Provided is a process for manufacturing 2D inorganic compound platelets, the process comprising (a) preparing a first stock containing a 3D layered inorganic compound material dispersed in a liquid medium, (h) injecting the first stock into a continuous reactor having a vortex flow, (c) operating the continuous reactor to form a reaction product suspension containing 2D inorganic compound platelets dispersed in the liquid medium, and (d) separating and recovering said 2D inorganic compound platelets from said product suspension. The product suspension may be directed to flow back to the continuous director for further processing for at least another pass through the reactor, prior to step (d). The continuous reactor is preferably a Couette-Taylor reactor.

Several layered inorganic materials can be reduced in thickness down to monolayers and their properties (e.g. typically non-conducting) are complementary to those of graphene (e.g. electrically conducting). Just like graphene from graphite, 2D inorganic material platelets, each comprising 1-10 layers of formula unit planes, can be produced by exfoliating and separating a bulk (3D) layered inorganic material. For examples, transition metal oxides (TMOs) and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have a layered structure. Atoms within each layer are held together by covalent bonds, while van der Waals forces hold the layers together. Layered materials (LMs) include a large number of systems with interesting properties. For instance, NiTe2 and VSe2 are semi-metals; WS2, WSe2, MoS2, MoSe2, MoTe2, TaS2, RhTe2, PdTe2 are semiconductors; h-BN (hexagonal BN), and HfS2 are insulators; NbS2, NbSe2, NbTe2, and TaSe2 are superconductors; and Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3 show thermoelectric properties and may be topological insulators. Due to the weak bonding between the stacked layers, LMs can be used in lubricants. Further, LMs are also used as thermoelectric materials, in batteries, electrochemical, and photovoltaics (PV) cells, light emitting diodes, as ion exchangers, photocatalysts, etc. Similar to graphite and graphene, the properties of the resulting thin platelets are a function of the number of layers stacked together. For instance, although bulk MoS2 has an indirect band gap, a monolayer of MoS2 has a direct band gap that could be exploited for optoelectronics. This underscores the significance of developing the capability or ability to mass-produce ultra-thin 2D inorganic compound platelets having a narrow distribution of thicknesses or a uniform thickness.
Several methods have been proposed for making 2D inorganic material platelets, including mechanical cleavage, laser ablation, liquid phase exfoliation, thin film techniques (sputtering, evaporation, vapor phase epitaxy, liquid phase epitaxy, chemical vapor epitaxy, MBE, ALE, and plasma assisted deposition), electrochemical synthesis, and plasma etching, etc.
However, these processes still suffer from several drawbacks, including relatively low yield, low concentration of isolated mono-layer sheets, and the requirement of using multiple apparatus and/or an excessively large number of procedures. These shortcomings have prevented these processes from being adapted as a large-scale manufacturing process.
An urgent need exists for a production process and apparatus that require a shortened process time, less energy consumption, reduced effluents of undesirable chemical, higher production yield, and reduced number of apparatus and procedures. A strong need also exists for a process and apparatus that are capable of producing 2D inorganic platelets that contain mostly single-layer or few-layer structures (2-10 layers).

Continuous production of 2D inorganic compound platelets


A tooth surface treatment composition includes an acidic component which is at least one water-soluble acid in an aqueous solution, such that when the composition is applied to the tooth surface and not subsequently washed, it will increase the adhesiveness of the tooth structure. A method of treating a tooth structure includes contacting the tooth structure with such a composition.

In tooth restoration the bonding strength of restorative dental materials to tooth structure including enamel and dentin, is of great importance. Insufficient bonding strength can cause loss of the restoration or formation of marginal gaps generating recurrent caries.
To achieve sufficient bonding strength, a tooth surface treatment is normally required. Phosphoric acid in concentrations of about 36% is widely used as demineralizes enamel prisms, thus promoting a mechanical anchor effect for the resin.
Using phosphoric acid as an etchant, sufficient bonding strength can be reached in combination with a suitable dental adhesive composition. However, the use of phosphoric acid has disadvantages from a use and application point of view. Most notably, it must be washed off after application, requiring the time-consuming procedure of application, washing and drying. Also, as it is completely removed after etching, it does not have any priming effect on the tooth surface.
A need exists therefore, for a material which will cleanse and condition a tooth structure and which does not need to be washed off of the structure before a dental restorative is applied. A need also exists for such a material which will not only cleanse and condition the tooth structure, but which will also prime it to receive the restorative. A further need is to provide this tooth surface treatment composition as a single component.

Tooth surface treatment composition and methods


A color management system for use with projection displays includes an image assimilator and an analyzer. The image assimilator comprises a panel that produces a light beam comprising spatial information. The image assimilator also comprises a field lens positioned to receive the light beam and configured to emit a converging light beam whose cross-sectional area decreases with distance from the field lens. In an exemplary embodiment, a plurality of image assimilators and associated analyzers are included, each having a field lens for emitting a converging light beam. The analyzers are configured for producing filtered light outputs with improved contrast relative to the converging light beams. In addition, the converging nature of the field lens emitted light beams enables the size of the analyzers and other downstream components to be minimized. Accordingly, this embodiment produces images having dramatically improved levels of contrast with reduced size relative to prior art systems.

In conjunction with a projection display, it is desirable to employ a color management system, and it is further desirable that such color management system facilitate the production of a high contrast image while accommodating a relatively high level of illuminating flux and providing for efficient packaging. Unfortunately, currently existing color management systems are capable of achieving increased contrast at practical levels of illuminating flux only by employing highly specialized materials, resulting in unreasonable increases in cost.
A color management system typically functions by first separating input light (e.g., white light) into a plurality of color channels traversing the visible spectrum (e.g. red, green and blue), then using the separate color channels to illuminate a plurality of corresponding microdisplays (e.g., LCoS microdisplays) and recombining the color channels to produce an output light (e.g., white light). Where it is desired to project an image in conjunction with the output light beam, spatial information may be superimposed into each of the color channels by the microdisplays prior to recombination. As a result, a full color image may be projected in conjunction with the output light beam. As used herein, the terms "microdisplay," "panel," "display," "display panel," and "light valve" refer to a mechanism configured for receiving an incipient light beam, imparting spatial information in the light beam, and emitting a modified light beam comprising the incipient light beam and the spatial information. An example of such a microdisplay is model number DILA SX-070 manufactured by the JVC company of Japan.
It should be noted that a microdisplay may be configured as a substantially reflective display panel or as a substantially transmissive display panel. A substantially reflective display panel is configured to emit a modified light beam toward a direction that is substantially toward the direction from which the incipient light beam came (i.e., to retroreflect). A substantially transmissive display panel is configured to emit a modified light beam toward a direction that is substantially similar to the direction in which the incipient light beam travels (i.e., to transmit a modified light beam through the panel). For example, a reflective panel may be configured to receive an incipient light beam traveling in a first direction, to impart spatial information upon the light beam, and to emit a modified light beam toward the direction from where the incipient light beam originated (i.e., reflected 180 degrees from the direction of the incipient light beam). Alternatively a transmissive panel may be configured to receive an incipient light beam, to impart spatial information in the light beam, and to emit a modified light beam in substantially the same direction as that in which the incipient light beam travels.
Prior art color management systems have thus far not sufficiently proven to be able to produce high contrast images at low cost without compromising their ability to maintain reasonable quantities of illuminating flux or to be packaged efficiently. This is due, in part, to image noise caused by optical characteristics that are inherent in all real optical elements. This is also due to the inability of currently existing color management systems to effectively separate and remove such noise from the light beam before it is projected to a display.
For example, many prior art color management systems use solid "cube-type" polarizing beamsplitters for color separation and recombination. These polarizing beamsplitters are otherwise referred to as MacNeille prisms or cube polarizing beamsplitters. "Cube type" polarizing beamsplitters are inherently susceptible to thermal gradients that typically arise at high flux levels, often causing stress birefringence which results in depolarization of the light and a loss of contrast. As a result, where high contrast images are desired, it has been necessary to use costly high-index, low-birefringence glass. Although this solution has proven effective to reduce birefringence at low levels of flux, it is expensive and exhibits reduced effectiveness at eliminating or reducing thermally induced birefringence at high flux levels (e.g., greater than approximately 500 lumens).
For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art color management system 110, commonly known as the ColorQuad™ from Colorlink, in which four cube polarizing beamsplitters and five color selective retardation elements are used to provide color separation and recombination. In accordance with this system, the input cubic polarizing beamsplitter receives an input light beam 120 and separates it into three components, a green component 121, a blue component 122, and a red component 123. The red component 123 receives spatial information from a reflective red panel 133; the blue component 122 receives spatial information from a reflective blue panel 132; and the green component 121 receives spatial information from a reflective green panel 131. Finally, the output cubic polarizing beamsplitter recombines the red component 123 and blue component 122 with green component 121 to form a full color image 140, which may be received by a projection lens or other optical elements depending on the purpose of the system.
It should be noted that at high levels of light flux, cubic polarizing beamsplitter 110 typically becomes thermally loaded and necessarily distorts physically, causing stress birefringence, which often results in depolarization of the light and a decrease in contrast. Further, in addition to receiving spatial information from the red, green and blue panels in the cubic polarizing beamsplitter 110, the red, green, and blue light components also typically receive undesirable spatial information as a result of birefringence in the materials of the optical components in the red, green, and blue light paths. This undesirable spatial information tends to further decrease the contrast of the image.
In an attempt to reduce the adverse effects of the use of cube polarizing beamsplitters, various attempts have been made to implement plate polarizing beamsplitters in place of cube configurations in color management systems. However, these attempts have often given rise to other optical aberrations associated with the plate polarizing beamsplitters, such as astigmatism. Thus, it is well understood that most if not all optical elements used in today's color management systems contribute noise to, and/or otherwise corrupt, any light beam passing through, or affected by, the optical element. It should be noted that, as used herein, the terms "noise" and/or "corrupt[ion of a] light beam" refer to optical effects associated with, and/or comprising, for example, scatter, polarization rotation (e.g., non-homogenously polarized light emitted from a polarizing beamsplitter that may comprise components having undesirably rotated polarization orientations), material birefringence, and or other undesirable characteristics associated with geometries and or coatings of optical elements, and the like.
Accordingly, many color management systems also include optical filters, such as analyzers or polarizers that are configured to attempt to eliminate most or all of such noise from the light beam so that a substantial portion of the contrast of the image might be restored. These filters may attempt to eliminate such noise, for example, by separating light according to its polarization. This is made possible by the fact that the desirable light components of the light beam may be oriented with a first polarization while the noise may be oriented differently or otherwise not substantially polarized.
Unfortunately, however, as a light beam passes through, or is affected by, an optical element, the polarization of the light tends to be disturbed. Thus, a portion of the noise often becomes indistinguishable, on the basis of polarization at least, from the light that comprises the desirable image. Accordingly, the opportunity to fully and effectively eliminate noise from the light beam on the basis of polarization diminishes as the tainted light beam passes through, or is affected by, each successive optical element. Nevertheless, in prior art systems, the additional light constituents are not removed until after the corrupted light beam has passed through, or has been affected by, additional optical elements, such as a light recombiner, a prism, and/or the like.
In addition to these and other difficulties, prior art systems are often susceptible to the effects of stray light which may undesirably reach the optical components and inadvertently be combined with, or otherwise corrupt, the desirable image imparted by the panels onto the modified light beam. For example in many prior art systems, wherein the output light beam is transmitted to a projection lens or another optical component, a portion of such light may unfortunately be reflected by the component and transmitted back (i.e., retroreflected) toward and received by other system components. The reflected light, then, may be undesirably recombined with the desirable light to produce a composite light beam containing both the desirable image and, for example, a ghost of the desirable image. Accordingly, the combined ghost-bearing image may be undesirably transmitted to the display.
In addition, prior art color management systems employing transmissive panels frequently encounter extreme thermal conditions in the optical components that are positioned downstream of the transmissive panel. This common problem is caused by the need for waste light to be rejected from the modified light beam, and may occur where the panel fails to perform the elimination of such waste light. Such situations, unfortunately, are much more common with transmissive panels than with reflective panels. More particularly, in typical color management systems, the incipient light beam which is received by a panel bears a fixed intensity or brightness. The panel, then, after receiving the incipient light beam, imparts spatial information on (i.e., modifies) the light beam by modulating the intensity of light at each of a large number of discrete locations (e.g., pixels). Typically, reflective panel systems accomplish this by reflecting (i.e., emit) only the light comprising the desirable image, by absorbing the waste light and emitting the generated heat. Transmissive panels, on the other hand, typically transmit substantially all of the incipient light they receive, but impart spatial information by spatially modifying selected properties (e.g., polarization) of the light beam. Accordingly, systems employing transmissive panels frequently must rely upon a downstream optical component to reject the waste light (and heat) based on the spatially modified properties (e.g., polarization). Accordingly, as the waste light is rejected, heat is generated. The requirement that a particular component be configured to accommodate rejection of large quantities of light often imposes difficult design constraints on those optical components.
It has also been frequently noted that it is typically desirable to decrease the sizes of the optical components comprising color management system so as to reduce the overall size of color management systems and also to minimize difficulties and costs associated with large optical components. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to be able to have a system and method providing a color management system with decreased size in terms of optical components and complete color management systems.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a color management system that could be used in high flux projection systems while simultaneously functioning in a wide range of thermal environments with reduced birefringence sensitivity and improved durability while producing a high-contrast image. It would further be advantageous to have a color management system that could achieve these objectives without requiring costly, high index, low birefringence glass or a particular susceptibility to optical aberrations produced by polarizing beamsplitters in plate configurations. It would further be advantageous to have a color management system that could achieve these objectives while eliminating or reducing ghosts or other undesirable images caused by stray light. It would further be advantageous to have a color management system that could achieve these objectives in transmissive panel systems while relieving the extreme temperature environment difficulties associated with such transmissive panels.

Image display device having a field lens


Embodiments herein include a printing or copying device that includes a media transport belt and a vacuum manifold. The vacuum manifold has an air intake positioned adjacent the media transport belt and has a vacuum blower or other air moving device that forces air out an air outlet of the manifold. The vacuum blower forces air from the vacuum manifold through the air outlet to create vacuum within the manifold. The vacuum manifold also includes transport belt openings that are sized, shaped, and positioned to allow the transport belt to pass into the vacuum manifold. The media transport belt is positioned partially within, and partially outside the vacuum manifold, such that the media transport belt is positioned to move through (within) the vacuum manifold from a first transport belt opening to a second transport belt opening.

Embodiments herein generally relate to electrostatographic printers and copiers or reproduction machines, and more particularly, concerns a vacuum manifold that includes transport belt openings that are sized, shaped, and positioned to allow the transport belt to pass through the vacuum manifold.
One condition that can occur within devices that utilize belts to transport items, such as sheets of media, is that the belts can be undesirably heated by adjacent objects, such as fuser assemblies and other similar heat generating devices. When the media transport belts within printers and copiers become excessively hot, the transport belt can melt or disturb the image (especially duplex images) on the media being transported by the belt. Belts within printers (such as transfer or transport belts) can be cooled using thermally cooled rollers (for example U.S. Patent Publication Numbers 2002/0176723 and 2004/0265025) the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
For example, U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0265025 explains that vacuum sheet transports can be desirable for certain paper paths of various xerographic printers and other sheet transporting applications, especially in high speed printers. For example, for providing the upstream and/or downstream sheet transports of the print media sheets to and from a thermal fuser in which xerographic toner images on the print media are fused onto the printed sheets. These sheet transports are typically known vacuum belt transports with spaced and/or apertured belts. However, it has been discovered that such sheet transports, especially when heated by thermal emissions from other components of the printer, such as the fuser, can impart visible defects in areas of the printed images in some cases.
Conventional systems also utilize vacuum manifolds to clean debris from belts within photocopiers and printers. For example, U.S. Patent Publication 2006/0104678 (the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference) discloses a vacuum manifold containing internal rotating brushes that are used to clean transfer belts in photocopiers.


A high-speed counter capable of counting the number of randomly incoming pulses is constructed by serially connecting a plurality of toggle flip-flop circuits, each of which is activated by input pulses and constructed from an rf-SQUID and the quantum flux parametron, whereby a high-speed computer or a high-speed measurement apparatus can be realised by the use of the high-speed counter.

This invention relates to a superconducting switching circuit which operates at very low temperatures, more particularly to a counter circuit using a quantum flux parametron (hereinafter "QFP") which is a parametron type switching circuit using Josephson junctions and which is described in Harada, Y. et al., "Basic Operations of the Quantum Flux Parametron", IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, vol. MAG-23, No. 5, September 1987, pp. 3801-3807.
The QFP is a switching circuit based on a new operation concept, using a dc magnetic flux quantum as a signal medium. The QFP is very adequate for a high speed digital circuit element because it operates at a high speed and dissipates little power.
A flip-flop circuit using the QFP has been disclosed in the proceedings for the 1984 Josephson Symposium of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, page 99. The flip-flop circuit comprises a combination of an rf-SQUID and the QFP, the rf-SQUID holds data and the QFP reads out the data from the rf-SQUID. Counters play an important role in the logic elements for digital circuits. Especially, a high speed counter capable of counting the number of pulses at a high speed can be used in many applications, that is, not only in computers but also in analog-digital converters. In principle, the counter circuit can be constructed from a flip-flop circuit and a combinational logic circuit. According to this principle, the counter circuit can be constructed by the use of the QFPs, namely, the counter circuit is constructed from the flip-flop circuit and a combinational logic circuit comprising multiple QFPs. However, since the QFP is a circuit excited by a poly-phase ac current, if the counter circuit is constructed using only AC activated QFPs, some problems arise as described below.
1. Since the combinational logic circuit and the flip-flop circuit operate simultaneously with a poly-phase ac current, the ac exciting signal needs to be a high-frequency signal and the phase delay of the exciting signal should be precisely controlled to operate the circuits at a high speed. PA1 2. Since input pulses are counted simultaneously with the high-frequency ac exciting current, randomly incoming pulses can not be counted.

Superconducting toggle flip-flop circuit and counter circuit

Research Development Corporation of Japan


A power supply system for liquid crystal monitors includes a first DC/AC converter (FBS, HBS) operating at predetermined frequency and duty-cycles and being fed by a second DC/DC converter (FC) which regulates the circuit voltage. The feeding system can feed all the fluorescent lamps (L, L1, LN) in the monitor through a bus connection which transmits the output sinusoidal voltage (SG1, SG2, SG3) from the first DC/AC converter (FBS, HBS) to the primary windings of a plurality of parallel connected piezoelectric transformers (PT, PT1, PT2, PTN, PT2N) which are connected with the fluorescent lamps (L, L1, LN).

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a power supply system for liquid crystal monitors.
The more and more widespread use of liquid crystal (LCD) screens (monitors) in many applications, e.g. Personal Computers (PCs), measure instruments, bank counter terminals (Bancomat), information terminals in stations, airports, TVs, has rapidly caused the need to display alphanumeric characters and images extremely clearly with any kind of light (either natural or artificial) and, consequently, to generate adequate high intensity light.
(2) Description of Related Art
At present, the use of cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) and/or EEFL lamps is the most widely used solution for such applications.
However, the power supply systems conventionally used for such applications utilize resonant converters which are magnetically coupled with each fluorescent lamp by means of conventional transformers or central tap transformers and these technical solutions require high voltage capacitive elements (ballast circuits) to be series connected with each lamp.

Power supply system for liquid crystal monitors


Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a scanned beam projector comprises a laser diode to emit a beam, a scanning engine to scan the beam on a surface to project an image comprising virtual pixels on the surface, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) coupled to the laser diode to cause the laser diode to emit the beam in response to a digital video signal provided to the DAC, and a pulsed pixel controller to provide the digital video signal to the DAC, the pulsed pixel controller to align the digital video signal provided to the DAC with the virtual pixels of the image, and to select an optimal waveform to be generated by the laser diode for each virtual pixel.

Scanned beam video projectors ideally project a grid of evenly spaced virtual pixels onto a surface. Due to the geometry, optical path distortion, and changing scanner velocity, each virtual pixel is scanned across the surface in a continually changing time period. One challenge of digital scanned beam projection is matching this continually changing time period to the fixed clock period of a digital control system. Another challenge of laser based scanned beam video projectors is that generating a continuous low light power from a laser is far less efficient than generating higher laser powers. It is much more efficient to generate low optical powers by modulating between off and a higher optical power. This modulation can reduce the maximum brightness of the video content.
In the past, scanning laser based video projectors have used constant sample frequency digital-to-analog converters (DACs) to generate laser drive waveforms. To resynchronize these waveforms with the continually changing virtual pixel frequency, digital upsampling and interpolation may be used. Upsampling involves a far higher DAC sample rate which has a high bus transaction power cost. Interpolation may cause a loss of image sharpness particularly for computer generated video content. Modulation of the laser optical power has been tried in two orthogonal ways both using a constant frequency DAC. The first method provides each non-zero DAC sample with the same waveform. This method shows a reduction in laser speckle artifacts and an increase in efficiency but drastically reduces the maximum brightness of the projector. The second method zeroes all but one DAC sample in each pixel period. This method shows an increase in laser efficiency but shows a reduction in brightness and significant video artifacts since the active sample is not locked to the position of each pixel.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and/or clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, if considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding and/or analogous elements.

Scanned beam projector pulsed laser control


A reflection structure configured to be disposed on a light guide body that guides a light beam incident from a light source and causes the light beam to exit from a light emitting area set in a light exit surface, having a reflection surface that reflects the light beam emitted from the light source toward the light emitting area. When the reflection structure is viewed from a direction perpendicular to the light exit surface, a pointed end is arranged in a direction orthogonal to a traveling direction of the reflected light beam, and an angle formed between the traveling direction of the reflected light beam and a normal direction of an end edge of the reflection surface connected to the pointed end is less than or equal to −38.327x2+152.3x−94.014, wherein x is a refractive index of the light guide body.

Field
The present invention relates to a reflection structure included in a light guide body that guides a light beam incident from a light source and causes the light to exit from a light exit surface, a light guide body provided with the reflection structure, and a light emitting device and a game machine that are provided with the light guide body.
Related Art
Conventionally, there has been well known a technique in which a light beam emitted from a light source is incident through a side surface of a light guide plate, and reflected by a reflection pattern (reflection structure) provided on a back surface side of the light guide plate, and caused to exit from a surface of the light guide plate.
For example, WO2001/050444 (published on Jul. 12, 2001) discloses a technique in which, as illustrated in FIG. 14, a triangular prism type reflection pattern 130 is arranged in an area having a shape corresponding to a predetermined character in a back surface 124 of a light guide plate 120, and a different character is displayed on a side of a surface 123 of the light guide plate 120 by alternately lighting a light source 100 and a light source 110.

Reflection structure, light guide body, light emitting device, and game machine


Alloys of polycycloolefin polymers are produced by dissolving an ethylene-based functional polymer in at least one polycycloolefin monomer and polymerizing the mixture. Various polycycloolefin catalysts can be utilized. Often it is desirable to utilize bulk polymerization including reaction injection molding (RIM), liquid injection molding (LIM), reinforced reaction injection molding (RRIM), resin transfer molding (RTM), and the like. The alloys have improved properties such as impact strength, solvent resistance, as well as improved thermal aging properties such as retention of impact strength.

Heretofore, polycycloolefin polymers and methods for their preparation have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,002,815; 4,069,376; 4,110,528; 4,262,103; and 4,380,617, all assigned to BFGoodrich (Robert J. Minchak and co-workers).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,340 to Klosiewicz relates to a process for preparing a polydicyclopentadiene in the absence of a diluent and conducting the polymerization reaction in a mold.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,179 to Dewitt, Minchak, Lee, and Benedikt relates to impact modified polycycloolefins in which polyolefin powders such as polyethylene are dispersed in the cycloolefin monomer and then polymerized to obtain polycycloolefin polymer blends.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,178 to DeWitt, is similar to U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,179 but also incorporates elastomer therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,617 to Minchak, noted above, also relates to a catalyst system including an organoammonium molybdate or tungstate catalyst.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,502 to Minchak relates to a bulk polymerization method for polymerizing polycycloolefin monomers wherein an alkylaluminum halide catalyst contained an alkoxy group thereon to inhibit reducing power of the catalyst and hence to essentially eliminate any room temperature reaction.
The Oreshkin, et al article in the European Polymer Journal, 13 (1977) on pages 447-450, reports the use of silane compounds as cocatalysts with molybdenum and tungsten catalyst in ring opening polymerization.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,344 to Newburg discloses that high conversions can be obtained by ring opening polymerization of dicyclopentadiene in the presence of a metathesis catalyst system and also in the presence of a halogen containing hydrocarbyl additive which contains at least one trihalogen substituted carbon atom or at least one activated halogen atom.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,453 to Tom relates to a high impact strength homopolymer formed by the metathesis-catalyzed polymerization of dicyclopentadiene.

Polycycloolefin polymer alloys utilizing dispersed ethylene-based functional polymers


Vehicle engine torque, acceleration, deceleration and brake treadle pressure are determined. Vehicle load is calculated from the engine torque and acceleration; and braking system effectiveness is calculated by comparing the determined deceleration with a deceleration predicted for the calculated vehicle load and the determined brake treadle pressure. Values representative of braking system effectiveness are accumulated and evaluated to more accurately determine when braking system service is required than is possible by merely scheduling service according to the amount of elapsed time or the number of miles driven since prior service was performed.

This patent application incorporates by reference subject matter contained in the U.S. patent application titled "Method and Apparatus for Determining a Need for Vehicle Braking System Maintenance," the latter application having U.S. Ser. No. 07/987,134, having common inventors and assignee, and being filed simultaneously herewith. The subject matter of the referenced patent application is incorporated for reference and is not essential to support the claims or to adequately disclose the invention of the present application.
Various systems for estimating the effectiveness of vehicle braking systems have been used. A common, "bookkeeping" method is to maintain records of the time elapsed and the number of miles travelled by a vehicle since its braking system has last been serviced so that such service can be performed before braking effectiveness declines to a critical level or to a level that incurs additional problems and/or expenses.
The bookkeeping method offers advantages of being uncomplicated and inexpensive. The conditions under which a vehicle may be driven during periods of similar duration, however, often vary between extremes, for example, heavy versus light traffic, hilly versus flat terrain, high versus low temperature and wet versus dry weather; and such extremes have a substantial affect on the rate and type of brake debilitation experienced. Consequently, the bookkeeping method cannot be expected to be consistently accurate, and disadvantages attending it include, at best, extra physical examinations and prematurely scheduled service and, at worst, service that is scheduled too late.
Brake lining wear does not always proceed at a linear rate, but it does require some time for wear to occur. Certain other parts of the braking system can, however, go from a fully functional condition to a nonfunctional condition very rapidly due to breakage or leakage resulting from the fatigue or injury of critical parts. If a nonfunctional part causes only a portion of the braking system to be nonfunctional or partly so, a driver might not notice the resulting decrease in braking efficiency for some time. During this period, additional damage is invited; and the linings of brakes remaining functional are likely to wear more rapidly than when all brakes are working with the same effectiveness.
While bookkeeping methods of determining the effectiveness of braking systems function with a certain degree of efficiency, they do not provide the advantages of the improved method and apparatus of the present invention as is hereinafter more fully described.

Method and apparatus for estimating vehicle braking system effectiveness


In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, an enhanced performance opto-electric modulator (30 or 70) is provided herein which compensates for phase velocity mismatches between optical modulation and an RF electric signal. The modulator (30) includes an optical waveguide (38, 40) formed in a substrate (32) and coupled to an optical input (56). An RF waveguide (46, 48) is formed on the substrate (32) for applying an electric field (59) to a modulation region (50) adjacent the optical waveguide so as to modulate an optical signal. The substrate (32) has a ferroelectric domain which includes periodically inverted and non-inverted regions (54) and (52) which compensate for phase differences within the modulation region (50). In a preferred embodiment, the optical waveguide includes two substantially parallel optical waveguides (38) and (40) which have outputs combined to provide for an amplitude modulated (AM) optical output signal (60).

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to electro-optic modulators for modulating optical signals and, more particularly, to a phase velocity matched electro-optic modulator.
2. Discussion
Travelling wave integrated electro-optic modulators are known in the art for providing amplitude and phase modulation of an optical signal. Electro-optic modulators are commonly used with fiber optic links which have become increasingly important for a number of applications that include millimeter wave communications and radar systems. An external electro-optic modulator is generally required for a millimeter wave fiber optic link since direct modulation of a solid state laser signal generally is not possible above microwave frequencies.
Electro-optic modulators typically include an optical waveguide formed in a substrate and having an overlying metallic electrode structure. Electro-optic modulators fabricated in substrate materials in which the optical and microwave phase velocities are equal offer the potential of very broad modulation bandwidths. However, for important electro-optic substrate materials such as lithium niobate (LiNbO.sub.3), there is an inherent mismatch between the optical and RF microwave velocities. Since the optical signal phase velocity in lithium niobate is nearly twice the microwave drive signal velocity, the magnitude of the phase modulation begins to degrade as the phase difference between the optical and drive signals increases. This phenomenon is often referred to as phase "walk off".
This velocity mismatch necessitates design trade-offs. On the one hand, the maximum achievable drive frequency decreases as the modulator length is increased. On the other hand, to lower the drive voltage and power that is required, a longer device length is generally required. Thus, a trade-off is generally made between maximum drive frequency and required drive power.
Prior attempts have been made in order to compensate for the inherent velocity mismatch. Periodic electrode structures have been used in coplanar electrooptic modulators and are generally categorized as periodic phase reversal electrodes or intermittent interaction electrodes. Known periodic electrode configurations include unbalanced transmission lines which are asymmetric about a propagation axis. However, this may lead to incompatibility with the balanced line transitions to other fiber optic link transmitter components.
A more recent example of an electro-optic modulator is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,932 issued to Schaffner, et al. This prior art modulator achieves velocity matching of the optical and RF signal by employing travelling wave electrodes with periodic discontinuities. While this approach is generally feasible for most applications, the discontinuities may inherently cause reflection of portions of the RF signal back toward the source along with electromagnetic scattering of portions of the RF signal into the lithium niobate substrate. As a consequence, such prior art approaches generally suffer from these losses, especially at high frequencies such as those in the millimeter wave range.
It is therefore desirable to provide for an improved electro-optic modulator which does not suffer from undesirable RF reflections or scattering such as that which may be present in the prior art. In particular, it is desirable to provide for an improved technique of resetting the phase difference in millimeter wave integrated electro-optic modulators which exhibit velocity mismatches between the RF and optical signals.

Periodic domain reversal electro-optic modulator


A liquid developer for electrostatic photography which comprises a non-aqueous solvent having an electric resistance of at least 10.sup.9 .OMEGA..multidot.cm and a dielectric constant of not higher than 3.5, at least toner grains comprising a resin as a main component, and (a) at least one compound (A) having an effect for increasing the amount of charge and (b) at least one compound (B) having an effect for reducing the amount of charge. There is also disclosed a duplicating method using a liquid developer as described above, which is useful for developing a large number of electrophotographic materials over a long period of time.

The most important features of electrostatic photography wherein an electrostatic latent image formed in such systems as electrophotography, electrostatic recording, ink jet recording, cathode ray tube recording is converted into a visible image through a development processing, resides in that the electrostatic photographic system is simple, rapid and inexpensive as compared with silver salt photography. Further, the most important feature of liquid developers for electrostatic photography resides in that an image of high quality can be reproduced with a high resolving power as compared with dry developers for electrostatic photography.
Generally, liquid developers for electrostatic photography are obtained by dispersing organic or inorganic pigments or dyes such as carbon black, nigrosine, phthalocyanine blue, etc. and natural or synthetic resins such as alkyd resins, acrylic resins, rosin, synthetic rubbers, etc. in a liquid having high electric insulating properties and a low dielectric constant such as petroleum aliphatic hydrocarbons, and further adding a charge controlling agent such as metal soaps, lecithin, linseed oil, higher fatty acids or vinylpyrrolidone-containing polymers.
In the compositions of these liquid developers, colored grains are used in order to convert an electrostatic latent image into a visible image, and resin grains are used to improve the fixation of the image and to keep the strength of the image. Grains comprising a coloring component as well as a fixing component may also be used.
Charge controlling agents for imparting positive charge or negative charge to these grains are used to thereby form electricity detecting toner grains.
The electricity detecting toner grains must have strong and stable charges. Particularly, in recent years, line originals and halftone originals as well as the originals of continuous tone images have been markedly increased as originals to be duplicated (copied).
The chargeability of the toner grains is very important to reproduce the faithfully duplicated (copied) images of such fine originals. When the chargeability is insufficient, the desired image density cannot be obtained, and images formed tend to have a flow defect (so-called streak) and further the deposition of the toner grains on non-image areas (fog) tends to occur.
Charge controlling agents for reducing or eliminating such a phenomenon as described above have been developed, and such agents include semi-alkylamide compounds of maleic acid copolymers as disclosed in JP-B-49-26594 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication") (U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,789), JP-A-60-179750 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), and metal salts of N,N-dialkylaminoalkanecarboxylic acids and metals salts of N,N-dialkylaminoalkanesulfonic acids as disclosed in JP-A-60-21056.
A change in an image quality and sensitivity caused by repeated development of a large number of electrophotographic materials (hereinafter sometimes referred to as plates) must be minimized as much as possible to keep the practical features, i.e., simplicity, rapidness and low cost of electrostatic photography as well as high image quality of the liquid developers. Generally, when development is repeatedly carried out a great number of times, changes in the image quality such as the image density or the gradation and the sensitivity may occur with a reduction in the concentration of the toner grains and with a change in the composition of the developer. When the image quality is changed, high image quality which is one of the advantages of the liquid developer cannot be obtained. When sensitivity is changed, the control of an exposure amount is required and simplicity and rapidness which are the advantages of electrophotography cannot be attained. Further, in developing a great number of plates repeatedly with the same developer, if image quality and sensitivity are greatly changed, it is necessary that a developer is frequently replaced with a new one, and thus the advantages of simplicity, rapidness and low cost are reduced.
When a great number of plates, for example, 1000 plates or more, are developed with conventional liquid developers, image quality is greatly changed, and hence developing apparatuses are so designed that the apparatuses are provided with an automatic controlling device to keep the concentration of toner grains in the developing tank constant. However, such a means for keeping the concentration of toner grains constant causes other problems such as an increased cost for apparatuses and complicated structures of the apparatuses, thereby causing machine troubles and time-consuming works for maintaining the apparatuses.
In order to overcome these problems, a proposed liquid developer containing further branched aliphatic alcohols having not less than 12 carbon atoms has been proposed in JP-B-63-55063.
Further, JP-A-57-210384 discloses a method wherein the concentration of a developer used for replenishment during the repeated use is higher than that of a developer used at starting of the development, and JP-A-48-90236 and JP-A-64-32278 disclose a method wherein an amount of a charge controlling agent used is reduced in a developer for replenishment and the resulting developer is replenished.
However, these techniques are still insufficient with respect to the characteristics required for stably duplicating highly fine original images including continuous tone images presently required over a long period of time. Further, it is still more required that the original images are stably reproduced by electrostatic photography even when environmental conditions are greatly changed to such as low temperature and low humidity conditions or high temperature and high humidity conditions. Furthermore, even in electrostatic photography using a liquid developer, a requirement for easy maintenance comparative to the dry developer system has recently been desired.
Accordingly, developments of a liquid developer having excellent repeated use characteristics and a duplicating method using the same are important matters.

Liquid developer for electrostatic photography and duplicating method using the same


Disclosed is a thermoplastics molding device including two lateral molding chambers separated by a form setting chamber within a casing, a plurality of mold carriers respectively and horizontally supported on horizontal supports in each molding chamber and the form setting chamber at different elevations, reciprocating mechanisms respectively disposed in the molding chambers and the form setting chamber at the bottom and controlled to move the mold carriers in either chamber toward a top stop for permitting the mold carriers with molding dies thereon to be closely attached in a stack; and a shifting mechanism controlled to move molding dies from the mold carriers in either molding chamber to the mold carriers in the form setting chamber for quick setting of the moldings shaped in respective molding dies.

The present invention relates to molding devices, and relates more particularly to a thermoplastics molding device for efficiently making moldings out of thermoplastics.
A normal thermoplastics molding device for making moldings out of thermoplastics is generally comprised of two separate equipment, namely, the molding equipment for making moldings out of thermoplastics, and the form setting equipment for setting the moldings thus formed. During the molding process, the thermoplastic is put into respective molding dies, heated to melt, and then compressed air is compressed into each molding die to shape the melted thermoplastic in the respective molding die. When the shape is formed, the molding dies are respectively removed from the molding equipment and then put into the form setting equipment for setting of the moldings thus formed. As the molding dies are made from a heavy and heat conductive metal, it is not easy to move the molding dies from the molding equipment to the form setting equipment. Further, the pipings for delivering compressed air to the molding dies should be maintained connected to the molding dies respectively when the molding dies are being moved from the molding equipment to the form setting equipment, and therefore the moldings in the molding dies can be protected against distortion. This complicated piping system may easily cause an air leakage.

Thermoplastics molding and form setting device


A retractable "ball-pen" like tool/scalpel, provided with a latch mechanism, is automatically retracted when not in use by pushing the latch mechanism and is extended when in use by pushing a tool/blade support member of the tool/scalpel. An enlarged section of the latch mechanism is matched and engaged with an enlarged slot portion of the tool/blade support member when the tool/blade support member is pushed to an operative position wherein a tool/blade is exposed from a sheath member. The enlarged section of the latch mechanism is pushed transversely and disengaged with the enlarged slot portion of the tool/blade support member, the tool/blade support member is forced back to an inoperative position wherein the tool/scalpel is retracted into the sheath member.

Scalpels are a class of knives used in the surgical environment for incising, stabbing, shaving, and curetting of human and animal tissue. Conventional scalpels used for this purpose have a stationary blade. The blade is always exposed thereby creating a hazard of inadvertent puncture to an operating team member and to any other person who may come in contact with an instrument. The primary hazard of puncture is the possible transmission of an infectious agent, such as the AIDS virus. It has long been a desire of the medical profession to provide a protective scalpel which completely and absolutely encircles and protects the blade during non-use.
In some emergency situations, a surgeon must work quickly and hand instruments back and forth to assistants. It is dangerous sometimes because the sharp scalpels can accidentally cut or jab the personnel's hands during the operation. Certain fatal infections can be transferred to individuals through small cuts.
Presently existing protective scalpels have removable guards to prevent contact with the blade during non-use. However, with the rapidity in which surgery is conducted, this imposes a degree of inconvenience which would be burdensome. Other conventional protective scalpels include examples in which a blade sheath pivots or extends and retracts upon a given force applied to a handle of the scalpel. These scalpels do not provide absolute security of the blade such as the present invention where the blade is completely encased in a sheath.
Prior art tool retraction/latch mechanisms have the disadvantage of exposed screws, springs, fasteners, gears, links, and the like which, upon certain conditions, could loosen and fall into a wound or cavity.
Another disadvantage of many protective scalpels is the encroachment of a portion of the scalpel blade. This interfaces with normal use of the scalpel, as entire length of the blade is typically used.
Examples of known prior art are:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,812 which discloses a retractable tool holder;
S. Pat. No. 5,071,426 which discloses a surgical scalpel with a retractable blade guard;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,351 which discloses a safety scalpel having a blade protecting sheath;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,507 which discloses a surgical scalpel with a retractable blade guard; and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,517 which discloses a retractable instrument automatically actuating the instrument to extend forward from a protective sheath.
The present invention solves many of the problems associated with prior art scalpels and latch mechanisms.


A slip controlled induction motor using a variable frequency feedback transducer comprises a motor stator, a motor rotor and a variable frequency feedback transducer (VFFT). The VFFT includes an input winding transformer coupled to an output winding by a VFFT rotor. The VFFT rotor is operably connected to the motor rotor so as to rotate with the motor rotor at the same angular velocity. The input winding is excited with an input AC voltage of predetermine frequency. The transformer coupling combines the predetermined frequency AC input with the signal produced by the VFFT rotor to produce a variable frequency signal in the output winding which is fed as an input to the motor stator. Since the stator input is tied to the motor rotor angular velocity, the stator input will always have a constant absolute frequency difference with the motor rotor.

Induction motors consist generally of a stator and a rotor, both made of ferromagnetic material of high permeability. A set of coils embedded in the stator is fed by multi-phase currents to produce a rotating magnetic field. Depending on the geometric layout of the coils and on the current in them, different configurations of the magnetic field in the motor may be produced. Because of Faraday's law, the stator magnetic field causes an EMF to be induced on the rotor which generates current in the rotor. This current interacts with the magnetic field and produces a torque that rotates the rotor.
As long as the rotor is rotating at a speed lower than the rotation speed of the magnetic field, the induced EMF is always there to produce current and torque. However, if the rotor catches up with the rotating magnetic field, the relative motion between the field and rotor and the induced EMF disappear and no force is produced. Consequently, without the applied force, the rotor slows down.
In order to prevent situations where the rotor catches up to the rotating magnetic field, the rotor is typically configured to rotate at a speed slightly less than the speed of the rotating magnetic field. The difference between the magnetic field speed and rotor speed is typically called slip. For example, an AC induction motor having a standard 120 v, 60 Hz, 3-phase constant AC input generally produces a magnetic field rotating at 1800 RPM. In this situation, the rotor is typically configured to run at about 1725 RPM when no load is applied to the rotor. Therefore, the no-load slip is 1800 RPM-1725 RPM or 75 RPM. However, if a load is applied to the motor rotor, the rotational speed of the rotor will slow down thus increasing the slip.
A motor is running most efficiently when the slip is relatively small. Thus, it is desirable to provide a slip control means for controlling the slip and maximizing the motor's efficiency. One way to provide slip control is to control the magnetic field rotational speed by providing a variable frequency input to the motor stator. In this situation, the frequency of the variable frequency input is typically called the slip control frequency.
Prior to the development of the present invention, variable frequency control was typically accomplished by using transducers to relate the rotor position to an electronic controller which in turn calculates the specific vector functions and supplies variable frequency motor currents based on each specific motor design. The electronic controllers of the prior art are complex and can become unreliable due to their complexity. Furthermore, existing electronic controllers must be modified for each motor to accommodate different motor performance characteristics.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,577 issued to Honeywell et al. discloses a synchro-servo system in which motor torque is transmitted directly from the motor to the synchro rotor without interposed gearing. A synchro and a servomotor in a common housing share a common shaft. When an input from a synchro transmitter causes a magnetic field to be produced by a Y-connected synchro input winding, a current is generated in the synchro secondary winding. This current is amplified by an amplifier and fed to a control phase winding of the servomotor. The resultant torque produced by the servomotor rotates the rotor shaft to a new null position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,569,782 issued to Shalihi et al. discloses a system having a disk of nonmagnetic material that includes a number of ferrite bars radially aligned in pairs. The disk is coupled to the rotor shaft of an AC induction motor to be controlled. A second disk is mounted in proximity to the first disk and is provided with multiple sets of imbedded C-shaped ferromagnetic elements. A step-transformer is mounted on an insulative bobbin by an auxiliary speed-controlled motor.
As the ferrite elements periodically align with one another, as a result of relative disk rotation, the reluctance of the magnetic field of an interposed coil changes periodically and results in amplitude modulation of a carrier signal applied to the coil primary by an oscillator. The frequency of this modulation is proportional to the sum (or difference) of the speeds of the two disks.
In effect, the auxiliary motor is a slip-frequency determining motor that controls the slip frequency of an induction motor. The rotor speed derived from the first disk is converted to a rotor frequency, the slip frequency is combined to provide the synchronous frequency, and this frequency is multiplied to provide the frequency of pulses required by the inverter.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,692 issued to McGee discloses a system designed to control motion of machine tool elements in numerical control systems. In the preferred embodiment, a sine/cosine resolver is used to provide instantaneous position information in the form of a single sinusoidal reference wave. A phase discriminator derives a final DC signal for driving a servoamplifier and servomotor that properly positions the machine tool element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,741 issued to Nagase et al. discloses a field oriented control apparatus for an induction motor in which the exciting current and the secondary current are independently controlled to control the amplitude, frequency, and phase angle of the primary current in order to adjust motor torque. In the control apparatus, changes in secondary resistance are detected based upon deviation in the output of a primary voltage setter and a primary voltage detector, and the slip frequency is corrected based upon these deviation values. Thus, primary voltage and torque of the induction motor can be controlled without being unduly influenced by changes in secondary resistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,569 issued to Iwakane et al. discloses a vector controller for an AC induction motor designed to provide a torque equivalent to that of a DC motor by controlling the instantaneous values of stator current in the AC motor. Signals from a brushless position detector designed for high temperature operation (such as a resolver or a pulse generator coupled to the AC motor) are used to generate instruction signals for the stator current, and are also used to derive rotational position and speed feedback signals for precise servo control.
In one embodiment, the patent describes the derivation of a current instruction signal and a position signal by subjecting the resolver output signal to frequency division, and the derivation of a speed feedback signal through frequency-to-voltage conversion of the resolver signal, such that AC frequency and current supplied to the synchronous motor are controlled by these three signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,899 issued to Nashiki discloses a vector controller for an induction motor in which the vector controller comprises a secondary current detection unit designed to detect secondary current signals from the induction motor and a slip compensation unit that determines a slip frequency compensation value based upon the secondary current detection unit. A slip frequency generating unit determines slip frequency from the secondary current command. The field speed command for the induction motor is then based upon the slip frequency compensation value, the slip speed, and the motor velocity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,445 issued to Carbolante discloses a phase-locked loop (PLL) motor control system having a variable gain such that a relatively low gain is applied when the phase error between the reference frequency and the variable frequency (the motor speed) is relatively large, such as during convergence. As the phase error decreases, such as when lock is imminent, the gain value is increased.
While the above-mentioned devices may work for their intended purposes, none of these devices accomplish slip control through use of a variable frequency feedback transducer wholly within the motor without the need for additional electronic control circuitry used to calculate field vectors and compute frequencies for slip control. It is thus apparent that there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for modulating the slip control frequency.
An object of the present invention is to provide a variable frequency feedback transducer which can be contained within the motor to automatically maintain a constant frequency difference between the rotor frequency and the magnetic field frequency.

Slip controlled induction motor using variable frequency transducer and method for controlling slip


Embodiments are disclosed for driving an electromagnetic transducer via a drive unit comprising stationary coils and a moving magnet. In some embodiments, an electromagnetic transducer comprises a diaphragm configured to generate acoustic vibrations, a moving magnet affixed to the diaphragm, and a pair of fixed coils surrounding the moving magnet, the fixed coils configured to direct electrical current in opposite directions.

In a transducer, energy of one form is converted to energy of a different form. Electroacoustic transducers convert electrical impulses to acoustic vibrations that may be perceived as audible sound to proximate listeners. Some such electroacoustic transducers are electromagnetic transducers driven electromagnetically by a drive unit comprising a permanent magnet and a voice coil having a plurality of wire windings. Here, electrical signals supplied to the voice coil generate a magnetic field that interacts with the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnet, inducing motion in the voice coil. As the voice coil is affixed to a diaphragm, this motion may be conveyed to the diaphragm to produce sound.

Harman International Industries, Incorporated


A device having means for dispensing a single swab at one time from a rolled inventory of swabs mounted on a continuous strip defines a means for unrolling the inventory and a means for detaching each swab in turn from the strip. A support roll is positioned to provide a rigid backing to the strip so that as the strip passes a chute, an upfacing edge of the chute wedges itself between the swab and the backing, thereby prying the swab from the backing and urging it into the dispensing chute. Transparent walls of the device provide visibility of the inventory.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to dispensing devices and more particularly to an improved cotton swab dispensing device that stores and delivers cotton swabs in a sanitary manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Invention and use of cotton swab dispensing devices is well known in the prior art.
Stawski U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,472 discloses a portable dispensing apparatus for dispensing a sterile unpacked medical swab and a moisturizing charge of a liquid medium. A package member for storing the swab as one of a plurality of stacked swabs. The package, received and supported by the apparatus, having bottom supporting structure for the swabs and both a rear cutout to allow passage of a pivotal dispensing lever and a front exit to dispense upon lever movement, the swab from the package and from an aligned dispensing slot in the apparatus.
Lemoine U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,730 discloses a plastic shipping and dispensing container for cotton swabs that has a T-section at the bottom of the container front panel that at the shipping destination is readily removed to form a dispensing opening for the cotton swabs.
However, both of the above described prior art devices provide a large holding bin in which all swabs are stored in contact with one another. While this configuration maximizes the storage capacity of the device, it is not sanitary or sterile, which is undesirable for cotton swab uses. Castner, Sr. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,637 discloses a package for marketing and vending strips of cotton swabs. The package has a cardboard backed tray like blister package with a flap on the backing covering a dispensing opening and forming a bottom for the package. While this configuration allows the swabs to be separated from one another because they are spaced apart on strips, it is still limited in that the dispenser is not refillable, thus wasting a good deal of packaging and increasing the cost of the swabs and dispenser.
Castner Sr. et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,857 discloses a refillable vendor or dispenser for cotton swabs releasably carried cross-wise on an elongated flexible tape wound about itself to form a roll has a plurality of mating components releasably held together to define a chamber receiving the roll for rotation about a horizontal axis. The upper portion of the chamber has a chute receiving the leading end of the roll and discharging through a slot to an external lip supporting the exposed tape from which a swab is easily picked off of the tape. A finger hole overlaying the chute provides for the pushing of the stick portions of the swabs to successively advance the tape beyond the discharge slot. The discharge slot has a severing edge to tear off that portion of the tape projecting beyond the discharge outlet.
However, both of Caster's prior art devices are limited in that they provide no means by which to automatically release swabs from the strip, thus requiring that the swabs be manually grasped by the cotton portion and manually pealed away from the strip. This procedure may result in contamination of the swab, and is therefore undesirable.
Thus there is a clear need for an improved, refillable cotton swab dispensing device that automatically dispenses swabs in an easily accessible manner so as to minimize contamination of the swab. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.


A waste material combustion apparatus for disposing of an assortment of waste material like garbage, sludge and burnable trash in which the ash produced as a result of combustion of that assorted material is collected and transported to a bag house where the ash solids are separated, the air is released to atmosphere, and the separated ash residue is collected as a product of the combustion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system for ejecting the ash from combustion apparatus for disposing of sludge, garbage and the like and to a venturi system for clearing the ash discharge from the combustor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a continuing problem in how to effectively dispose of sludge, garbage and similar waste materials other than by land fill disposal. The present approach is to employ expensive and sometimes inefficient ash removal from fluid bed combustors. The known prior art is limited in its teaching to a solution for only some of the present problems where the ash tends to clump and form clinkers which choke the ash discharge.
Attempts have been made to dispose of sludge by first drying the moisture from the sludge and then conveying it into combustion equipment where outside fuel is used in large quantities in order to sufficiently dry the sludge to a condition where it can be carted away to a land fill installation, or be otherwise disposed of. Examples of prior art apparatus for waste disposal include: U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,477, date Jun. 10, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,944 date Sept. 2, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,838, date Dec. 16, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,637, date Mar. 3, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,251, date Jun. 9, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,220, date Aug. 11, 1987; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,721, date Oct. 13, 1987.

Waste material combustion ash ejection system


A VI conversion circuit 40n inputs a voltage output from a hold circuit 30n, converts this input voltage to a current based on the resistance value of a resistor R40, and outputs this current from a drain terminal of a MOS transistor T40. An amp A40 has an adequate open loop gain and MOS transistor T40 operates in the saturated region. Here, if the resistance value of resistor R40 is R, the current value I that is output from VI conversion circuit 40n is in the proportional relationship expressed by the equation, “I=V/R,” with respect to the voltage V input into VI conversion circuit 40n.

A solid-state image pickup device has photosensitive elements aligned in one dimension or two dimensions and can take a one-dimensional or two-dimensional optical image by converting the intensity of light that is incident on each of the photosensitive elements to an electrical signal and outputting this electrical signal. A solid-state image pickup device is used, for example, in a facsimile machine to read an image on a manuscript or to take an image formed by X-rays that have been transmitted through an inspected object in a non-destructive X-ray inspection device. It is demanded that such a solid-state image pickup device takes an image with high speed.
For example, a solid-state image pickup device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei-10-126696 comprises: a photoelectric conversion circuit, converting an optical signal to a voltage and outputting this voltage; a VI conversion circuit, converting the voltage output from the photoelectric conversion circuit to a current and outputting this current; and an IV conversion circuit, converting the current output by the VI conversion circuit to a voltage and outputting this voltage. The respective output terminals of a plurality of VI conversion circuits are selectively and successively connected to a single IV conversion circuit.
With a solid-state image pickup device arranged thus, current is transmitted from a VI conversion circuit disposed at a prior stage to the IV conversion circuit disposed at a subsequent stage and the potential at the input terminal of the IV conversion circuit at the subsequent stage is fixed. Thus with this solid-state image pickup device, even if the parasitic capacitance across the respective output terminals of the plurality of VI conversion circuits and the input terminal of the IV conversion circuit is large, the processing of signals among these components can be performed at high speed and image taking can thus be performed at high speed.

Signal processing circuit and solid-state image pickup device


The present invention relates to a process for the reduction dechlorination of ClCF.sub.2 CFClCF.sub.2 Cl to HCF.sub.2 CHFCF.sub.2 H comprising the step of contacting 1,2,3-trichloropentafluoroethane and H.sub.2 over a catalyst selected from the group consisting of palladium, platinum, ruthinium, rhodium, iridium and mixtures thereof under reaction conditions sufficent to produce a product stream containing 1,1,2,3,3-pentafluoropropane. The present invention further relates to a three step process wherein the ClCF.sub.2 CFClCF.sub.2 Cl to be reduced is synthesized by:. (a) reacting HF with a compound of formula I: XCH.dbd.CYCH.sub.2 X, where X is H, Cl, or F, Y is H or Cl; PA1 to give a compound of formula II: CH.sub.2 XCFYCH.sub.2 X, where X and Y are the same as in the compound of formula I: PA1 (b) chlorinating the compound of formula II to give a compound of formula III: CCl.sub.3-m F.sub.m CFClCCl.sub.3-m F.sub.m where m is zero or 1, and PA1 (c) fluorinating the compound of formula III to give CClF.sub.2 CFClCF.sub.2 Cl.. A composition of matter having the formula HCF.sub.2 CHFCF.sub.2 Cl is also disclosed.

Hydrofluorocarbons are of great interest due to their potential to replace ozone depleting CFCs used in a variety of applications, including cleaning solvents and blowing agents. For example, 1,1,2,3,3-pentafluoropropane is a useful blowing agent or cleaning solvent (Eur. 381,986) which has been produced as a minor by-product in the cobalt trifluoride fluorination of tetrahydrofuran (J. Burdon et. al. J. Chem. Soc. (C), 1969, 1739).
The art is currently active in searching for methods to reduce chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to hydrofluorocarbons (HFC's), to find suitable replacements for ozone depleting CFCs. Simple alkyl halides may be readily dehalogenated via catalytic reduction in the presence of base under mild conditions. However, such dehalogenations are not suitable for the reduction of perhalogenated compounds.
Some CFCs have been reductively dechlorinated in the vapor phase in the presence of a catalyst. However, the reductive dechlorinations of the prior art suffer from a lack of selectivity and reduction control. Reductive defluorination can accompany reductive dechlorination even at relatively low temperatures. For example, EPA 435,705 (Jul. 3, 1991) discloses that the reduction of CF.sub.3 CFCl.sub.2 over iridium on carbon at 150.degree. C. gave CF.sub.3 CHClF (74%) while reduction over palladium under the same conditions gave 95% CF.sub.3 CH.sub.3.
Consequently, there is a need for a process to prepare 1,1,2,3,3-pentafluoropropane using a method which is both economical, and amenable to large scale manufacture.


A machine for cleansing articles, such as a dishwasher, incorporates a device for measuring the turbidity of an at least partially transparent liquid. The device includes a sensor for detecting scattered electromagnetic radiation, regardless of polarization, and a sensor for detecting transmitted electromagnetic radiation, regardless of polarization.

Reducing the amount of energy consumed by a machine for cleansing articles, such as a clothes washer, is a significant problem, in part because of increasing energy costs. In such a machine, the amount of energy consumed is primarily determined by the amount of energy needed to heat the liquid, such as water, used to cleanse the articles. Thus, decreased liquid consumption for such machines may result in a significant improvement in energy efficiency.
Appliances for cleansing articles, such as clothes washers, are typically preprogrammed to perform a complete washing in a predetermined number of wash cycles, each wash cycle having a predetermined duration. A wash cycle may comprise providing substantially particle-free liquid to the machine, circulating the liquid during the wash cycle, and draining or flushing the liquid from the machine after being used to wash or cleanse the articles. Often the machine user may select from a limited number of preprogrammed options. Such preprogramming does not use energy efficiently because the machine may either perform an excessive number of wash cycles, or perform each cycle for an excessive duration, to assure that cleanliness of the articles is achieved. To improve the energy efficiency of such appliances, closed loop feedback control has been introduced. Several techniques are available to indirectly monitor cleanliness of the articles during closed loop feedback control of the appliance, including use of a device for measuring the turbidity of the liquid used to wash the articles.
Devices for measuring turbidity that detect the transmission of light propagated through water used to wash the articles have been employed to ascertain information about progress of the wash. However, these devices are not ideal for use in household appliances. Such devices are oftentimes difficult or non-economic to implement due to the electronic circuitry necessary to perform the complex turbidity measurements. Furthermore, such devices are subject to measurement error. Factors such as water turbulence, cloudiness of the water sample chamber, light source dimming, or device performance degradation may cause attenuation of the amount of light detected and thus affect measurement accuracy. The precision of such devices is also not entirely satisfactory. This imprecision has the additional effect of making turbidity measurements provided by such devices difficult to interpret in a closed loop feedback control system.
A need thus exists for a machine for cleansing articles incorporating a device for measuring turbidity in which the device is simple and economic to produce, provides the capability to compensate for signal attenuation, and provides improved turbidity measurement precision. A need also exists for a closed loop feedback control system sophisticated enough to utilize the measurements from such a turbidity measuring device effectively.


Systems and methods that utilize a received signal to provide low cost, low power, high sensitivity radio frequency hopping communication. A transmitting system prepares a data packet that is to be communicated to a receiving system. The data packet includes a header, a network identification, and transmission data. A transmission frequency is identified and a phase lock loop (“PLL”) is set to the transmission frequency. The data packet is gathered, and frequency modulation and Differential Manchester encoding is performed. The signal is sent through a power amplifier and an antenna to a receiving system, which continually scans all channels of a frequency range for a valid signal. When a pulse is received, the signal is passed through a low noise amplifier, mixed down to 10.7 MHz, passed through one or more filters and one or more high gain amplifiers, mixed down to baseband, sent through a low pass filter, and then sent through a comparator. If an appropriate pulse width, expected bit pattern and a valid header are received, it is determined that the signal is valid and the entire data packet is demodulated to receive the transmitted data.

1. Related Applications
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/236,844, filed Sep. 29, 2000, entitled "FREQUENCY HOPPING DATA RADIO."
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to radio frequency transmission systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods that utilize a received signal to provide low cost, low power, high sensitivity, radio frequency hopping.
3. Background and Related Art
Wireless or radio frequency transmission is becoming increasingly more important in today's technology. Dispensing with the need for cables and complicated wiring, wireless technology enables networks to be connected quickly and easily. Several network-based applications may find wireless technology particularly advantageous, including supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), remote meter reading, home automation, instrument monitoring, point-of-sale (POS) systems, wireless local area networks (WLANs), and many other applications.
One technique for radio transmission involves frequency hopping spread spectrum technology. This technique involves changing the transmission signal to a different frequency several times a second to provide a broadband distribution. A psudo-random table is used to define the hopping sequence. The broadband distribution makes the signal transmission less likely to interfere with or to be interfered with by other signals since the transmitters only occupy a potentially used frequency for a fraction of a second. For example, because many technologies use the 900 MHz ISM band (e.g., cell phones, pagers, and cordless phones), existing 900 MHz radios are susceptible to interference and may not operate at all when close to pager or cell phone towers. Spread spectrum frequency hopping helps minimize this interference.
Frequency hopping systems, however, have their disadvantages as well. For example, the signal receiver must be able to synchronize with or track the frequency "hops" so that the receiver can properly capture and demodulate the signal. In typical frequency hopping systems, both the transmitter and the receiver have a clocking/timer mechanism to achieve this tracking. This clocking mechanism is typically quite complicated and expensive to build. Furthermore, frequency hopping systems typically use a receive signal strength indicator ("RSSI") to determine if a valid signal is present on a channel. Such indicators have the drawback that they don't reliably operate at the same sensitivity levels in which actual data receivers are capable of operating.
Radio transmission technology also involves digital modulation schemes used to modulate digital signals for radio transmission. One step in some modulation schemes entails transforming or encoding raw digital data, comprising of a series of bits in binary code, into a digital square wave signal that can be sent by a radio transmitter to a radio receiver. For example, one modulation scheme encodes raw data by transmitting a high voltage to represent a 1-bit and a low voltage for a 0-bit. The problem with this type of encoding is that when several identical bits are sent in succession the receiver cannot inherently differentiate between when one bit stops and the next bit starts. As a result, several improved encoding schemes have been developed to solve this problem.
One of the improved encoding schemes, referred to as "Manchester encoding," transmits two voltages, one high and one low, for each bit. The "normal" type of Manchester encoding transmits a high and then low voltage for a 1-bit, and a low and then high voltage for a 0-bit. Another improved encoding scheme, referred to as the "Differential Manchester encoding," indicates each bit by looking at the last half of the previous bit's signal. In particular, a Differential Manchester signal indicates a 1-bit by transmitting the first half of the signal at a voltage equal to the last half of the previous bit's signal. The first half of a 0-bit signal is transmitted at the voltage level opposite to the last half of the previous bit's signal. As with a normal Manchester signal, the Differential Manchester represents each bit by two voltages. In other words, there is a transition between signal levels in the middle of the portion of the signal that represents each bit. Thus, because each bit representation in a Manchester signal has a transition in the middle, the radio receiver is able to synchronize more easily with the radio transmitter. Therefore, the middle transition points serve as inherent "markers" that allow the radio receiver to differentiate between when one bit ends and another bit starts. Typically, a Differential Manchester signal is determined by looking for the frequency component created by the periodic transitions in the data. This frequency is used to enhance the recovery of the data by locking the recovery circuitry to the exact frequency of the transmitted data.
Thus, while several types of frequency hopping spread spectrum systems currently exist, there is nevertheless a need for frequency hopping spread spectrum technology that is inexpensive, is reliable, and maintains high sensitivity.