An arrow rest comprises an arrow rest support arm pivotally mounted to the riser of a bow. The support arm is coupled to a cable guide of the bow through linkage that causes the support arm to rise relative to the riser of the bow as the cable is drawn to launch an arrow. As the cable is released to launch an arrow, the arrow rest drops to allow the fletching to pass the arrow rest without contact. In addition, as the arrow rest moves from a first resting position to a second pre-launch position and back again, a clamping mechanism grasps the shaft of the arrow when the support arm is in the resting position. As the support arm moves to the pre-launch position, the clamping mechanism releases the shaft of the arrow so that the arrow can be freely launched from the support arm without interference from the clamping mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting the shaft of an arrow when launched from an archery bow. More particularly, the present invention relates to an arrow rest that can move from a first, resting position to a second ready position as the sting of the bow is drawn to a firing position. In the resting position, the arrow rest holds the shaft of the arrow relative to the arrow rest. In the ready position, the arrow rest supports the shaft of the arrow but no longer clamps the shaft of the arrow to allow the arrow to freely launch from the arrow rest.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the past few decades, the interest in the sport of archery in the United States has significantly increased. In particular, the number of sportsmen and sportswomen who hunt using a bow has continued to rise. As a result of this growth, the number of archery products manufacturers and the development of new archery products has greatly expanded.
For many years, recurve bows were the only kind of bow available. Once the compound bow was introduced, the interest in and, naturally, the number of accessories for compound bows increased. Such accessories include various types of sighting apparatuses, stabilizing devices, vibration dampening device and arrow rests for supporting the shaft of the arrow when an arrow is drawn prior to launching. The first arrow rests typically comprised a V-shaped tab of plastic that was attached to the riser of the bow. With such devices, the shaft of the arrow rests within the V of the arrow rest while the archer aims the bow toward a target. It was discovered that the friction between the shaft of the arrow and the arrow rest and/or the contact between the arrow rest and the feathers or fletching on the aft end of the arrow can effect the trajectory and direction of flight of the arrow.
To address this problem, many arrow rests are formed from a flexible material, such as plastic. By using a flexible material, the arrow rest can deflect out of the way when the arrow is launched from the bow. Such a plastic arrow rest, however, has its drawbacks. For example, the plastic tab arrow rest typically deflects in a direction transverse to the direction of flight of the arrow. As such, contact between the fletching of an arrow and the arrow rest can still effect the flight of the arrow.
In order to provide a more stable support for an arrow and to allow the arrow rest to flex away from the shaft in the direction of the flight of the arrow, arrow rests have been developed that include a pair of arms. The tips of the arms support the shaft of the arrow. The arms are typically attached to or integrally formed with a rotatable shaft that is rotatably mounted to a mounting bracket. The mounting bracket is configured for attachment to the riser of a compound bow. In addition, the shaft is biased relative to the mounting bracket so that the arms are biased toward the shaft of an arrow when the arrow is resting upon the tips of the arms. The biasing of the arms is provided by a coil spring interposed between the mounting bracket and the rotatable shaft.
When an arrow is launched from a bow utilizing such an arrow rest, the impact of the fletching of the arrow upon the arms of the arrow rest will cause the arms to rotate downwardly. After the fletching pass the arms, the coil spring then causes the arms to rotate back to their pre-launch position. This contact between the fletching and the arrow rest can effect the trajectory of the arrow by applying drag, and/or torque to the shaft of the arrow as the arrow is released.
Muzzy Products Corp. in Georgia has attempted to provide an arrow rest that eliminates the effects of the arrow rest on the flight of the arrow. In the Muzzy device, the arrow rest lifts the shaft of the arrow to a pre-shoot position at full draw and falls away as the arrow is released. The arrow rest rises from a resting position to a pre-launch position by being coupled between the riser and the cable slide. The arrow rest is coupled between the riser and the cable slide with a pair of arms that are pivotally connected to one another and to the riser and cable slide. As the bow is drawn to a pre-launch position sliding the cable guide along the cable guard away from the riser, the pair of arms straighten relative to one another. As the pair of arms straighten, the arrow rest rises relative to the riser. When the arrow is released, the action of the cable causes the cable guide to slide back to its resting position. The movement of the cable guide back to its original position causes the arrow rest to drop.
Another example of a "fall-away" arrow rest is manufactured by Trophy Taker of Montana. The arrow rest is coupled to the riser and tide with a tether to the cable of the bow. The arrow rest is actuated from a resting position to a pre-launch position at full draw by the pull on the tether generated by the cable. As tension is applied to the tether, the arrow rest is caused to be rotated from a first position to a second position that raises the shaft of the arrow. As the arrow is released, the tension on the tether is removed and the arrow rest is allowed to drop by rotation of the arrow rest relative to the riser. Such fall-away arrow rests, while attempting to resolve some of the problems caused by arrow rests, do not address a significant disadvantage of all arrow rests.
When an archer draws an arrow along the arrow rest, one hand grasps the grip of the bow and the other draws the cable. The shaft of the arrow rests on the arrow rest but is otherwise unsupported along its length. As most arrow rests provide a V-shaped notch for supporting the shaft of the arrow or a pair of arms whose tips support the shaft therein between, any sudden movement of the bow can cause the shaft of the arrow to fall from the arrow rest. Often times, such the shaft of the arrow falls from the arrow rest when an archer has pulled the cable to a full draw, but decides to controllably return the cable to its resting position without launching the arrow. Because of the jerking force of such a maneuver, the archer is often unable to maintain the shaft of the arrow on the arrow rest. As the arrow falls, it may impact the riser of the bow generating a noise that can startle game.
In a hunting setting, noise is a major factor in the ability to stalk an animal. Hunters take great strides to maintain silence in the wild so as to not startle the game. As most hunters will attest, the "clanking" of the shaft of a falling arrow against the riser is sure to startle most game causing the animal to flee.
The Muzzy device attempts to address this issue by providing a relatively large V for supporting the shaft of the arrow. Even with the Muzzy device, however, an archer is not likely to be able to move through underbrush with a loaded arrow without the arrow falling from the arrow rest.
Another example of an arrow rest that prevents the shaft of the arrow from falling from the arrow rest is comprised of a cylindrical aperture supporting a plurality of inwardly extending bristles that form a small opening in the center of the bristles for supporting the shaft of the arrow. As the arrow is launched, the fletching can pass through the bristles. The bristles, however, tend to tear the fletching from the shaft of the arrow.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide an arrow rest that is capable of grasping the shaft of the arrow when the arrow is at a resting position and freely supporting the shaft of the arrow when the bow is at full draw. It would also be advantageous to provide such an arrow rest that falls away as the arrow is launched to eliminate effects of the arrow rest on the flight and/or fletching of the arrow.


Brazing of metal parts employing a homogeneous, ductile, filler metal foil is disclosed. The brazing foil, useful for brazing cobalt based alloys, has a composition consisting essentially of 0 to about 4 atom percent iron, 0 to about 26 atom percent chromium, 0 to about 20 atom percent nickel, 0 to about 4 atom percent tungsten, 0 to about 4 atom percent molybdenum, 0 to about 20 atom percent boron, 0 to about 12 atom percent silicon, 0 to about 2 atom percent carbon and the balance essentially cobalt and incidental impurities. In addition to containing the foregoing elements within the above-noted composition ranges, the composition must be such that the total of iron, chromium, nickel, tungsten, molybdenum and cobalt ranges from about 75 to 85 atom percent and the total of boron, silicon and carbon ranges from about 15 to 25 atom percent. The ductile foil permits fabrication of preforms of complex shapes which do not require binders and/or fluxes necessary for brazing powders presently used to braze cobalt and nickel base alloys.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to brazing of metal parts and, in particular, to a homogeneous, ductile cobalt based brazing material useful in brazing cobalt and nickel based alloys.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Brazing is a process for joining metal parts, often of dissimilar composition, to each other. Typically, a filler metal that has a melting point lower than that of the metal parts to be joined together is interposed between the metal parts to form an assembly. The assembly is then heated to a temperature sufficient to melt the filler metal. Upon cooling, a strong, corrosion resistant, leak-tight joint is formed.
Nickel and cobalt based alloys are conventionally joined by means of hydrogen, inert gas or vacuum brazing techniques. Such methods are employed to maintain low levels of contamination in the joint area. For high service temperature applications, nickel or cobalt based brazing filler alloys, having American Welding Society designation BNi or BCo compositions, per AWS A5.8, are used. These alloys produce brazed joints with high temperature strength and corrosion ad oxidation resistance.
The brazing alloys suitable for use with cobalt and nickel based alloys contain a substantial amount (about 3 to 11 weight percent) of metalloid elements such as boron, silicon and carbon. Consequently, such alloys are very brittle and are available only as powder, powder-binder pastes, powder-binder tapes and bulky cast preforms. Powders are generally unsuitable for many brazing operations, such as dip brazing, and do not easily permit brazing of complex shapes. Although some powders are available as pastes employing organic binders, the binders form objectionable voids and residues during brazing.
Some brazing alloys are available in foil form. However, such materials are either fabricated only through a costly sequence of rolling and careful heat-treating steps or are prepared by powder metallurgical techniques. Rolled foil is not sufficiently ductile to permit stamping of complex shapes therefrom. Powder metallurgical foil is not homogeneous and employs binders, which form objectionable voids and residues during brazing.
Ductile glassy metal alloys have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,513, issued Dec. 24, 1974 to H. S. Chen et al. These alloys include compositions having the formula M.sub.a Y.sub.b Z.sub.c, where M is a metal selected from the group consisting of iron, nickel, cobalt, vanadium and chromium, Y is an element selected from the group consisting of phosphorus, boron and carbon, and Z is an element selected from the group consisting of aluminum, silicon, tin, germanium, indium, atimony and beryllium, "a" ranges from about 60 to 90 atom percent, "b" ranges from about 10 to 30 atom percent and "c" ranges from about 0.1 to 15 atom percent. Also disclosed are glassy wires having the formula T.sub.i X.sub.j, where T is at least one transition metal and X is an element selected from the group consisting of phosphorus, boron, carbon, aluminum, silicon, tin, germanium, indium, beryllium and antimony, "i" ranges from about 70 to 87 atom percent and "j" ranges from about 13 to 30 atom percent. Such materials are conveniently prepared by rapid quenching from the melt using processing techniques that are now well -known in the art. No brazing composition are disclosed therein, however.
There remains a need in the art for a homogeneous, cobalt based brazing material that is available in ductile foil form.


An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a connector to which an external device is connected, a control unit identifying a connected external device and controlling operations of a voltage conversion unit and a charging and discharging unit according to a result of an identification, the voltage conversion unit bypassing a supply voltage supplied from the external device, boosting the supply voltage, or converting a battery voltage of a battery connected to an electronic device to supply a converted voltage to the external device, according to the result of the identification, and the charging and discharging unit lowering a voltage supplied from the voltage conversion unit or bypassing the battery voltage of the battery to the voltage conversion unit, according to the result of the identification.

Recent mobile electronic devices, such as smart phones, televisions (TVs), and tablet personal computers (PCs), have high hardware specifications and thus support high performance and quick speed. Also, the mobile electronic devices are providing various user interface environments in order to increase user convenience. With the high hardware specification and various functions and user interface environments, the power consumption of the electronic devices increases.
Electronic devices may increase battery capacity by using various methods in order to support increased power consumption. For example, it is possible to connect a plurality of battery cells in series or in parallel. However, the portability and stability of mobile electronic devices and compatibility with typical electronic devices should be considered in increasing the battery capacity of the mobile electronic devices.
When the plurality of battery cells are connected in parallel, an instant battery voltage drop may occur if the current consumption of the mobile electronic devices increases. Thus, a phenomenon that integrated circuits (ICs) using battery voltages in the mobile electronic devices are reset may occur. Thus, there may be a limitation in stability.
When the plurality of battery cells are connected in series, total battery voltages increase and thus a high voltage charger that may charge a high voltage battery, a high power adapter that may supply a high voltage to the high voltage charger, and a high power direct current (DC) jack that may be connected to the high power adapter are needed. Also, it is difficult to use typical power adapters for charging batteries and DC jacks connectable to the power adapter. Thus, costs and sizes may increase.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method for charging battery and electronic device


The present invention relates to an apparatus for use in detecting unacceptable input media, the apparatus including a contacting element configured to engage input media during a feed operation such that the contacting element may selectively adhere to unacceptable input media and move with such unacceptable input media during the feed operation. The apparatus also includes a sensor configured to identify displacement of the contacting element, such displacement being indicative of unacceptable input media.

Two common styles of printing devices are laser printers and inkjet printers. Laser printers typically xe2x80x9cprintxe2x80x9d by applying toner to media and then thermally bonding the applied toner to the media using a fuser, which generally takes the form of a heated roller. For such laser printers, toner may be colored toner, or black toner. Inkjet printers typically xe2x80x9cprintxe2x80x9d by heating liquid ink within a printhead. Such heating may cause ink to be expelled from orifices in the printhead and onto the media. The expelled liquid ink typically cures, or dries, on the media.
Various forms of media may be employed with such laser and inkjet printers. For example, both paper and transparent media are commonly used. Differing types of paper media typically may be employed interchangeably with either laser or inkjet printers. However, transparent media for use with laser printers may have material properties that are different from those of transparent media for use with inkjet printers. In this regard, types of transparent media adapted for use in laser printers typically have a higher melting point than transparent media adapted for use in inkjet printers. This higher melting point generally prevents the laser transparent media from melting when in contact with the fuser during printing.
As will be appreciated, melting of transparent media in a laser printer is undesirable as it may cause damage to the fuser, rendering the printer inoperable. Inkjet transparent media thus typically is unacceptable for use in laser printers. Furthermore, although laser transparent media may be employed with an inkjet printer with no adverse effects to the printer the Ink may not properly adhere to the laser media. Unfortunately, where differing types of media are available, the potential for confusion exists.
The present invention relates to an apparatus for use in detecting unacceptable input media. The apparatus includes a contacting element configured to engage input media during a feed operation such that the contacting element may selectively adhere to unacceptable input media and move with such unacceptable input media during the feed operation. The apparatus also includes a sensor configured to identify displacement of the contacting element, such displacement being indicative of unacceptable input media.

Apparatus for detecting unacceptable media

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a substrate comprising pixels, each of which comprises a first sub-pixel, a second sub-pixel, and a third sub-pixel, and a plurality of pixel electrodes independently formed for respective sub-pixels; a first common layer commonly formed on the pixels; first lines covering first sub-pixels arranged in a first direction, wherein the first lines comprise a first organic light-emitting layer; a plurality of second lines covering second sub-pixels arranged in the first direction, wherein the second lines comprise a second organic light-emitting layer differing from the first organic light-emitting layer; a second common layer commonly formed on the plurality of pixels, wherein the second common layer comprises a third organic light-emitting layer differing from the first organic light-emitting layer and the second organic light-emitting layer; a third common layer commonly formed on the pixels; and an opposite electrode commonly formed on the pixels.

1. Field of the Invention
The following description relates to an organic light-emitting display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light-emitting display device includes intermediate layers (including an emission layer) disposed between electrodes that are arranged opposite to (arranged to face) each other. The electrodes and the intermediate layers may be formed using various methods, one of which is an independent deposition method. When an organic light-emitting display device is manufactured by using the deposition method, a fine metal mask (FMM) having the same pattern as that of an organic layer to be formed is disposed to closely contact a substrate on which the organic layer and the like are to be formed, and an organic layer material is deposited on the FMM to form the organic layer having a desired pattern.
However, the deposition method using such an FMM presents difficulties in manufacturing large organic light-emitting display devices using a large mother glass. For example, when a large mask is used, the mask may bend due to a gravitational pull to thereby distort its pattern. Such disadvantages are not conducive to the recent trend towards high-definition patterns.
Moreover, processes of aligning a substrate and an FMM to closely contact each other, performing deposition thereon, and separating the FMM from the substrate are time-consuming, resulting in a long manufacturing time and low production efficiency.
Information disclosed in this Background section was already known by the inventors of the present invention before achieving the present invention or is technical information acquired in the process of achieving the present invention. Therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Organic light-emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same


Shadow mask and process for manufacturing a shadow mask made of an iron/nickel alloy in which: a foil perforated with holes is provided, the foil is subjected to a heat treatment in order to obtain grains whose size, as defined by the ASTM standard, is greater than or equal to ASTM 7, the foil is formed in order to give it the shape of a shadow mask.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a shadow mask and to a process for the manufacture of a shadow mask made of an iron/nickel alloy. The shadow mask of the invention is particularly suited for a color display cathode-ray tube.
2. Discussion of the Background
A color display cathode-ray tube generally comprises an envelope having a display window made of glass, including a display screen on which red, green and blue luminophores are placed. A shadow mask, perforated with a very large number of small holes, is mounted in the tube, opposite the display screen and at a short distance from it. When the tube is operating, three electron beams are generated inside the tube by three electron guns, the electron beams passing through the holes in the shadow mask and bombarding the phosphorescent areas.
The relative positions of the holes and of the luminophores are such that each electron beam bombards the phosphorescent areas corresponding to a particular color in order to form a picture. However, a significant part of the electrons is intercepted by the shadow mask and the kinetic energy of these electrons is converted into heat which raises the temperature of the shadow mask. The thermal expansion of the shadow mask, generated by this temperature rise, can cause local distortion of the shadow mask, which causes a disturbance in the placing of the holes relative to the associated luminophores. This results in errors in the colors in the picture made, and these errors are more significant the flatter the shadow mask, which is increasingly the case in current generations of cathode-ray display tubes.
It is well known that such problems, caused by thermal effects, can be avoided by manufacturing shadow masks from a material having a very low coefficient of expansion such as, for example, an iron/nickel alloy containing approximately 36% nickel. However, the high level of the mechanical properties and the difficulties in rolling such materials limit their use for this application.
It is known, from United States Patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,321 (EP-A 179,506), to firstly subject a foil made of such a material, intended for the manufacture of a shadow mask, to a heat treatment in order to reduce its 0.2% yield stress at room temperature and to then perform shaping above room temperature so as to further reduce its 0.2% yield stress. The iron/nickel alloy used in this process has a coefficient of linear expansion of between 1.times.10.sup.-6 K.sup.-1 and 1.5.times.10.sup.-6 K.sup.-1. A lower coefficient of expansion can be obtained by replacing part of the nickel with cobalt in amounts of between 2% and 12% by weight. However, the substitution of nickel by cobalt has many drawbacks. On the one hand, cobalt is a very expensive element and, on the other hand, cobalt contaminates the chemical etching reagents used for drilling the holes in the shadow mask by chemical etching.

Process for manufacturing a shadow mask made of an iron/nickel alloy


A sports mat includes a foam sheet, an adhesive bonding film, a patterned layer and a skid proof layer. The foam sheet is made of polyethylene foam. The adhesive bonding film applied to a top surface of the foam sheet. The patterned layer has a plastic film and a pattern printed in a bottom surface of the plastic film. The plastic film together with the pattern is joined on top of the adhesive bonding film. The skid proof layer, made of thermal plastic rubber, is coated over a top surface of the plastic film. Additionally, the skid proof layer together with the patterned layer, the adhesive bonding film and the foam sheet defines a plurality of indentations and protrusions over a top surface of the skid proof layer so as to strengthen connection therebetween.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sports mat and in particular to a yoga mat.
2. Related Prior Art
Recently, exercise has gained popularity among people. Many people go to gyms for exercise. There is increasing need to choose a safe and comfortable sports mat. The sports mat protects a user's body from getting hurt while performing an exercise, such as Yoga, Pilates, push up or sit-up.
U.S. patent application No. 2004/0250346 discloses a skid-proof multi-layer yoga mat which includes an upper fabric layer, a lower pliable foam layer, and an intermediate adhesive such that during use the mat provides the athlete with safety and comfort and during transport or storage the rolled-up mat provides convenience.
However, the conventional sports mat is dull. This can't satisfy customers' desire for beauty. Nevertheless, the manufacturing process of the mats includes a plurality of steps, such as twisting, plunging and the like. The different colors of materials may be mixed up during the process so that a fresh colorful mat is still needed.
Hence, Taiwan Patent M251621, for example, discloses a yoga mat to enhance visual effects. The yoga mat comprises two transparent layers and a partly colored meshed laminate disposed in between the two transparent layers. The colors of the laminate are visible through the transparent layers. The visual effects are improved but to a limited extent.
What is desired, therefore, is a safe, comfortable and beautiful sports mat, which helps the athlete to enjoy exercising with a nice feeling.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


This semiconductor device manufacturing method comprises the steps of: forming a thick gate oxide film (thick oxide film) in a first region of a substrate, forming a thin gate oxide film (thin oxide layer) in a second region, and then, applying oxynitridation to these gate oxide films; forming gate electrodes to 1d on these gate oxide films; and implanting an ion that contains nitrogen or nitrogen atoms into at least one part of an interface between the hick gate oxide film (thick oxide film) and the substrate before or after the step of forming the gate electrodes, thereby forming a highly oxy-nitrided region. In this manner, in a semiconductor device in which there coexist a MISFET having a thin gate insulation film and a MISFET having a thick gate insulation film, hot carrier reliability of the MISFET having the thick gate insulation film is improved.

In recent years, since it becomes evident that a gate oxide film is oxy-nitrided in gas atmosphere such as NO or N2O, and nitrogen atoms are piled up on an interface between the gate oxide film and a silicon substrate, thereby making it possible to improve a hot carrier reliability of an n-channel type MISFET, and restrain boron (B) penetration from a p-type polycrystal silicon gate, this oxynitridation has been practically available for use in logic products.
However, there has been a report that, if an amount of nitrogen in the interface between the gate oxide film and the silicon substrate (hereinafter, referred to as a SiO2/Si interface) is excessively increased, a p-channel type MISFET is severely degraded (for example, NBTI (negative bias temperature instability) described in 1999 VLSI Symposium Digest of Technical Paper, P. 73). Therefore, control of an amount of nitrogen in the above interface is an important task.
In addition, as a substitutive technique of an oxynitridation, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-79506, it is known that a similar advantageous effect is attained by ion implantation when source and drain extensions are formed after nitrogen or a nitrogen-containing ion has been subjected to gate electrode processing. FIG. 84 shows the test result showing an example, where remarkable improvement of a hot carrier reliability is achieved by almost one hundred times in a nitrogen atom of 1×1015 cm−2 in dosage.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing thereof


The present description discloses solid-contact (SC) electrodes that use mesoporous carbon such as colloid-imprinted mesoporous (CIM) carbon as the interlayer. The electrodes can be ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) or reference electrodes. The CIM carbon with the interconnected mesopores is used as the intermediate layer between the solid electron conductor, such as gold, and a membrane such as an ionophore-doped ion-selective membrane or a reference membrane. The disclosure includes methods of constructing solid contact electrodes such as SC-ISE or reference electrodes with a CIM carbon interlayer, and methods of using the electrodes to determine the quantity of an analyte in a sample. The description also includes disposable paper-based devices for measuring analytes in a sample.

Ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) are widely used in various application fields, including clinical analysis, process control, and environmental monitoring (Bakker et al. 1997; Bühlmann et al. 1998; Bobacka et al. 2008; Bühlmann et al. 2012; Johnson et al. 2003). To achieve sensor miniaturization, small sample volumes, easy maintenance, and scalability for mass production, solid-contact ion-selective electrodes (SC-ISEs), in which a solid contact is used as the ion-to-electron transducer, have attracted much attention (Bobacka et al. 2008; Linder et al. 2009; Michalska 2012; Pretsch 2007). In view of the need for affordable and portable analytical devices for small sample volumes, miniaturizable SC-ISEs are highly desirable but are only meaningful if the reference electrode is also miniaturized.
The first proposed SC-ISE, the coated-wire electrode was extremely simple but unreliable due to the ill-defined interfacial potential between the ion-selective membrane (ISM) and the underlying conducting metal (Cattrall et al. 1971). To stabilize this interfacial potential, intermediate layers consisting of conducting polymers with high redox capacitance, such as derivatives of polypyrrole, polythiophene, and polyaniline, were introduced (Cadogan et al. 1992; Bobacka et al. 1994; Bobaca et al. 1995). Some of these sensors have shown interference from gases or are affected by the build-up of an unintended water layer between the ion-selective membrane (ISM) and the solid contact (Vazquez et al. 2002; Fibbioli et al. 2000). More importantly, since these conducting polymers are polydisperse and exhibit a continuum of local geometries, they do not have a well-defined redox potential. Consequently, it is difficult to obtain high device-to-device reproducibility and to minimize long-term drift due to reactions of the conducting polymer with ambient redox-active species such as oxygen.
Conventional reference electrodes are typically Ag/AgCl or Hg/Hg2Cl2 half cells and are connected to the sample through a salt bridge. The latter usually contains an aqueous solution of an equitransferent salt that minimizes the liquid junction potential at the interface of the bridge electrolyte and the sample. Although very stable and reliable, such reference electrodes exhibit disadvantages owing to the presence of the salt bridge, such as the need for frequent maintenance, a large size, and the mutual contamination of the bridge electrolyte and sample.
More recently, nanostructured carbon materials such as three-dimensionally ordered macroporous (3DOM) carbon, carbon nanotubes, fullerene, and graphene have gained the attention of electrochemists due to their intrinsic hydrophobicity and electric conductivity (Lai et al. 2007; Fierke et al. 2010; Crespo et al. 2008, 80; Crespo et al. 2008, 81; Fouskaki et al. 2008; Ping et al. 2011; Hernindez et al. 2012; Li et al. 2012). SC-ISEs based on these carbon materials have exhibited few problems with water layer formation and interference by O2, CO2, or light. Among the sensors with one of these carbon materials as an interlayer, the 3DOM carbon-based SC-ISEs have shown the most favorable long-term potential stability, which can be explained by the high capacitance of the interface between this carbon material and the ISM.
3DOM carbon consists of a glassy carbon skeleton with interconnected macropores that can be infiltrated with the ISM to form a bicontinuous ion- and electron-conducting structure. Its large interfacial contact area and high capacitance lead to excellent long-term stability of 3DOM carbon-based SC-ISEs, with a drift as low as 11.7 μV/h (Lai et al. 2007; Fierke et al. 2010). With these sensors, a subnanomolar detection limit of Ag+ and trace-level detection of perfluorinated surfactants in lake water have been achieved (Lai et al. 2009; Chen et al. 2013). However, 3DOM carbon prepared from resorcinol-formaldehyde precursors contains significant amounts of redox-active surface functional groups that can affect the reproducibility of the calibration curve intercept, E°. As a consequence, SC-ISEs that use 3DOM carbon still require calibration. Moreover, the monolithic nature of 3DOM carbon as used in the past is problematic in view of mass production of sensors (Fierke et al. 2010).

Ion-selective electrodes and reference electrodes with a solid contact having mesoporous carbon


Collapsible portable self-supporting shelter structures having from at least two component quad sections to seven or more component quad sections, which joined end to end form the width of the structure; and, said entire component sections optionally being joined side to side form a desired depth of the portable shelter. The resulting structure is a collapsible self-supporting prefabricated deployable shelter having a clear span interior without supporting columns.

To be efficient, portable deployable building assemblies should have a foldable capability so that they may be erected where desired and, when necessary, folded up to a compact form for storage and/or transportation. These types of portable building assemblies now generally utilize struts, which are some type of tubular rods, as the basic construction unit, that form the skeleton structure and thus the configuration of the portable building assembly. The tubular rods noted above are interconnected with one another by some type of linking joints, so that the completed structure is collapsible. A plastic, canvas or some other type of durable fabric covering is secured to the outside and, in many instances, to the inside of the erected structure to envelope the outside surface of the assembly and provide an insulating air space between the covers to form a wall type interior in the covered shelter.
The simplest version of a portable shelter assembly is the "pup tent" noted above which contains two sides configured to form an inverted "V" wherein the vertex at the top can range between 30° and 60° depending upon the desires of the user as to the amount of space present within the interior of the shelter, as shown in FIG. 18.
An example of a large collapsible structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,164, which discloses a portable structure having a plurality of rods joined by coupling means into groups of three which are inter-related to form a generally hexagonal structural system.
Another example of such a collapsible structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,806. Portable structures that utilize elements which maintain the rigidity of the structure are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,521.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,808 discloses a collapsible self-supporting dome-like structure with a network of pivotal rods interconnected with linking joints. The linking joint holds six rods, each connected to a six-sided metal ring. Each rod is connected onto the ring and is capable of rotating. The rod is a permanent attachment and thus cannot be disconnected nor replaced. There does not appear any way to attach a cover to the dome-like structure such as is found in the "keeper" component in the articulating hub assembly of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,313 also discloses a collapsible self-supporting dome-like structure with a network of pivotal rods interconnected with linking joints. The pivotal device linking the rods together forming the structure is a circular joint. Each joint has only four rods. Each rod contains a plug ending with a small cylinder. This small cylinder is nested inside the joint and allows the rod to rotate. It appears that none of the components is easily interchanged. The top and bottom sections of the hubs in the reference appear to be permanently joined by all adhesive so that none of the rods or plugs can be replaced.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,097 discloses a display panel mounting clip. The clip body is used to connect display panels together. The clip assembly disclosed requires a spring mechanism to create tension and hold the panels together. The present invention requires no springs. The clip disclosed in the reference must be snapped into an opening joining the rods in a circular joint. In the present invention, the circular hub is screwed into the hub section so it is threadedly secured.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,521 discloses a hub assembly for collapsible structures. The hub assembly disclosed in the reference requires a circular retaining ring to hold the "column like elements" or tubes in place. Each tube must be threaded onto a circular retaining ring prior to insertion into the hub section. In the present invention no circular ring is present or required to hold the rods together inside the hub to allow rotation. The present invention as explained in detail hereinafter requires that each tube have its own tang, each with its own roll pin to independently nest inside the hub body. Thus no ring is present. The hub sections are secured in place by use of an adhesive to fuse the two hub sections together permanently. The tube members within the structure, therefore, are not easily replaceable since the hub sections cannot be replaced without destroying them. It is an object of the present invention to provide a hub assembly that has the capability of quickly and easily removing the strut which is contained within the hub.
The '521 reference design described above, uses a three piece clamping device to hold or attach a skin or cover to the structure. One piece is a plug that is incorporated inside the hub section and is fused into the hub sections. The second piece is a flat disc. The third piece is an element which is a screw. The screw is threaded into the plug and holds the clamp down. A screw driver would obviously be required to remove the clamp if or when the cover, the skin or the tubes have to be replaced.
Soviet Patent No. 1,392,220 discloses a joint between rods which possesses two pressure plates whose surfaces face each other and have spherical loons with slits from each loon to the outer outline of the pressure component plate. Screws appear to join the upper plate with the lower plate to hold the ball joints in place. The reference does not disclose a hub assembly such as described and claimed herein.
Collapsible frame structures for supporting tents or other outdoor shelters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 563,376; 927,738; 1,773,847, 2,781,766, 3,968,808; 4,026,313; 4,290,244; 4,437,275; 4,473,986; 4,512,097; 4,522,008; 4,561,618; 4,579,066; 4,607,656 4,641,676, 4,689,932, 4,761,929, 4,779,635 and 4,838,003.
The prior art large structures disclosed in the references cited above in the past have suffered from a variety of problems. Some of them are not portable, and some are not collapsible. Due to the immense size which is needed in many present military and civilian applications, it is often difficult to erect or collapse (i.e., to raise or to lower) the structure network formed from the connecting struts. The inherent difficulties are that to erect or to collapse a large volume portable structure requires many workers, takes a significant amount of time, and requires special tools and equipment. The structures are bulky and heavy and have a complicated construction. Deployable portable building assemblies must be capable of being collapsed quickly and easily folded up into a compact structure.
The type of building assemblies using the central hub disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,695 ('695) to A. Jon Prusmack, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein, conveniently collapse to a bundle having a cylindrical configuration along its longitudinal axis when stored.
A front view cross-sectional representation of the shelter structure disclosed in the '695 patent is depicted in FIG. 1A which shows the shelter with five "sections" or "quads" (denoted 1-5). The quads (also referred to herein as sections or modules) are square and have side and diagonal elements formed from tubular strut elements connected at each end and in the center to a hub. The diameter of the tubular strut elements contemplated by the '695 patent is about ⅝″ (0.0625″ in). Each of the five sections found in the '695 prior art structure is 5 feet square. The structure in the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1A has a horizontal interior distance at ground level between quad 1 and quad 5 of a bit greater than 11 feet. Using the 5 ft2 quad dimensions and the tubular strut of ⅝″, when the structure is erected, the distance from the ground to the center point of quad 3 of FIG. 1A is in excess of about 8 feet.
However, when attempting to construct a portable building assembly having greater height, width and length dimensions compared with those dimensions disclosed above with respect to the '695 assembly, it was determined that serious problems were encountered with respect to the structural integrity of the shelter.
When forming a larger interior volume deployable structure than that disclosed in the '695 patent, a tubular strut having greater structural integrity is required than the structural integrity of struts having a diameter of ⅝″. Using a larger diameter strut with the same size hub as disclosed in the '695 patent will not produce a shelter possessing the required features necessary for prompt tactical deployments. An increased diameter strut (i.e., greater than ⅝″) used in combination with the prior art hub will not allow the struts to compress when collapsing the structure. Accordingly, the structure cannot be folded to possess the required "low racking volume" wherein V=⅓πr2h where the smaller the V value, the more efficient the system.
A front cross-sectional view of a larger shelter unit is depicted in FIG. 1B. It possesses quads I-VII. This shelter has widths ranging generally from about 18 feet up to about 32 feet. There is accordingly a wider horizontal space at the base of same between the interior sides I and VII than the eleven plus feet of the shelter disclosed in FIG. 1A. The increased building dimensions require a commensurate increase the diameter of the tubular struts comprising the quads in the construction of a larger deployable shelter. The increase in the diameter of the struts is required as a result of an increase in the stress on the struts. The larger struts result in added structure weight. In addition to the heavier weight of the structure, there are some substantial construction problems. If the larger diameter tubular strut is increased to a length of, for example, 7 feet, the complementary angles between quads I and II, II and III and III and IV, etc. will be changed, so the symmetry which is inherent in the '695 prior art shelter is lost and the structure is totally different.
In copending application Ser. No. 11/228,651 certain basic features of a different style articulating hub assembly with a double tang is also disclosed. As noted, that application is incorporated by reference herein.
In all of the dome or cylinder framework structures of the above prior art patents, movement from the collapsed condition to the expanded condition involves expansion of the base of the structure from a bundled condition outwardly toward and finally to the fully expanded position of the base. Conversely, when the structure is collapsed, the base retreats inwardly from the fully expanded position to the bundled condition. Expansion is effected by pushing upwardly on the center of the structure allowing the sides to slide inward, and the base of the outermost quad to be parallel to the ground. Collapsing is effected by pulling outward on the outermost quad to make it perpendicular to the ground.
In many of the aforesaid prior art patents, as in the present invention, the skeletal framework is covered with flexible waterproof covering material to provide a covering enveloping the structure to result in the shelter function. The covering material may be made of any suitable coated fabric, such as polyester, nylon or even an appropriately treated canvas, and can be one piece and may include flaps with zipper or similar edge connections means for covering any openings or the like. Preferably, the covering material is attached to the framework at the hub means in the manner disclosed in any one of the prior patents. In order to allow the arch portions of the framework to separate for expansion or collapsing, the covering is also provided for such separation, even through it may be zipped up to effect the proper covering function when the framework is expanded.
Because the covering is a fabric, it has a given modulus of elasticity. This elastic property of the fabric presents a problem when a shelter of large area is erected because at the top of the shelter when the fabric cover is under tension, rain or snow falling on the top surface of the covering fabric (which is initially taut) will tend eventually to weigh down the fabric to the point where it will sag and then will collect the rain or snow in pockets formed as a result. As more of the rain or snow collects in these pockets, the greater the added weight to the shelter and ultimately, the overall integrity of the shelter is compromised. The floating hub of the present invention addresses this problem and provides a continuously smooth contour to the top of the shelter so as to eliminate the problem associated with the pockets of water or ice on the upper surface (top) of the shelter. None of the references cited above disclose the use of a floating hub to eliminate the problem stated.
For reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for an improved portable shelter without the disadvantages inherent in the prior art.

Collapsible shelters with and without a floating hub

Abstract: Some versions of the collapsible portable self-supporting shelter structure due to its configuration may optionally contain a floating hub which is a top element extending above the structure's standard exterior matrix frame. The floating hub forms a high pitch atop the shelter, which high pitch causes the fabric, which covers the matrix frame, to be maintained in a taut downward-sloping condition over the shelter top surface so no rain or snow collects in the fabric at the top of the shelter.


An ink jet head comprises a plurality of discharge pressure generating elements serving as the discharge pressure source for discharging an ink droplet, an orifice plate having a plurality of ink discharge ports corresponding to the respective discharge pressure generating elements formed therefor, an ink supply port for supplying ink and a nozzle wall forming an ink flow path communicating the ink discharge ports with the ink supply port. The orifice plate and the nozzle wall are formed by resin material, and also, a thin metallic film is formed on the outer surface of the orifice plate. If desired, a water-repellent film is formed further on the surface of the thin metallic film. With the metallic film formed on the surface of the orifice plate, the moisture in ink is effectively prevented from being evaporated. Further, with the provision of the metallic film, it becomes possible to perform the eutectoid plating for the formation of the water-repellent film. With the head thus structured, it becomes possible to stably obtain excellent print quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet head that performs recording or the like on a recording medium by means of the small ink droplets that fly onto it. The invention also relates to a method for manufacturing such heads, and an ink jet apparatus provided with such head as well.
2. Related Background Art
The ink jet recording method is one of the so-called non-impact recording types. The features and advantages of this recording method are that the noise which is generated at the time of recording is small enough to be neglected, while recording is possible on various kinds of recording media at high speeds, and that fixation is also possible on an ordinary paper sheet without any particular treatment given to it, while highly precise images are obtainable at lower costs, among some other advantages. The ink discharge recording method has been rapidly and widely utilized in recent years not only for a printer serving as a peripheral device of a computer, but also, utilized for the printing system of a copying machine, facsimile equipment, word processor, or the like, with such features and advantages as described above.
As the ink discharge method for the general type of ink jet recording type is currently in use widely, there is the method that uses electrothermal converting elements (heaters), and also, there is the one that uses piezoelectric elements (piezo elements). It is possible for both of them to control the discharges of ink droplets by means of electric signals. The principle of the method that uses the electrothermal converting elements is such as to apply electric signals to each of the electrothermal converting elements in order to enable ink around each electrothermal converting element to be boiled instantaneously, and that each of the ink droplets is then discharged at high speeds by the utilization of phase changes of ink that generate the abrupt development of each bubble. Therefore, the method that uses the electrothermal converting elements makes it possible, as its remarkable advantage, to structure the ink jet head with the nozzles that can be formed integrally with ease.
Nevertheless, there is still rooms for improvement for this method, such as to eliminate the voluminal changes of flying droplets due to heat accumulation on the ink jet head, the influence of the cavitation exerted on the electrothermal converting elements at the time of defoaming, among some others.
To make such improvements, there have been proposed ink jet recording methods and ink jet heads as disclosed in the specifications of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 54-161935, 61-185455, 61-249768, 4-10940, and 4-10941, for example. The ink jet recording methods disclosed in these specifications are characterized in that bubbles created on the electrothermal converting elements in response to recording signals are arranged to be in the state where the bubbles are communicated with the air outside through the discharge ports of the head so as to enable ink between each of the discharge ports and electrothermal converting elements to be discharged almost completely. More specifically, a complete ink discharge of the kind becomes attainable by the provision of means for discharging ink droplets having a shorter distance between each of its electrothermal converting elements and discharge ports. With a recording method of the kind, it becomes possible to improve the voluminal stability of flying ink droplets, and the capability of discharging smaller droplets at higher speeds, as well as to improve the durability of electrothermal converting elements by eliminating the influence of cavitation. As a result, highly precise images can be obtained easily.
FIG. 6A is a view schematically showing one example of the fundamental mode of an ink jet head having the droplet discharge means which enables the bubbles created on the electrothermal converting elements in response to recording signals to be communicated with the air outside. This view is partly broken for the illustration on an appropriate surface. FIG. 6B is a cross-sectional view of the head, taken along line 6B--6B in FIG. 6A. This ink jet head comprises many numbers of electrothermal converting elements 1 arranged on an Si substrate 4; nozzle walls 6 that form the ink flow paths 12 each positioned corresponding to each of the electrothermal converting elements 1; and an orifice plate 5 having ink discharge ports 2 as an integrated member. Further, on the surface of the orifice plate 5, a water-repellent film 11 is formed. Also, on the Si substrate 4, an ink supply port 3 is open from its back side for supplying ink.
FIGS. 7A to 7I are cross-sectional views which schematically illustrate each step of manufacture of the ink jet head represented in FIGS. 6A and 6B. (These views correspond to the representation of FIG. 6B.) In other words, on the Si substrate 4 (FIG. 7A), which is provided with the electrothermal converting elements 1 and the driving wiring (not shown) on it, a soluble resin layer 7 is formed (FIG. 7B). Then, this layer is removed with the exception of the ink flow path pattern (FIG. 7C). Further, the resin layer 7 is covered by the covering resin layer (the resin material to structure the orifice plate 5 and the nozzle walls 6) (FIG. 7D). Then, the portions corresponding to the discharge ports are removed (FIG. 7E). Subsequently, the water-repellent agent is applied to the surface of the covering resin layer (that is, to the surface of the orifice plate 5) in order to form the water-repellent film 11 (FIG. 7F). With the masking provided for other portions than the discharge ports 2, the excessive water-repellent film 11 is removed in the interior of the discharge ports 2 (FIG. 7G). Also, the ink supply port 3 is formed on the Si substrate (FIG. 7H). Lastly, the resin layer 7 is eluted for the formation of each ink path 12 (FIG. 7I), and then, the electrical connection, and the like are arranged to enable the electrothermal converting elements to be driven. Thus, the ink jet head is obtained as shown in FIG. 6A.
For such a head as shown in FIG. 6A, the distance between each of the electrothermal converting elements 1 and discharge ports 2 is made shorter so that the bubble is communicated with the air outside. In other words, the thickness of the orifice plate 5 is made extremely small (8 .mu.m for the example shown in FIG. 6B). Also, in order to make the thickness small, the material that forms the orifice plate 5 and nozzle walls 6 should be the one which can be processed with ease comparatively. Usually resin material is adopted.
However, if the orifice plate 5 and nozzle walls 6 are formed by resin material (which is generally gas permeable), while the orifice plate 5 should be made thinner, the moisture in ink in the interior of the head is subjected to the easier evaporation to the atmosphere through the orifice plate 5. As a result, ink in the head may become overly viscous, and the print quality tends to be affected. Also, there is a fear that the air outside may enter the interior of the head to create bubbles. Such an influence of the kind may be exerted not only in the mode of the head where electrothermal converting elements are used, but also, in the mode where some other ink discharge principle is adopted, such as the use of piezo elements, when the orifice plate is formed by resin material.
Also, in the steps of manufacture shown in FIGS. 7F and 7G (after the application of water-repellent agent and the mask removal), the water-repellent agent may in some cases remain on the inner surface of the discharge ports 2. Then, the meniscus of ink is subjected to breakage by the presence of such residue of water-repellent agent, which may affect the print quality in some cases. Here, on the other hand, in accordance with the knowledge obtained by the inventors hereof, it is found desirable to apply the water-repellent film 11 up to the edges of the discharge ports 2 in order to obtain good print quality. However, in the step of manufacture shown in FIG. 7G, masking is provided for the portions other than the discharge ports 2 for the prevention of the water-repellent agent from remaining inside the discharge ports 2. This makes it difficult to allow the water-repellent film to be formed up to the edges of the discharge ports 2.

Ink jet head having an improved orifice plate, a method for manufacturing such ink jet heads, and an ink jet apparatus provided with such ink jet head


The present disclosure relates, in general, to processes for converting 2,5-dichloroaniline compounds to the corresponding 2,5-dichlorobenzenediazonium compounds, and further relates to processes for the preparation of 2,5-dichlorophenol which is a key intermediate used in the manufacture of dicamba.

3,6-Dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid (also known by its common name dicamba) is a highly effective and commercially important herbicide that is useful for controlling a wide variety of unwanted vegetation, including agricultural weeds. Convenient and economical methods of preparing dicamba, therefore, are of significant commercial importance.
A number of synthetic routes for the preparation of dicamba have been reported in the literature. One such route generally involves the conversion of 2,5-dichloroaniline to dicamba as shown in Scheme 1 below:
See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,611.
This route, however, typically requires certain process conditions (such as fine milling of the 2,5-dichloroanaline starting material, use of a large excess of sulfuric acid and/or concentrated sulfuric acid in the diazotizing step, etc.) in order to achieve an acceptable conversion of the 2,5-dichloroanaline to the 2,5-dichlorophenol on a commercial scale. The present disclosure provides improved processes that reduce or eliminate the need for such process conditions while still maintaining, or even improving, conversion of the 2,5-dichloroanaline to the 2,5-dichlorophenol.

Processes for the diazotization of 2,5-dichloroanilines


An ink-jet ink is provided including an ink jet vehicle and a colorant. The vehicle includes at least 35% by weight radiation curable material, based on the total vehicle weight. The vehicle may but does not necessarily include a thickener. The vehicle is a paste or a solid at 20xc2x0 C. and has a viscosity of less than 25 centipoise between 40xc2x0 C. and 130xc2x0 C.

The present invention relates to radiation curable compositions suitable for use in the field of hot melt ink-jet printing and other applications.
Hot melt inks for use in ink-jet printing are compositions in which a dye or pigment is admixed with a vehicle which is essentially solid at room temperature but liquid at an elevated temperature at which print heads operate. The main advantage of hot melt inks over ink-jet inks which are liquids at room temperature, is that they solidify rapidly upon contact with the substrate. They are solid at room temperature and thus give a print quality which is essentially independent of the nature of the substrate. Moreover, independent temperature control of the substrate allows control of droplet spreading, again essentially independent of the properties of the substrate. This enables a superior print quality to be achieved than is obtainable with the liquid inks.
Current hot melt inks rely on solidification upon cooling to provide integrity of the print. Therefore, the durability of prints produced by the conventional kind of hot melt system is less than would be optionally desired in some applications.
Hot melt ink-like compositions are also used for modelling prototypes of articles of manufacture. A three-dimensional design produced on a computer aided design (CAD) system is used to control a hot-melt system which is used to xe2x80x9cprintxe2x80x9d a hot melt composition in layers to build-up the complete prototype. The compositions used for this application need to be very hard at room temperature.
On the other hand, radiation-curable ink-jet inks are free-flowing liquids at room temperature. They spread rapidly on contact with the substrate until radiation curing causes xe2x80x9csettingxe2x80x9d of the ink droplets. As mentioned above, the print quality with such inks is substrate dependent. It is difficult to control the degree of droplet spread and prevent inter-droplet smear.
JP 06200204 discloses a radiation curable ink for an ink jet printer which is solid at room temperature. It comprises from 10% to 30% by weight of a radiation-curable prepolymer and monomer and from 70% to 90% by weight of a wax and resin thickener.
New forms of hot melt ink formulation have now been devised which achieve benefits over both hot melt ink-type compositions and radiation curable ink-jet compositions.


The invention is a walker for an invalid. In detail, the invention includes a first U shaped member having a center portion and two parallel arm portions extending downward at an acute angle and terminating in vertically extending front supports for contacting the ground. A sleeve is movably mounted on each of said arms. A detente system is included to releasably lock each of the sleeves in an intermediate position on the arm portions. A pair of generally vertical extending rear support members have first ends for contacting the ground, providing rear support, and second ends pivotally connected to the arm portions of the first U shaped member in proximity to the center portion. A pair of first links are pivotally connected by their first ends to the rear support members intermediate the ends thereof and by their second ends to the sleeves. A second generally U shaped member is included having a center portion and arm portions terminating in griping handles, with the center portion thereof pivotally connected to the center portion of the first U shaped member. A pair of vertically extending second links have their first ends pivotally connected to the arm portions of the second U shaped member intermediate the griping handles and the center portion thereof and their second ends pivotally connected to the sleeves on the arm portions of the first U shaped member. A seat is pivotally mounted to the arm portions of the second U shaped member and is movable from a position wherein the user can sit on the seat to a horizontal position for storage. The walker is collapsed for storage by moving the seat to the retracted position and releasing the sleeves and sliding them down along the arms. This will cause the first and second U shaped members to collapse toward the rear supports until they all touch.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of walkers for invalids and, in particular, to a walker that is collapsible for storage and incorporates a seat that can be easily extended for use.
2. Description of Related Art
Walking aids for the physically handicapped may be as simple as a walking stick or crutches. However, in cases where the affliction is more extensive, walkers are used. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,960,148, "Collapsible Invalid Walkers" by C. E. Murcott discloses a walker comprising two side frames with front and back legs that terminate in rubber pads. The person walks by grasping a pair of handles attached to the side frames, which supports and stablizes, and pushing the walker in front of him or herself. A simple sliding of the walker is all that is required. However, if the person has mobility and sufficient strength, it is possible to slightly lift the walker off the ground and move it forward, while taking a step. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,730 "Walker For A Small Child" by J. P Samuelson, a walker is disclosed that incorporates rollers in the front legs. This allows the invalid to lift only one end and roll the walker forward. Another example of a walker having rollers on the front legs is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,994 "Reversible Walker Device" by J. R. Schutz, et al. Most all of these types of walkers are collapsible for storage purposes.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 292,076 "Walker" by G. E. Peters discloses a walker having a generally U shaped frame with interconnecting support members, and with a pair wheels at the back and foot pads on the front. A seat is installed on the center of portion of the U shaped members. This allows the invalid to walk and to sit down to rest when necessary. U.S. Pat. No. 2,792,874, "Orthopedic Walker" by O. M. Sundberg discloses a walker having front and rear wheels and a foldable seat. The significant feature of this design is that the rear wheels are slidably mounted to the frame. When the invalid sits in the seat, the frame member will contract the ground, thus acting as a brake. However, this design can not be folded up for storage. U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,422 "Safety Walker" by M. R. Sorrel, et al. discloses a similar walker design.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,211 "Collapsible Walking Frame Having A Pivotal Seat" by T. A Morris, et al. discloses a walker having a foldable seat. The frame is built like a ladder and, therefore, is essentially a double "A" frame with cross members to provide rigidity. The A frame members are pivotally connected at the apex and an over-center linkage is used to lock the side members of the A frames apart. A foldable seat is installed between the A frames. While this walker provides a seat and is collapsible for storage, the over-center links can be easily "bumped" to an unlocked position. U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,336, "Walking Aid" by G. R. Fernie, et al discloses a four wheeled walker having a seat, which is foldable for storage. Its main feature is that it incorporates a brake system that is actuated by twisting the griping handles. While collapsible for storage, the frame design is complicated and expensive in that gear assemblies are included.
Thus, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a walker for an invalid.
It is another primary object of the invention to provide a walker for an invalid that is collapsible for storage.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a walker for an invalid that incorporates a foldable seat.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a collapsible walker for an invalid which incorporates secure locking means that will prevent inadvertent collapse of the walker.
It is another object of the invention to provide a walker for an invalid that incorporates a foldable seat and further includes wheels on the rear supports that can be inactivated when the invalid sits in the seat.

Collapsible walker with a retractable seat


Lubrication and cooling assemblies particularly adapted for use with power receiving and delivery units that concentrically circumscribe planetary gear subsets encased in the housing of a vehicular transmission. Such assemblies utilize a source of pressurized lubricating and cooling fluid and employ a web plate extending transversely of the transmission housing. The web plate has an outer rim located in proximity to the transmission housing. A discharge chamber is provided in association with the web plate and is located in proximity to the outer rim. Fluid communication means penetrate the web plate to transfer pressurized fluid from the source of pressurized lubricating and cooling fluid to the discharge chamber. One or more spray rings define at least one wall of the discharge chamber, and one or more orifices penetrating the spray ring.

The present invention relates broadly to vehicular transmissions. In general, the present invention relates to vehicular transmissions that utilize supplemental power receiving and delivery units which derive their power from an on-board source of electrical energy. More particularly, the present invention relates to electromechanical, vehicular transmissions wherein the interactive planetary gear subsets are operatively connected to an engine and one or more power receiving and delivery units. Specifically, the power receiving and delivery units may be motor/generators, or simply motors, each of which have stators and rotors.
The purpose of a vehicular transmission is to provide a neutral, at least one reverse and one or more forward driving ranges that impart power from an internal combustion engine, and/or other power sources, by which to drive the members that deliver the tractive effort from the vehicle to the terrain over which the vehicle is being driven.
As explained in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,757 issued on Aug. 8, 1999, and assigned to General Motors Corporation, the challenge is to provide a power system that will operate at high efficiencies over a wide variety of operating conditions. Desirable electric variable transmissions should, therefore, leverage not only the benefits of a series, hybrid transmission for desirable low-average power duty cyclesxe2x80x94i.e.: low speed start/stop duty cyclesxe2x80x94but also the benefits of a parallel, hybrid transmission for high-average output powerxe2x80x94i.e.: high speed duty cycles.
By way of background, the power supplied by the engine and the power supplied by the source of electrical energy are independently connected to the drive members in a parallel transmission arrangement. Perfecting a concept wherein multiple modes, or gear trains, are available for synchronous selection by an on-board computer to transmit power from the engine and/or selected supplemental power receiving and delivery units (such as motor/generators, or even motors per se) to the transmission output shaft, or shafts, results in a hybrid transmission having an extremely wide range of applications, the many beneficial results of which may be achieved by the use of an electromechanical transmission.
The electrical receiving and delivery units must transfer power from and, if batteries are employed as the source of electrical power, to the source of electrical energy in order to power the means by which to move the vehicle. If motor/generators are employed, the resulting power required properly to operate such a vehicle precludes a reduction in the size of the motor/generators. As such, a two-mode, compound-split, electromechanical transmission has been an excellent choice for use with many commercial vehicles, particularly inasmuch as such a transmission does provide a mechanical point in at least the first forward mode of operation, and that helps meet the cooling requirements at low vehicle speeds. By incorporating the present invention in an electromechanical transmission even further cooling is assured.
It is, therefore, one primary aspect of the present invention to provide new and novel, lubricating and cooling assemblies for an electro-mechanical transmission.
It is another aspect of the present invention provide new and novel lubricating and cooling assemblies, as above, that delivers a spray pattern which can be customized specifically to the structural arrangement of the specific electro-mechanical transmission in which any such lubricating and cooling assembly is employed.
It is a further aspect of the present invention to provide new and novel lubricating and cooling assemblies, as above, wherein effective lubricating and cooling is readily achieved when the power receiving and delivery units of the electro-mechanical transmission in which the lubricating and cooling assemblies are employed circumferentially circumscribe the planetary gear subsets of the transmission.
It is a still further aspect of the present invention to provide new and novel lubricating and cooling assemblies, as above, that permit an effective arrangement by which to share the planetary gearing lubricating and cooling fluid with the power receiving and delivery units of the electro-mechanical transmission in which the lubricating and cooling assemblies are incorporated.
It is an even further aspect of the present invention to provide new and novel lubricating and cooling assemblies, as above, whereby a cleated stator assembly can enhance the distribution of the lubricating and cooling fluid to the end windings of the stator and over the rotor of the power receiving and delivery units of the electro-mechanical transmission in which the lubricating and cooling assemblies are employed.
These and other aspects of the invention, as well as the advantages thereof over existing and prior art forms, which will be apparent in view of the following detailed specification, are accomplished by means hereinafter described and claimed.
By way of a general introductory description, lubricating and cooling assemblies embodying the concepts of the present invention are particularly adapted for use with power receiving and delivery units that concentrically circumscribe planetary gear subsets encased in the housing of a vehicular transmission. Such lubricating and cooling assemblies employ a source of pressurized lubricating and cooling fluid as well as web plate that extends transversely of the transmission housing. The web plate has an outer rim located in proximity to the transmission housing, and a discharge chamber is provided in association with the web plate and is preferably located in proximity to the outer rim thereof. Fluid communication means penetrate the web plate to transfer pressurized fluid from the source of pressurized lubricating and cooling fluid to the discharge chamber. A spray ring serves to define at least one wall of the discharge chamber, and one or more spray orifices penetrate the spray ring.
An electro-mechanical transmission such as that disclosed in the aforesaid ""757 U.S. patent is particularly suited to employ lubricating and cooling assemblies embodying the concepts of the present invention. Such a transmission utilizes a plurality of planetary gear subsets, and each planetary gear subset has a plurality of components in the nature of an inner, sun gear, an outer, ring gear circumscribing the inner, sun gear and a plurality of planet gears rotatably mounted on a carrier such that the planet gears each simultaneously mesh with the inner, sun gear and the outer, ring gear of the planetary gear subset in which that carrier is incorporated.
Such a transmission may receive its operating power from several sources. There may be a prime mover power source in the nature of an internal combustion engine. There may be a source for providing electrical energy, and there may be one or more power receiving and delivery units such as, for example, motor/generators.
To acquaint person skilled in the arts most closely related to the present invention, a representative electro-mechanical transmission within which the new novel lubricating a d cooling assemblies may be employed need only be partially described. That is, a representative electro-mechanical transmission is described only in sufficient detailed to permit one skilled in the art to utilize lubricating and cooling assemblies embodying the concepts of the present invention with many other embodiments of a transmission having power receiving and delivery units without attempting to show all of the various forms and modifications of transmissions in which lubricating and cooling assemblies embodying the concepts of the present invention might be incorporated. Should one desire a more complete description of a typical vehicular transmission with which the lubricating and cooling assemblies can be beneficially employed, reference may be had to the aforesaid ""757 U.S. Patent.
As such, the embodiments of lubricating and cooling assemblies shown and described herein are only illustrative, and as will become apparent to those skilled in these arts can be modified in numerous ways within the scope and spirit of the invention; the invention being measured by the appended claims and not by details of the specification.

Lubrication and cooling system for power receiving and delivery units in an electro-mechanical vehicular transmission


A main CPU and a sub CPU take share of executing a tone generating process to generate multiple tone signals on a real-time basis without using an exclusive tone generator. The main CPU and sub CPU are formed on a one-chip LSI, thus facilitating realization of a compact electronic musical instrument. According to another structure, the main CPU executes tone generation while the sub CPU performs an effect process, thereby permitting a one-chip LSI to generate an effect-added musical tone.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital information processing apparatus which digitally executes various processes. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a digital information processing apparatus which has multiple CPUs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various electronic apparatuses are digitized or computerized, and processing circuits have been developed for use in these apparatuses.
For example, in the field of electronic musical instruments, computerization has become common. A tone generating process which requires high-speed processing of a vast amount of data, however, is executed by a specially-designed hardware called a "tone generating circuit". A microcomputer in each electronic musical instrument simply processes control inputs to a musical instrument, such as input through a keyboard or a console panel, control input from an MIDI or other external units, input from an internal or external play memory, and sends a proper command to the tone generating circuit.
There are several problems in the system architecture of such an electronic musical instrument where tone generation is executed by the hardware-based tone generating circuit and processing of control inputs to the musical instrument is executed by the microcomputer. First of all, the hardware-based tone generating circuit is relatively large because the circuit needs a storage device, which temporarily stores data, and an arithmetic operation circuit wherever necessary in various stages for processing musical tone parameters. Secondly, a significant change often becomes inevitable in altering the design of the hardware-based tone generating circuit, thus requiring an enormous amount of time and effort for development of the circuit. Further, the interface between the microcomputer and the hardware-based tone generating circuits should be reviewed for every tone generating circuit, and be redeveloped.
For the above-described reasons, there has been proposed a digital information processing apparatus for an electronic musical instrument which can generate musical tones only by a microcomputer controlled by a program, not using any hardware-based tone generating circuit (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 455,978 filed on Dec. 22, 1989).
According to the embodiment of the above application, a single CPU executes a program to generate musical tones. In this case, the processing speed of the CPU needs to be increased to improve the performance of generating musical tones. Since the processing speed of the CPU is restricted by the limited operation speed of a semiconductor device used in the CPU, however, the realizable performance to generate musical tones is limited accordingly.
The forgoing description has been given with reference to an electronic musical instrument, for example, but the same shortcomings may arise in other various types of electronic apparatuses for processing digital information.

Digital information processing apparatus with multiple CPUs


The present invention provides a focused ion beam method in which positional correction is performed with reference to reference points on a sample and for carrying out processing using an ion beam, in which reference point conformation does not take up a lot of time, and which is capable of accurate fine processing. The present invention performs high precision processing with correction performed at short intervals using reference mark confirmation when fine processing requiring accuracy is performed, while positional correction is carried out at long intervals when accuracy is not required, which means there is no wasted time because inefficient correction processing is omitted.

The present invention relates to a position correction method carried out in order to realize accurate processing, in processing such as photomask processing used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices using a focused ion beam apparatus, namely a point drift correction method.
When executing a method in which a focused ion beam is irradiated to repeatedly scan over a specified region on a sample surface having a patterned film formed on a substrate surface, the patterned film formed on a substrate surface, the patterned film is removed by etching, and organic compound vapor is sprayed on a specified pattern processing region on the substrate using a gas gun together with forming a patterned film by irradiating an ion beam, accurate positioning of the irradiating ion beam with respect to the sample is necessary. However, when carrying out fine processing using a focused ion beam, problems arise such as the stability of a stage etc. for mounting an ion beam optical system and the sample, and positional drift of the ion beam irradiated on the sample due to variations in environmental conditions such as potential difference and temperature of the sample surface. Conventionally, in order to perform accurate processing, a method has been used in which a pattern suitable for the sample surface is registered and stored as a reference pattern. The reference pattern is then detected at regular intervals during processing and when there is driving from a stored position processing is carried out to correct this positional drift.
The main components of a focused ion beam apparatus performing this ion beam processing are shown in FIG. 5. An ion beam focused through an ion optical system, not shown in the drawing, is suitably deflected by a scanning electrode 1 and irradiated onto a surface of a sample 2 mounted on a sample stage 3. If the ion beam is irradiated onto the sample surface, secondary charged particles are ejected from the sample surface, the nature of the secondary charged particles depending on the sample material at sections irradiated with the ion beam. Secondary charged particles ejected by the irradiating beam are captured by the detector 4 and an amount of charged particles is detected. This value is digitized by the A/D converter 6, and stored in a storage section of the computer 8 as data pertaining to locations subjected to beam irradiation. If the computer designates beam scanning for a specified region, a deflection voltage is applied to the scanning electrode 1 so as to scan the region, via the drive system 7. Detection values of secondary charged particles for each beam spot are stored together with positional information, based on this scanning, to obtain a scanned image of the region designated by the computer 8, thus making it possible to display images as required on the display 10. An operation for removing a patterned film by etching irradiates the processing region with a beam as a result of the computer 8 applying a suitable deflection voltage to the scanning electrode 1 through the drive system 7, based on settings made via the operating section 9. Also, processing for forming the patterned film on the substrate involves the computer executing processing to spray organic compound vapor onto a specified pattern processing region using a gas gun 5 through the drive system 7, and applying a suitable deflection voltage via the drive system 7 to irradiate the specified region with an ion beam, based on settings made via the operating section 9. This type of ion beam processing apparatus performs processing in the above described operation, and also executes operations to acquire the scanned image repeatedly during processing, detect where the reference pattern drifts form the initial position and corrects this drift, so that positional drift does not arise.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei. 5-4660 discloses a method of performing spot processing using an ion beam and using these spots as basic reference points, in order to improve recognition accuracy of a sample without a suitable reference pattern and a reference pattern. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, secondary charged particles are knocked off while scanning a focused ion beam to display a sample surface image. A reference mark (start time) M0 is stored as a position on the image. After scanning a specified number of tomes by limiting a scanning range of the ion beam for the processing operation, a scan image is acquired again, a reference mark (correction time) Mi is detected, an amount of slippage of the reference mark is obtained by comparing with the reference mark position M0 being stored, and finally the beam position recognition is corrected based on this amount of slippage (amount of movement).
A description will now be given of an operation in conventional ion beam processing, for cross sectional observation of a semiconductor element shown in FIG. 4. If the place where it is desired to carry out cross sectional observation of the sample (the finishing processing region in the drawing) is specified, then first of all a reference mark M is etched at a position a suitable distance from the desired location, a protection film is deposited over an area close to the cross section to be observed, large holes are formed in a forward section of the part to be observed, the large holes are made wider, and finally finishing processing is performed to polish the section to be observed. Precise processing is possible as long as the positional relationship between the sample and the ion beam at this time is kept constant, but as has already been mentioned, microscopic positional variations occur during processing. Accordingly, positional correction is carried out in a computer 8 by detecting the slippage by interrupting processing to obtain a scan image and then comparing the reference mark Mi with the initial image position M0, and correcting a voltage applied to a scanning electrode. If the amount of positional correction is large, correction is performed by moving the sample stage 3, but generally speaking drift that occurs during processing is extremely small, and correction is performed by adjusting the scanning electrode. In the related art, this positional correction is generally carried out at fixed intervals, as shown in FIG. 3. In order to carry out accurate processing it is necessary to frequently confirm the position of the reference mark (reference point) M, but if such actions are carried out frequently the amount of time spent on the image processing is increased, and overall processing time becomes long. Shortening the processing time and improving accuracy are therefore mutually incompatible.
The present invention aims to solve the above described problems, and provides a focused ion beam processing method for promoting processing that is capable of very accurate finishing processing without the need for a substantial amount of time for confirming reference points.
The present invention realizes high precision focused ion beam processing in a comparatively short time, with no wasted time, by carrying out positional correction using reference mark confirmation at short time intervals when performing fine processing that requires high accuracy, but carrying out positional correction at long time intervals when performing processing that does not require high accuracy, thus doing away with inefficient positional correction.

Ion beam processing position correction method


Process for producing a grain-oriented silicon steel sheet from silicon steel slabs, particularly from continuously cast steel slabs, comprising at least one recrystallization rolling at high reduction rate in a temperature range from 1190.degree. C. to 960.degree. C. in the hot rolling step. The process of the present invention is very effective in preventing the streaks of smaller, poorly oriented grains very often seen in the final product produced from silicon steel slabs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing a grain-oriented silicon steel sheet having a grain orientation of {110}<001>which is easily magnetized in the rolling direction, more particularly to a silicon steel sheet of this type which is free from streaks of smaller, poorly oriented grains.
2. Description of Prior Art
As is well known, a grain-oriented silicon steel sheet having excellent magnetic properties in the rolling direction can be obtained by subjecting a silicon steel sheet to secondary recrystallization. In this process an important role is played by inhibitors, such as MnS and AlN which must be effectively controlled to obtain a satisfactory final product.
In the prior art processes, steel slabs are heated to high temperatures (for example 1300.degree. C. or higher) so as to fully dissolve the inhibitor elements prior to hot rolling and the inhibitor elements are controlled in the subsequent steps including hot rolling.
The temperatures to which the slabs are heated are very much higher than the temperatures used for ordinary steel grades and this very often results in excessive grain growth. Coarse grains having the <110> zone grain axis parallel to the rolling direction are not fully broken down and remain in the subsequent steps including the hot rolling step. As a result, secondary recrystallization in the final annealing is incomplete and the incompletely recrystallized grains remain in the final product as streaks of smaller, poorly aligned grains which will be referred to simply as streaks hereafter in this specification.
On the other hand, if the slab is heated only to a relatively low temperature (for example, 1300.degree. C. or lower), the inhibitors are not thoroughly dissolved with the result again being incomplete secondary recrystallization. In this case, streaks appear over the entire surface of the sheet.
In recent years, the old ingot-making process has been giving way to the continuous casting process. However, continuous slabs develop a columnar structure because of the unavoidable rapid cooling and solidification that characterizes the continuous casting process. In the production of grain-oriented silicon steel sheets, therefore, abnormal coarsening of the grains is more likely to occur during the high temperature slab heating step in continuous slabs than in slabs produced by the conventional process of ingot-making and breaking down. This abnormal coarsening of the grains is the principal cause of streaks in the products after the final annealing.
For prevention of streaks in products from continuously cast steel slabs, U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,406 and No. 3,841,924 disclose a method in which a continuous slab is preliminarily heated and rolled prior to the hot rolling step, so as to prevent the coarsening of grains during the high temperature slab heating in the subsequent hot rolling step.
As, however, the industrial advantage of the continuous casting method over the ingot-making method derives mainly from the elimination of the break-down step, the preliminary heating and rolling prior to the hot rolling step required in these prior-art methods greatly reduces the significance of the continuous casting method.