A method for welding a galvanized steel sheet includes utilizing a pulse welding of repeatedly applying a pulse peak current and a base current, setting a welding speed to 100 cm/min or less, and using a shielding gas in which 1 vol % or more and 10 vol % or less of at least either one of CO2 and O2 is added to Ar. The pulse peak current has a pulse peak time being in a range of 7% or more and less than 50% of one period depending on a sheet thickness of the galvanized steel sheet.

In general, a galvanized steel sheet with high corrosion resistance is sometimes used in suspension parts relevant to wheels that are an automotive component, or in underbody parts that are a portion facing the road surface in an automotive body. For example, in a suspension member or a suspension arm, which is an automotive suspension parts, a galvanized steel sheet is used. The galvanized steel sheet used is often subjected to welding and is coated after the welding.
In the welding of a galvanized steel sheet, zinc is vaporized due to arc heat, and zinc vapor generated here may pass through a molten metal or be partially taken in by a molten metal, resulting in blowhole formation. As the amount of blowholes generated is larger, in the welding of a galvanized steel sheet, the blowhole resistance is judged to be poorer.
Various proposals for addressing the problem of the blowhole resistance have been heretofore made. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a technique of performing while shaking the weld pool and promoting discharge of zinc vapor, by controlling the waveform of welding current, setting the carbon dioxide gas concentration of a shielding gas to be relatively high, and repeating a high pulse current term and a low pulse current term.
In addition, Patent Document 2 describes a galvanized steel sheet, in which welding is performed at a high speed by periodically repeating a term in which a rectangular wave pulse is applied, and a term in which only a base current is applied.

Method for welding zinc plated steel plate


A threaded pipe connection as shown in FIGS. 1, 4, 5, 6 or 7, having a thread form such as depicted in FIGS. 8-11, that has: improved sealing; increased resistance to mechanical loads; easy assembly and low makeup torque. Both pin (31) and box (45) may be cut on non-upset pipe ends and result in nearly 100 percent joint efficiency. Tension flank (33) and compression flank (34) may be formed on pin (31) at high flank angles measured from the tubular axis so as to withstand high axial loads without forcing the pin inwardly and the box outwardly, which would tend to separate the mating threads, break the seal and jump threads. Low torque is assured by the complementary forms of pin threads (32) and box threads (42) which confine the thread dope (49) to remain in the root gaps (52) and (54) during assembly.

A flush joint tubular connection has inner and outer diameters substantially the same as the tubing joints which the connection connects. A flush joint tubular connection made be the Hydril Company and covered by numerous patents comprise a first straight thread, a second straight thread of sufficient diameter to pass within the bore of the first thread and a tapered mating seat between the two joints of tubing which is a premium joint of high cost and according to published data, enjoys only 42% axial strength, relative to the pipe wall.
Standard A.P.I. non-upset tubing connections comprise couplings having outer diameters considerably larger than the pipe outer diameter but still only enjoy approximately 42% efficiency as above. A.P.I. does list a "turned down" collar outer diameter to increase clearance between strings, however, the "turned down" diameter still exceeds substantially, the pipe outer diameter.
No prior art discloses a flush joint tubular connection having tapered threads, that when properly assembled, effects optimum stresses within the small end of the external thread and within the large end of the internal thread so as to provide a connection of maximum efficiency. Conventional pipe connections have threads with like tapers and result in a constant diametrical interference along the taper between the external and internal threads, thereby causing excessive stresses or requiring increased wall thickness at the end of the pipe. Excessive stresses reduce the joint strength and an increased wall thickness rules out a flush joint connection.
It is therefore clear that a flush joint connection having a high efficiency as provided by the instant invention is needed for use within oilwells and other pipe assemblies wherein radial clearance is limited.
Standard pipe threads as well as A.P.I. threaded connections have such a tendency to cross-thread that "stabbing guides" are often used at a considerable cost of time and expense. Such threads have an extremely shallow stab depth and a relatively large thread depth, both of which add to the cross-thread problem. Perfect alignment is difficult to attain under normal field conditions and often impossible to attain under difficult conditions. Premium connections such as disclosed by Stone in U.S. Pat. No. 1,932,427 require even closer alignment to stab because of the close fit of straight threads and the "pin-nose" seal 32, which is highly susceptible to damage. To applicants belief no prior art comprised the combination of a deep stab, thread height and thread diameter as required to provide a tapered threaded connection that will stab easily and quickly without the possibility of cross-threading. By way of an example, a 23/8 EU 8rd A.P.I. tubing thread has a 2.473" pin end diameter and a 2.437" box bore at the first thread which allows no entry of the pin into the box at stab position. The counterbore of the box allows entry of the pin only 0.446" affording at best, axial alignment but no angular alignment so less than six degrees of angular misalignment will allow it to cross-thread.
About 1940, A.P.I. changed from 10V threads to 8rd and a substantial improvement resulted because less gauling occurred during makeup of the threads. It was then commonly assumed "that any thread finer than 8 threads per inch would gall and cross-thread" and that myth persists today. However, the improvement resulted almost entirely from the better thread form, eliminating the sharp edge V threads. The present invention with threads as fine as 20 per inch, run fast and smooth without cross-threading, and it has other features as well.
Conventional "near-flush" connections mentioned above, have two-step straight box threads formed within swaged-out ends and pin threads formed on swaged-in ends. Such swaged ends comprise a single tapered zone extending axially from the pipe body of original pipe diameters having a mean conical angle of taper of approximately two degrees. Typically, such swaged connections are rated by their suppliers as having from 50% to 75% efficiency depending on wall thickness, and with a variety of fluid pressure ratings. Such a swaged connection when compared to a 42% conventional flush joint connection, has improved strength, but at the expense of clearance.
To applicants best knowledge and belief, all such swaged connections now on the market are swaged to form only the degree of taper that approximates the lay of threads to be formed thereto. Typically, before a thread is machined in the tapered zone, a clean-up cut is made to assure there being enough metal to fully form the threads. Unfortunately, such a cut reduces the cross-section area of the tapered zone which limits connection efficiency. Additionally, production machining allows for only approximate axial positioning of the pipe in the machine prior to gripping the pipe in the chuck and such approximation can cause further thinning of the tapered zone. Thirdly, if first measurement of a freshly cut thread indicates that a thread recut is required, then the swage must be cut off and the end reswaged before even a 75% thread could be cut at that end. Therefore, in addition to the basic disadvantages of a two-step thread having a pin-nose seal, it is now even more clear why suppliers of pipe threads that are formed on swaged ends cannot provide a family of pipe connections with efficiencies greater than 75%.
Applicants U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,717 which is in the line of priority for the present application, discloses a connection with selective efficiency between 75% and 100% for non-upset pipe using a coupling in one embodiment per claims 1-17 and an integral connection in another embodiment per claims 18-19. The present invention is complimentary to said patent and teaches configurations for connections having swaged ends. To applicants best knowledge and belief, no non-upset integral connection is currently available that will meet the strain design criteria above. For users who prefer integral non-upset pipe connections, there is clearly a need for one with an efficiency sufficient to meet the strain design criteria defined above.
For purposes of this application, I define as follows: "Pin" is an externally threaded portion of a tubular member; "Box" is an internally threaded portion of a connecting member; "Flank angle" is the angle measured between a thread flank profile and the tubular axis; "Included angle" is the angle measured between the flanks, in the space between the flank surfaces; "Dope" is a pipe thread compound such as specified in API 5A2 that has been developed for 8Rd threads over many years to have an optimum combination of selected greases mixed with solid particles of specific dimension and nature so as to provide most desirable characteristics for sealing, lubricating and brushing over a substantial range of service temperatures and pressures. "Gap" is a distance that may exist between mating thread surfaces when they are positioned in best mating contact with each other, the distance being measured perpendicular to the surfaces.
The pipe thread form most widely used is the old "sharp-V" having 60 degree included angle as specified in ANSI B2.1 for AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARD TAPER PIPE THREADS and in API 5B Table 2.8 for API LINE-PIPE THREADS. Although ANSI B2.1 shows thread sizes up to 24" and API 5B shows thread sizes up to 20", sizes above 41/2" are seldom used because:their high makeup torque makes field assembly impractical; such threads are very prone to handling damage; they frequently leak, loosen or break and are difficult to stab. Sharp-V threads are restricted to very low pressure services by government and industry codes such as API & ASME, who require the use of other connections such as flanged or welded, when dangerous fluids are to be contained. In addition to problems cited above, sharp-V threads often tear and gall during makeup which can cause excessive torque and worse, such as dangerous and costly leakage of fluid from within the pipe at some unpredictable time in the future. In an effort to solve such problems and because there is no reasonable alternative to the use of threaded pipe connections for downhole use in oil and gas wells, API adopted about 1940, the "8-Round" form shown in API 5B Table 2.9 which has 8 threads per inch and an included angle of 60 degrees, the flanks being connected by rounded roots and crests formed with a radii 0.017" and 0.020" respectively. Although thread tearing and galling were greatly reduced, the retained 60 degree included angle still allowed axial and bending loads to cause loosening, leakage and then pullout of a connection. For many 8Rd connections, pullout determines the parting load and leaks occur at much lesser loads. The 8 Rd thread form, without regard to pipe strength, is limited to only 5,000 psi service by API 5A due to such weaknesses. Both sharp-V and 8 Rd form standards specify intentional mismatches between crests and roots of mating threads like all other conventional threads known to applicant, which in turn, acts to increase the root gaps, which within tolerances, ranges from 0.005" to 0.011" for sharp-V and from 0.003" to 0.008" for 8Rd even after the mating flanks are wedged together at full makeup, which allows dope to leak through the root gap. As makeup begins, the root gap substantially equals the flank gaps, as dictated by the 60 degree included angle whereupon, solid particles in the dope extrude helically from between mating flanks and out of the connection as easily as it flows from the root gap. Thus, flanks wedge against each other with virtually no solid lubrication retained between them, which greatly increases galling tendency. The coefficient of friction with just grease is 0.084, vs 0.021 with the solid lubricants, which can increase torque by a factor of four. It is now clear how the root-gap/flank-gap ratio can affect torque.
To reduce thread pullout, API adopted many years ago, the "BUTTRESS THREAD FORM" depicted in API 5B FIGS. 2.5 & 2.6 for use on casing strings. The 87 degree tension flank angle greatly reduced tendency of pullout and an 80 degree compression flank angle reduced to a lesser extent, tendency for axial loads to jump the pin into or out of the box. However, such improvements were traded for a loss of sealing ability, a loss of rigidity and a cost increase as compared to API 8Rd threads. The Buttress form has many more dimensions to control than the 8Rd form which in turn, increases tolerance stack-up and results in flank gaps of 0.002" to 0.008". Even if a low pressure seal is formed on makeup, external loads imposed on such a connection cause end play between the mating flanks which extrudes Dope to cause loosening and leakage of the connection, particularly after the dope has had time to dry. Such end-play was felt necessary by the industry experts on API Committee 5B to prevent extreme torque and galling if "wedging" between the 13 degree included angle was allowed however, not obvious to them were the ill effects on connection rigidity and sealability that they incurred by the change. As a result, when critical jobs require both high strength and good sealability, the operator must use more expensive "pin nose" type connections that do not seal on the threads.
My force-vector analysis for flank-wedging mating threads having no root-crest contact, shows unit frictional resisting force: F=f(P)(1/sin T+1/sin C)/(1/tan T+1/tan C) where: f=coefficient of friction; P=interface pressure; T=tension flank angle; C=compression flank angle. When T=C then this equation reduces to F=f P/cos C, the conventional formula found on pages 3-28 and 3-29 of Marks Standard Handbook For Mechanical Engineers 8th ed which is correct when dope is allowed to extrude easily from between the load bearing surfaces. Mark shows "sin" instead of "cos" because that angle is referenced 90 degrees from mine. Since both Sharp-V and 8Rd threads have flank angles of 60 degrees, their torque is proportional to F=2 f P when calculated in accord with conventional practice.
API Committee 5B evidently thought that if they allowed flanks of the Buttress form to wedge like the 8Rd form, that torque would be proportional to F=8.2 f P, which is 4.4 times torque for the sharp-V or 8Rd form, and out of range for practical use. However, since API Buttress threads do not wedge, then F=f P=0.084 P. API Bulletin 5C3 entitled FORMULAS AND CALCULATIONS FOR CASING, TUBING, DRILLPIPE AND LINEPIPE PROPERTIES" gives many formulas, but they do not give a formula for torque because their test results were so erratic. The reason why API 8Rd connections have erratic torque is because a first connection may have large root gaps that will prematurely extrude dope, resulting in high torque and leakage while the next one may have small root gaps and much lower torque. However, a well may have hundreds of threaded connections and only one leaking connection can result in disaster. Pattersons connection may have a more consistant torque than 8Rd but because he does not wedge flanks, end-play will cause it to loosen and leak when it is subjected to repeated service loads. For many years, thread experts all over the world have used API 8Rd, Buttress and Pattersons threads, but none have recognized features and advantages of the present invention.
The API Buttress thread form allows Dope to extrude through gaps between the flanks which allow 0.002" to 0.008" end play at full makeup. Even if the gaps are reduced to between 0.002 and 0.004" per U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,375 to Patterson, end play will still occur when external loadings are imposed to cause loosening, extrusion and leakage at some unknown time later. Patterson also evidently knew that wedging of his threads would cause extreme torque, as evidenced by his 0.002" minimum gap allowed between flanks that prevents wedging. Had the API committee or Patterson recognized advantages of the present invention, they could have solved their loosening, leakage and torque problems.
API Specification 5CT on Tubular Specifications states in paragraph 5.19(a), "Pipe test pressures shall be held for not less than five seconds" which tests the pipe wall strength but does not test thread sealability because, it may take more than an hour for pipe dope to extrude through the thread gaps to prove a leak whereas, the required service life is generally between five and fifty years. Therefore, many casing connections are now on the market claiming high strength, good sealability and/or reasonable torque, but they use a separate pin-nose seal in addition to threads for holding the pin-nose seal together, which increases susceptibility to damage and increases cost, which in turn, prohibits their use for most applications. The resulting failures of pipe connections in deep wells increases rework costs, energy loss, danger to the public and damage to the environment.
The manufacture and use of large diameter pipe connections present several problems not encountered with small connections. Handling damage is much more probable and much more costly. Reimert U.S. Patent No. 4,429,904 discloses a large diameter welded on connection having special form Buttress threads that neither wedge nor seal. The O-ring 76 and stop shoulder 73 are mounted with a welded-on tubular member of increased diameter and radial thickness, at a great increase in cost. A reliable connection formed within dimensions of the pipe wall would save time, energy, cost and the uncertainty of weld quality. Reimert also reduces torque by preventing wedging of the thread flanks as shown in FIG. 9, but at a very high price. He also provides a seal separate from the threads by means of an O-ring and a pin-nose, but a seal that will degrade with time and that is not retrievable with the pin to the surface of the ocean.
Many patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,094,492 to Janata and U.S. Pat. No. 2,196,966 to Hammer disclose high angle tension flanks to wedge in cooperation with low angle compression flanks so as to keep torque within useable range. However, low compression flank angles sacrifice compressive strength of the connection which tends to cause loosening and leakage if subjected to compressive or bending loads. Others such as Patterson have high flank angles for both tension and compression flanks but do not allow wedging of the flanks that is necessary to prevent loosening and leakage.
Therefore, industry is clearly in need of a threaded pipe connection having low torque, that stabs easily, that will seal reliably and does not loosen when service loads are imposed on it.

High strength, low torque threaded tubular connection


A method of protecting a low k dielectric layer that is preferably comprised of a material containing Si, O, C, and H is described. The dielectric layer is subjected to a gas plasma that is generated from a CXHY gas which is preferably ethylene. Optionally, hydrogen may be added to the CXHY gas. Another alternative is a two step plasma process involving a first plasma treatment of CXHY or CXHY combined with H2 and a second plasma treatment with H2. The modified dielectric layer provides improved adhesion to anti-reflective layers and to a barrier metal layer in a damascene process. The modified dielectric layer also has a low CMP rate that prevents scratch defects and an oxide recess from occurring next to the metal layer on the surface of the damascene stack. The plasma treatments are preferably done in the same chamber in which the dielectric layer is deposited.

An important process during the fabrication of integrated circuits for semiconductor devices is formation of metal interconnects that provide electrical paths between conductive layers. Metal interconnects consist of trenches that provide horizontal connections between conductive features and via or contact holes that provide vertical connections between metal layers. These metal lines are separated by insulating or dielectric materials to prevent capacitance coupling or crosstalk between the metal wiring. Recent improvements in dielectric layers have involved replacing SiO2 that has a dielectric constant (k) of about 4 with a low k material such as carbon doped SiO2 or fluorine doped SiO2 that has a k value of close to 2. The low k dielectric material has an improved insulating capability that is especially needed as the dimension between wiring shrinks in newer devices.
Another means of reducing the k value of a dielectric material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,858 where pores or air pockets are produced in the surface of inorganic materials deposited by a CVD method or in purely organic layers such as polyimides. An inert gas like CO2, N2, He, Ar, or ethylene is applied at high pressure such that the gas permeates into the dielectric layer and the pressure is then quickly released at a reduction rate of between 5 to 110 psi/second. For a 2000 Angstrom thick Si—O—C—F layer, pores with a 5 to 80 nm diameter are formed and the k value decreases from 2.5–2.8 to a range of 2.2 to 2.6.
A popular interconnect structure is produced by a damascene technique in which an opening such as a via hole 14 shown in FIG. 1 is etched in a stack comprised of a top etch stop layer 13, a middle dielectric layer 12, and a bottom etch stop layer 11 that has been deposited on a substrate 9. Substrate 9 is comprised of at least one conductive layer 10 in a dielectric layer (not shown). The hole pattern is initially formed in a photoresist layer (not shown) that serves as an etch mask for the pattern transfer. Optionally, an anti-reflective layer or ARL (not shown) is inserted between the photoresist and etch stop 13 to improve the process latitude of the pattern forming step.
In FIG. 2, a barrier metal layer 15 is deposited in hole 14 by a CVD method followed by deposition of a metal 16 to fill the hole. Barrier layer 15 protects metal 16 from traces of water or other chemicals contained in adjacent layers 12, 13. A chemical mechanical polish (CMP) step is subsequently used to lower the level of metal 16 and remove the horizontal portion of barrier layer 15 so that the metal 16 becomes coplanar with etch stop 13.
One problem associated with the damascene process is that etch stop layer 13 which is typically a low k material like silicon carbide or PbO does not have good adhesion to the ARL in the patterning step or to metal barrier layer 15. As a result, various types of defects occur that degrade device performance. A void 17 is shown that results from a lack of adhesion of dielectric layer 13 to barrier layer 15. Void 17 induces stress in the adjacent barrier layer which in turn causes a stress in the metal layer 16. This can lead to defects such as scratches in etch stop 13 or even in dielectric layer 12. If the defects are detected before further process steps, the substrate can be reworked but this adds considerable expense to the fabrication scheme. Even if etch stop layer 13 is omitted, low k dielectric layer 12 has poor adhesion to an ARL or metal barrier layer 15. Thus, a method is needed that provides good adhesion between a low k dielectric layer and adjacent layers such as an ARL layer and a barrier metal layer.
Another concern with etch stop layer 13 is that its CMP rate is too high which causes an oxide recess 19 around the bond pad used for the polishing as shown in FIG. 3. An uneven surface surrounding the metal layer 16 is not tolerable. For example, subsequent layers that are formed on metal layer 16 will not be planar. In the case of patterning an uneven photoresist layer, the process latitude is likely to be too small to be useful in manufacturing. Therefore, it is desirable to incorporate a method for forming a damascene structure that will prevent an oxide recess adjacent to the metal layer during a CMP step.
Furthermore, because of the poor resistance of layer 13 to CMP, there is a tendency to form scratches 18 in layer 13 that may extend into low k dielectric layer 12. These are serious defects that can result in substrate 10 being scrapped or reworked which leads to a higher cost of device production.
Three related patents describe methods for repairing damage caused by etching a via hole through a low k dielectric layer consisting of carbon containing SiO2 or following a plasma etch removal of a photoresist layer on this dielectric layer. In each case, reactive Si sites are formed when Si—C bonds are broken during the etch process. These sites are sensitive to water and can form Si—OH bonds that later cleave during an annealing process. The presence of water in the via interferes with a subsequent metal deposition step. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,346,490, a plasma treatment with N2 and CH4 after an etch step is believed to reform Si—C bonds that prevent water uptake. Likewise, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,015, a H2 plasma treatment forms Si—H bonds at reactive Si sites. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,259, exposed vertical surfaces of the dielectric layer in a via hole are treated with a N2 plasma to densify the layer prior to a mild removal of a photoresist masking layer with H2O vapor plasma.

SiOCH low k surface protection layer formation by CxHy gas plasma treatment

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


An inexpensive valve clamp assembly is provided which inhibits removal of a radiator relief valve. The assembly includes a cable for securing the valve to the radiator, a plate which holds the cable in position relative to the valve, and a clamp to maintain the cable in position relative to the radiator.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in heating systems. More specifically, it relates to inexpensive devices that prevent misuse of radiators.
While the present invention is described herein with reference to particular embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. The assembly of the present invention may be adapted and employed for a variety of requirements as those skilled in the art will recognize in light of the present disclosure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Of the many heating systems currently available, steam heating systems are among those most widely used. It is commonly known that steam heating systems include a boiler and one or more radiators which are connected to the boiler by suitable pipes. The boiler, typically located in a basement, may be activated to heat water to a boil and thereby generate steam. The steam travels through the pipes to the radiators where it is contained as it radiates heat. When the heat is shut off, the steam in the radiator condenses into water and returns to the boiler via the pipes. The vapor space previously occupied by the steam is filled with the cooler ambient air drawn from the room being heated. This air must be released from the radiator back into the room during the next heating cycle as the vapor space is again occupied by the high temperature steam from the boiler. For this reason, most radiators are provided with a heat-sensitive relief valve which allows the cooler air to enter or escape from the radiator while preventing the escape of steam.
Many landlords have discovered that during the severe cold of winter some tenants will remove the relief valve so that steam escapes the radiator and warms the room. The removal of the relief valve is readily accomplished because typically it is simply threaded into a threaded aperture in the radiator body. Unfortunately, the removal of the relief valve from one radiator causes a depletion of vapor pressure in other radiators and a resultant drop in the operating temperature of the entire system. This gives rise to complaints to the landlord and government officials and attempts by the other tenants to remove valves on their radiators as well.
Moreover, as the temperature of the system drops, the boiler is activated and remains on to compensate for the temperature loss. This not only wastes energy, but also increases heating costs. More importantly, the boiler will be overworked and invariably break down. A boiler breakdown during the winter is not only costly, but also gives rise to more tenant complaints and government action.
Removal of the valve creates some additional problems. One is the hazard posed by the release of steam. Case histories of tenants being severely burned by the sudden escape of steam have been documented by the news media. Steam can also damage the walls, ceilings, and furnishings of the premises leaving the premises in an unattractive condition and adding further to maintenance costs.


A packet congestion control technique employs an Active Flow Random Early Drop (AFRED) method to provide a service requiring a predetermined bandwidth with a stable Quality of Service (QoS) even when network congestion occurs. The packet congestion control technique includes: receiving at least one packet flow; defining identifiers for the received at least one packet flow; numbering each of the defined at least one packet flow; calculating a queue length of each of the at least one packet flow; allocating a maximum queue threshold value, a minimum queue threshold value, and a maximum probability value of each of the at least one packet flow; and dropping or accepting an incoming packet of a flow according to the calculated packet drop probability upon a queue length of a currently received packet being between the maximum queue threshold value and the minimum queue threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to controlling packet congestion. More particularly, the present invention relates to controlling packet congestion in which fair queuing of packets is effected using an Active Flow Random Early Drop (AFRED) method to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS).
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical method of resolving a congestion problem on the Internet is to control a transmission rate through a window size of a transmitting host in response to congestion which has already occurred and which depends on only both ends TCP hosts. However, since this method is unable to resolve the congestion which has already occurred, it is not sufficient to cope with an explosive traffic increase that the Internet has undergone.
When the congestion has already occurred, a queue length in a router buffer located at a congestion spot has already reached a maximum value, and so all packets following the congestion are dropped. Thus, all transmission hosts which have transmitted the packets almost simultaneously enter a slow start mode which reduces a window size, whereby a rate using a link falls.
In order to solve such problems, there is a need for a technique of actively coping with congestion before it occurs by managing buffers of a router (or gateway) which is an intermediate node, together with a current source based congestion control technique which controls a transmission rate of the end transmission hosts on the network. This can not only prevent the link use rate from falling but also always keeps a short queue length in the router.
An important objective of a congestion control technique is to maintain a small queue length at an intermediate node since a queuing delay of a network intermediate node greatly affects a total packet processing rate as it goes to a high speed network.
Various techniques for network congestion control have been proposed including a round robin scheduling technique to allocate a fair bandwidth to respective data streams.
However, a data stream can be allocated too much bandwidth or no bandwidth since a limited bandwidth is used.
In the typical per-flow queuing method, separated queues for respective flows are prepared, and the separated queues are separately managed according to a round robin scheduling method. Thus, fair queuing is possible since the queues are managed by the round robin scheduling method. A system which uses the per-flow queuing has advantages of not only reducing a packet loss problem resulting from congestion but also reducing buffer requirements. On the other hand, there is also a disadvantage in that because the separated queues must be managed based on each flow in the equipment, it is difficult to implement a fair allocation mechanism.
In a FIFO method, all flows flow into a single queue, and the flows are not separately managed. When congestion occurs, a packet is dropped so that a sender can be notified of the congestion, and a gateway (or router) can anticipate a network state by monitoring a queue length. If the queue length is long and an incoming packet is dropped, the sender reacts to such a packet loss. Such a simple packet management method is called the Drop Tail method. That is, this method drops an incoming packet when a buffer is completely filled. This means that a packet transmission rate depends on the performance of a link.
As a method of solving the Drop Tail problem, there is a concept of anticipating and detecting a congestion situation on the network in advance at an intermediate node and then informing the sender of the congestion. The sender is warned of a packet loss in advance so that the sender can adjust a transmission rate when a packet is forcibly dropped due to the network congestion.
This concept is known as "congestion avoidance" method. A purpose of the congestion avoidance method is to prevent an excessive queue size to thereby reduce the packet loss and to make a small size queue adequately use a non-used bandwidth of the link, thereby enabling the communication network to be optimally used. One of such strategies is a Random Early Detection (RED) method proposed by the Internet Engineer Task Force (IETF).
The RED method determines a congestion level of a network according to an average queue length and then calculates a packet drop probability. The RED method has a higher link use rate than the Drop Tail method.
The RED method enables an adequate use of a buffer by observing an average size of a queue. When the average queue size exceeds a previously set threshold size, the packets are randomly selected to be dropped or marked, thereby preventing the network from reaching a congestion state.
However, when the packets are dropped by the RED method, the packets may be processed without considering fairness for respective flows or any specialty for specific service (e.g., video service). This is because the RED method is based on the FIFO method.
Also, the parameters used in the RED method do vary according to a network condition and are fixed values which are set at an initial stage, and the packets are processed (dropped or accepted) based on these fixed values. Thus, it is impossible to take adequate measures for packet flows which need a predetermined bandwidth such as a video service.
The following patents each discloses features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the inventive features specifically recited in the present claims: U.S. patent application No. 2002/0009051 to Cloonan, entitled CONGESTION CONTROL IN A NETWORK DEVICE HAVING A BUFFER CIRCUIT, published on Jan. 24, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,677 to Kozaki et al., entitled SWITCHING SYSTEM HAVING MEANS FOR CONGESTION CONTROL BY MONITORING PACKETS IN A SHARED BUFFER AND BY SUPPRESSING THE READING OF PACKETS FROM INPUT BUFFERS, issued on Nov. 17, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,011 to Fukuta et al., entitled PACKET CONGESTION CONTROL METHOD AND PACKET SWITCHING EQUIPMENT, issued on Feb. 18, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 6,724,721 to Cheriton, entitled APPROXIMATED PER-FLOW RATE LIMITING, issued on Apr. 20, 2004; U.S. Pat. No. 6,671,258 to Bonneau, entitled DYNAMIC BUFFERING SYSTEM HAVING INTEGRATED RANDOM EARLY DETECTION, issued on Dec. 30, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,578 to Silberschatz et al. entitled EARLY FAIR DROP BUFFER MANAGEMENT METHOD, issued on Apr. 29, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,848 to Skirmont, entitled SYSTEM PERFORMANCE IN A DATA NETWORK THROUGH QUEUE MANAGEMENT BASED ON INGRESS RATE MONITORING, issued on Jun. 26, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,963 to Bechtolsheim et al. entitled PER-FLOW DYNAMIC BUFFER MANAGEMENT, issued on Feb. 4, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,149 to Lemaire et al. entitled QUALITY OF SERVICE CONTROL MECHANISM AND APPARATUS, issued on Mar. 20, 2001; U.S. patent application No. 2004/0071086 to Haumont et al. entitled TRAFFIC CONGESTION, published on Apr. 15, 2004; U.S. patent application No. 2003/0231593 to Bauman et al. entitled FLEXIBLE MULTILEVEL OUTPUT TRAFFIC CONTROL, published on Dec. 18, 2003; U.S. patent application No. 2003/0223362 to Mathews et al. entitled RANDOM EARLY DROP WITH PER HOP BEHAVIOR BIASING, published on Dec. 4, 2003; U.S. patent application No. 2003/0088690 to Zuckerman et al. entitled ACTIVE QUEUE MANAGEMENT PROCESS, published on May 8, 2003; and U.S. patent application No. 2003/0007454 to Shorey, entitled TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT IN PACKET-BASED NETWORKS, published on Jan. 9, 2003.


Examples of the disclosure enable performing semantic joins using a big table corpus. Pairs of values from at least two data sets are identified. The pairs of values include one value from a first one of the data sets and one value from a second one of the data sets. Statistical co-occurrence scores for the identified pairs of values are determined based on historical co-occurrence data. The determined statistical co-occurrence scores are used for predicting a semantic relationship between the at least two data sets. The predicted semantic relationship is used for joining the at least two data sets.

Traditional join processing relies on string equality comparisons of values (e.g., joining of two tables). While equi-joins work well in heavily curated relational database or data warehousing settings where data are extensively cleansed and transformed into suitable formats, typically a user has to manually find an intermediate mapping table to perform the desired join. Further, in most scenarios, there may not be a single intermediate mapping table that can cover all desired join pairs. In examples in which at least two data sets are to be joined, if the values in the data sets are related but in different representations, then the join processing cannot be performed without manually finding an intermediate mapping table or manually joining the values in the data sets. The existing systems for performing join processing are inconvenient, time-consuming, and even infeasible to use under some circumstances.

Joining semantically-related data using big table corpora


A set of n profile key parameters is selected, the set of n profile key parameters defining an n-dimensional profile key. Content for a website is created while assigning profile key values to the content, each profile key value being associated to a profile key parameter. A plurality of visitors is allowed to visit the website. For each visitor, the behavior of the visitor is monitored, and a profile key for the visitor is generated in accordance with content viewed and/or actions taken by the visitor, and in accordance with the profile key values assigned to the content of the website. The generated profile key thereby reflects behavior and preferences of the visitor. One or more patterns of profile keys are identified, based on an analysis of the profile keys. The patterns of profile keys are stored in a storage device of the server.

For website owners it is often desirable to have an idea of the persons visiting the website, e.g. in order to adjust the content presented on the website to match the visitors, thereby being able to keep the attention of the visitor, and possibly make it desirable for the visitor to return to the website at a later point in time.
In the world of marketing, theoretical personal profiles, often referred to as 'personas' are sometimes used for defining personal profiles of target visitors, and for designing and authoring the website in a manner which is presumably appealing to the target visitors. However, these theoretical profiles are merely 'good guesses' regarding the personal profiles and preferences of the visitors who are actually visiting the website, and the owner of the website is not in a position to evaluate the relation between the contents presented on the website and the preferences of the visitors actually visiting the website.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,975 B1 discloses a method for dynamically placing objects in slots on a web page in response to current client request for the web page. The users are classified into user groups based on one or more user-characteristics, and self-learning data is accumulated based on user click behaviour for each user group. The current client request is matched with a corresponding user group, and real-time selection of the slots for the objects on the web page is scheduled based on the self-learning data of the corresponding user group.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,917 B2 discloses a computerized method that provides a web page having control structures for gathering behavioural biometrics. The method can compare received behavioural biometric data with at least one set of previously established values. The user can be profiled based upon comparison results. This profiling can affect the manner in which web pages are provided to the user as well as the content contained therein.

Method and a system for managing a website using profile key patterns


In a fuel cell system which includes a fuel cell converter and a battery converter, noise generated in a high load region in particular is effectively inhibited, and silence is improved. A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell converter provided between a fuel cell and a load device, and a battery converter provided between a battery and the load device. The fuel cell system includes frequency setting means for setting a driving frequency band of the fuel cell converter and a driving frequency band of the battery converter so that these driving frequency bands do not overlap when a load of the load device is more than a predetermined threshold.

There has heretofore been suggested a fuel cell vehicle installed with: a fuel cell which is supplied with reactant gases (a fuel gas and an oxidation gas) and thereby generates electricity; together with a secondary cell such as a storage cell. In this fuel cell vehicle, an inverter provided between the fuel cell and an electric motor; a controller which controls the inverter by pulse width modulation (PWM); and a converter which converts direct-current voltages supplied from the fuel cell and the secondary cell to higher direct-current voltages, are generally installed.
Meanwhile, a power converter including an inverter and a converter has a problem of resonance caused by the flow of a current corresponding to, for example, a frequency of a carrier signal to a reactor. Accordingly, a technique is suggested at present to double the switching frequency of the converter to double the frequency of a three-phase alternating current flowing through the reactor and thereby reducing magnetic noise (e.g. see Patent Document 1).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application publication No. 2006-333615

Fuel cell system to control the frequency of a fuel cell converter and a battery converter


An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. In one aspect, the display includes a substrate, a scan line formed over the substrate and configured to provide a scan signal, and a data line crossing the scan line and configured to provide a data voltage. The display also includes a driving voltage line crossing the scan line and configured to provide a driving voltage, a switching transistor electrically connected to the scan line and the data line, and a driving transistor electrically connected to the switching transistor and including a driving gate electrode and a driving channel overlapping each other in the depth dimension of the display. A first storage capacitor overlaps the driving channel in the depth dimension and includes a portion of the driving voltage line. A second storage capacitor is separated from the first storage capacitor and overlaps the portion of the driving voltage line.

Field
The described technology generally relates to an organic light-emitting diode display.
Description of the Related Technology
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) includes two electrodes and an interposed organic light emitting layer. Electrons injected from a cathode electrode and holes injected from an anode electrode are bonded to each other in the organic light emitting layer to form excitons. Light is emitted when the excitons discharge energy.
OLED displays include a matrix of pixels including an OLED formed of the cathode, the anode, and the organic light emitting layer. A plurality of thin film transistors and capacitors for driving the OLED are formed in each pixel, or pixel circuit. The transistors generally include a switching transistor and a driving transistor.
The capacitor includes a storage capacitor overlapping the driving transistor, and since the size of the pixel decreases with increased display resolution, storage capacitance of the storage capacitor also decreases.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only to enhance the understanding of the background of the disclosure, and therefore it can 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.


A combined pressure and temperature sensing device includes a sensor port geometry that provides improved contact between a fluid media being measured and a thermistor cavity of the sensor port. The increased contact area provides improved response time and accuracy compared to previously known integrated pressure-temperature sensors. A temperature sensor element is offset from a pressure sensor element relative to a central axis of the temperature-pressure sensor body/package to facilitate substantially increasing a pressures sensor cavity volume without increasing the overall sensor port diameter. A wire-bondable thermistor support portion facilitates high volume automated production line. The temperature sensing element may be resistance welded to the thermistor support portion in a parallel manufacturing process.

In certain mechanical systems it is desirable to accurately and rapidly sense the temperature of a fluid and to simultaneously sense a pressure of the fluid at the same location. For example, in certain fuel injected gasoline engines, it is desirable to rapidly measure temperature and pressure of fuel at particular locations within one or more fuel injection pathways.
Traditionally, temperature sensors include a thermistor to measure a temperature of a fluid. In many mechanical systems such as gasoline engines. Traditional pressure sensors generally include a diaphragm type pressure sensing element, or a piezo-electric pressure sensing element. Temperature and pressure sensing elements are generally enclosed within a protective sensor package for protection from environmental forces and corrosive effects of the media being measured.
Thermistors and pressure sensors are generally enclosed within standard sensor packages, which are adapted for threading into standard sized mounting holes. Temperature and pressure sensors used in the automotive industry typically include standard connector configurations for mating to standard automotive connectors.
Combined temperature and pressure sensing devices can include a temperature sensor such as a thermistor and a pressure sensor such as a piezo-electric pressure sensing element within a shared sensor package.
The protective package of a sensor in which a temperature and/or pressure sensing element is contained can detrimentally affect the accuracy and response time of the sensor. For example, protective walls of a sensor around a thermocouple create a thermal barrier between the thermocouple and the fluid media being measured. The thermal barrier substantially delays the response time of the thermocouple. Moreover, in a combined temperature and pressure sensor, the temperature sensing element and pressure sensing element are necessarily displaced some distance from each other. Large displacements between a temperature sensing element and a pressure sensing element prevent the sensor from measuring a temperature and sensor at the same location, as desired in many applications. Also, in certain applications, a substantially off-center sensor can be disadvantages because an off-center sensor element could be deployed in a different location depending on how it tightly the sensor body is threaded into a mounting hole, for example.
Previously known combined temperature and pressure sensors have incorporated various sensor port geometries to improve response time and reduce displacement between pressure and temperature sensing elements, while maintaining a substantially centered location of pressure and temperature sensors.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,038,345 to Stoll et al. entitled Sensor Plug for Combined Pressure and Temperature Measurement describes a sensor plug for temperature and pressure measurement in which a temperature sensor and a pressure sensor are disposed substantially concentrically on the sensor body axis. In order to locate both the temperature sensor and the pressure sensor on the sensor body axis, temperature sensing element orifice has an axis that is inclined with respect to the sensor body axis. A narrow pressure sensing orifice extends in parallel to the temperature sensing orifice. However, the inclined location of the temperature sensing element orifice results in a limited surface area for thermal exchange between the fluid media and the temperature sensor which is mostly embedded inside the sensor body. This hinders thermal transfer between a fluid media being measured and the temperature sensor and thereby results in a relatively slow temperature response.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,434,470 to Engelhardt et al. entitled Combined Pressure and Temperature Sensor describes a combined pressure and temperature sensor in which a pressure sensor is centrally disposed and temperature sensor is enclosed in a cover lobe which is substantially offset from the central axis. The offset location of the temperature sensor constrains access of fluid media to the temperature sensor. This results in a limited surface area for thermal exchange between the fluid media and the temperature sensor which is mostly embedded inside the sensor body, which hinders thermal transfer between the fluid media being measured and the temperature sensor, thereby resulting in a relatively slow temperature response.

Integrated pressure and temperature sensor


A sports and games apparatus consisting of two rods and an aerodynamic projectile with an opening which receives the two rods. The projectile is launched by manipulating the rods in an opposing fashion. The opening of the projectile is of the appropriate size to allow for the rods to slide through, but not large enough that the projectile exhibits unwanted motions that inhibit accuracy during the launching motion. The rods are used to propel the projectile towards a variety of targets which interact with the projectile in various ways. The projectile may comprise a multitude of aerodynamic shapes and a multitude of methods for interacting with targets.

The present invention generally relates to games where players manipulate two sticks or rods to propel a ring to another person who catches the ring with another stick or set of rods. An early American game "Game of Graces" exhibits the tossing of a ring with two sticks for the intent of catching the ring by another player with another set of sticks. Games using sticks to propel objects are known as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,834 and U.S. Pat. No. 429,531. While these inventions enable users to catch and release ring or disc shaped projectiles, their design and functionality are not suitable for the accuracy required of target based games due to the size of the opening required to achieve both catching and tossing with the same apparatus. The large opening allows for unwanted movement of the projectile during the launching method that inhibits accuracy and reduces the force and momentum imparted to the projectile by the rods, whereas a smaller opening that tightly constrains the opening of the projectile to the intersection of the sticks provides the accuracy necessary for target based games.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Disclosed is a captioned video playback apparatus comprising a storage unit that stores a caption signal defining a plurality of caption lines and a video signal defining a plurality of video images in association with a playback timing; a caption select unit that selects one of the plurality of caption lines defined by the caption signal stored in the storage unit; a caption playback unit that plays back the caption line selected by the caption select unit; a video playback unit that plays back the video signal stored in the storage unit; and a mode changeover unit that changes between a caption view mode for playing back a caption line selected by the caption select unit and a video image corresponding to the caption line using the caption playback unit and the video playback unit, and a normal view mode for playing back a video image using the video playback unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a captioned video playback apparatus which processes caption lines and video images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2003-18491 discloses a caption display device. The caption display device stores a video image and a plurality of caption lines in the video image, and displays any caption line, when selected by a user, and a video image corresponding to the selected caption line.
The caption display device displays a video image and a plurality of caption lines on the same screen. When the display area for a video image is limited, therefore, the display area for a caption line is limited too. Depending on the number of characters in a caption line, therefore, the visibility and operability of the screen, when a user views a stream or selects a caption, become degraded. This problem becomes noticeable in case of portable terminals which are demanded of downsizing and have a limited screen size for their portability feature.
The caption display device also displays a video image and a caption line corresponding to the displayed video image as well as previous caption lines to the displayed caption line (history of caption lines). This limits information which is acquired from caption lines and a video image.

Captioned video playback apparatus and recording medium


A core-shell silica having a high sphericity and a narrow particle distribution and a method for easily producing the core-shell silica which includes dispersing substantially non-porous silica core particles having a sphericity of at least 0.8 and a coefficient of variation of at most 0.2 in a dispersion medium containing an alcohol and water in the presence of a surfactant to prepare a dispersion; adding a silica material to the dispersion and reacting the silica material under a condition of pH of from 8 to 13 to form a shell precursor containing silica and the surfactant on the surface of each silica core particle; and removing the surfactant from the shell precursor to form a porous shell.

Porous silica is used as a filler for liquid chromatography, a shape selective catalyst, adsorption/separation material for various ions, a flatting agent for paints, etc. In a case where the porous silica is used as a filler for liquid chromatography, the porous silica is required to have a low liquid supply resistance and a high separation efficiency.
The liquid supply resistance can be reduced by increasing the particle size of a porous silica. However, if the particle size of the porous silica is increased, it takes time until substances to be separated are absorbed by the porous silica, then reach a central part of the porous silica and then are released from the porous silica, whereby the separation efficiency deteriorates. On the other hand, if the particle size of the porous silica is decreased in order to improve the separation efficiency, the liquid supply resistance becomes high.
In order to satisfy both low liquid supply resistance (pressure loss suppression) and high separation efficiency, it is conceivable to use a core-shell silica wherein a surface of non-porous silica particle is covered with a shell made of porous silica. The core-shell silica has the non-porous silica core particle at the central part, whereby substances to be separated which is adsorbed on the core-shell silica remain on the shell in the vicinity of the surface. Accordingly, the time until the substances to be separated are adsorbed and then released, is short, and the separation efficiency is high. Further, if the silica-core particle is made to be large, while the thickness of the shell is maintained to be thin, the particle size of the core-shell silica can be large, whereby without decreasing the separation efficiency, the liquid supply resistance can be low.
As the core-shell silica, a core-shell silica obtained by the following method has been known:
A method which comprises a step of neutralizing an alkali silicate aqueous solution and a mineral acid aqueous solution at a pH of from 2 to 10 to produce a gel method amorphous silica, a step of wet pulverizing the gel method amorphous silica, and a step of neutralizing an alkali silicate aqueous solution and a mineral acid aqueous solution at a pH of from 5 to 9 in the presence of the wet pulverized gel method amorphous silica to precipitate sedimentation method amorphous silica particles on the surface of the gel method amorphous silica particles (Patent Document 1).
However, the wet pulverized gel method amorphous silica particles are not spherical but non-specific form particles, and the particle size distribution is broad. Accordingly, the core-shell silica obtained by precipitating sedimentation method amorphous silica particles on the surface of the gel method amorphous silica particles has a low sphericity and a broad particle size distribution. Further, there is a problem that if such a core-shell silica is used as a packing material for liquid chromatography, its packing property to a column for liquid chromatography is poor due to low sphericity.
Further, in the porous shell formed by precipitating sedimentation method amorphous silica particles on the surface of the gel method amorphous silica particles, the uniformity in thickness is low, and if it is used as a packing material for liquid chromatography, there is a problem of low separation efficiency.
PATENT DOCUMENT 1: JP3500305

Method for producing non-porous core-porous shell silica


An image forming method using a thermal transfer, wherein a dye-receptive layer on a transfer film is transferred to a print sheet and then dye layers on a dye transfer film are superposed on the dye-receptive layer and subjected to an image forming operation of a thermal head so that an image is transferred to the dye-receptive layer. In order to transfer the dye-receptive layer to the print sheet uniformly to enable subsequent formation of an excellent dye image, the quantity of thermal energy being applied by the thermal head to the transfer film is decreased with elapse of time. This principle can also be used for transferring a protective layer to the print sheet on which a dye image has been formed.

The present invention relates to an image forming method using heat or thermal transfer and more particularly to an image forming method using a thermal transfer, wherein a dye-receptive layer or an image protective layer is transferred uniformly so that an excellent image can be formed.
Heretofore, various thermal transfer methods have become known. Among these, a method uses a heat or thermal transfer film comprising a sublimable dye layer carried as a recording substance on a base film or substrate such as a paper or a plastic film. According to this method, full-color images are transferred from the thermal transfer film onto a dye-receptive layer of a print sheet. In the practice of this method, a thermal head of a printer is used as a heating means. Thus a large number of color dots of three or four colors are transferred onto the dye-receptive layer of the print sheet by heating for an extremely short time. By these multicolor dots, a full-color image of an original is reproduced on the print sheet.
According to the above described method, the material of the print sheet has been limited to materials such as a plastic sheet possessing dyeability or a paper provided beforehand with a dye-receptive layer. That is, images could not be formed directly on readily available materials such as ordinary paper. This has been a problem. It is possible, of course, to form an image on ordinary paper if a dye-receptive layer is previously formed thereon. In general, however, such a procedure entails high cost and is difficult to apply to materials that are generally ready made such as postcards, memo sheets, letter-papers, and papers for report writing.
Various methods have been proposed to solve these problems. One such method aims to form in a simple manner a dye-receptive layer on only necessary portions for forming images on a print sheet of a ready-made material such as ordinary paper by using a receptive layer transfer film, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,502. Further, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,881, in order to improve the durability of a dyed image formed in the above described manner, the depositing of a protective layer transfer film comprising a transparent resin on the dyed image surface has been proposed.
A method intended to simplify the operational procedure comprises the following steps. On the surface of a long substrate or base film, dye layers respectively of yellow, cyan, magenta, and, if necessary, black are formed in sequence. On the same surface of the substrate film, a transferable dye-receptive layer and/or a transferable protective layer are/is provided. First, the dye-receptive layer is transferred onto a print sheet. Then, dyes of the respective colors are transferred onto the dye-receptive layer thereby to form a full-color image. When required, a protective layer is transferred onto the image surface.
In each of the above described methods, a dye-receptive layer is transferred by means of a thermal head. In the case where the print sheet is a sheet lacking surface smoothness such as an ordinary paper sheet or a postcard, the adhesion of the dye-receptive layer with the print sheet becomes a problem, which gives rise to a further problem in that a uniform receptive layer is not transferred.
This problem can be solved by increasing the thermal energy imparted to the print sheet and the dye-receptive layer. However, if transferring of the dye-receptive layer under this condition of high thermal energy is continued, heat will accumulate within the printer and, as a consequence, will give rise to various problems. One such problem is the matting (roughening) of the surface of the dye-receptive layer. Another problem is the fusing of the heat-resistant layer or its substrate sheet to the thermal head, whereby the smooth feeding of the thermal transfer film is obstructed or the transfer film is torn. Still another problem is apt to occur in the case where a releasing layer or parting layer has been formed between the dye-receptive layer and the substrate film of the transfer film. In this case, the parting layer may melt to cause defective separation of the dye-receptive layer, which will then be prevented from being completely transferred. In consideration of the accumulation of heat within the printer as mentioned above, the imparting of the thermal energy at a low rate from the beginning may appear to be a solution. However, if this measure is taken, defective transfer will occur during the initial period of the transfer, whereby there will be much untransferred parts or incompletely transferred portions. Another problem is the possibility of transfer of the dye-receptive layer with uneven edges.
The above described problems occur also in the case where a protective layer is transferred from a protective layer thermal transfer sheet onto the image surface formed on the dye-receptive layer.

Image forming method using thermal transfer


A ship (20) with one or more liquid transport tanks (21) arranged in an upright position in a ship's hull, said transport tanks having an axial direction and a circumferential direction, and each transport tank comprising a tank bottom (22), a tank circumferential wall (25) and a tank roof (23), the tank bottom being supported on or forming part of a lower deck of the ship's hull. The tank circumferential wall is suspended by its lower and upper ends by means of deformable deformation absorbers (26) between the lower deck and an upper deck (24) of the ship's hull, which deformation absorbers are designed so as to absorb deformations between the ship's hull and the tank circumferential wall at least in the abovementioned axial direction, at least the lower deformation absorber extending in the circumferential direction around substantially the entire circumference of the tank circumferential wall, and at least the lower deformation absorber forming part of the tank wall and being accommodated at the position of the transition between the tank circumferential wall and the tank bottom so as to form a continuous sealing connection between them.

The current mode of transporting liquid media, such as chemicals, oil and agricultural products, is mainly in tankers which are equipped with rectangular cargo tanks that are integral with the ship, so-called parcel tankers. The cargo tanks are part of the ship's structure, in which the tank walls are formed by the ship's hull, profiled cross bulkheads and longitudinal bulkheads placed therein, and the ship's deck.
The disadvantage here is that cracks can occur in the tank walls through deformations of the ship in heavy seas and through temperature differences. The abovementioned deformations cause high stress concentrations in the tanks, particularly on the corner points, which can result in the formation of cracks. If this happens, an opening can develop between two adjacent tanks, with the result that undesirable mixing of the stored products can occur. In the current regulations it has already been stipulated for many products that adjacent tanks must not be filled with different products, this being to prevent the risk of cross-contamination and to avoid a dangerous situation. Owing to the fact that different products can be transported in the tanks, the tanks have to be carefully cleaned after delivery, in order to ensure that a product to be transported after that is not contaminated. However, the tanks are difficult to clean. This is partly because of the fact that the walls are of a partially profiled design in order to make them sufficiently rigid, and the fact that they have corner points. This means that a relatively large quantity of flushing water is needed for cleaning the tanks, which is expensive and undesirable from an environmental point of view because the flushing water sometimes has to be discharged as chemical waste. In addition, a slight degree of contamination remaining in the tank cannot always be detected by a routine check, with the result that damage can occur to the products subsequently transported. Owing to the fact that the tanks are more difficult to insulate, greater temperature differences can occur in the stored products. It is also necessary to heat to a higher temperature in order to be able to maintain a desired temperature in the tank. The higher temperatures can cause deterioration of the product.
In the art a search has been going on for alternatives for quite some time now, one idea being, for example, to place several cylindrical storage tanks in the ship's hull. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,827 or DE-U-93.09.433.
Further, a is known from NL-C-1011836. This publication discloses a ship with a cylindrical transport tank placed in the ship's hull. In this case the bottom of the tank is supported on the ship's hull and is connected to a cylindrical tank circumferential wall. Spring means are provided between the lower side of the tank circumferential wall and the ship's hull. The spring means serve to limit a movement of the tank circumferential wall upwards and downwards. This means that cargo in the transport tank is supported via the bottom of the tank directly on the ship's hull, while the tank circumferential wall can move slightly relative to the ship's hull within the limits formed by the spring means.
It is a disadvantage here that the tank circumferential wall has to be of a relatively thick-walled design. Furthermore, it is a disadvantage that a relatively heavy tank roof is necessary. As a result of this, the total weight of the transport tank is relatively high. The possibilities for scaling up are limited, while the spring means are fragile and require maintenance. Deck passages for the tank have to be flexible.

Ship with liquid transport tanks provided with deformation absorbers


A power tool includes a combustion chamber (1; 54), a drive piston (8) adjoining the combustion chamber (1; 54) and displaceable upon combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber, an ignition device (52) for igniting the fuel in the combustion chamber (1; 54), and a cooling device (2a, 6a; 64; 70) connected with the combustion chamber (1; 54) for cooling the combustion chamber (1; 54) with a liquid cooling medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power tool, such as a combustion-engined tool or an explosion-operated tool, formed in particular as a settling tool for driving in fastening elements and including a combustion chamber, a drive piston adjoining the combustion chamber and displaceable upon combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber, and an ignition device for igniting the fuel in the combustion chamber. The present invention also related to a method of cooling the combustion chamber of the power tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In power tools described above, fuel in form of fuel gas mixture or in a powder form, e.g., stored in a cartridge, is fed into the combustion chamber of a power tool. The ignition of the fuel with an ignition device provides for driving of a piston which is displaced in a cylinder associated with the combustion chamber. A fastening element, which was fed in the headpiece of the power tool, can be, thus, driven by the piston, e.g., in a wall.
Power tools, in particular, bolt settings tools in which the piston rearward movement is caused by cooling of residual gases and the resulting underpressure in the combustion chamber, are known. The temperature of the wall of the combustion chamber, which is usually a cylindrical wall, can reach, with a high setting frequently and high outer temperature, close to 150°. Thereby cooling of the residual gases in the combustion chamber and the speed of return movement are reduced or at least somewhat slows.
The return movement of the piston depends on a temperature difference between the residual gas and the temperature of the combustion chamber or cylindrical wall. The smaller is the temperature difference the slower the residual gas cools, and more time is required for return of the piston to its initial rearward position. This, in turn, reduces the setting frequency. For an effective, more rapid setting process a high cooling-down rate is required for a more rapid return of the piston to its initial position and, thus, for a high setting frequency. Moreover, with a more rapid return of the piston to its initial position, leakage become less relevant than with a slower return of the piston to its initial position.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is a power tool that would provide a high setting rate with a longer running time and/or high environmental temperatures.
Another object of the present invention is a method that would provide for a high setting rate of a setting tool with its longer running time and/or high environmental temperatures.

Power tool having a combustion chamber and method of cooling the combustion chamber


A method of manufacturing a display substrate, a display substrate and a display device are provided. The manufacturing method includes: forming an organic material layer in a display area (10) and a non-display area (11); forming an auxiliary layer (24, 25) in the non-display area (11) before forming the organic material layer. The performances of the auxiliary layer (24, 25) are changed after heating, to allow a portion of the organic material layer corresponding to the auxiliary layer (24, 25) can be easily stripped off. The method further includes removing the portions of the organic material layer corresponding to the auxiliary layer by a heating process.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology has been considered as one of the most competitive next-generation emission and display technology. However, in the application of display devices, OLED display devices face great challenge in large scale and mass production since the commercialization of polymer organic light-emitting diode (PLOLED) display devices released by Pioneer in 1996.

Method of manufacturing display substrate, display substrate and display device


The invention relates to a multilayered metal oxide film formed on a glass substrate by the sol-gel process. The film has a first metal oxide layer formed on the glass substrate and a second metal oxide layer formed on the first layer. To make the first layer minutely rough, at least two sols are respectively prepared from at least one compound selected from the group consisting of metal alkoxides and metal acetylacetonatos, such that polymers of the sols have different average molecular weights. Then, the at least two sols are mixed with a solvent so as to prepare a first coating solution. The first coating solution is applied to the glass substrate so as to form thereon a first sol film. The thus coated glass substrate is heated so as to transform the first sol film into the first metal oxide layer. To form a water-repellent metal oxide film on the first layer, a silane compound containing a fluorocarbon group is mixed with a solvent so as to prepare a second coating solution. After that, the second coating solution is applied to the first metal oxide layer so as to form thereon a second sol film. Then, the glass substrate is heated so as to transform the second sol film into the second metal oxide layer which is water-repellent.

The present invention relates to a water-repellent metal oxide film, and a method of forming the film on a glass substrate. The film-forming method belongs to the sol-gel process. The water-repellent coating is suitable for application, for example, to vehicular and architectural window glasses which are to be exposed to rain water.
It is well known to coat a glass substrate surface with a hard and abrasion-resistant film of a metal oxide such as silicon oxide. The metal oxide film can be formed, for example, by the sol-gel process using a solution of an organic metal compound such as a metal alkoxide.
Hitherto, there have various proposals to form a metal oxide film on a glass substrate surface for the purpose of improving water-repellency of the glass substrate.
For example, JP A-60-231442 discloses a water-repellent film on a glass substrate. The chemical composition of the film is not the same throughout the film. In fact, the film contains a higher content of a condensation product of a first organic silicon compound on the side of the glass substrate and a higher content of a condensation product of a second organic silicon compound or a fluorine compound on the exposed side. The second organic silicon compound contains a higher content of carbon or a lower content of oxygen as compared with the first organic silicon compound. Examples of the first and second organic silicon compounds are tetramethylsilane and tetraethoxysilane, respectively. However, it is necessary to take a plasma condensation method to form the film on the glass substrate. Furthermore, the film tends to be too thick in thickness.
JP A-3-247537 discloses a method of forming water-repellent film on a glass substrate. In this method, a solution of polydialkylsiloxane in which fluorine atoms are substituted for not less than 5% of hydrogen atoms of alkyl groups is applied to the glass substrate. However, the thus formed film is insufficient in mechanical strength and abrasion resistance.
JP A-1-246160 discloses a method of forming a silicon oxide film on a glass substrate surface. A coating solution is made up of a silicon alkoxide as a main component. However, this film is not superior in water repellency.
JP A-3-75243 discloses a metal oxide film to be formed on a vehicular front windshield. The film has an amorphous oxide which has at least one of Zr, Ti, Hf, Sn, Ta and In, and at least one of B and Si. However, this film is also insufficient in water repellency.
There have been other proposals to form on a glass substrate a multilayered metal oxide film having first and second metal oxide layers. The first layer is adherent to the glass substrate, and the second layer is water-repellent. To increase adhesion between the first and second layers, there have been some conventional methods to make the first layer's surface minutely rough. One example is etching the first layer with hydrofluoric acid, fluorine nitrate or the like. However, this method has the following drawbacks.
Hydrofluoric acid and fluorine nitrate are very hazardous against human body. Therefore, these compounds must be handled very cautiously. This lowers the production efficiency. Furthermore, it is difficult to precisely control the thickness of the first layer.
Another example of the above conventional methods is making the first layer minutely rough by the thermal decomposition of an organic polymer added to a metal alkoxide solution. However, this method has the following drawback.
Micro-pits which make the first layer minutely rough tend to disappear by the densification of the base layer after baking at a temperature not lower than 400.degree. C. This tends to make the first layer relatively flat.

Water-repellent metal oxide film and method of forming same on glass substrate


A pressure sealed chamber such as a load lock for a apparatus for processing substrates is operated with a guide plate spaced from a substrate supported therein so as to form a gap which covers the substrate surface to be protected from contamination by moisture condensing in the chamber during the rapid evacuation thereof. During the evacuation of the chamber, by either pumping or venting, clean dry gas is introduced through an orifice in the center of the plate so as to flow outwardly from the edge of the gap at a pressure sufficient to displace or otherwise prevent gas borne moisture condensate in the chamber from entering the gap and contaminating the surface to be protected of the substrate. During the evacuation of the chamber, gas is introduced through the gap at a flow rate less that of the evacuating gas.

In the manufacture of semiconductor devices and other articles through coating or etching processes performed on wafers and other substrates, it is imperative that the contamination of the substrate surfaces to be processed be minimized. Surfaces to be protected from such contamination include, for example, the device surfaces of semiconductor wafers. The device surfaces are the surfaces of the wafers on which layers of conductive, insulative or other material are coated or etched by sputtering or other processes to form the manufactured devices. In such processes, the presence of microscopic contaminants on the device surface of a wafer may render an entire device functionally defective by adversely affecting the application or removal of a component layer at a critical point on the wafer surface.
Similarly, magnetic disks, optical disks, lenses, magneto-optical disks and other such objects may be substantially reduced in value or quality by contaminants present on the surface during processing. In the manufacture of large scale integrated circuits, a large quantity of semiconductor devices is formed of a single wafer. In the processing of such wafers, the contaminants present on the device surface of a wafer during processing can significantly reduce the number of such devices of acceptable quality produced from the wafer.
In a semiconductor processing apparatus such as a typical sputter coating or sputter etching machine, a wafer substrate is processed in an isolated and usually near vacuum environment. Such machines have a vacuum chamber in which the processing operations are carried out. The vacuum chamber is usually provided with one or more chamber doors located in the wall of the chamber through which wafers being processed are introduced and removed. On the outside of this chamber, the wafers are moved by some wafer handling mechanism between a cassette or carrier and the chamber door. A transfer mechanism, which is usually included in the external wafer handling mechanism, introduces the wafers into and removes them from the vacuum chamber through the chamber door opening. In the vacuum chamber, the wafer is usually received and held by a holder that supports the wafer during processing.
During the entry and removal of the wafers from the vacuum chamber, the portion of the chamber into which the wafers are placed and from which the wafer is removed will necessarily be at the same pressure and of the same atmospheric environment as exists in the external environment outside the chamber door. Such external environment will almost always contain air or some other gas containing some amount of water vapor. During processing, however, the portion of the chamber in which the wafer is to be processed must be brought to the vacuum pressure and atmospheric content as the process requires. This change of atmospheres necessitates a repetitive opening and isolation of the internal and external environments and the alternate pumping and venting o at least a portion of the vacuum chamber.
Wafer processing machines that process wafers in a vacuum environment most often maintain a constant vacuum environment so that processing upon some wafers can be carried out as others are being inserted into or removed from the chamber. To this end, such machines have an intermediate chamber or load lock at the entry to the processing chamber that alternately communicates with the external environment through the open chamber door, and, when the door is sealed, with the internal environment of the processing chamber through a sealable entry thereto. Such a load lock is alternately pumped to the vacuum level of the internal environment of the main processing chamber and vented to the external environment so that the pressure of the load lock matches that of environment with which it communicates during the introduction into and removal from the processing chamber of the wafers. With such a load lock, the internal portion of the chamber where processes are carried out may be maintained continuously at the pressure and composition of the vacuum environment and may be used additionally for the processing of other wafers while wafers are being introduced into and removed from the load lock chamber.
Other types of processing machine, such as batch processing machines may have no load lock, but are instead opened to the external environment and loaded with the objects to be processed. In such machines, the entire processing chamber is repeatedly pumped and vented.
After a chamber is loaded and sealed, it is necessary to pump the chamber to a near vacuum level. To maintain high productivity, the atmosphere should be pumped from the chamber as rapidly as possible. This pumping, when it is done rapidly, often causes moisture contained in the air within the chamber to momentarily condense, forming a temporary fog in the chamber. This condensate can precipitate onto the surface to be processed of the object within the chamber. This moisture, when it evaporates from the object surface, often leaves a microscopic residue. This residue can contaminate the surface to be processed, which can cause defective processing of the object to occur.
Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the contamination by condensation of water vapor of semiconductor wafer disks, and other objects in load locks and other pressure chambers of processing machines when rapid pumping of the chamber containing the object to a near vacuum level is occurring.

Method of preventing condensation of air borne moisture onto objects in a vessel during pumping thereof


A guard for a backshell of an aircraft avionics unit is disclosed herein. The guard includes a guard body having a first feature formed therein to slidably receive a first portion of the backshell, a second feature formed therein to slidably receive a second portion of the backshell and a third feature formed therein to protectively cover a mating connector area when the backshell has been slid into the guard body.

Contemporary business aircraft require sophisticated avionics units to support safe air transportation. Generally, an avionics unit includes several circuit cards mounted into a chassis. Each of the circuit cards are coupled to various systems or subsystems of an aircraft by a backshell connector and cabling. Typically, an aircraft avionics unit is double or triple redundant for at least some of the circuit cards in the event of an avionics circuit card failure during flight.
When an aircraft avionics unit requires removal for servicing, or reinstallation following service, each of the multiple backshells must be held or positioned so as not to impede the removal or installation of the avionics unit. Typically, this requires several service technicians each of whom must be grounded by a ground strap to avoid electrostatic damage to the avionics unit. As will be appreciated, this process is time-consuming and expensive given that it requires multiple service technicians during the avionics unit removal or installation process. Moreover, given the number of backshells that must be held or positioned away from the avionics unit, there is a risk of damage to both the backshells and the avionics unit should one or more of the backshells come into contact with the avionics unit or other objects.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a guard for a backshell of an aircraft avionics unit. It is further desirable that the guard both protect the backshells and facilitate their positioning in a way so as not to impede removal or installation of an aircraft avionics unit. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.


With the object of obtaining a reliable grounding of the antenna, even if the panel of the vehicle is deformed or the elasticity of the base pad or O-ring weakens, a washer portion 21 is integrally secured to a nut portion 20 via a wave washer 22. This securing is performed by mounting a joint portion 23 in washer portion 21, and by mating protuberances 23e of second protruding pieces 23d of joint portion 23 with a ring-shaped groove portion 20b that is formed inside a first through-hole 20a of nut portion 20. Even if the vehicle panel the antenna is mounted, and so forth, is deformed, or the stress on the antenna-mounting nut 6 weakens, this change is absorbed by wave washer 22, and thus a marked reduction in the press-contacting force of the antenna-mounting nut 6 does not occur, and the grounding of same is made reliable.

The present invention relates to an antenna-mounting nut for securing an antenna body, which comprises an antenna element, to a vehicle.
Motor vehicle antennas, which are secured to a panel of a vehicle, are conventionally known. An example of a constitution of a motor vehicle antenna of this kind is shown in FIG. 6. This motor vehicle antenna, with the part that is mounted on the vehicle panel enlarged, is also shown in FIG. 7.
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, an antenna body 100 of an automobile antenna comprises an antenna cover 101 and an element portion 102 that is mounted on antenna cover 101, and a base 103 is secured to the lower end of antenna cover 101. A cylindrical protrusion 103a is formed on the lower face of this base 103 so as to protrude therefrom, as shown in FIG. 7, and antenna body 100 is secured by a mounting nut 106 threadedly engaging on this cylindrical protrusion 103a, such that a vehicle panel 110 is interposed therebetween. Here, the base portion of cylindrical protrusion 103a is formed as a rectangular protrusion, and a rectangular antenna-mounting hole is formed in vehicle panel 110, that enables this rectangular protrusion to be inserted therethrough.
Furthermore, an antenna top portion 102a of a diameter that is enlarged with respect to element portion 102 is provided at the upper end of element portion 102. The lower portion of element portion 102 is a molded portion 102b that is molded from a synthetic resin that is soft, such as a rubber. It is preferable for this molded portion 102b to be provided with an internal wave trap coil that is connected to the element.
Further, when the antenna is subjected to an external force, the soft molded portion 102b of the lower portion of element portion 102 prevents damage to element portion 102, by bending and absorbing the external force applied.
The electrical length from antenna top portion 102a of element portion 102 constituted in this way, to the base end portion of antenna body 100, is, for example, approximately one quarter of an FM radio band wavelength; and the electrical length from the base end portion to the lower end of the wave trap coil, is approximately one quarter of a mobile wireless telephone band wavelength. As a result, in addition to being resonant in a mobile wireless telephone band and the FM radio band, this motor vehicle antenna is capable of receiving radio waves in the AM radio band via the whole area of the antenna body 100.
Signals of this kind, which are transmitted and received by an element portion 102 are guided out by cables 107a, 107b that pass through cylindrical protrusion 103a. Cable 107a is a cable for a mobile wireless telephone and cable 107b is a cable for FM/AM radio.
When securing an antenna body 100 of this kind to a vehicle panel 110, the rectangular protrusion formed on base 103 is inserted into the rectangular antenna-mounting hole formed in vehicle panel 110, and mounting nut 106 is made to mate threadedly with cylindrical protrusion 103a that protrudes from this antenna-mounting hole, and mounting nut 106 is tightened. Antenna body 100 is thus secured such that vehicle panel 110 is interposed therebetween, as shown in FIG. 6.
Further, a base pad 104, which is constituted from a resin that is elastic, is mated with base 103, and an O-ring 105 is inserted so as to mate with cylindrical protrusion 103a. Cylindrical protrusion 103a is then inserted into the antenna-mounting hole. Through the action of this base pad 104 and O-ring 105, rainwater and so forth is prevented from penetrating vehicle panel 110.
Furthermore, mounting nut 106 is constituted from a washer portion of U-shaped cross-section 121 formed with triangular protuberances at the upper end thereof, and from a nut portion 120 that engages threadedly with cylindrical protrusion 103a. Further, when mounting nut 106 is fastened onto cylindrical protrusion 103a, triangular protuberances engage inside the rear face of vehicle panel 110 and base 103 is thus reliably grounded to vehicle panel 110.
Further, so that there is no damage to element portion 102, when collision is made with a rotating brush of a car wash, or the like, when washing the car in a car wash, or when contact is made with the ceiling of a garage or the like when the car is being parked therein, element portion 102 can be made to be removable from antenna cover 101.
The constitution of the above-mentioned mounting nut 106 that secures antenna body 100 to vehicle panel 110 is shown in detail in FIG. 8.
As shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of triangular protuberances 121a are formed at the upper end of washer portion of U-shaped cross-section 121, and washer portion 121 is caulked to nut portion 120 so as to be integral with nut portion 120. That is, a screw thread is formed in nut portion 120 that engages threadedly with cylindrical protrusion 103a of base 103, and a plurality of caulking pieces 120a are formed on the upper face of nut portion 120. Further, by placing washer portion 121 on the upper face of nut portion 120 and caulking caulking pieces 120a by means of a caulking tool, nut portion 120 and washer portion 121 are made integral. Here, since six caulking pieces 120a are provided and disposed in a hexagonal shape, washer portion 121 is capable of rotating with nut portion 120. For this reason, when nut portion 120 is fastened onto cylindrical protrusion 103a, triangular protuberances 121a of washer portion 121 rotate, causing stripping of the paint of vehicle panel 110, thus permitting a reliable grounding of base 103.
Problems are posed by the conventional motor vehicle antenna as described above, namely, that, when the vehicle panel where the antenna is mounted is deformed, the gap between mounting nut 106 and vehicle panel 110 changes fractionally, and there is a risk of the press-contacting force of mounting nut 106 weakening. When the press-contacting force of mounting nut 106 weakens in this way, the electrical connection between washer portion 121 and vehicle panel 110 becomes unstable, the grounding becomes unreliable, and a grating sound results.
Additionally, since stress is continually applied to base pad 104 and O-ring 105 by the fastening strength of mounting nut 106, there is a risk that, over the years, the elasticity of base pad 104 and O-ring 105 will weaken under this stress. Similarly here, there is the problem that the press-contacting force of mounting nut 106 weakens, the grounding becomes unreliable, and a grating sound results.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an antenna-mounting nut that is capable of providing the antenna with a reliable grounding, even if the vehicle panel is deformed or the elasticity of the base pad or O-ring should weaken.
In order to resolve the above-mentioned object, a first antenna-mounting nut of the present invention engages threadedly, from the reverse side of the above-mentioned vehicle panel, with the protrusion, on the antenna body, that is inserted into the mounting hole formed in the vehicle panel, and comprises a washer portion, at whose upper end a plurality of serrate protuberances is formed that come into contact with the above-mentioned vehicle panel; a nut portion that engages threadedly with the above-mentioned protrusion; and a joint portion that integrally secures, via a wave washer, the above-mentioned washer portion and above-mentioned nut portion so that same do not rotate with respect to one another, and is characterized in that inclined faces of the above-mentioned serrate protuberances are formed facing in the direction in which the above-mentioned nut portion is fastened onto the above-mentioned protrusion.
Further, a second antenna-mounting nut of the present invention, that is capable of resolving the above-mentioned object, engages threadedly, from the reverse side of the above-mentioned vehicle panel, with the protrusion, on the antenna body, that is inserted into the mounting hole formed in the vehicle panel, and comprises a washer portion, at whose upper end a plurality of serrate protuberances is formed that come into contact with the above-mentioned vehicle panel and whose inclined faces are formed facing in the direction in which the above-mentioned nut portion is fastened onto the above-mentioned protrusion; and a nut portion that is secured to this washer portion so as to be prevented from turning, and that engages threadedly with the above-mentioned protrusion, and is characterized in that the above-mentioned washer portion is made elastic by being formed from an elastic material and by a plurality of slits being formed radially therein.
According to a first present invention of this kind, a wave washer is interposed between the washer portion and nut portion, meaning that even if the vehicle panel is deformed or the elasticity of the base pad or O-ring weakens, this change can be absorbed by the wave washer, and thus a reduction in the press-contacting force of the antenna-mounting nut can be prevented as far as possible. Further, the inclined faces of the serrate protuberances that are formed at the upper end of the washer portion are formed facing in the direction in which the nut portion is fastened onto the protrusion of the base; thus, during fastening, the antenna-mounting nut rotates smoothly, and, during loosening, since the serrate protuberances engage inside the vehicle panel, the antenna-mounting nut can be prevented from becoming loose.
Further, according to a second present invention, since the washer portion is made elastic by being formed from an elastic material and by a plurality of slits being formed radially therein, even if the vehicle panel is deformed or the elasticity of the base pad or O-ring weakens, this change can be absorbed by the elastic washer portion, and thus a reduction in the press-contacting force of the antenna-mounting nut can be prevented as far as possible. Further, because the inclined faces of the serrate protuberances formed at the upper end of the washer portion are formed facing in the direction in which the nut portion is fastened onto the base protrusion, during fastening, the antenna-mounting nut rotates smoothly, and, during loosening, since the serrate protuberances engage inside the vehicle panel, the antenna-mounting nut can be prevented from becoming loose.