The cab signal and rail navigation systems of a railway locomotive are combined to form a single integrated system capable of acting as an automatic train protection system. The train travels along a railway route equipped with a wayside signaling system that features a multiplicity of wayside signal devices. Each wayside signal device provides to the cab signal system a cab signal inclusive of signal aspect information as to how the train should proceed along a particular segment of the railway route. When the train is traveling on a segment of track from which the cab signal is available, the cab signal system receives the cab signal via the AC track circuit disposed on the rails as the train approaches each wayside signal device. After filtering and decoding the electrical cab signal, the cab signal system communicates the deciphered signal aspect information to the rail navigation system. The rail navigation system determines whether signal aspect information should be available from the particular track segment the train is encountering and thus whether and how the brakes of the train will be operated thereon should the train engineer be required and fail to operate the brakes according to one or more braking profiles calculated by the system. The integrated system operates as an automatic train protection system whether the wayside signaling system provides cab signal coverage continuously or noncontinuously throughout the railway route.

The following background information is provided to assist the reader to understand the invention described and claimed below. Accordingly, any terms used herein are not intended to be limited to any particular narrow interpretation unless specifically stated otherwise in this document.
A railway operating authority is responsible for conducting rail traffic safely along the railway track routes under its control. A train is typically conducted safely along a railway route through the use of a wayside signaling system. One type of wayside signaling system shown in FIG. 1A features a continuous succession of DC train detection circuits along the entire length of the railway route through which to control a multiplicity of wayside signal devices spaced apart from each other along the route. Each train detection circuit covers a section of track approximately 10,000 feet in length and is electrically isolated from the next detection circuit via an insulated joint situated between each track section. Each train detection circuit merely detects whether its section of track is occupied by a train and communicates a signal indicative of same to its corresponding wayside signal device. For the wayside signaling system shown in FIG. 1A, each wayside signal device typically takes the form of a display of colored lights or other indicia through which to visually communicate signal aspect information to a train operator. It is the signal aspect information that denotes the condition of the upcoming segment of track, i.e., whether it is clear, occupied by a train or subject to some other speed restriction.
Each signal aspect is conveyed by a color or combination of colors and denotes a particular course of action required by the operating authority. The particular colors of red, yellow and green generally denote the same meaning as when used on a standard traffic light. In a four aspect wayside signaling system, for example, the following scheme may be employed: green for clear, yellow and green for approach medium, yellow for approach, and red for restricted/stop. If a train is detected on a section of track, the train detection circuit corresponding thereto informs its corresponding wayside signal device. As the train approaches a track segment over which the wayside signal device has coverage, the railway authority that operates that segment then uses the wayside signal device to communicate visually the appropriate signal aspect to the train operator.
Another type of wayside signaling system shown in FIG. 1B also features the continuous succession of DC train detection circuits along the railway track route. They, too, are used to control the wayside signal devices spaced along the route. Each of the wayside signal devices in this type of signaling system also includes an AC track circuit that accompanies or overlays each DC train detection circuit and serves to supplement its visual display. Each wayside signal device through its AC track circuit communicates over the rails the signal aspect information (i.e., the cab signal) up to a range of approximately 5,000 feet. As a train rides on the rails, the cab signal is sensed by pick up coils mounted in front of the leading axle of the locomotive. The cab signal is filtered, decoded and eventually conveyed to a cab signal device located in the cab of the locomotive. The cab signal device typically includes a display of colored lights to convey visually the signal aspect information to the train operator.
Most railway operating authorities such as Conrail and Union Pacific, for example, use a four aspect system to communicate the condition of the upcoming track segment. Each of the wayside signal devices in such a system typically takes the form of an AC power frequency track circuit from which a carrier frequency typically ranging between 50 to 100 Hertz carries the cab signal in coded format. In this four aspect wayside signaling system, each signal aspect is communicated via electrical pulses in the aforementioned way to the cab signal device using the following preset code rates: 180 pulses per minute for Clear, 120 for Approach Medium, 75 for Approach, and 0 for Restricted/Stop. The latter three aspects each impose a restriction in the speed with which the train may proceed along that segment of railway track.
Railway equipment manufacturers have offered a variety of systems whose objective is to operate the brakes of a train in compliance with such directions issued by the railway operating authorities. These systems typically employ the cab signal devices in conjunction with automatic train protection (ATP) systems. By processing the directions received from the wayside signaling systems according to known principles, such prior art devices and systems are used to derive, and require the train to comport with, braking profiles. These prior art systems typically brake the train automatically when the train operates contrary to the limits imposed by the braking profiles and thus contrary to the wayside signaling system on which the train is riding.
The cab signal device thus typically features an audible warning device and an acknowledgment input. The acknowledgment input allows the train operator to acknowledge the more restrictive signal aspects and thereby prevent a penalty brake application. For example, when the train encounters a segment of track over which one of the speed restrictions is in force and the train is nevertheless permitted to exceed the speed restriction, the cab signal device will activate the audible warning device. If the train operator does not initiate a service brake application so that the train comports with the calculated speed distance braking profile, the cab signal device will automatically impose a penalty brake application to stop the train. The cab signal device typically provides power continuously to a feed circuit to energize, and thus keep closed, an electropneumatic valve. Should the train run afoul of the speed distance braking profile, the cab signal device deenergizes the valve to vent the brake pipe to atmosphere thereby applying the brakes. In newer locomotives equipped with modern brake control systems such as the WABCO EPIC.RTM. systems, the cab signal device offers a similar input to the electronic brake control system to provide the same function.
Some cab signal devices also offer overspeed protection as an optional feature. A speed sensing device provides an indication of speed to the cab signal device. The cab signal device automatically shuts down the engine of the locomotive if the speed of the train exceeds a predetermined value.
The territorial coverage of the DC train detection circuits and the wayside signal device AC track circuits is typically not coextensive. Whereas each DC train detection circuit covers a section of track approximately 10,000 feet in length, each wayside signal device through its AC track circuit can typically apply its cab signal on a reliable basis to a range of about 5,000 feet. Consequently, repeater units are often used to fill the gaps so as to provide continuous cab signal coverage between wayside signal devices as shown in FIG. 1B.
The cab signal devices on present day trains are designed to operate on wayside signaling systems that provide continuous coverage over the entire track route. Should a wayside signal device or a repeater unit fail, the cab signal device will interpret the loss of signal aspect information as a stop aspect and automatically impose a penalty brake application. Though the train operator can typically prevent a penalty brake application by acknowledgment or other actions, it is generally not operationally acceptable to routinely require repeated wayside signal "cut-out" and "cut-in" procedures to cover such loss of coverage. Though such wayside signaling systems are widely used on both freight railroads and passenger transit properties, they have not been extensively deployed on the longer freight railroad routes. This is primarily due to cost considerations. It is quite expensive to equip railway track routes with wayside signal devices let alone the necessary repeater units. The need for repeater units alone can often more than double the cost of implementing a wayside signaling system. This increase in cost is due to the need for infrastructure such as acquiring sites at which to install the equipment and providing the foundations, equipment housings and power access at those sites. Many railway routes therefore have the type of wayside signaling system shown in FIG. 1C in which there are gaps in cab signal coverage because repeater units either are not used or only used in certain places.
For heavy freight trains with conventional continuous cab signal devices, it is generally not practical to provide automatic train stop techniques to enforce braking. Several factors such as the braking characteristics, the signal block lengths and grades for any given train and terrain are not known and thus worst case conditions would therefore have to be assumed. This would result in overly restrictive braking curve assumptions for most cases, which would affect train operations too severely to be practical. Consequently, most freight train operators with continuous cab signal devices (e.g., Conrail and Union Pacific Railroads), provide only a warning of the more restrictive signal aspects, with an acknowledgment requirement. The penalty brakes are applied automatically only if the train operator fails to acknowledge the more restrictive signal aspects. The train operator can thus satisfy the acknowledgment requirement, yet still not apply the brakes so as to stop the train before approaching a red signal.
Yet another type of wayside signaling system (not shown) also features the continuous succession of DC train detection circuits along the railway track route. They, too, are used to control the wayside signal devices spaced along the route. In this type of wayside signaling system, however, each of the wayside signal devices controls a track transponder located at a fixed point along the track before each wayside signal device. When a train is detected on a section of track, the train detection circuit corresponding thereto informs its corresponding wayside signal device. The train, however, can only receive the signal aspect information from the transponder as it passes by each fixed point. By using the track transponders to transmit additional encoded data such as the profile of the upcoming track segment and the signal block length, a train equipped with an automatic train protection (ATP) system is able to enforce braking on routes covered by such a wayside signaling system.
The primary disadvantage of transponder based ATP systems is that trains so equipped are required to pass discrete points on the railway track to receive the updated signal aspect information. Some railway authorities have therefore used radio systems to supplement the information received from the track transponders. Other authorities have used fixed transponders only, with updated information transmitted by radio from the wayside signal devices.
Another shortcoming common to all transponder based ATP systems is that they are rather expensive to install and maintain. Maintenance, for example, typically requires replacement of transponders that are damaged. Maintenance may also require a change in the codes or the locations of the transponders as the configuration of the railway track may well be changed over time.
Current automatic train protection systems present significant disadvantages whether used in connection with wayside signaling systems featuring wayside signal devices having AC track circuits or fixed point transponders. For wayside signaling systems featuring wayside signal devices that employ AC track circuits, it is expensive to equip railway routes with repeater units to prevent gaps in coverage from which signal aspect information would be unavailable. Moreover, the cab signal device will interpret such loss of the cab signal as a stop aspect and automatically impose a penalty brake application. For wayside signaling systems featuring wayside signal devices that employ fixed point transponders, a train equipped for travel on such routes is required to pass fixed points to receive the updated signal aspect and guidance information from the transponders. Transponder systems are also expensive to install and maintain.
There is therefore a need in the railroad industry for a system that could operate the brakes of a train in compliance with a wayside signaling system without the aforementioned disadvantages. Specifically, it would be quite desirable to develop a system not dependent on fixed point transponders to receive information from the wayside signaling system. Moreover, it would be preferred if such a system would not require the installation of expensive repeater units to fill gaps in cab signal coverage between wayside signal devices. Such a system should be able to operate the brakes in compliance with a wayside signaling system even if the system encounters track segments (i.e., gaps) from which signal aspect information/cab signal is unavailable. Such a system would ideally be designed to operate on either or both of the wayside signaling systems shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C.
Related to the invention is subject matter described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,547 entitled Rail Navigation System, This patent is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and its teachings are incorporated into the present document by reference. The rail navigation system allows a train to locate the position it occupies on a railway track route.
As best described in the cited document, the rail navigation system features a database including data pertaining to the locations of railway track routes and the locations and orientations of curves and switches in those railway track routes. It also receives inputs from devices such as an odometer, a rate of turn measuring apparatus and a navigational receiver. According to instructions contained within its programming code, the rail navigation system uses the aforementioned data along with and in comparison to the enumerated inputs to determine where the train is located in relation to track route location data stored in the on-board database. Through such processing, the coordinates the train occupies on the globe is matched against the database information to determine not only on which track the train is traveling but also the particular position that the train occupies on that track.

Integrated cab signal rail navigation system


Wavelength-selective switches (WSSs) having embedded multiplexer or demultiplexer functionality include a stack of planar waveguide circuits (PLCs) in which all but one of the PLCs have identical features consisting of a single waveguide connected to a free space region, further connected to a waveguide array that terminates at the PLC edge facet, which are placed at the front focal plane of a lens, generating a spectrally resolved optical signal at the back focal plane of the lens. Due to the use of a single lens, the spectrally resolved optical signal of all the PLCs are superimposed, differing only by propagation direction. A tilting micro-mirror array at the back focal plane reflects the spectral components, implementing a wavelength-selective switch. The reflected light can couple to any of the remaining PLCs, for multiplexing, or to the different PLC in the stack, which implements the multiplexer/demultiplexer.

Optical networks are evolving towards a mesh architecture. In optical mesh networks, the network topology consists of nodes and interconnecting links. The traffic on the fiber-optic links utilizes wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) for increasing the capacity on the link. At the network nodes, the channels on ingress fibers are either routed to egress fibers for transmission to subsequent network nodes, or the channels terminate at the node for local utilization of the information carried therein. The hardware to implement this functionality at the node can be based on electronic switching fabrics, requiring optical-to-electronic-to-optical conversions, or they can be implemented entirely in the optical regime. The latter approach is advantageous due to savings in cost, power consumption, and space requirements.
FIG. 1 depicts a conventional network node architecture 100 An ingress fiber 102 (out of multiple ingress fibers, rest not shown) connects to an input port 106 of a demultiplexing-type wavelength-selective switch (WSS) 110. Other multiple ingress fibers of the node (not shown in FIG. 1) are each connected to an input port of other demultiplexing-type WSS's (also not shown). WSS 110 has a single input port 106 and multiple output ports 114-A through 114-D. WSS 110 can route the WDM channels in an independent and reconfigurable fashion from input port 106 to any one of output ports 114-A through 114-D. In the network node architecture illustrated in FIG. 1, channels that are destined from ingress fiber 102 to continue to an egress fiber 126 are routed by WSS 110 to output port 114-C. Output port 114-C is connected to an input port 116-C of a multiplexing-type WSS 120. WSS 120 has multiple input ports 116-A through 116-D and a single output port 122. WSS 120 can route any WDM channel in an independent and reconfigurable fashion from any one of input ports 116-A through 116-D to output port 122. Therefore, channels that are destined from ingress fiber 102 to continue to egress fiber 126 are routed by WSS 110 to output port 114-C and further routed by WSS 120 to output port 122, which is connected to egress fiber 126. The network node shown in FIG. 1 would typically have additional egress fibers, which are not shown here. Other multiple egress fibers of the node (not shown in FIG. 1) are each typically connected to the output of other multiplexing-type WSS's (also not shown). Output ports 114-A and 114-B of WSS 110 are each connected to one input port of such other WSS for routing channels from ingress fiber 102 to other egress fibers. Channels that are destined from ingress fiber 102 to be utilized locally at the node are routed by WSS 110 to output port 114-D, which is connected to the input of a demultiplexer 130. Demultiplexer 130 passively separates the WDM channels to output ports 134-A through 134-N, where the separated channels can be detected by opto-electronic means. In an analogous manner, channels that are added at this network node for transmission to egress fiber 126 are connected to ports 136-A through 136-N of multiplexer 140, and an output 142 of multiplexer 140 is connected to input port 115-D of multiplexing-type WSS 120. WSS 120 routes the added channels from input port 116-D to output 122, which is connected to egress fiber 126.
What is needed are methods and apparatus for reducing the number of individual components, and reducing the losses conventionally incurred in routing optical signals from an ingress fiber to drop ports, and in routing optical signals from add ports to an egress fiber.

Wavelength-selective switch and integrated wavelength demultiplexer using stacked planar lightwave circuits


According to one aspect of the present invention, a razor handle includes a first handle and a removable cap. The first handle portion includes a first molded portion, a second molded portion, and a cavity. A removable cap includes a first molded cap portion and a second molded cap portion. The second molded cap portion forms a sealing ring on the removable cap. The removable cap is selectively detachable to the first handle portion. The sealing ring, when the removable cap is attached to the first handle portion, forms a seal between the removable cap and the first handle portion, preventing water from entering the cavity during normal shaving. Preferably, the first molded cap portion and the first molded portion of the first handle portion are formed simultaneously. Likewise, the second molded cap portion and the second molded portion of the first handle portion are preferably formed simultaneously.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to handles for shaving implements, and, more particularly, to a process for manufacturing two-shot molded cap for a handle that prevents water from entering a cavity in the handle during normal use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern shaving implements can include a plurality of blades disposed within a razor cartridge. The razor cartridge is, in turn, mounted on a handle during use. Some safety razors have a disposable razor cartridge that is removably mounted on a reusable handle while others have a handle and a razor cartridge that are manufactured as a single, disposable unit.
It also is known to place certain powered devices, such as a spinning eccentric weight that cause the shaving implement to vibrate, inside the handle. The powered devices typically provide some additional benefit to the end user. In most cases, the powered device requires the use of a replaceable (or rechargeable) battery.
Razors that employ a replaceable battery typically have a handle that includes a cavity into which a battery can be inserted, and a removable cap. Typically, the removable cap, when secured to the remaining portion of the handle, forms a seal around the cavity. The seal prevents water from entering the cavity, which can adversely affect the intended function of the battery and associated electronics. Currently, it is known to use, for example, an o-ring that is compressed between the removable cap and the remaining portion of the cartridge. However, the manufacture of an o-ring, and its placement on the handle during assembly is both costly and time-consuming.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the known shortcomings of the prior art.


Failures in a message exchange, during a procedure for determining the location of a mobile station, are alleviated by providing a retry mechanism. Upon receipt of a particular failure message, such as the SMS Cause Code 33, rather than abort the location operation, the node receiving the failure message retransmits its last previous message. In an Assisted GPS (AGPS) example, essentially, whenever the Position Determining Entity (PDE) 25 receives an SMS Cause Code 33 from the mobile switching center (MSC) 15, it will resend the last previous Invoke message, without delay or alteration. This will give MSC 15 another chance to deliver the message to the mobile station 5 and ideally continue the message flow until the mobile station has been successfully located. The PDE 25 may retry a particular Invoke message one or multiple times. The receipt of other SMSCauseCode values may still cause the message exchange to abort.

Many new communications devices and related services have emerged, to allow people to communicate freely as they roam, without the need for a fixed network connection. In particular, modern digital public wireless telephone networks offer customers a wide range of voice and data communication services combined with a high degree of mobility. In this context, situations arise in which it is desirable to obtain information about the physical or geographic location of a mobile communication terminal and/or its user. For example, if a cellular telephone user encounters an emergency situation, the user dials 911 or the like; and the emergency response center needs to know the actual location of the telephone and thus of the caller to direct emergency response personnel to the correct place. As another example, some carriers offer services in which authenticated third parties may request the location of a subscriber's mobile station. Services are also known in which the user at the mobile station itself may request location information and/or information about the surrounding geographic locale for display on or audio presentation from the mobile station.
To support such services, a network architecture has been developed that includes a position determining entity (PDE), which requests and processes position related data to determine the location of a mobile device. For example, if the mobile device is equipped with a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, the PDE will request and process GPS data from the mobile station to determine the latitude and longitude of the mobile station. However, certain problems have been found with the signaling procedure used to request and direct the necessary data to the PDE. To appreciate the problems, it may be helpful to consider network architecture and the signaling involved in a GPS based location procedure, in somewhat more detail.
In Assisted GPS, the Position Determining Entity (PDE) determines the actual Latitude and Longitude of the mobile based on GPS measurements taken by the mobile station at the PDE's request. The process of locating a mobile telephone station using Assisted GPS (AGPS) involves several elements. In practice, a Mobile Positioning Center (MPC) or other similar element requests location information for a particular mobile telephone station from the PDE. The mobile switching center (MSC) serving the mobile station delivers messages to/from the mobile station, including those exchanged with the PDE. The request and response messages between the PDE and the mobile station (via the MSC) take the form of ANSI-41 SMDPP data burst messages with IS-801 defined bearerdata.
A problem has arisen due to interference in the network to mobile data burst messaging, which causes the MSC to reject a SMDPP Invoke message from the PDE with a return result marking SMSCause Code 33—"Destination Busy." As one example, this may occur if the PDE's acknowledgement (Ack) of an earlier message from the MSC and an Invoke message from the PDE are received in reverse order by the MSC. Normally, the PDE acknowledges the last message from the MSC, and then it may send a further Invoke message. The MSC expects an acknowledgement (Ack) prior to any such new Invoke messages. When the MSC receives a new Invoke message before the acknowledgement (Ack) of its last preceding message, the MSC replies with SMSCause Code 33 (Destination Busy). Previously the PDE stopped call processing upon receiving the Cause Code. Hence, call flows would be terminated prematurely, and the PDE was unable to locate the mobile device.
FIG. 3 depicts the signal flow involved in an exemplary prior art procedure for determining the location of a mobile device having a GPS receiver. As shown, in step S31, the PDE initiates the AGPS call flow, by sending a first SMDPP Invoke message (#1) to the MSC, via the SS7 network, and the MSC delivers that message to the mobile telephone station via the air interface. The BearerData of the message contains an IS-801 Position Determination Data Message (PDDM) for the mobile station. An example of what the first message might be is a "Request Mobile Station Info" message.
In the next step (S32), the MSC acknowledges receipt of the first Invoke message by sending an SMDPP return result message containing an acknowledgement (Ack). Although not shown as a separate step, the mobile telephone station replies to the PDE's message via the air interface; and in response, the MSC packages the PDDM response data message in an upstream SMDPP Invoke message, for delivery via the Signaling System 7 (SS7) network to the PDE (step S33). An example of what the reply message might be is a "Provide Mobile Station Info" message, for example, to supply requested data on functional capabilities from the mobile station to the PDE for further processing. The process of requesting and obtaining data from the mobile station in this manner requires two or more successive message exchanges, of this type, in order to supply all of the necessary data to the PDE to allow the PDE to resolve the GPS information and compute the latitude and longitude of the mobile station's current location.
After the Invoke message (S33) from the MSC, the PDE must now acknowledge receipt and initiate its next request to the mobile telephone station for more data. Hence, in step S34, the PDE sends an acknowledgement (Ack), in an SMDPP return result message, back to the MSC. The PDE then sends a second SMDPP Invoke message (Invoke #2), for example, a "Request Pilot Phase Measurement" message or a "Request Pseudo Range Measurement" message (S35). To distinguish the Ack and second Invoke messages in the drawing, the SMDPP return result type acknowledgement (Ack) message is shown in dashed-line form, whereas the subsequent SMDPP Invoke #2 message is shown as a solid line. At step S36, due to network latency, divergent paths, or other issues, the PDE's acknowledgement (Ack) message and the second Invoke message actually arrive at the MSC in reverse order (as shown to the left), as compared to the order in which they were sent (as shown to the right). Because of the order of arrival, at step S37, the MSC rejects the PDE's second Invoke message, by generating an SMSCauseCode of 33 (Destination Busy). In response, the PDE aborts the call flow. Consequently, because of the reordering of the packet messages between the PDE and the MSC, the attempt to obtain the location information for the mobile station from the MSC breaks down and fails.
This problem is not easily avoided because the ANSI-41 SS7 messages in use are defined in the standard SCCP Class 0, which means that delivery order can not be guaranteed. As noted above, obtaining all necessary data for determining location takes several rounds of requesting data and receiving data from the mobile station via the MSC. Each time either node receives an Invoke message, it must respond with an acknowledgement. In the course of such an AGPS call flow, it is possible to have one or more failure points based on the message order or other network issues. At present, there is no method or mechanism to compensate for these failures. In view of the need to obtain the location information, a need exists for a technique to allow the system to complete the communication of the location information from the MSC to the PDE, despite the reordering of the messages during the packet communication or other similar reasons for the MSC to generate a failure message that would otherwise abort the location process.

Position location SMDPP message retry mechanism


A removable protective cover for use with razors and razor cartridges. The cover encloses and protects the razor head, which contains the exposed portion of the sharpened blade or blades. Lateral tabs having hooks for engagement with the razor cartridge on one end and a button area on the other end are affixed to both ends of the cover via hinges. When the button area is depressed by opposing forces, in an X-plane, the hook end disengages from the razor cartridge and the cartridge may be removed from the protective cover with minimal or no force in the Y-direction which is perpendicular to the X-plane.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cover for use with shaving cartridges to protect the cartridge during periods of non-use.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of protective covers have been utilized with commercially available razors and razor cartridges. The purpose of such covers is basically two-fold. First, the cover protects the razor and its blade edge(s) during the different stages of its life, such as shipping and retailing, from forces which would damage the edge(s). Second, the cover protects the user from unintentionally encountering the razor's sharp blade or blades when the razor is not in use. The covers which are currently available require a removal force in the direction of separation, i.e., the cover is either pulled or pushed directly off of the razor in the direction of the applied force. The result is that covers which are subjected to a single direction force frequently become dislodged from the razor during interim steps, such as shipping, causing those uncovered razors to be discarded.
Consequently, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a protective cover for a razor which requires a force for removal in a different direction than the direction of separation of the cartridge from the cover. Such a cover would require minimal or no force in the direction of separation between the razor and the cover.


A method of producing a die for forming an interior component of a vehicle includes: setting a temperature of a plating bath in a range from 25 to 40° C.; immersing at least a forming surface on a base for the die in the plating bath; and feeding a current to the base with a current density in a range from 20 to 80 A/dm2 until a metal layer is formed on the forming surface.

A forming apparatus for forming an interior component of a vehicle using a set of dies is known (see Patent Document 1). The forming apparatus includes the set of dies that can be opened and closed. When the dies are closed, a forming cavity for forming the interior component is provided.
It may be preferable to tinge the interior component with black from the aspect of design. To deepen the blackness of the interior component, black paint may be applied to a surface of the interior component after the interior component is formed with the set of dies. Use of the paint requires application and drying, that is, the larger number of steps is required for producing the interior component.

Method of producing die, die, and interior component of vehicle


A plug valve assembly having an inlet and an outlet comprises a housing including a bore extending through the housing between the inlet and the outlet and a cavity intersecting the bore, a plug mounted in the cavity for rotation between first and second positions. In the first position an orifice extending through the plug is aligned axially with the bore of housing to allow fluid to flow from the inlet to the outlet and in the second position fluid is prevented from flowing from the inlet to the outlet. Seals are located in the cavity between the plug and an inner surface of said cavity and a plug retaining member is releasably attachable to the housing. A surface of the plug retaining member limits upward movement of the plug in the housing. The housing includes a reinforcement collar extending around the inner surface of the cavity.

Plug valves are typically used in the oil industry for the purpose of controlling flow. Plug valves are required to operate under different conditions of pressure. Typically, the greater the safe operating pressure, the heavier is the construction of the plug valve. For example, a plug valve made of cast or forged steel for example, for operation up to 6000 psi would typically weigh less than 25 kgs, whereas a plug valve made from the same material for operation at pressures up to 10000 psi would typically weigh between 40 and 50 kgs.
A number of countries have either recently introduced, or intend to introduce legislation relating to health and safety in the work place which prescribes a limit on the weight of an object that a person is permitted to lift, this limit varying slightly from country to country, but generally being not more than 25 kgs.
Whilst plug valves weighing more than 25 kgs may be lifted by more than one person, such that each person lifts not more than 25 kgs, this is generally undesirable, as two people are required when otherwise one person would be able to complete the task, and further additional equipment may be required to facilitate two people lifting such an object.
It is therefore desirable that a plug valve should be of such a weight that it may be lifted by a single person.
As mentioned above, some plug valves do weigh less than 25 kgs. Such a plug valve is shown in cross-section in FIG. 1. However, such a plug valve only has a safe operating pressure of up to 6000 psi. There is a need for a plug valve which weighs not more than 25 kgs and is capable of operating at pressures greater than 6000 psi. In particular, there is a need for a plug valve which weighs not more than 25 kgs and is capable of operating at pressures exceeding 6000 psi, for example a plug valve weighing not more than 25 kgs which is capable of operating at pressures in the region of 15000 psi, depending on the fluid being transported through the plug valve.
Other examples of plug valves known in the art are described in the US patent application published under number 2003/0151016 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,986,374.
A plug valve which may be operated by a low turning torque is described in the UK patent application published under U.S. Pat. No. 2,298,024.
The present invention seeks to provide a plug valve of relatively low weight compared to existing plug valves which is capable of operating safely at high pressures.


A catalyst system comprising certain bimetallic metallocenes and an alumoxane is provided together with a process for the preparation of high molecular weight ethylene-alpha olefin elastomers and ethylene-alpha-olefin nonconjugated diolefin elastomers wherein the requisite monomers are polymerized in the presence of the bimetallic metallocene/alumoxane catalyst system.

Various processes and catalysts exist for the copolymerization of alpha-olefins. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,113,115 (Ziegler et al) discloses that a plastomeric copolymer of ethylene and propylene may be prepared using a catalyst system comprising diethyl aluminum chloride and titanium tetrachloride while U.S. Pat. No. 3,300,459 (Natta et al) discloses that an elastomeric copolymer of ethylene and propylene containing from 20 to about 70 weight percent ethylene can be prepared using a catalyst system comprising trihexyl aluminum and vanadium oxychloride. From this technological base, processes for the production of the commercially important elastomeric ethylene-propylene copolymers, commonly referred to as EP elastomers, and the elastomeric terpolymers of ethylene, propylene and a nonconjugated diolefin, generally referred to as EPDM elastomers, have been developed.
In most current EP and EPDM production processes the catalysts used for the production of the high molecular weight elastomers are soluble catalysts formed from vanadium compounds such as vanadium tetrachloride, vanadium triacetylacetonate, vanadium trialkoxides and halogenated vanadium alkoxides which may be used singly or as a mixture in conjunction with an organoaluminum compound such as triethyl aluminum, diethyl aluminum chloride or ethyl aluminum sesquichloride.
With the recent advent of metallocene-alumoxane coordination catalyst systems for the production of polyethylene and copolymers of ethylene and alpha-olefins such as linear low density polyethylene, some effort has been directed to determining the suitability of particular metallocene-alumoxane catalyst systems for the production of EP and EPDM elastomers.
Kaminsky et al in J. Poly. Sci. Polymer Chem Edition, Volume 23, pp 2151-64 (1985) disclose the use of a soluble bis(cyclopentadienyl) zirconium dimethyl-alumoxane catalyst system in the polymerization of ethylene, propylene and 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene in toluene solution. By employing the catalyst at low zirconium concentrations, high aluminum to zirconium ratios and long reaction times, Kaminsky et al have been able to prepare, in low yields, high molecular weight EPDM elastomers with a high level of 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene incorporation. However, because of the long induction times required for the catalyst to reach its full activity, a period of the order of hours without the nonconjugated diolefin present, and longer with the nonconjugated diolefin present, precludes the use of such a catalyst system in a commercial operation as such long residence times are economically infeasible.
European patent application 347,129 (Floyd et al to Exxon) discloses that a catalyst system comprising an alkylene or silanylene or mixed alkylene-silanylene bridged his(substituted cyclopentadienyl) Group IV B transition metal compound and an alumoxane is highly active in the production of high molecular weight EPDM elastomers that have a high ethylene content, a nonconjugated diolefin content of greater than about 3 weight percent and exhibit a low heat of fusion, that is have a low degree of crystallinity. However, in order for this high activity to be realized, the catalyst system has to be supported and a temperature of 50.degree. C. employed. Furthermore, the ethylene pressure used has to be higher than that typically used in the current EP and EPDM production processes which utilize soluble vanadium compounds as catalysts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,205 (Hoel to Exxon) discloses that an elastomeric ethylene-alpha-olefin copolymer may be produced by a slurry polymerization process employing a highly active catalyst system comprising a bis(cyclopentadienyl) group IV B transition metal compound wherein each cyclopentadienyl moiety bears at least two substituents and the two cyclopentadienyl moieties may also be bridged with a linear, branched or cyclic alkylene group, an alkyl substituted silaalkylene group or an alkyl substituted silanylene group and an alumoxane. However, in order for the high activity to be obtained, the catalyst system is first supported on an inert support such as dehydrated silica gel and then is treated with a small amount of ethylene so that an amount of polymer is formed on the catalyst material. The catalyst system thus prepared is then utilized in the preparation of a high molecular weight elastomeric ethylene-alpha-olefin copolymer.
Heretobefore the use of a catalyst system comprising a metallocene wherein there are two transition metal centres and an alumoxane for the copolymerization of ethylene and an alpha-olefin or the terpolymerization of ethylene, an alpha-olefin and a nonconjugated diolefin has not been described.

Bimetallic metallocene alumoxane catalyst system and its use in the preparation of ethylene-alpha olefin and ethylene-alpha olefin-non-conjugated diolefin elastomers


Provided are a method for preparing a catalyst layer by an in-situ sol-gel reaction of tetraethoxysilane, and a fuel cell including the catalyst layer prepared thereby. Addition of silica mitigates specific adsorption of sulfonate groups contained in a Nafion ionomer on a Pt catalyst layer in a high-voltage region where the role of a catalyst predominates, resulting in improvement of ORR performance.

Recently, high temperature operations with low humidification levels for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) have received a great deal of attention, because they have potential for solving the problem of CO poisoning, enhance electrochemical reactions, simplify the design of water and thermal subsystems and reduce the cost of PEFCs. Despite the fact that Nafion-based membranes are the best performing, commercially available polymer electrolytes, the development of other polymer membranes and ionomer binders having excellent durability even at high temperature conditions is in urgent need for alternative proton conductive materials due to the instability of Nafion-based polymers at elevated temperatures. For example, it is expected that hydrocarbon-based polymers substitute for such materials.
However, extensive studies have reported that a hydrocarbon-based ionomer binder is not appropriate for use in catalyst layers because of the strong adsorption of the aromatic rings and sulfonate groups (—SO3H) of the hydrocarbon-based ionomer on the Pt catalyst surface, which leads to significant inhibition of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Furthermore, when the hydrocarbon-based binder is used in a catalyst layer under a high-relative humidity condition, the low diffusion coefficient of water and the high swelling property and low gas permeability of the hydrocarbon-based ionomer binder in the catalyst layer have detrimental effects on the efficient oxygen mass transport. Although hydrocarbon polymers having polar groups have high water uptakes over a wide temperature range, the absorbed water is restricted to the polar groups of the polymer chains. Thus, relative humidity conditions have a greater effect on the water retention and proton conductivity of the hydrocarbon ionomer as compared to the Nafion ionomer. This restricts the application of hydrocarbon ionomers to catalyst layer binders under low humidity conditions. Under these circumstances, it is expected that Nafion ionomers rather than hydrocarbon-based ionomers are used as binders in PEFCs even though they have low durability under high-temperature conditions. In addition, Nafion may be affected by reduced ORR quality of Pt catalysts due to the specific adsorption phenomenon caused by sulfonate groups. Thus, it is required to solve this problem. This is because enhancing ORR quality of Pt catalysts by mitigating the specific adsorption significantly reduces the amount of Pt required to be supported on a carrier during the manufacture of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for fuel cells.
However, the proton conductivity of Nafion ionomers is commonly altered dramatically under low humidity conditions. One promising strategy to increase the water content in the polymer matrix is to incorporate nanometer-sized particles of hygroscopic metal oxides into the cathode and/or anode catalyst layers. The incorporation of hygroscopic metal oxides is usually conducted by dispersing the nanoparticles synthesized by an ex situ sol-gel process. However, a notable issue is that hygroscopic oxide particles synthesized by ex situ sol-gel reactions may be easily lost or may significantly aggregate in a catalyst layer since the oxide particles are just simply mixed and not immobilized in these electrodes during the operation of a fuel cell. This results in degradation of the quality of a fuel cell during its operation. Furthermore, the addition of excessive oxide particles may cause a significant increase in the interfacial contact resistance between the catalyst layer and the polymer membrane, resulting in significant degradation of the quality of a fuel cell. When a large amount of oxide particles are incorporated to a catalyst layer, they may deteriorate the charge transfer dynamics (i.e., proton and electron transfer) of the electrodes due to the insulating properties of the oxide particles. To solve this, it is required that such hygroscopic metal oxide particles having a nanometer-scaled size are dispersed uniformly without aggregation among themselves.

Method for preparing catalyst layer by in-situ sol-gel reaction of tetraethoxysilane in Nafion ionomer solution


A hub-bearing assembly is disclosed, wherein the hub-bearing assembly is used for rotatably mounting a tilling disc about an axis of rotation is disclosed. The hub-bearing assembly comprises an annular hub comprising an axially extending tubular portion defining a cylindrical housing and an outer flange for mounting a disc, a bearing unit mounted in the housing, and an elastic damping body arranged in the housing and radially interposed between the hub and an outer ring of the bearing unit.

As is well known, tilling discs are usually mounted rotatably on respective spindles projecting from the frame of a plough or other agricultural machine.
WO 2002/019791 A discloses a hub-bearing assembly for rotatably mounting a tilling disc about an axis of rotation. The assembly comprises an annular hub having an axially extended tubular portion defining a generally cylindrical housing and a radially outer flange for fixing to a disc. In the housing is mounted a bearing unit comprising an outer ring, one or two inner rings and a dual set of rolling elements interposed between the outer and inner rings. In other solutions, the outer ring of the bearing is integrated into the flanged hub, forming therewith a single piece.
During use, impacts suffered by the disc against stones and similar damage the raceways of the bearing and shorten its working life.
It is therefore an object of the invention to create a hub-bearing assembly for a tilling disc capable of remedying the above-mentioned disadvantage.

Hub-bearing assembly for rotatably mounting a tilling disc


A demultiplexer includes a voltage boost circuit and at least one data selection output circuit. The voltage boost circuit is coupled to N second-stage selection signal input terminals and N first-stage selection signal input terminals, N is greater than or equal to 2, and N is a positive integer. Each data selection output circuit is coupled to a data input terminal, N data output terminals and the N first-stage selection signal input terminals.

A demultiplexer (abbreviated as DMUX), also known as a data distributor or a multiplex demodulator, is a logic circuit that transmits an input signal to a specified output terminal based on different states of input address codes. Currently, the demultiplexer is widely used in various fields, such as the field of display technologies.

Demultiplexer and method of controlling the same, and display device


A device for high-intensity uniform illumination with minimal light reflection for use in reflective-type microscopes has a light source with a uniform emission and the following components, arranged in succession in the emission direction: a lens combination with a short focal length, the focal length of the lens combination being adjusted in such a way that the light source is projected to infinity; a rectangular diaphragm aperture, which is located on the rear focal plane of the lens combination, the Fourier plane of the lens combination being situated on the plane; an additional lens with a focal length, through which the rectangular diaphragm aperture is projected onto the intermediate image plane of the microscope; and a circular diaphragm, onto which the light source is projected in sharp focus and which is located on the rear focal plane of the additional lens.

The method described here serves, in microscopes that work with reflection, for suitable formation of the illumination beam at a high light yield, and for adaptation of the illumination aperture to the entry pupil of the microscope lens. Using this invention, it is possible to create new possibilities of use for relatively low-intensity light sources. In particular, the use of LED light sources in microscopes that work confocally, which are considered to be very low-intensity, is made possible by means of this invention. The influence of internal light reflections is significantly reduced by means of suitable diaphragm positioning.

Device and method for high-intensity uniform illumination with minimal light reflection for use in microscopes


An electrical connector includes a housing having a chamber in which are mounted a bus bar, and a leaf spring that normally biases the end of a conductor that is inserted into the chamber into electrical engagement with the bus bar. A release member is connected with the housing for movement from a retracted position toward an extended release position, thereby to release the spring from the conductor so that the conductor may be removed from the housing. For ease of operation, the release member has a pair of angularly arranged surfaces that contain operating openings for selectively receiving the tip of an operating tool arranged at various angular positions relative to the housing.

1. Field of the Invention
An electrical connector includes a housing having a chamber in which are mounted a bus bar, and a leaf spring that normally biases the end of a conductor that is inserted into the chamber into electrical engagement with the bus bar, characterized by the provision of a release member connected with the housing for movement from a retracted position toward an extended release position, thereby to release the spring from the conductor so that the conductor might be removed from the housing. For ease of operation, the release member has a pair of angularly arranged surfaces that contain operating openings for selectively receiving the tip of an operating tool arranged at various angular positions relative to the housing.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As illustrated by the German Patent No. 295 00 614.5, it has been proposed in the prior art to provide an electrical connector arrangement in which a release member is operable relative to the connector housing to release the biasing leg of a leaf spring from locking engagement with a conductor, thereby to permit disengagement of the conductor from a bus bar contained within the housing, and removal of the conductor from the housing.
For the purpose of connecting fine-strand conductors to the bus bar, and/or for the disconnection and removal of the conductors from the housing, the assembly is provided with a disconnect member that is actuated either manually, or by means of an actuating tool, such as a screwdriver. The disconnect member acts upon the biasing leg of a leaf spring or the like to displace the same toward an unlocked position relative to a conductor that is introduced into the connector housing chamber. The present invention was developed to provide an improved release mechanism that permits the connection and disconnection of fine-strand conductors under tight space, poor accessibility, and difficult tool orientation situations.


A system having a bus coupled to a host and a memory device. The bus may include a plurality of general purpose signal lines to carry time-multiplexed address, data, and control information. The memory device may store system start-up information and communicate this information with the host over the bus.

Conventional legacy-based computer systems include a variety of peripheral and memory devices that communicate with the system's chip-set or processor via an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus or an Expansion bus (X-bus). The system chip-set or processor must include a large amount of pins (e.g., approximately 50-70 pins) and associated circuitry to support the ISA bus or X-bus signals that are used to interface the chip-set or processor with legacy-based peripheral devices including input/output (I/O) or I/O controller devices such as parallel port controllers, serial port controllers, super I/O controllers, floppy disk controllers, keyboard controllers, and memory devices such as non-volatile memory devices that store, for example, basic input-output services (BIOS) information.
The large number of pins needed to support the ISA bus and X-bus standards generally increases overall system cost. For example, larger packages are required for a chip-set or processor. Larger pin-count packages generally cost more than smaller pin-count packages, and are generally more susceptible to manufacturing quality and reliability problems during package assembly and system integration processes. Furthermore, larger pin-count packages require a greater amount of surface area on a printed circuit board (PCB) on which a computer system may be implemented. Therefore, it would be desirable to replace the ISA bus or X-bus in a computer system with a bus that would support the same types of peripheral devices, but utilize a relatively smaller number of pins or signal lines.
The ISA bus and X-bus standards also limit the amount of memory or I/O address space to 24 bits or approximately 16 MBytes of memory or I/O address space. As some processors and chip-sets can support 32 bits or 64 bits of address space, aliasing has previously been required to translate the processor address space to the ISA address space. Aliasing can produce significant overhead such that the performance of the computer system may be negatively impacted. Therefore, it would be desirable to replace the ISA bus and X-bus standards with a bus that may support an address space that is compatible with the processor or chip-set address space, and that potentially is unlimited.
The ISA bus and X-bus standards have a further disadvantage of being asynchronous. This generally increases design complexity for components that need to generate and respond to ISA bus and X-bus signals. Therefore, it would be desirable to replace the ISA bus and X-bus standards with a bus that may support synchronous communication between components so as to generally reduce the complexity of the bus interface circuitry.

Memory transactions on a low pin count bus


A solid state light emitting device having a plurality of semiconductor finger members with side walls perpendicular to a substrate. Multiple quantum wells are formed on the side walls, and are also perpendicular to the substrate. Each multiple quantum well is sandwiched between the side wall of a finger member and a second semiconductor member of a conductivity type opposite to that of the finger member. Ohmic contacts are applied to the finger members and second semiconductor member for receiving a voltage. The device is GaN based such that emitted light will be in the UV region.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention in general relates to light sources and particularly to a solid state light source which is particularly well adapted to radiate light in the UV region. The term "light" as used herein is meant to apply to a generated wave of a particular wavelength, not necessarily in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
2. Description of Related Art
A need exists for a compact, high power reliable UV (ultraviolet) light source. Such light source may be used in a variety of applications including the detection of chemical and biological agents. For example, a UV beam of a particular wavelength may be directed at an area under investigation causing fluorescence of any suspect agents that may be present. Detection and neutralization apparatus may then be utilized to clear the area.
Another application for such light source is in the production of visible light. More particularly, the UV radiation may be used to irradiate a particular phosphor which, in response to the radiation, will generate light in the visible region.
Solid state semiconductor UV light sources have been developed to meet these needs. As will be described, the conventional semiconductor UV light source suffers from various deficiencies including, but not limited to, crystal defects leading to losses and inefficiency, internal reflections which limit the amount of light output and a shifting of wavelength with applied voltage. In addition, if these devices are scaled to make them larger, the power, or light output does not increase in proportion to the scaling factor.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor light source which obviates these deficiencies.

Semiconductor light source and method of making


An inner or secondary door and temperature control system for use on a vehicle or trailer having a storage compartment and a first or primary door associated with a first entry or entryway into the storage compartment. The secondary door provides a moveable barrier or door that is situated in operative relationship to the first entry or entryway associated with the first door in order to prevent thermal loss from the storage compartment area during deliveries or at times when the first door is open.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inner sliding or secondary door and temperature control system and method and more particularly, to a secondary door used to facilitate reducing thermal loss and maintaining a temperature in a storage area of a vehicle or trailer within a predetermined or desired temperature range.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During delivery of products, such as frozen food or chilled beverages, delivery drivers are currently required to repeatedly open and close a door on the vehicle or trailer that leads to, for example, a compartment on the vehicle or trailer. With some vehicles, the door is a pivoting or swinging side door on a side of the vehicle. Sometimes a switch shuts down the refrigeration unit, commonly referred to as a "reefer" unit, while the door is open. This is to prevent the refrigeration unit from condensing and being overcome by condensation resulting from the outside warm air which enters the storage compartment when the door is open. When the outside warm air reaches the refrigeration unit, while the unit is running, the warm air will eventually cause the refrigeration unit to "ice up" or "freeze up" and thereby prevent it from blowing cold air and cooling the storage compartment.
In instances where a door switch is used to control the reefer unit, the freezing up phenomenon can be reduced or avoided. However, such systems typically require that the driver open and shut the swinging door on the side of the vehicle each time the driver enters or leaves the storage area of the vehicle. Depending on the size and quantity of product to be delivered, this can result in the opening and closing of the swinging door multiple times, such as 10 times or more, for each delivery.
Because of the nuisance to having to repeatedly open and close the swinging side door, some drivers will typically leave the swinging side door open during the entire delivery process, even if they are not authorized to or are prohibited from doing so. This action most easily is compared to leaving a refrigerator door open for a long period of time. In general, a substantial loss of some, most or all of the cold air from the storage compartment area will occur. The increase in temperature in the storage area has an adverse effect on the quality of the product or cargo stored in the storage compartment.
In vehicles or trailers that are not equipped with door switches, the reefer or refrigeration unit will continue to run regardless of whether the door is open or closed. During quick deliveries, or when the outside temperature is cold, the unit will typically not freeze up the storage compartment area, but the storage compartment area will lose all the cold air during delivery and the reefer unit will continue to run in an attempt to regain the desired or optimal temperature in the storage compartment area. When it is warm outside the storage compartment area, the reefer unit in many cases freezes up during delivery. Once this happens, the reefer unit must be manually defrosted, which can require ½ hour to 1 hour or more to manually defrost the reefer unit. During the entire time that the reefer unit is manually defrosting, there is no cooling of the storage compartment area, which means that the temperature inside the storage compartment area could reach levels that are critical in that they can cause food spoilage or damage to the goods being transported. This is especially a problem if the driver leaves the door open or circumvents its closing.
Even in cases where there is a shut-off switch, once the swinging side door is shut again, the reefer unit will have to run much harder and continuously to achieve the desired temperature in the storage compartment area.
There is, therefore a need to provide a simplified system and method for reducing or eliminating one or more of the problems with the prior art.

Secondary door and temperature control system and method


The method for prodicing a multilayer thin-walled bellows of stainless steel consists of manufacturing round billets by welding the sheets, packing the round billets into a multilayer bank, corrugating the bank for forming the multilayer bellows and the bellows tightness testing. The round billets are manufactured of the preliminary cut sheets of given dimensions by their electric arc pulsed gas-shielded welding. The packed multilayer bank is welded from two sides over the end faces and subjected to heat treatment by its heating up to the temperature of 1000-1130.degree. C. in the shielding medium and holding at this temperature during 20-45 minutes with subsequent cooling.

Multilayer thin-walled bellows are widely used in different branches of engineering, for example in the aircraft building, engine building, and oil industry, when it is necessary to secure the movable jointing of pipelines for compensating their relative displacement.
Stainless steel is the most acceptable material for producing such bellows, because it secures their operation under the conditions of high temperature and pressure, corrosive media and vibration.
A method is known for producing a multilayer thin-walled bellows of stainless steel, including manufacturing round billets by their multiple drawing through matrices using punches with a diameter variation, packing the round billets of given diameter into a multilayer bank, its corrugation into a bellows with subsequent operations of surface deforming and heat treatment--subrecrystallization annealing at a temperature of 680.+-.10.degree. C. (the USSR Inventor's Certificate N.sup.o 1292870, B21D15/00, 1987).
The operation of drawing each billet before packing into the bank allows to increase wall strength, and the heat treatment after the corrugation allows relieving of residual stress in the metal. However, the billet drawing is a rather labour consuming operation. It reduces abruptly the steel ductility and worsens its structure. This fact may cause the appearance of cracks in the bellows during the corrugation, and thus decrease its serviceability under the extreme operating conditions. Besides, the absence of tightness test for external and internal bellows layers after the corrugation may lead to its destruction during the operation.
Another method is known also for producing a multilayer thin-walled bellows of stainless steel, that includes producing thin round billets, rolled up of the sheets and lap or butt welded, their corrugating using a press with a bellows forming and its tightness test by immersing into the water (K. N. Burtsev "Metal Bellows", Mashgiz, 1963, pp. 8-11).
The above described method is less labour consuming as compared with the previous one and allows to keep the chemical composition and the structure of the initial material during the production process. However, the round billet corrugation just after their manufacturing by welding the sheets may cause the formation of cracks both in the welds and in the steel because of their low ductility and strength. Besides, the bellows tightness testing by immersing into the water is more labour consuming and not easily producible.

Method for producing a multilayer thin-walled bellows of stainless steel

Oykrutoe Aktsioneroe Obschestvo "Nauchno-Proizvodstvennoe Obiedinenie"Energomash Imeni Akademika V. P. Glushkon


A power supply connector adapted to be connected to a power supply and a mating electrical connector comprises a housing, a positive conductive terminal positioned in the housing, and a negative conductive terminal positioned in the housing. The positive conductive terminal is electrically connected to a positive wire of the power supply and a mating positive terminal of the mating electrical connector. The positive conductive terminal is positioned between a first surface of a tongue of the housing and a first inner wall of the housing. The negative conductive terminal is electrically connected to a negative wire of the power supply and a mating negative terminal of the mating electrical connector. The negative conductive terminal is positioned between a second surface of the tongue and a second inner wall of the housing.

Existing high-voltage, for example higher than 110V, AC power systems often require centralized power supply to a plurality of layers of subsystems, especially large-sized or high-power power supply systems such as for Open Computer Projects (OCP). One approach is to connect a power supply in a cabinet using a busbar, such as a thick copper plate, which in turn powers the plurality of layers of subsystems through a plurality of power supply connectors, such as busbar clips.
Because the busbar is usually one piece of thick copper plate, the power supply connectors or busbar clips of the subsystems connected to the busbar need to be connected in a same line to the busbar along the copper plate. Thereby, the whole system is inflexible and requires the surface of the busbar to be smooth, leading to high production costs.


A disc chucking apparatus for seating a disc on a turntable in the rotatable state and a disc player having such a disc chucking apparatus is provided. The disc chucking apparatus includes a chuck bracket having a clamper for clamping a disc to a turntable; and a lifting/lowering unit for lifting or lowering the chuck bracket to move the disc to a clamping position where the disc is seated on the turntable in the rotatable state or to a clamping standby position where the disc is separated from the turntable. The lifting/lowering unit includes: a first protrusion part formed at one of first and second ends of the chuck bracket; and a first slider having a first guide slot part formed to be opposite to the first protrusion part so that the first guide slot part receives and guides the first protrusion part to lift or lower the chuck bracket, wherein the first slider is mounted to be capable of reciprocating in the disc loading direction and selectively connected to a power transmission unit, which transmits power from a driving motor, depending on its moving position, thereby being reciprocated. According to the present invention, because the chuck bracket for fixing a clamper for clamping a disc is directly driven by the first slider which is selectively connected to a power transmission unit and reciprocated without intervention of a separate power transmission member such as a subordinate chassis, power transmission to the chuck bracket is smooth and the operation of the chuck can be smoothly executed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc player for recording information into and/or reproducing recorded information from a disc such as a compact disc (CD), a CD-ROM, a digital video disc (DVD), and a DVD-ROM. More particularly, the present invention relates to a disc chucking apparatus for seating a disc on a turntable in a rotatable state and a disc player having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a disc player includes a disc loading system for loading a disc to a position for recording information into and/or reproducing recorded information from the disc. The disc loading system loads a disc inserted into the disc player from the front direction thereof to a chucking position on a turntable and then seats the disc on the turntable using a disc chucking apparatus. After the disc has been seated on the turntable, the disc player may record information into or reproduce recorded information from the disc as an optical pickup moves in a radial direction of the disc while the disc is rotating on the turntable.
FIGS. 1 to 3 show a conventional car disc player.
The disc player has a disc chucking apparatus 80 for chucking a first disc 1 having a size of 120 mm or a second disc 2 having a size of 80 mm onto a turntable 95.
The disc chucking apparatus 80 includes a chuck bracket 81 mounted on a main chassis 10 that is pivotal up and down by a hinge axle 86, a subordinate chassis 60 for pivoting the chuck bracket 81 up and down, and a slider 30 for moving the subordinate chassis 60 in the B1 and B2 directions (see FIGS. 2 and 5).
The front end of the chuck bracket 81 located opposite to the hinge axle 86 is provided with a clamper 90 for clamping the first or second disc 1 or 2 to the turntable 95 and the rear end thereof is formed with a first vertical surface 82 by bending. The first vertical surface 82 has a protrusion pin 83 projected toward the subordinate chassis 60.
The subordinate chassis 60 has a second vertical surface 67 formed by bending that is opposite to the first vertical surface 82 of the chuck bracket 81. As shown in FIG. 2, the second vertical surface 67 has a guide slot 68 for receiving and guiding the protrusion pin 83.
A cam slit 61 is formed on one side of the subordinate chassis 60 adjacent to the slider 30.
The rear end of the slider 30 is formed with a cam lug 33 that is inserted into the cam slit 61 of the subordinate chassis 60. The cam slit 61 is guided as the cam lug 33 moves in the A1 and A2 directions, thereby moving the subordinate chassis 60 in the B1 and B2 directions.
Now, the disc loading operation of the disc player configured as described above is described.
As shown in FIG. 1, if a disc, e.g., a first disc 1 having a size of 120 mm is inserted into a housing 50 in the loading direction, i.e., in the A1 direction, a controller (not shown) drives a driving motor 21 (see FIG. 3) on the basis of a signal from a disc detection sensor (not shown) for detecting the entry of the first disc 1. As a result, the first disc 1 is drawn into the housing 50 by a transfer roller 11, wherein the transfer roller 11 receives power from the driving motor 21 through a plurality of connection gears 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.
Thereafter, if the first disc 1 pushes first and second guide rollers 43, 44 of the first and second pivot plates 41, 42, the first and second pivot plates 41, 42 pivot in the C and D directions. Consequently, a contact part 47 of the second pivot plate 42 pushes one end 49 of a first pushing lever 48. Then, while the first pushing lever 48 is rotating in the C direction, the other end 51 of the first pushing lever 48 pushes the slider 30 for a predetermined distance in the A2 direction.
Thereby, a rack gear 31 is connected to a driving gear 32 which receives power of the of the driving motor 21 transmitted through the plurality of connection gears 22, 23, 33, 34 as shown in FIG. 3, with the result that the power of the driving gear 32 is transmitted to the rack gear 31 and the slider 30 is continuously moved in the A2 direction. As the slider 30 moves, the cam slit 61 of the subordinate chassis 60 is guided by the movement of the cam lug 33 of the slider 30 and the subordinate chassis 60 is moved in the B1 direction, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
If the subordinate chassis 60 moves in the B1 direction as mentioned above, the guide slot 68 in the second vertical surface 67 of the subordinate chassis 60 also moves in the B1 direction as shown in FIG. 5. As a result, the protrusion pin 83 of the first vertical surface 82 is guided and lowered by the guide slot 68. As the protrusion pin 83 is lowered, the chuck bracket 81 pivots counterclockwise about the hinge axle 86 thereby being lowered, and the clamper 90 installed at the front end of the chuck bracket 81 rotatably clamps the first disc 1 to the turntable 95.
The first disc 1 clamped as described above is unloaded as follows.
At first, the driving motor 21 is reversely rotated to return the slider 30 in the A1 direction. Then, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the subordinate chassis 60 is also returned to its original position by moving in the B2 direction. Then, the disc chucking apparatus 80 is operated in a reversed sequence with reference to the first disc loading operation, and the first disc 1 is released from the clamper 90 and discharged out of the housing 50 by the transfer roller 11.
However, the conventional car disc player configured as described above has a problem in that the operating connection from the slider 30 to the chuck bracket 81 is not smooth because the disc chucking apparatus 80 employs a complicated operating construction in which the subordinate chassis 60 is moved in the B1 and B2 directions by the movement of slider 30 in the A1 and A2 directions and the disc chucking apparatus 80 is in turn pivoted up and down by the subordinate chassis 60.
If the operating connection from the slider 30 to the chuck bracket 81 is not smooth the slider 30, the subordinate chassis 60 and the chassis 81 may adhere to one another without being moved, thereby causing malfunction.
In order to solve this problem, an additional sliding roller (not shown) is provided or lubricant is additionally supplied between the subordinate chassis 60 and the main chassis 10 which supports the subordinate chassis 60, with the result that additional components or processes are required, thereby increasing the manufacturing costs.
In addition, because the conventional car disc player has a construction in which the chuck bracket 81 anchoring the clamper 90 for clamping a disc is pivoted up and down by the hinge axle 86, the operating space of the chuck bracket 81 is larger than the actual height for lifting and lowering the clamper 90, with the result that the entire thickness of the disc player is increased.

Disc chucking apparatus and disc player having the same


A toner composition for an electrophotography image forming apparatus includes toner particles and external additives. The toner particles include a colorant, a charge control agent and a release agent with binder resins. The external additives include a first silica having an opposite polarity to the toner particles, a second silica having the same polarity as the toner particles, a sodium titanate having the same polarity as the toner particles, and an aluminum oxide having the same polarity as the toner particles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner composition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a toner composition containing an external additive and used in an electrophotography image forming apparatus such that a stable charge and a stable charge distribution are retained in spite of environmental variation and periodic variation due to a long use of image printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an electrophotography image forming apparatus, there are, for example, a facsimile, a laser beam or light emitting diode (LED) printer, a laser beam copier, a variety of electrophotography output apparatuses and the like. Such an electrophotography image forming apparatus includes a dry type electrophotography image forming apparatus using a dry toner and a wet type electrophotography image forming apparatus using a wet toner. The present invention mainly relates to a dry type electrophotography image forming apparatus, although it is not strictly limited thereto.
A dry toner generally includes a binder resin which contains a colorant, a charge control agent, and other additives. The additives may be classified into internal additives added to an inside of the toner particle and external additives added to a surface of the toner particle, and are generally added to enhance the functionality of the toner.
The colorants may be classified into dye type colorants and pigment type colorants. The pigment type colorants are generally used because they are advantageous with respect to thermal stability and resistance against light compared with the dye type colorants.
The charge control agents are added to control a charge of the toner particle. The charge control agents are added differently depending on the charge type, i.e., positive (+) or negative (−) type of the toner particles.
Among the functional additives added to the toner, the release agent is utilized to enhance the release property. The release agent enhances the release property between the roller and the toner when a toner image is transferred onto and fixed on a record medium, thus preventing toner offset and also preventing the record medium from adhering to the roller due to the toner and generating a jamming phenomenon.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a dry type electrophotography image forming apparatus. In particular, FIG. 1 illustrates a dry type electrophotography image forming apparatus using a non-contact developing method. Referring to FIG. 1, after a photosensitive body 100 is charged using a charge unit 600, an image is exposed using a laser scanning unit 900 to form a latent image on the photosensitive body 100. Toner 400 is fed to a developing roller 200 by a supply roller 300. The toner fed to the developing roller 200 forms a thin and uniform toner layer on a surface of the developing roller 200 by a toner layer control unit 500, and at the same time, is contacted by both the developing roller 200 and the toner layer control unit 500. The toner that has passed through a member of the toner layer control unit 500 is developed in the form of a latent image formed on the photosensitive body 100. The developed toner is transferred onto a record medium by a transfer roller (not shown) and is then fused by a fusing unit (not shown). After the transfer of the toner, the toner remaining on the photosensitive body 100 is cleaned off the photosensitive body 100 by a cleaning blade 700. The cleaned off toner 800 is collected in a bin near the cleaning blade 700.
In such a dry type electrophotography image formation, the toner has fine particles which are a few micrometers in size, and is used to form a print image on a record medium. A charge property and flow properties of the toner are highly significant factors controlling quality of the print image. The print image is required to maintain stable quality even after an extended time has elapsed as well as in an initial printing. Also, it is required that the variation in the print image quality be minimized under a condition of an environmental variation. To satisfy the requirements specified above, the toner may include a variety of internal or external additives. By using such internal or external additives, it is possible to control the charge properties and the flow properties of the toner. However, the external additives, which are added for the purposes such as stabilization of a toner charge, prevention of a fog, and enhancement of a development efficiency, have a limitation in improving the image quality. In other words, the external additives have a disadvantage in that a large variation in the toner charge characteristic is generated by an environmental variation. For example, overcharge is easily generated under a low temperature and a low humidity environment. Fog, toner dispersion or the like is generated in a non-image region due to a lowering of charge under a high temperature and a high humidity environment. Also, in an initial stage of the printing, the external additives have a uniform charge and charge distribution, but when external additives are left without any management, the charge is lowered remarkably. Further, when images are printed for a long time, charge is reduced, charge distribution is non-uniform, image concentration is lowered, and fog and toner dispersion are caused.
In particular, to provide the toner with a uniform charge property, it is necessary to form a thin toner layer on the developing roller. However, when a thin toner layer is formed, the toner degenerates due to toner stress, or the development efficiency is abruptly lowered, so that image concentration may be easily decreased. Also, when the toner charge is lowered to improve the decreased development, the fog may be increased or contamination may be caused due to the toner dispersion.

Toner composition for electrophotography image forming apparatus


Structures for an optical power splitter and methods of forming a structure for an optical power splitter. The structure includes a first waveguide core having a first arm, a second waveguide core including a second arm, and a third waveguide core having a third arm laterally positioned between the first arm and the second arm. The third arm has a longitudinal axis. The first arm is longitudinally offset from the third arm parallel to the longitudinal axis such that the third arm and the first arm are laterally adjacent over a first overlap distance. The second arm is longitudinally offset from the third arm parallel to the longitudinal axis such that the third arm and the second arm are laterally adjacent over a second overlap distance. The first overlap distance is greater than the second overlap distance to provide an overlap offset.

The present invention relates to photonics chips and, more specifically, to structures for an optical power splitter and methods of forming a structure for an optical power splitter.
Photonics chips are used in many applications and systems, such as data communication systems and data computation systems. A photonics chip integrates optical components, such as waveguides, optical switches, optical power splitters, and directional couplers, and electronic components, such as field-effect transistors, into a unified platform. Among other factors, layout area, cost, and operational overhead may be reduced by the integration of both types of components on the same chip.
An optical power splitter is an optical component that is used in photonics chips to divide optical power between multiple output waveguides. The same structure may be used as an optical power combiner that combines optical power received from multiple input waveguides. Conventional optical power splitters may be intolerant to dimensional inaccuracies produced by fabrication variations. The result is variability in the splitting ratio among different fabricated instances of the optical power splitter, which may lead to unpredictable performance.
Improved structures for an optical power splitter and methods of forming a structure for an optical power splitter are needed.

Optical power splitters with a tailored splitting ratio


An image projection device which can correctly discern content of touch operation when a user performs various kinds of touch operation on an image projected on a projection screen is provided. An imaging unit is adjusted to come into focus on the projection screen. An image data extracting unit extracts image data in which a finger or the like exists and in which the finger or the like is brought into focus in image data obtained by the imaging unit. An operation determining unit determines content of operation performed with the finger or the like, on the basis of the image data extracted by the image data extracting unit. An input control unit recognizes content of an input instruction corresponding to the operation performed with the finger or the like, on the basis of data relating to the content of the operation performed with the finger or the like, position data of the finger or the like, and reference data for specifying a position and a size of the image projected on the projection screen, and controls a projection unit in accordance with the recognized content of the input instruction.

Currently, various techniques for detecting touch operation when a user performs the touch operation on an image projected on a projection screen are proposed regarding a projector (see, for example, Patent document 1. Further, see Background Art described in Patent document 1.) In the technique disclosed in Patent document 1, a projected image on a projection screen is photographed with a camera provided in the vicinity of a projector, a difference between an original image of the projected image projected from the projector and the photographed image from the camera is evaluated, an area ratio between a region of shadow of the finger and a region of the finger in a touch region on the photographed image corresponding to a touch region on the projected image is obtained, and, when the area ratio becomes less than a predetermined value, it is determined that the hand has touched the touch region.


MENTH-1-EN-9-OL kills bacteria, yeasts, and fungi by lysing the cell membrane of the organism.

(1) Field of the invention
During the study of limonene as a hand cleaner, it was found that fully oxygenated limonene can be made bactericidal and fungicidal as was illustrated by the applicants in U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,229. A review of the literature revealed that oxygenated limonene contains several oxidation products including cis and trans-carveol, trans-p-menth-8-ene-1,2-diol, limonene 1,2-epoxide, limonene 8,9-epoxide, cis and trans-p-mentha-2,8-dien-1-ol, and perillyl alcohol, as was outlined by Blumann in Chemical Abstracts, Volume 63, 1965, on page 1819. Because limonene is not bactericidal and because the chemical structures of limonene and perillyl alcohol are identical except for a hydroxyl group replacing a hydrogen atom at carbon 7, the applicants were surprised to find that perillyl alcohol is bactericidal as was shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,832. A review of the terpenes showed that all the monocyclic monoterpenes that are known to be antimicrobial have an oxygen molecule or hydroxyl group replacing a hydrogen atom at carbons 2, 3, 4, or 8. Prior to the discovery that perillyl alcohol is a bactericide, no monocyclic monoterpene with an oxygen or a hydroxyl group at carbon 7, 9 or 10 was recognized as an antimicrobial compound. After the discovery that perillyl alcohol is a bactericide, the applicants decided to study menth-1-en-9-ol (which has a hydroxyl group at carbon 9) for antimicrobial activity and were pleasantly surprised to find that menth-1-en-9-ol kills bacteria, yeast, and fungi in bactericidal and fungicidal concentrations. The chemical structures of limonene and menth-1-en-9-ol follow below. ##STR1##
Because limonene is not bactericidal and because the chemical structures of limonene and menth-1-en-9-ol are identical except for a hydroxyl group replacing a hydrogen atom at carbon 9, menth-1-en-9-ol was not expected to be bactericidal. It should be noted in the structures of the monocyclic monoterpenes that follow, that none of the monocyclic monoterpenes that are known to be bactericidal, have an oxygen atom or a hydroxyl group at carbon 9 or 10 as can be appreciated in the structures of: perillyl alcohol, carveol, carvone, hydrocarveol, hydrocarvone, pulegone, isopulegol, menthol, menthone, terpinen-4-ol, and a-terpineol which follow. ##STR2##
Because it was not expected, the applicants were surprised to find that menth-1-en-9-ol is bactericidal and fungicidal.
Menth-1-en-9-ol is an oil with a fruity aroma. It is insoluble in water, is poorly soluble in propylene glycol, and is almost insoluble in glycerine. Menth-1-en-9-ol is soluble in alcohol and is miscible in oil. It is a naturally occurring oil, but heretofore, it has not been used as a bactericide and fungicide.
As described by Khanna, Vijay and Ladwa, P. H. in the Indian Journal of Chemistry, Section B 1987, 26B (9), 816-822, menth-1-en-9-ol can be produced by the hydroboration - oxidation of carvone.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Zuckerman studied the effect of auto-oxidized d-limonene on bacteria, but found it was weakly bacteriostatic, was unstable, and lost its bacteriostatic effect on keeping as was discussed in Nature 168: 517 (1961). He never studied menth-1-en-9-ol. Kurita investigated the fungicidal activity of several components of essential oils as was reported in Biol. Chem.,45(4), 945-952, 1981, but he never studied the bactericidal nor fungicidal activity of menth-1-en-9-ol against bacteria, yeast nor fungi. Murdock and Allen showed that the germicidal effect of sodium benzoate against yeast was enhanced by orange peel oil and d-limonene, as was outlined in Food Technology Vol 14, No 9, 1960, pages 441-5. They never studied the activity of menth-1-en-9-ol against bacteria, yeast nor fungi. Kellner et al demonstrated that ethereal oils and some of the compounds in the oils have anti-bacterial activity as was reported in Arneimittel-Forechung, 5, 224-9, 1955. He confirmed that limonene is not bactericidal. He never studied menth-1-en-9-ol for bactericidal nor fungicidal activity. Gauvreau showed a means of producing disinfecting compositions in U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,975 by combining cetyl pyridinium with terpenes to form antiseptics, but he never studied menth-1-en-9-ol alone nor in combination with cetyl pyridinium hydrochloride. A. Morel revealed the sterilizing action of carveol, dihydrocarveol, and their ozonization products in Comp. Rend. Soc. Biol. Volume 115, pages 536-8 (1934). He demonstrated the bactericidal effect of carveol and dihydrocarveol, but he never studied the bactericidal nor fungicidal activity of menth-1-en-9-ol.
It should be pointed out that drugs which are bactericidal are usually not fungicidal, and drugs which are fungicidal are usually not bactericidal. In addition, drugs which are bactericidal frequently promote the growth of yeast. Table A, which follows, exemplifies the bactericidal and fungicidal activity of several commonly used antibacterial, antiyeast, and antifungal antibiotics.
TABLE A ______________________________________ ANTIBIOTIC ACTIVITY AGAINST Gm.sup.+ Gm.sup.- ANTIBIOTICS Bac Bac AFBact Yeast Fungi ______________________________________ A. ANTIBACTERIAL 1. Ampicillin YES YES NO NO NO 2. Cephlothin YES YES NO NO NO 3. Chloram- YES YES NO NO NO phenicol 4. Erythromycin YES NO NO NO NO 5. Ethambutol NO NO YES NO NO 6. Gentamicin YES YES NO NO NO 7. Isoniazid NO NO YES NO NO 8. Nitro- NO YES NO NO NO furantoin 9. Penicillin YES NO NO NO NO 10. Rifampin YES NO YES NO NO 11. Streptomycin YES YES YES NO NO 12. Sulfonamides NO YES NO NO NO 13. Tetracycline YES YES NO NO NO 14. Vancomycin YES YES NO NO NO B. ANTIYEAST 1. Nystatin NO NO NO YES NO 2. Gentian NO NO NO YES NO violet C. ANTIFUNGAL 1. Chlotri- NO NO NO YES YES mazole 2. Griseofulvin NO NO NO NO YES ______________________________________ Gm.sup.+ Bac = Gram Positive Bacteria, Gm.sup.- Bac = Gram Negative Bacteria, AFBac = Acid Fast Bacteria, YES = Kills Organism, NO = No Activity Against Organism
It should be noted from the table above that none of the anti-bacterial antibiotics kill yeast nor fungi, and none of the anti-yeast nor anti-fungal antibiotics kill bacteria. Thus, an anti-fungal or anti-yeast antibiotic is not expected to kill bacteria and an anti-bacterial antibiotic is not expected to kill yeast nor fungi. Anti-fungal antibiotics do not necessarily kill yeast and anti-yeast antibiotics do not necessarily kill fungi.

Using menth-1-en-9-ol to kill bacteria, yeast, and fungi