of a short circuit can be prevented, which, similar to (1), makes it possible to improve the yield and reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
The semiconductor integrated circuit devices as described above in (1) and (2) each may have, over the interconnection formed in its concave portion or interconnection groove, a diffusion preventive film for preventing the diffusion of metal elements which constitute the interconnection, for example, a silicon nitride film formed by the plasma CVD method. The existence of such a diffusion preventive film makes it possible to secure the withstand voltage of the interconnection interlayer insulating film, thereby improving the reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit device.
(3) In a further aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a process for the fabrication of a semiconductor integrated circuit device which comprises a semiconductor device formed on the principal surface of a semiconductor substrate, a first insulating film which has been formed over the semiconductor device and has a first conductive member embedded in one portion of the first insulating film and a second insulating film which has been formed over the first insulating film and has a second conductive member embedded in one portion of the second insulating film. It comprises (a) depositing the first insulating film over the semiconductor substrate having at least the semiconductor device formed thereon and forming first concave portions in the first insulating film; (b) forming, on the surface of the first insulating film including the inside surface of the first concave portions, a first conductive film to be embedded in the first concave portions, (c) polishing the first conductive film by the CMP method to leave only a portion of the first conductive film inside of each of the first concave portions of the first insulating film, thereby forming the first conductive member, (d) depositing over the first conductive member a fluid insulating film having self fluidity and (e) forming second concave portions in the second insulating film including the fluid insulating film, forming a second conductive film to be embedded in each of the second concave portions and then polishing the second conductive film by the CMP method, thereby forming the second conductive member.
According to the above process, the semiconductor integrated circuit device as described above in (1) can be fabricated.
Incidentally, when the fluid insulating film is an SOC film, the SOC film is applied onto the semiconductor substrate, followed by thermal treatment.
When the fluid insulating film is a silicon oxide film formed by the formation of a silanol in a gaseous phase and reaction of the resulting silanol on a low-temperature substrate, it can be formed by retaining the semiconductor substrate at a low temperature not higher than 100xc2x0 C. in a reaction chamber under reduced pressure, introducing SiHxM4-x (wherein M represents a C1-3 alkyl group, 1xe2x89xa6xxe2x89xa64) and H2O2 into the reaction chamber to prepare a silanol and then heat treating the semiconductor substrate having the silanol deposited thereon. In this case, the larger the number of carbon atoms of the alkyl group (-M), the lower the vapor pressure becomes. The wall surface temperature of the reaction chamber can hence be heightened and the temperature of the semiconductor substrate can be reduced to the minimum, which makes it possible to accelerate the adsorption of an alkylsilane (SiHxM4-x) on the semiconductor substrate maintained at low temperature, thereby increasing the possibility of the silanol formation reaction occurring in the vicinity of the surface of the semiconductor substrate. As a result, the yield of the raw material gas can be increased. Incidentally, the raw material gas is preferably supplied in a gaseous phase so that alkyl groups having not more than 3 carbon atoms are preferred.
The width W of each of the first concave portions which will have the first conductive member formed therein can be formed so that the maximum width Wmax is within a range of four times as much as the minimum width Wmin (Wminxe2x89xa6Wxe2x89xa64xc3x97Wmin).
In the conductive film embedded in each of the first concave portions of the first insulating film in the above step (b), its height H1 in the concave portion of the minimum width Wmin may be almost equal to the height 112 in the concave portion of the maximum width Wmax (H1≅H2) and the heights H1 and H2 can be made higher than the height L1 of the surface of the first insulating film (H1≅H2 greater than L2).
According to such a process for the fabrication of a semiconductor integrated circuit device, the first conductive member formed in the step (b) is embedded in all of the first concave portions of the first insulating film and the surface of the first conductive member itself is polished and planarized. In this point, the present invention differs from the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 7-297183. In the known technique, the surface height of a conductive film is lower than that of an interconnection groove in a wider interconnection groove so that when the conductive film is covered with a film such as SOG, followed by polishing to form an interconnection in the interconnection groove, the SOG film remains in the concave portion on the interconnection surface. In the present invention, on the other hand, a fluid insulating film such as SOG is deposited subsequent to the polishing for the formation of a first conductive member and the invention process therefore differs from the above technique in the order of steps. In addition, as described above, a height H1 of the concave portion of the minimum width Wmin is substantially similar to a height H2 of the concave portion of the maximum width Wmax (H1≅H2) and, at the same time, the heights H1 and H2 are both higher than a height L1 of the first insulating film (H1≅H2 greater than L1) so that the invention process differs from the above technique in the formation step itself for forming the first conductive member (corresponding to the interconnection in the above technique). The semiconductor integrated circuit devices fabricated by these two different processes are inevitably different and in the semiconductor integrated circuit device fabricated according to the present invention, a fluid insulating film such as SOG does not remain even if a concave portion (dishing) is formed on the first conductive member by the CMP method.
In the first conductive member polished in the above step (c), the dishing amount K1 on the surface of the first conductive member in the concave portion of the minimum width Wmin and the dishing amount K2 on the surface of the first conductive member in the concave portion of the maximum width Wmax are substantially the same (K1≅K2). Such a fabrication process of a semiconductor integrated circuit device is available based on the above-described condition of H1≅H2.
It is also possible to form a second insulating film by depositing a CVD silicon oxide film by the plasma CVD method or thermal CVD method prior to the deposition of the fluid insulating film, depositing the fluid insulating film and then depositing thereover a CVD oxide film.
After the formation of the first conductive member, a diffusion preventive film, for example, a silicon nitride film, which covers the surface of the first conductive member can be deposited thereon.
By such a fabrication process, it is possible to prevent the diffusion of a metal element such as copper which constitutes the first conductive member, thereby improving the reliability of the semiconductor integrated circuit.
(4) In a still further aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a process for the fabrication of a semiconductor integrated circuit device which has a semiconductor device formed on the principal surface of a semiconductor substrate, a first insulating film which has been formed over the semiconductor device and has a first conductive member partially embedded therein and a second insulating film which has been formed over the first insulating film and has a second conductive member partially embedded therein; which comprises (a) depositing the first insulating film on the semiconductor substrate having at least the semiconductor device formed thereon and forming first concave portions in one portion of the first insulating film; (b) forming over the surface of the first insulating film including the inside surface of each of the first concave portions a first conductive film to be embedded in each of the first concave portions; (c) polishing the first conductive film by the CMP method to leave a portion of the first conductive film inside of each of the first concave portions of the first insulating film, thereby forming the first conductive member; (d) depositing a silicon oxide film over the first conductive member and polishing the silicon oxide film by the CMP method for planarization; and (e) forming second concave portions in the second insulating film including the silicon oxide film, forming a conductive film to be embedded in each of the second concave portions and polishing the conductive film by the CMP method, thereby forming a second conductive member.
According to the above-described fabrication process, a semiconductor integrated circuit device as described above in (2) can be fabricated. Incidentally, the silicon oxide film included in the second insulating film is planarized by the CMP method so that it is not required to have self fluidity and may be a silicon oxide film formed by the plasma CVD method or the CVD method using TEOS (tetramethoxysilane) or the like.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device and fabrication process thereof


The electric lamp has a pinched seal (2) which is fixed in a lamp cap (5) with a metal shell (9) with cylindrically bent portions (10) by means of a retaining member (11). The retaining member (11) has a set of brackets (12, 13) between which the pinched seal (2) is clamped in. The clamping force (P) is generated in that the brackets (12, 13), after being inserted in the lamp cap (5), are moved away from one another through openings (14) in the lamp cap before being fixed to the shell (9) of the lamp cap (5).

Such an electric lamp is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,001. In the known lamp, the two brackets of the retaining member are fixed to each other by means of soldered or welded joints. The retaining member has thereby been coupled to the lamp vessel before it is inserted in the lamp cap. The brackets are bent alongside the shell of the lamp cap in mutually opposing directions.
A disadvantage of the known lamp is that only a narrow spread is allowable as to the thickness of the pinched seal of the lamp vessel, otherwise the retaining member will have no or no secure coupling with the lamp cap, or will cause excessive strain in the pinched seal.
Another disadvantage is that the retaining member, before it is inserted in the lamp cap, has to be compressed in order to assume dimensions which are smaller than the dimensions which it is to have at a later stage to effect all-round contact with the lamp cap. This involves the risk of the retaining member, when applied in the lamp cap, springing back to a degree which is insufficient for effecting fixing points to the lamp cap.

Pinch seal mount assembly for electric lamp


An optical packet switching device causes branching of an optical packet that is input to an optical switch and detects a synchronization pattern having a predetermined number of bits from the branched optical packet. Then, the optical packet switching device calculates a synchronization point indicating a location of the synchronization pattern with respect to a detection timing and controls, in accordance with the calculated synchronization point, a delay amount of a delay element that delays an optical packet ON signal that is output to the optical switch.

In the field of optical communication networks, it is conventional to use an optical switch to switch paths for an optical packet transmitted from a transmission source node. A synchronization process is known for synchronizing the timing at which an optical packet is transmitted between the transmission source node and the optical switch with the timing at which the optical packet is switched.
In the following, the transmission source node and the optical switch that are used in the optical packet synchronization process will be described with reference to FIG. 10. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional transmission source device and a conventional optical switch. As illustrated in FIG. 10, a transmission source node 1 includes a dummy packet creating circuit 1a, an optical dummy packet reading transmission circuit 1b, a time lag correction circuit 1c, and a dummy packet O/E conversion circuit 1d.
The dummy packet creating circuit 1a in the transmission source node 1 creates a dummy packet. The optical dummy packet reading transmission circuit 1b reads the dummy packet from the dummy packet creating circuit 1a in accordance with an instruction from the time lag correction circuit 1c, performs E/O conversion on the read dummy packet, and transmits the converted dummy packet to an optical switch 2.
The dummy packet O/E conversion circuit 1d performs O/E conversion on the returned optical dummy packet received from the optical switch 2 and notifies the time lag correction circuit 1c of it. The time lag correction circuit 1c performs synchronization detection on the returned dummy packet. Accordingly, if the time lag correction circuit 1c detects synchronization loss, the time lag correction circuit 1c changes the read timing of the dummy packet and allows the optical dummy packet reading transmission circuit 1b to transmit optical dummy packets until synchronization has been achieved.
The optical switch 2 cuts out, at the optical switch timing, an optical dummy packet transmitted from the optical dummy packet reading transmission circuit 1b and returns the cut out optical dummy packet to the dummy packet O/E conversion circuit 1d.
In the following, the transmission of the optical dummy packet and the returned optical dummy packet will be described with reference to FIG. 11. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional time lag correction process. As illustrated in FIG. 11, when the initialization setting is performed at the time of the booting, the transmission source node 1 adds synchronization codes to both ends of the optical dummy packet and transmits the packet to the optical switch 2. The optical switch 2 cuts out the optical dummy packet at the constant optical switch timing and returns the cut out optical dummy packet to the transmission source node 1.
FIG. 11 illustrates a case, as an example, in which the head end synchronization code in the optical dummy packet returned from the optical switch 2 is cut out. In such a case, the time lag correction circuit 1c in the transmission source node 1, not detecting the head end synchronization code, lets the optical dummy packet reading transmission circuit 1b transmit the optical dummy packet by delaying the transmission timing of the optical dummy packet. The transmission timing and the size of the optical dummy packet are set after repeatedly performing this process and when synchronization is properly detected, i.e., when both ends of the synchronization codes are detected in the optical dummy packet. Then, the transmission source node 1 performs the optical packet communication by fixing the set transmission timing and size of the optical dummy packet.
Related art is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 07-321843.
However, with the conventional technology described above, because optical packet communication is performed at the transmission timing and is performed by using the packet size that are set at the time of initial setting, there is a problem in that the transmission rate decreases. Specifically, with the conventional technology, because the optical packet communication is performed with the fixed transmission timing, the transmission is not performed at an arbitrary timing for the transmission source. Accordingly, transmission data is piled up in the transmission source node, and the transmission rate thus decreases.
Furthermore, with the conventional technology described above, because the optical packet communication is performed using a fixed packet size, if the size of data to be packetized is less than that of one packet, in order to conform the data size to the fixed packet size, the data is packetized after invalid data is added thereto. Accordingly, if the optical packet communication is performed using the fixed packet size, the data is not packetized in an arbitrary data size. Therefore, because the optical packet communication is performed using the packet having invalid data, the transmission rate decreases.

Optical communication device and signal adjusting method


In the seat belt retractor of the invention, the main pawl 17 turns into engagement with the teeth 23a of the lock ring 23, so that the rotational force of the reel shaft in the webbing unwinding direction is transmitted to the lock ring 23 to turn it in the same direction . This rotation of the lock ring 23 is transmitted to the clamp member 26 through the arm 24 to turn the clamp member 26. As a result, the webbing 3 is fastened between the clamp member 26 and the force-bearing member 27, so that the webbing 3 can be locked against further unwinding. This makes it possible to incorporate clamp means to even a frame lock type of seat belt retractor, and improves the reliability of part engagement much more.

The present invention relates generally to a seat belt retractor assembly incorporated in an automobile or other vehicle for securing the occupant(s) and, more particularly, to a seat belt retractor that locks the reel shaft, which winds the webbing on it in the event of an emergency, against rotation, thereby preventing the webbing from being unwound.
A conventional seat belt retractor incorporated in an automobile or other vehicle is provided with lock means for locking a reel shaft, which winds a webbing on it, against rotation in the event of an emergency such as when the car is excessively decelerated, thereby preventing the webbing from being unwound due to the inertial motion of the occupant.
One typical example of the lock means for such a reel shaft is set forth and illustrated in the specification and drawings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,918. This is called a frame lock type of lock means, including a reel shaft and teeth provided on a frame that supports the reel shaft. Upon deceleration larger than a predetermined value applied to a vehicle, the reel shaft is moved until its teeth mesh with the teeth of the frame, thereby locking the reel shaft against further rotation. This frame lock type of lock means can be relatively reduced in weight, because it is possible to dispense with any special member because of forming teeth on the frame. Accordingly, this lock means may well accommodate to weight reductions which current vehicles such as automobiles must achieve.
As mentioned above, further unreeling of the webbing may be avoided by locking the reel shaft against further rotation upon excessive deceleration applied to a vehicle. In some cases, however, excessive webbing wound on the reel shaft is tightly wound up by unwinding force on the webbing, and this tight winding-up tends to unreel the webbing further.
As disclosed in JP-A-03-112750, there is thus proposed another seat belt retractor that is designed to lock a reel shaft against rotation and clamping a webbing by clamp means to lock up the webbing, thereby preventing the webbing from being further unreeled.
In the seat belt retractor disclosed in this publication, a pawl is engaged with teeth of a ratchet wheel formed on the reel shaft, thereby locking the reel shaft against rotation, and some operable member is used to actuate the clamp means in operable association with the motion of this pawl, thereby locking up the webbing.
In a retractor including such lock means as disclosed in the specification and drawings of the above U.S. patent, the teeth formed on the reel shaft mesh with the teeth of the frame. Therefore, when the reel shaft is locked against rotation, relatively large forces are applied to the teeth of the reel shaft and the teeth of the frame. It is thus required to increase the widths of these teeth so as to relieve stress exerted thereon. So far, the stress exerted on the teeth has been relieved by increasing the thicknesses of the teeth of the reel shaft and the frame, thereby increasing the width of engagement, or by forming separate teeth on the frame for reinforcement. However, a weight-increase problem arises in the former case. In the latter case, not only are more parts needed because some reinforcement must be used, but more steps are needed because of an additional step of reinforcement attachment, thus incurring some considerable expense.
In the case of the frame lock type of lock means mentioned above, it is required that the teeth formed at both ends of the reel shaft mesh simultaneously with the teeth formed on both sides of the frame. However, some considerable difficulty is indeed experienced in achieving simultaneous engagement on both sides; such engagement often takes place on one side. It is particularly difficult to achieve simultaneous engagement on both sides, because the reel shaft is moved to engage the teeth on the reel shaft side with the teeth on the frame side. Where the teeth are engaged with each other on one side alone, stress concentrates on those teeth, resulting in need of further strength increases, and this leads inevitably to size and weight increases in retractors.
In order to prevent the webbing from being unreeled due to its tight winding-up, it is desired to incorporate such webbing clamp means as disclosed in JP-A-03-112750 in such a frame lock type of seat belt retractor.
However, it is difficult to apply the clamp means disclosed in this publication, without any modification thereto, to the above-mentioned frame lock type of seat belt retractor that is designed to move the reel shaft until the teeth on the reel shaft side mesh with the teeth on the frame side. This is because this clamp means is actuated by engaging the engaging claw of the second operable member with the teeth of the ratchet wheel formed on the reel shaft to transmit the rotational force of the ratchet wheel from the second operable member to the clamp means through the first operable member.
This clamp means is much more complicated in structure due to using a much more increased number of parts and combining such parts. This is because it must be constructed from the pawl for locking up the reel shaft, the second operable member for taking the rotational force of the reel shaft, the first operable member for transmitting such rotational force from the second operable member to the clamp means, and the operable member for associating the motion of the pawl with the motion of the second operable member.


A valve assembly suitable for use with an exhaust port of a two-stroke internal combustion engine is disclosed. The valve assembly has a valve actuator including a diaphragm and a pressure chamber, and a valve operatively connected to the actuator. The pressure chamber is fluidly connectable to at least one pressure source, via a pressure control device. The valve is movable to one of a first, a second, and a third position when a corresponding one of a first, a second, and a third pressure is supplied to the pressure chamber by the at least one pressure source. The valve is biased towards the third position. The third pressure is insufficient to overcome the bias. The third position is intermediate the first position and the second position. A method of operating the valve assembly is also disclosed.

In order to ensure that two-stroke engines have a high power capacity at high speeds, a high volumetric efficiency is required and the charge losses must be minimized. This can be accomplished by an early and therefore higher opening of the exhaust passage into the cylinder. The adjustment of the exhaust port, to obtain maximum power capacity of the engine at high speeds involves, in the medium speed range, not only an appreciable decrease of the useful stroke, but also a large increase of the charge losses. As a result, the torque decreases and the specific fuel consumption increases greatly. A higher torque in conjunction with a lower fuel consumption can be obtained, at lower engine speeds, only if the opening of the exhaust port happens later in the down stroke of the piston which means that the exhaust port must be at a lower position than it is at high engine speeds.
For this purpose it is known to provide, in the exhaust port, a valve which is movable between a full flow position and a flow restricting position. When in the flow restricting position, the end of the valve is substantially flush with the peripheral surface of the cylinder bore. In this flow restricting position, the exhaust port is effectively lowered in relation to the down stroke of the piston. The valve is adjustable to vary the relative height of the exhaust port as is required by the given operating conditions of the engine.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0166872A1, published on Aug. 4, 2005 to Zauner and assigned to the assignee of the present application, entitled "Exhaust-Outlet Control for 2-Stroke Engine", discloses a valve assembly having a valve provided, in part, in the exhaust port which is connected to an actuator for moving the valve between a full flow position and a flow restricting position. The actuator includes a pressure chamber defined in part by a diaphragm. The valve is connected to the diaphragm. A spring biases the diaphragm such that the valve is biased towards the flow restricting position. When a positive pressure is supplied to the pressure chamber which is sufficient to overcome the bias of the spring, the volume of the pressure chamber increases, which moves the valve to the full flow position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,648, issued on Apr. 17, 2001 to Spaulding, entitled "Internal Combustion Engine With Pneumatically Controlled Variable Exhaust Valve", discloses a valve assembly having a valve provided, in part, in the exhaust port which is connected to an actuator for moving the valve between a full flow position and a flow restricting position. The actuator includes a diaphragm located in a pressure chamber. The valve is connected to the diaphragm. By selectively supplying positive and negative pressures to the pressure chamber, the diaphragm moves in one direction or the other. Depending of which direction the diaphragm moves in, the valve moves to the corresponding full flow or flow restricting position.
Although both Zauner and Spaulding properly control the height of the exhaust port for operating at high engine speeds and at low engine speed by providing corresponding full flow and flow restricting positions, neither of them allow for reliably moving the valve to an intermediate position for operating at medium engine speeds. It may be possible to supply a pressure to the pressure chamber of Zauner which would move the valve to an intermediate position. However, for a given pressure, the volume of the pressure chamber would be different depending on the temperature. Due to the close positioning of the valve assembly relative to the engine, the temperature can vary significantly, and therefore, so would the volume of the pressure chamber. Therefore, in order to obtain the same intermediate position consistently, the pressure necessary to obtain the intermediate position would need to be consistently recalculated, which is both difficult and impractical.
Therefore, there is a need for a valve assembly suitable for use with an exhaust port of a two-stroke internal combustion engine having a valve which can be moved between a full flow position, an intermediate position, and a flow restricting position.


A system comprises a light source (42) and an electrode device (1). The light source comprises a base (46) with a base surface on which at least two contact elements (47, 48, 54) are provided. The electrode device has at least two electrodes (23, 24, 31, 32) in mutually stacked positions, which electrodes are preferably made of a permanent magnetic, ferromagnet or electro-magnetic material and have a different polarity during operation. The system further comprises at least one electrode comprising a layer of auto-closing material. This ensures that the system can maintain a satisfactory, reliable electric contact between the electrodes and the contact elements, and, after removal of the light source, gives the system a more aesthetic appearance because damages are practically invisible.

Such a system is marketed under the trade name of Dipline and described at the websites http://www.magiclite.com/dipline/diplilne.shtml and http://www.magiclite.com/downloads/PDFs/dipline.pdf. Dipline lit panel systems operate at low voltages, for example, 12 V or 24V. These known systems are promoted as self-powered, flat, flexible panels which serve as electrified walls or ceiling surfaces. It allows simple placement of light sources anywhere on a flat surface and has them light up instantly.
In the past few years, many relatively small light sources (=SLS), for example, LED products or miniature halogen lamps, have entered the market. Most of these products are retrofit so that they can be integrated in a current infrastructure with minimal investment. This, however, poses limitations on exploiting the full potential of SLS. Especially new buildings or homes provide the possibility of breaking away from the existing paradigms in lighting design. For example, it has already been proved that slim SLS lighting systems allow unobtrusive integration of lighting into a building. Apart from the different visual appearance of the lighting system, SLS-based systems also require new solutions for heat management, driver infrastructure, mechanical fixtures and user interfacing. One of the key value drivers of SLS integration in domestic environments is freedom of positioning. A consumer can create any desired lighting pattern by placing an SLS lighting system at any position on a wall or ceiling. Moreover, it is possible for a consumer to create his own atmosphere at home by combining several of these systems. In order that such a system works properly, it should allow easy positioning, fixation, and instant operation, and it should be robust.
The known electrode device is a panel, and its electrodes are plate-shaped electrodes which are arranged in a stacked position. The plate electrodes are separated by a plate-shaped electrically insulating layer and each plate electrode is preferably covered by a decorative (and electrically insulating) layer. The panels have typical dimensions of 1 square meter and a thickness of about 3 cm. The electrode device can be used to form façade walls or ceilings, or it can be alternatively applied as a cladding on existing walls, ceilings, or floors. The electrode device is connected to an electric energy supply system. The light sources, which are suitable for use in the known system, have pin-shaped electric contacts which are able to pierce the plate-shaped-electrodes and the intermediate electrically insulating layer. The pin-shaped electric contacts have different lengths so that, upon placing a light source on the electrode device, one electrode penetrates both plate electrodes and the other electrode penetrates only one plate electrode, thus realizing an appropriate electric contact with the electrode device. The pin-shaped electric contact penetrating both plate electrodes is partly coated with an electrically insulating layer so as to prevent short-circuiting of the two plate electrodes via this electric contact. The system allows positioning of lamps at any desired location, thus offering great creative freedom of designing lumination and/or illumination patterns, and easy exchange to suitable and/or desired light sources in dependence upon the required application.
However, various problems are encountered with the known system, in particular:
potential difficulties in managing heat generated by the at least one light source during operation because of the electrically (and thermally) electrically insulating layer between the electrodes;
due to switching the light source on and off, the electric contacts between the contact elements of the at least one light source and the electrodes will deteriorate and become unreliable as a result of the repeatedly thermal expansion and shrinkage of the contact elements of the at least one light source;
in current embodiments, users are limited to the use of pinboard-like walls if the visibility of the punched holes should diminish after removal of the at least one light source;
the known system is relatively inflexible and incapable of following relatively sharp contours of carrier materials (such as curved walls).

Lighting system, light source and electrode device


A chip adapter seat for positioning and connecting to a chip includes an insulating seat body, a plurality of terminals and a pressing element. The insulating seat body has an accommodating space for arranging the chip. On the corresponding sides of the accommodating space, a plurality of terminal-receiving grooves is provided to correspond to the chip pins. Each terminal-receiving groove is provided with a terminal therein. On end of the each terminal is electrically connected to the chip pin, and the other end thereof projects from the outside of the periphery of the insulating seat body. The pressing element is connected above the accommodating space of the insulating seat body for pressing the chip in the accommodating space of the insulating seat body. With the above arrangement, another chip can be rapidly changed without complicated detaching process when the chip is damaged. Further, the repairing procedure becomes simple and convenient for use to connect various kinds of chips with different sizes, thereby increasing the versatility.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip adapter seat, and in particular to a chip adapter seat for positioning and connecting a chip.
2. Description of Prior Art
A desktop or laptop computer is constituted by a hardware and software. The hardware usually comprises a motherboard, CPU, memory, hard disk driver, display card, sound card, power supply and the like. The hard driver stores a system software and data. The memory is used to be a buffer for reading data so as to accelerate the processing speed of the hardware system. On the motherboard, various kinds of chips, connectors and electronic elements having different sizes and specifications are arranged and soldered. The chip is used for storing or performing the computation. After a long-term operation, the occurrence of damage is inevitable. Further, when the computer is to be upgraded and thus needed to change part of chips, it is necessary to detach the chip from the motherboard. Therefore, it is an important issue to provide an adapter seat capable of easily detaching the chip from the motherboard.
As shown in FIG. 1, in a combined structure of a conventional chip and a circuit board, a plurality of pins 11a project outwardly from two corresponding end faces of the chip 10a. At the corresponding positions on the circuit board 20a, a plurality of connecting pieces are provided and each connecting piece is used for abutting and connecting to each pin 11a of the chip 10a. In assembling, the connecting pieces on the circuit board 20a are coated with soldering agent such as solder paste. The chip 10a is positioned to a position in which the circuit board 20a is to be located. Each pin 11a of the chip 10a corresponds to each connecting piece of the circuit board 20a. Then, a soldering operation is performed to combine the chip 10a with the circuit board 20a.
However, in the combined structure of the chip and the circuit board, there are still some problems existing in actual practice. Since the chip 10a is operated for a long time, the chip may be inevitably burned down and damaged due to the overload current or unsteady current. In the repairing procedure, each soldering point should be welded one by one, and then the residue of soldering agent is removed. After this, another new chip 10a is made to connect with the circuit board 20a. In this way, not only various kinds of special tools are necessary, but also the time for repairing is increased. Further, if the computer is to be upgraded and needed to change part of chips, it is also necessary to perform the above-mentioned complicated procedure. Therefore, the practicability and economic efficiency thereof are greatly reduced.
In view of the above the drawbacks, the inventor proposes the present invention to overcome the above problems based on his expert experiences and deliberate researches.


Apparatus for feeding fluidized particulate material at a uniform preselected flow rate includes a reservoir for receiving the material from a supply inlet, a device for maintaining material in the reservoir in a state of flux, a chain type carrier for continuously removing and transporting uniform quantities of the fluidized material at variable speed from the reservoir along a predetermined path configured to prevent premature discharge of the uniform quantities, and a control system to detect the quantities of material being transported along the predetermined path to regulate the speed of the carrier according to the desired preselected flow rate, such that the fluid particulate material is discharged at the desired flow rate at the end of the predetermined path.

The present invention pertains generally to material feeders, and more particularly to a set rate feeder for transporting fluidized particulate material for processing.
Material feeders are commonly used to provide a continuous flow of material at a constant predetermined flow rate, for further processing. Gravimetric belt feeders discharge the material on a weight/time basis, and thereby automatically take into account any changes in the bulk density of the material. In one class of gravimetric feeders, of the continuous flow-set rate type, material is discharged into a process in a continuous stream at a predetermined rate. This class of feeder performs admirably with many types of particulate materials, but is not entirely suitable when the particulate is very finely divided to the point that the particles move freely among themselves, remaining in one mass, keeping the same volume, and taking the form of the containing vessel.
Such finely divided particulate materials or powders, as, for example, fly ash, and pulverized coal, are often referred to as fluid-like, fluidized or fluidizable, because they behave very nearly as fluids in the above-mentioned respects. When fluidized materials are to be transported in a feeder within a process they become difficult to control because of their tendency to entrain so much air that they act as liquid materials and gush out through any escape ports, such as the outlet of a bin, in a flood.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a process feeder which is capable of transporting fluidized particulate material at a continuous predetermined rate in a manner to control, and indeed prevent, flooding of the material.
Various types of continuous flow set rate feeders are known and in common use. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,961, Wahl et al. disclose a belt type continuous flow set rate gravimetric feeder in which material is discharged from the spout of a hopper onto a horizontally disposed endless belt mounted between spaced pulleys. A variable speed motor drives one of the pulleys. The belt is pivotally supported at one end by a pair of leaf springs, and pivots downwardly about a horizontal axis according to the weight of material on the belt. A load cell arranged at and beneath the opposite end of the belt senses this displacement of the belt, and generates an output signal corresponding to the displacement, and thus to the weight of the material on the belt. The output signal is supplied to circuitry for regulating the speed of the motor. In this manner, the belt speed is automatically adjusted to maintain a preset rate at which the material is discharged by the feeder.
Unfortunately, the belt feeder disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,961 encounters the same types of problems as are experienced with all known conventional continuous flow set rate belt feeders when the particulate material is fluidized. The primary sources of these difficulties in conveying such material are the incapability of a flat belt feeder to retain a fluidized particulate without considerable runoff, and the aforementioned tendency toward flooding.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,669 to Wahl discloses a belt feeder which provides, among other things, a partial solution to the problem of conveying fluidized particulates through the use of a belt having a series of spaced apart cleats, wherein the cleats and the upper housing wall are almost in contact. The feeder constitutes an endless series of compartments that serve to hold the material and, to an extent, prevent runoff of the fluidized material. However, it has been found extremely difficult to uniformly fill the compartments with such material, and, hence, the desired steady pre-set rate is not readily achieved. The flooding property of fluidized materials renders a belt feeder virtually incapable of controllably transporting such materials, because the unrestrained flow simply inundates the equipment. It should be noted that screw feeders fare no better because they present a continuous open path around the helical screw shaft, and fluidized particulates will simply flush through that path.
Industrial practice often dictates that materials be pulverized, aerated and fluidized for easy transport, but reliable feeding of such materials on a belt or screw becomes so difficult for the foregoing reasons, that the anticipated ease of transport is self-defeating.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,3l3 to Engels there is disclosed a feeding and measuring device for flowable solid materials, in which the device can act as a meter in the flow stream by holding material going through a weighing box such that all material has a uniform dwell time. The Engels device is not, strictly speaking, a feeder as that terminology is commonly used in the industry, because a feeder is capable of regulating the flow rate of the conveyed material over a range of values, whereas the Engels device merely accepts and discharges material at the rate it is poured into the inlet funnel. Moreover, scrapers utilized in the Engels device are incapable of containing fluidized particulate material since such material can readily flow over and around the scrapers. Thus, the Engels device cannot readily feed fluidized particulate material at a continuous pre-set rate.
Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide a set rate feeder for accurately conveying and dispensing fluidized particulate materials at a controlled uniform rate despite variations in the rate at which the material is supplied to the feeder.


An engine compartment at the rear of a skid steer loader is enclosed by a rear door fabricated of sheet material and having a generally horizontally extending channel formed near its lower edge. Left and right corner bumper members molded from elastomer material have recesses formed in their back sides and are fastened to the door by bolts. Each bumper member includes a rear section which fits within and extends outwardly from the channel, and a side section which extends outwardly from the side of the door.

1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates generally to skid steer loaders. In particular, the present invention is a rear door and bumper for a skid steer loader.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Skid steer loaders of the type disclosed in the Bauer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,262 are well known and in widespread use. These vehicles are very compact and are steered by driving the wheels on one side at a different speed and/or in a different direction from those on the other side. In the case where the wheels on one side are driven in a forward direction and those on the opposite side in a reverse direction, the the loader will turn on its axis, or in other words, spin on its tracks.
In view of their compact nature and highly maneuverable characteristics, skid steer loaders are often operated in environments in which they are required to negotiate around obstacles such as struts, columns, walls or other supports. Under these conditions the rear of the vehicle may at times impact with structures in the environment in which it is operated. If the forces upon impact are great enough, damage to mechanical subsystems such as the engine and hydraulic pumps which are located in the rear of the vehicle can result.
To protect the mechanical subsystems of the loader from impacts, rear portions, including the rear door, are typically made from relatively heavy gauge sheet material. These components add weight to the vehicle. Wooden strips are sometimes mounted to the rear of these vehicles after assembly to prevent paint scraping during transport. On occasion, operators have kept these wooden strips on the vehicle for protection against impacts during normal operation. They are, however, unsightly and relatively ineffective.
It is evident that there is a continuing need for skid steer loaders having an improved rear frame portion. A visually attractive rear door of high structural integrity is desired.

Rear door and bumper for a skid steer loader


A wet shaving cartridge comprising with a housing having a guard, a cap, and a pair of spaced apart interior walls between the cap and the guard. A blade retention bump is positioned on at least one of the spaced apart interior walls. At least one resilient blade retention member extends laterally from one of the interior walls toward the other interior wall. At least one clip mounted to the housing. At least one blade is positioned between the resilient blade retention member and at least one of the interior walls. The blade is rigidly fixed in a first direction between the clip and the blade retention bumps and retained in a second direction between the resilient blade retention members and at least one of the interior walls.

In general, shaving razors of the wet shave type include a cartridge or blade unit with at least one blade with a cutting edge which is moved across the surface of the skin being shaved by means of a handle to which the cartridge is attached. The cartridge may be mounted detachably on the handle to enable the cartridge to be replaced by a fresh cartridge when the blade sharpness has diminished to an unsatisfactory level, or it may be attached permanently to the handle with the intention that the entire razor be discarded when the blade or blades have become dulled (i.e., disposable razor). The connection of the cartridge to the handle provides a pivotal mounting of the cartridge with respect to the handle so that the cartridge angle adjusts to follow the contours of the surface being shaved. In such systems, the cartridge can be biased toward a rest position by the action of a spring-biased plunger (a cam follower) carried on the handle against a cam surface on the cartridge housing.
Razor cartridges usually include a guard which contacts the skin in front of the blade(s) and a cap for contacting the skin behind the blade(s) during shaving. The cap and guard aid in establishing the so-called "shaving geometry", i.e., the parameters which determine the blade orientation and position relative to the skin during shaving, which in turn have a strong influence on the shaving performance and efficacy of the razor. The cap and the guard may aid in establishing the exposure of the blades. Exposure may be defined as the position of the cutting edge of a blade relative to a tangent line drawn from the skin contacting element (e.g., a blade) in front of the cutting edge to the skin contacting element behind the cutting edge (e.g., the cap). A cutting edge positioned above the tangent line would have a positive exposure and a cutting edge positioned below this line would have a negative exposure. A cutting edge that lies on the tangent line has a neutral exposure. Another shaving parameter that significantly effects shave performance is known as span. Span may be defined as the distance from the cutting edge to a skin contacting element immediately in front of the cutting edge (e.g., another blade or the guard). Another parameter that may influence shaving performance is the blade angle. The blade angle is the angle of the cutting edge relative to the tangent line (described above).


A hybrid power type of an automatic grease gun includes a storage tank to store grease, a discharge part to discharge the grease from the storage tank, a drain port to drain out the grease which is discharged from the discharge part, and a power supply part to supply power to the discharge part, to supply power, which is received from moving equipment in connection with the power of the moving equipment, to a rechargeable battery as power to be charged in the rechargeable battery, to first supply the power charged in the rechargeable battery to the discharge, and to automatically and directly supply the power of the moving equipment to the discharge part when the rechargeable battery is fully discharged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hybrid power type of an automatic grease gun which has a power supply structure of basically using power charged in the battery in operations for grease discharge, and automatically using power of the vehicle when the battery is fully discharged, and can discharge the grease by the power charged in the battery when separating from the power of the vehicle, since the battery can be detachably embedded and charged with power of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, grease is provided as various products depending on the use, the ingredients, and the characteristic thereof. Most products are prepared by mixing a liquid-phase mineral oil-based lubricant, a metallic soap, and a small amount of water to be a colloid state, and generally have the form of butters. Such grease is used for a friction area provided between a bearing and a rotational shaft to receive a great load and for a part making it difficult to supply oil.
The use range of the grease is not limited. Accordingly, the grease has been used in various devices, systems, and actuators in various industrial fields.
Regarding heavy equipment, heavy equipment, such as an excavator or a wheel loader employs hydraulic oil pressure as the power source thereof, and thus includes a hydraulic pump, a hydraulic motor, a fluid tank, and a filter necessary for the hydraulic oil pressure. The heavy equipment has many loaded parts, so that the heavy equipment requires the injection of the grease therein for lubrication.
In addition, a hand-operated grease gun has been extensively used for the injection of the grease into the heavy equipment until lately.
Hereinafter, a manner of using the hand-operated grease gun will be described in brief. After a grease discharge hose or a nipple of the grease gun is inserted into a grease nipple of the heavy equipment, grease is injected into a grease injecting port (grease nipple) of the heavy equipment by applying force to the hand-operated grease gun.
However, the operation of using the hand-operated grease gun is very hard for a relevant worker since the force of the work is too much required in the process of injecting the grease, and a large amount of grease is discharged.
Accordingly, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0324469 (Title of the Invention: Chargeable grease gun) discloses a chargeable grease gun that can automatically inject grease and have portability.
Hereinafter, the chargeable grease gun will be described in brief. The chargeable grease gun includes a gun-shaped body embedded therein with a chargeable motor, and including a body having a front end from which a motor shaft protrudes, a handle having a button to turn on/off the motor, and an operating switch to control the operation of the motor, a transparent cylinder mounted on the front end of the body through an adaptor and having scales formed on the surface thereof to check the filling of the grease and an amount of injected grease, a bolt-shaped screw shaft embedded in the cylinder and coupled to the motor shaft of the motor to rotate together with the motor, a pressing plate having the shape of nut screwed with the screw shaft, transferring in an axial direction due to the rotation of the screw shaft, and serving as a piston to apply pressure to the grease in the cylinder, and a nozzle coupled to a front end of the cylinder to guide the discharge of the grease.
Hereinafter, the operating procedure of the chargeable grease gun will be described in brief. In the state that the grease is filled in the cylinder, the nozzle makes contact with the nipple of a rotating device and the button provided in the handle is pressed to operate the chargeable motor. If the chargeable motor is operated as described above, the motor shaft is rotated to rotate the screw shaft. In addition, the screw shaft is not moved, but idle-rotates at the position thereof. If the screw shaft is rotated, the pressing plate having the shape of the nut is moved forward to apply the pressure to the grease in the cylinder. Accordingly, the grease is pushed to the nozzle, so that the grease is discharged through the nozzle and thus injected into the nipple of the rotating device.
However, according to the chargeable grease gun, when the chargeable motor is fully discharged in the process of injecting the grease, the injecting of the grease is stopped and cannot be resumed until the chargeable motor is charged with power again. Accordingly, the charging state of the chargeable motor must be inconveniently regularly managed. If the chargeable motor is carelessly managed, the chargeable grease gun may not be used at a proper time. Furthermore, if a charging place is not provided in the state that the chargeable motor of the chargeable grease gun is fully discharged, the worker must inconveniently move to the charging place.
In addition, according to the chargeable grease gun, one-touch button is provided at the handle for the on/off of the chargeable motor, so that the button may be in an on state instead of an off state by the mistake of a worker when charging the chargeable motor after the chargeable motor has been fully discharged. In this case, the pressing plate may be continuously operated to raise the internal pressure of the cylinder.
Accordingly, the applicant of the present invention has suggested Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0477638 (Title of the Invention: Gun for automatically injecting lubricant using the power of a vehicle).
Hereinafter, the configuration of the gun for automatically injecting lubricant using the power of the vehicle will be described in brief with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
A gun 10 for automatically injecting lubricant using the power of a vehicle includes a pump chamber 30 having a piston P allowing the pumping of lubricant filled in a lubricant tank 20, a motor 40 having a cam 41 to actuate the piston P, a lubricant drain port 50 to drain the lubricant pumped and discharged from the pump chamber 30, a temporary lubricant storing hall 60 to temporarily store the lubricant when the lubricant is pumped in the pump chamber 30 and drained through the lubricant drain port 50, and the discharge work of the lubricant discharge port 50 is temporarily stopped, a power supply part 70 to directly supply DC power, which is provided in heavy equipment or a transportation vehicle, and a bypass part 80 communicating with the temporary lubricant storing hall 60 to transfer the lubricant pumped and discharged from the pump chamber 30 and introduced into the temporary lubricant storing hall 60 into the lubricant tank 20 to prevent the pressure of the lubricant from being increased.
The power supply part 70 includes a power jack 71 put into a DC power charging jack provided in the heavy equipment or the transportation vehicle, a wire 71 to connect the power jack 71 with the motor 40, and a switch S to turn on/off the power supplied through the wire 72.
The bypass part 80 includes a check valve 81 to transfer the lubricant only into the lubricant tank 20 and a bypass line 82 connected with the lubricant tank 20.
The gun for automatically injecting lubricant using the power of the vehicle is operated by using the DC power charging jack provided in the heavy equipment or the transportation vehicle, so that the work of injecting the lubricant can be continued.
In addition, the applicant of the present invention suggests the present invention by more advancing the gun for automatically injecting lubricant using the power of the vehicle.
As prior arts, there are Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0324469 (published on Feb. 27, 2002) "entitled Chargeable grease gun", and Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0477638 (published on Jul. 7, 2015) "Gun for automatically injecting lubricant using the power of a vehicle and equipment".

Hybrid power type of automatic grease gun


A harness for supporting a musical instrument, and in particular, a weighty musical instrument such as a saxophone, has an anchor formed from a rigid or semi-rigid material having a curved portion adapted to be seated, in part, on the shoulders of a musician, and a rearwardly and downwardly extending tail portion adapted to receive a first adjustable strap extending around the body of the musician for retaining the anchor fixed relative to the musician. A second adjustable strap extending forwardly from two front ends of the anchor carries a hook for engaging a musical instrument.

The present invention is directed to improved means for supporting a musical instrument, and in particular a weighty instrument such as a saxophone, which is supported by the body of a musician for minimizing discomfort to the musician while he is holding the instrument. A saxophone is a weighty instrument, weighing in the order of about five pounds. A musician cannot comfortably sustain the weight of a heavy instrument for long periods of time in the same position so that the mouthpiece remains proximate to the mouth of the musician. It is known to provide an eye on the body of a musical instrument such as a saxophone to enable the eye to be engaged by a hook on a supporting neckstrap worn by the musician. The use of the neckstrap relieves the primary weight of the musical instrument from the arms and hands of the musician, thereby providing the fingers of the musician with greater freedom to operate the keys of the instrument since the hands and arms of the musician are not required to provide the primary support for the instrument. Known neck straps for supporting musical instruments are adjustable to enable the mouthpiece of the instrument to be placed in a fixed position relative to the mouth of the musician for substantially long periods of time. This is possible because the distance from the neck of the musician to the supporting eye on the instrument is relatively fixed and stable, and the distance between the neck and mouth of the musician is also substantially fixed for any given individual. However, even with a neck strap providing the primary support for the musical instrument, after long periods of time, the weight of the instrument bearing down on the back of the neck of the musician becomes tiring and stressful on the muscles surrounding the neck, and also causes the neck strap to press against the carotid arteries of the musician on both sides of the neck. On occasion, the weight of a musical instrument such as a saxophone bearing down on a supporting neckstrap has caused musicians to pass out during playing sessions.
In order to improve the comfort of neck straps for heavy musical instruments, soft padding has been placed around the portion of the strap engaging the neck of the musician, and attempts have been made to redesign the supporting strap as a harness using more of the shoulders for support. While providing a harness to displace the weight of the instrument from the neck to the shoulders of a musician increases the musician's comfort, known harnesses are disadvantageous in certain respects. One of the requirements of playing an instrument is preventing unwanted motion between the mouthpiece of the instrument and the mouth of the musician. Such motion creates unwanted nuances to the tonal quality of the sound. Although the distance from the neck to the mouth or shoulders of a musician can be held steady, known harnesses to date provide no means for maintaining a constant distance between the supporting eye extending from the musical instrument to the shoulder of the musician. The known harnesses are formed from complex configurations of flexible webbing which, after a short period of time, shifts or displaces relative to the body position of a musician because there are no anchors holding any part of the web in a fixed position relative to the body of the musician. An example of a known harness type neck support is marketed under the trademark SLIDER by Slider Straps c/o LM Products 1325 Meridian, Anderson, Ind. 46013 (www.sliderstraps.com). U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,695 discloses another known harness-type strap formed from flexible webbing for supporting a musical instrument. A further disadvantage of the known harness-type supports having flexible webbing for supporting a musical instrument is that the harness can slip or slide off the shoulders of a musician during a performance since the harness includes no positive anchoring structure. Thus, although the known harness-type neck straps for supporting musical instruments improve the comfort to a musician, they nonetheless adversely affect the performance of the musician by requiring the musician to constantly re-position the harness during a performance in order to maintain the mouthpiece at a desired distance relative to the mouth of the musician.
The primary object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the known harness-type neck straps for supporting musical instruments on the body of a musician, and in particular, heavier musical instruments such as a saxophone.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following discussion in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Harness for supporting a musical instrument


An epoxy resin composition having components (A), (B), (C), and (D), wherein the epoxy resin composition has a viscosity at 40° C. of about 1×103 to about 1×104 Pa·s, a curing start temperature of about 90 to about 110° C., and a minimum viscosity at the curing start temperature of about 2 to about 20 Pa·s, wherein the components (A), (B), (C), and (D) are as follows: (A) About 60 weight parts or more of a tetraglycidyl amine type epoxy resin per 100 weight parts of the epoxy resin blend; (B) Dicyandiamide; (C) Diaminodiphenyl sulfone and (D) Urea compound.

Carbon fiber reinforced composite materials have excellent mechanical properties such as strength, toughness, durability and stiffness while being lightweight, and therefore have been widely deployed in aircraft structures, spacecraft structures, automobile structures, railway car structures, marine vessel structures, sporting goods, and computer such as housings for laptop computers. Therefore demand has been increasing each year in these fields. Aircraft structures and spacecraft structures in particular require excellent mechanical properties and heat resistance, and therefore carbon fibers are most commonly used as reinforcing fibers. Herein, spacecraft structures refer to structures that are used for example in man-made satellites, rockets, and space shuttles and the like.
Furthermore, the most common use of thermosetting resins as matrix resins are combinations of epoxy resins and polyamines that have excellent heat resistance, modulus of elasticity, and chemical resistance with minimal cure shrinkage. The manufacturing method of these carbon fiber reinforced composite materials primarily involves heating and pressure molding using an autoclave or the like, but there are problems with the high cost of molding, the large size of molding equipment, and restrictions in the molding size due to the equipment, and the like (for example, refer to patent document 1).
In light of the aforementioned problems, a low cost molding method has been proposed that can perform molding using only a vacuum pump and an oven, without using expensive molding equipment such as an autoclave. Conventionally, when molding a composite material by laminating a prepreg and curing, water vapor from the epoxy resin composition and air that are trapped in prepreg layers or between layers forms voids, and therefore high-pressure is often applied using an autoclave or the like during molding in order to prevent these voids from growing. However, recently, it has being reported that a low void panel could be achieved in a process that removes the water vapor of molding and trapped air to the outside of the molded panel, by using a partially impregnated prepreg where the matrix resin is partially impregnated into reinforcing fibers, and utilizing the unimpregnated section of the reinforcing fibers as an air path. However, when removing water vapor and trapped air by a vacuum pump, generally water vapor and trapped air must be removed outside of the molded panel by maintaining the prepreg at a relatively low temperature for a long period of time under vacuum to retain the air paths and the fluidity of the matrix resin, and therefore to effectively remove water vapor and trapped air, there is a problem that the molding time is much longer than with autoclave molding (for example, refer to patent document 2).
On the other hand, when using fiber reinforced composite materials in aircraft structural materials, enhancing the mechanical properties, particularly the compressive strength, is important, while at the same time enhancing properties such as heat resistance and environmental resistance is also important. A prepreg that uses a matrix resin containing tetraglycidyl amine type epoxy resin and diaminodiphenyl sulfone as a hardener provides high adhesion to reinforcing fibers and matrix resins, and the fiber reinforced composite material obtained has high mechanical properties. In addition, to achieve high quality of the cured parts for aircraft structures, conventionally an autoclave is used for these prepregs. However, the energy required for heating and pressuring is high when these prepregs are cured and formed into molded parts, at temperatures of approximately 180° C. and pressures of approximately 0.7 MPa. A large amount of energy is required for heating and pressurizing in autoclave processing. So there is strong demand for a prepreg that can be molded in a low cost process by energy savings and provide a fiber reinforced composite material that has high mechanical properties suitable for use in structural materials for aircraft, while simultaneously having high heat resistance and environmental resistance.
In the past, forming such prepreg systems which can be cured at low cost in a short period of time by low temperature cure using only a vacuum pump and an oven to achieve excellent mechanical properties, heat resistance, and environmental resistance suitable for structural materials for aircraft has been very difficult in the field of fiber reinforced composite materials.
In light of the foregoing, a partially impregnated prepreg has been proposed where the resin viscosity after heating and molding is controlled in consideration of the fluidity of the resin during the pressure reducing process. (For example, refer to patent document 3.) However, the resin viscosity is too high at room temperature so handling of the prepreg is difficult. In addition, diaminodiphenyl sulfone is not included in the epoxy resin composition, and the amount of tetraglycidyl amine type epoxy resin added is small, so the adhesion between the reinforcing fibers and the matrix resin and the environmental resistance such as the compressive strength at high temperatures after absorbing moisture are inferior, and thus are not suitable for use in structural materials of aircraft.
On the other hand, an epoxy resin composition containing dicyandiamide and a urea compound, as well as a prepreg thereof has been proposed in order to greatly reduce the energy consumption by low temperature cure of a prepreg that uses a matrix resin containing tetraglycidyl amine type epoxy resin and aminodiphenyl sulfone as a hardener (for example, refer to patent document 4 and patent document 5). However, US 2006-035088A1 introduces an epoxy resin composition and prepreg that uses a compression molding method and is specialized for general industry. This epoxy resin composition contains little tetraglycidyl amine type epoxy resin, which cannot provide strong adhesion between the reinforcing fibers and the matrix resin, and cannot provide mechanical properties and environmental resistance suitable for structural materials for aircraft. In addition, the molding method is compression molding that uses high temperatures, high pressures, and expensive equipment, so there are problems with reducing costs. In addition, the molding method uses high pressure, and there is no mention or suggestion of a method for reducing trapped air during lamination necessary for achieving low voids, nor of a method for restricting the generation of water vapor due to the epoxy resin composition, and a fiber reinforced composite material obtained by curing a prepreg containing this epoxy resin composition using only vacuum and an oven will have difficulty achieving low voids. JP2000-17090 discloses a prepreg specialized for autoclave molding at low temperature. However, in order to achieve low voids by curing with a vacuum pump and oven, both the trapped air during lamination must be reduced and handling of the prepreg must be seriously considered, and furthermore a specific room temperature viscosity range is necessary. Yet, none of these have been mentioned or discussed. In addition, the water vapor from the epoxy resin composition causes the formation of voids, and although there is a need to suppress the formation of water vapor and for the matrix resin to begin curing at a specific temperature range, there is no mention nor suggestion of this, and there is no mention whatsoever about a method for achieving low voids.
[Patent document 1] JP2004-050574A2
[Patent document 2] U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,436B1
[Patent document 3] JP2008-088276A2
[Patent document 4] US2006-0035088A1
[Patent document 5] JP2000-017090A2

Epoxy resin composition for fiber reinforced composite material, prepreg, and fiber reinforced composite material


The invention relates to an aquaculture net (10) comprising steel wires (12) having a steel core (14) and a tuneable metal coating (16) in the form of a strip to improve anti-corrosion and anti-fouling properties. In comparison with the prior art, the metal coating can be thicker and can have a composition that is homogeneous over its thickness.

Aquaculture nets or fish-farming nets are used to raise aquatic life such as fish. The aquaculture net keeps the aquatic life controlled and contained and protects the aquatic life inside the net against predators such as sharks and sea wolfs.
The aquaculture nets are usually of the chain-link fence type. This is a fence of steel wires woven into a diamond pattern. The meshes have a dimension that is smaller than the dimension of the fish contained in the nets. Each steel wire is preformed by bending so that it exhibits a wavy pattern with maxima and minima. The maxima of a steel wire interlock with the minima of a neighbouring wire to form the patterns of a series of diamonds.
Experience has shown, however, that aquaculture nets of the chain-link fence type also have some disadvantages. Aquaculture nets have been discovered where one or more of the steel wires were broken after a limited life time.
Investigation of the failing aquaculture nets revealed that particularly the upper steel wires in the aquaculture net were broken. Indeed, the ocean or the sea forms a huge challenge with respect to corrosion-resistance. In addition to this highly corroding environment, the waves and tidings subject the aquaculture net to a continuous and repeated movement. In an aquaculture net of the chain-link fence type, each steel wire must carry the weight of the rest of the net below it. The upper wire makes point contacts with the wire just below it. These point contacts are located at a point where both the upper wire and the wire just below it are subjected to both a bending and a torsion deformation. The continuous and repeated imposed movements in this aggressive environment create fretting at the point contacts and may result in breaking the wires of the net.
Aquaculture nets with galvanized steel wires offer an acceptable resistance against bio-fouling, i.e. against fouling material that may grow on the mesh structure. Within the context of the present invention, the terms fouling material refer to fouling organisms such as barnacles, algae or molluscs, which may attach and grow to the wire material of the mesh structure. However, this fouling mechanism may be so persistent that entire openings in the meshes may be filled blocking any introduction of fresh water or nutrition into the volume inside the mesh structure.
Therefore, there is a need for aquaculture nets with better anti-fouling and anti-corrosion properties.
JP-A-2004-261023 discloses a steel wire for aquaculture nets. The steel wire has a stainless steel core and a metal coating of cupronickel: a copper nickel alloy with nickel content ranging between 10% and 30% by weight. The metal coating can be applied either by hot dipping the stainless steel core in a copper nickel bath or by plating the stainless steel core with copper, thereafter with nickel and finally applying a thermal diffusion treatment.
Copper nickel coatings have proven to provide a good resistance against corrosion because of the nickel and have proven to provide a good resistance against fouling because of the effect of copper. However, the existing prior art steel wires with copper nickel coatings lack the possibility to fine tune the thickness and the composition of the copper nickel coating because of following reasons or do not offer high quality steel wires with a thick coating.
If a hot dip copper nickel bath is used, the composition of the copper nickel coating can be varied by varying the composition of the copper nickel bath. The thickness, however, largely depends upon the wire speed of leaving the bath and upon the final degree of rolling or drawing. It is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain steel wires with a coating the thickness of which exceeds 30% of the wire diameter. Moreover, having regard to the high melting temperature of both copper and nickel in comparison with zinc, it is difficult to manufacture high-quality coated wires due to oxidation problems at the surface of the steel core.
If a thermal diffusion treatment is applied, the thickness of the copper nickel coating can be predetermined by increasing the time for (electro)-plating. It is hereby understood that the longer the plating treatment the thicker the coating and vice versa, all other parameters being constant. The composition, however, is more difficult to control. As the nickel is applied on top of the copper, nickel diffuses through the copper from the top and also from the stainless steel core since stainless steel also comprises nickel due to downstream heat treatments. This diffusion process, however, is difficult to control and to fine tune. As a result, with a thermal diffusion treatment it is impossible to obtain a coating with e.g. 90 wt % copper and 10 wt % nickel and having this same composition throughout the thickness of the coating.
The dimensions of an aquaculture net are considerable. An example of a typical dimension is 30 m×30 m×15 m, the last dimension being the depth of the net inside the water and the first two dimensions being the width and length of the net at the water surface. As a matter of example only, a net made of galvanized steel wire and of the above-mentioned dimensions has a weight above 4 metric Tonnes. An embodiment of an aquaculture net has been disclosed in W0-A1-2007/031352. As such the weight of an aquaculture net needs to be kept to a minimum. A tuneable coating guarantees thickness thus controllable weight of the wires and the net.

Aquaculture net with steel wires coated with metal strip