A lifting device is provided for a two-leaf folding flap whose upper leaf is hinged to a top wall or partition wall of a carcass around a horizontal first axis and whose lower leaf is pivotally connected to the upper leaf around a second axis parallel to the first axis. The lifting device has at least one two-armed lever which is pivotally mounted to a side carcass part around a horizontal pivot axis and whose longer arm is hingedly connected to the lower leaf, and at least one hinge arm which hingedly connects the leaves and is respectively fastened in hinge cups arranged in the leaves. The hinge arm is adjustable with respect to a hinge cup via a first eccentric device in one direction and via a second eccentric device in another direction perpendicular to the first direction.

The invention relates to a lifting device for a two-leaf flap in accordance with the description herein.
A lifting device for a two-leaf folding flap is known from DE 201 00 662 U1 whose upper leaf is hinged to a top wall or partition wall of a cupboard around a horizontal first axis and whose lower leaf is pivotally connected to the upper leaf around a second axis parallel to the first axis. The lifting device comprises at least one two-armed lever which is pivotally mounted to a side carcass part around a horizontal pivot axis and whose longer arm is hingedly connected to the lower leaf. A compression spring member is furthermore present whose one end is pivotally connected to the carcass part and whose other end is pivotally connected to the shorter lever arm.
The known folding flap is opened in that a person grips a handle, which is not shown, but which is necessary and is connected to the lower leaf, with said handle having to have a specific spacing from the lower edge of the lower leaf.
There is a need to provide lifting devices of the aforesaid type which enable the opening of the folding flap by a simple pulling of the lower edge of the lower leaf without a handle having to be provided for this purpose.
Such a lifting apparatus for a two-leaf folding flap is known from the German utility model DE 20 2005 016 405 corresponding to the background features herein. Here, a lifting device for a two-leaf folding flap is described which has a hinge which is provided with a hinge cup which can be used at one of the leaves and with a hinge arm which can be fixed to the other leaf for the connection of the two leaves. In one of the embodiments shown in this utility model, the hinge arm is connected in both leaves to pins in the hinge cups respectively present in the leaves such that the two door leaves are pivotally connected to one another in a very compact and space-saving form. In another embodiment, the hinge arm is connected in a hinge cup to one of the leaves, on the one hand, and is connected to the other leaf in the form of a customary four-bar hinge, on the other hand. Due to the use of the customary four-bar hinge, adjustability in the three coordinate directions is possible so that the leaves are adjustable with respect to one another and with respect to the carcass of the piece of furniture in the three spatial coordinates by a corresponding adjustment. Such an adjustability in the different coordinate directions is not possible in the embodiment in which the hinge arm is supported at each end in a hinge cup.

Lifting device for a two-leaf folding flap


A converter for reducing the amplitude of a DC input signal includes first and second switches that each are coupled between an input port for receiving the input signal, and voltage reducing circuitry for reducing the amplitude of the input signal. The two switches are configured so that at least one of the switches is open at all times, thus reducing the heat generated by either one of the switches. This consequently reduces the need for heat dissipation devices such as, for example, conventional heat sinks. Moreover, the two switches each may be smaller than that which would be used if a single switch were used since their duty cycles are much smaller than that of such single switch. The converter further includes an output port coupled to the voltage reducing circuitry for providing an output signal having an amplitude that is less than that of the input signal.

Integrated circuits and other circuit elements within electronic devices commonly require an input voltage that is smaller than that supplied by a regulated D.C. power source. For example, an integrated circuit within a computer system may require a powering voltage of about 2.5 volts D.C. from a standard 3.3 volt regulated D.C. source. To that end, voltage regulators have been developed that reduce an input D.C. voltage to a preselected, lower voltage.
Many such prior art regulators, such as linear converters, have a relatively low efficiency (i.e., between about fifty and sixty five percent) when used in high current applications. Accordingly, when used in high current applications, linear converters typically require relatively large heat sinks to dissipate a large amount of heat produced by the voltage reduction process. This heat loss necessarily increases the operating cost of such converters. Moreover, the requirement of a heat sink increases the size and manufacturing cost of each converter.
The art has responded to this efficiency problem by providing switching voltage converters ("buck converters") that dissipate minimal heat in high current (as well as low current) applications. Accordingly, buck converters typically operate at efficiencies of between about seventy and ninety-five percent. Buck converters typically utilize an inductor and a switch that cooperate to reduce the input voltage to a preselected output voltage. The duty cycle of the switch in buck converters, however, can be greater than about ninety percent. This causes the switch to generate excessive heat, especially when used in high current applications. Accordingly, a large switch with a relatively large heat sink often is utilized to dissipate the excess heat. This necessarily increases the cost associated with producing and operating such buck converters.


A polycrystalline silicon layer 9 for a base leading electrode is formed on an element forming region divided by an element isolating layer which is formed by burying a BPSG film 8 in a groove. A depression generated on the element isolating layer is filled with a PSG film 11 which is formed as a part of an interlayer insulating film on the surface of the device including the polycrystalline silicon layer 9 by the spin-coating method so that the upper surface of the device is flattened. A polycrystalline silicon layer 13 is provided on the element isolating layer as a resistor layer so that the resistor layer is disposed between the adjacent transistors. The area of a circuit block is reduced to achieve a high integration and reduction in parasitic capacitance. This enables the high speed operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a process for manufacturing the same and in particular to a semiconductor device having a polycrystalline silicon (or polysilicon) resistor layer and bipolar transistors and a process for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The emitter coupled logic (ECL) circuit comprises NPN type bipolar transistor elements and resistor elements as basic structural elements. A circuit diagram of the simplest invertor circuit is exemplarily shown in FIG. 1. The invertor circuit comprises a total of four transistor elements, Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3 and Q.sub.4 and a total of four resistor elements, R.sub.1, S.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4.
FIGS. 2 through 5 are sectional views of a semiconductor chip sequentially showing a process for manufacturing a prior art semiconductor device in the order of steps.
As shown in FIG. 2, an N.sup.+ type buried layer 2 and an N.sup.- type epitaxial layer 3 are formed on a P type silicon substrate 1 and element isolating grooves are provided and element isolating layers 31 are buried in the groove to divide element forming regions and a silicon oxide film 6 is formed over the entire surface of the device. The element isolating layers 31 are formed as follows: A silica film (hereinafter referred to as a BPSG film) containing boron and phosphorus (Boro-Phospho-Silicate Glass) is deposited on the surface of the device including the grooves by the low-pressure or evacuated CVD method or the like. Thereafter, the BPSG film is buried in only the grooves by etching back the BPSG film. Accordingly, a more or less depression may be formed in each of the grooves due to variation in the etch back.
Then, as shown in FIG. 3, a polycrystalline silicon layer is deposited over an entire surface of the device and boron is ion implanted into the polycrystalline silicon layer. The polycrystalline silicon layer is patterned to form a base leading electrode 9a and a resistor layer 9b.
Then, as shown in FIG. 4, a silicon nitride film 10 is deposited over the entire surface of the device. The silicon nitride film 10 and the base leading electrodes 9a are selectively and sequentially removed by etching to form openings. Undercut portions 15 are formed under the base leading electrode 9a by etching the silicon oxide film 6 using the silicon nitride film 10 as a mask.
A thin polycrystalline silicon layer 16 (FIG. 5) is deposited over the entire surface of the device to fill the undercut portions 15 (FIG. 4) as shown in. The deposited thin polycrystalline silicon layer 16 is converted into a silicon oxide film by the thermal oxidation except for the layer filling the undercut portions 15. The polycrystalline silicon layer 16 is buried in only the undercut portions 15 by etching the silicon oxide film. The impurity contained in the base leading electrode 9a is introduced into the silicon substrate 1 via the polycrystalline silicon layer 16 to form a graft base region 17. Subsequently, a base region 18 is formed by ion implanting boron into the silicon substrate 1 in the opening. A silicon nitride film 19 is formed over the entire surface of the device and is etched back to leave the silicon nitride film 19 only on the side of the opening so that a side wall is formed. A polycrystalline silicon layer 20 containing an N type impurity or dopant is deposited on the surface of the device including the opening. An impurity is introduced on the surface of the base region 18 from the polycrystalline silicon layer 20 to form an emitter region 21. The semiconductor device is thus completed by providing the silicon nitride film 10 on the resistor layer 9b with contact holes.
Since, in the prior semiconductor device as mentioned above, the base leading electrodes and the resistor layers are provided in the same layer by patterning the same polycrystalline silicon layer, they cannot be provided in the vicinity of transistors and are disposed in positions remote from the transistor region. Accordingly, such prior semiconductor device has a problem that wirings become long to prevent the circuits from being integrated, resulting in that an improvement in circuit characteristics is difficult.
If base leading electrodes and resistor layers are tried to be formed of the same layer between transistors which are disposed at the minimum occupation area in each of element forming regions which are isolated by element isolating layers, the spacing between the adjacent transistors is about double as wide as the minimum line width in consideration of the margin for an emitter contact and a base leading electrode even when the emitter size is reduced to about the minimum line width. Therefore, the base leading electrodes and the resistor layers cannot be disposed in the same layer between the transistors.
Even if the resistor layers can be disposed between the transistors by increasing the spacing between the transistors, the resistor layers would traverse across the element isolating layers thereabove. The resistor layers would be influenced by steps of the element isolating layer which are caused by etch back or the like. The variations in the value of resistance would become larger. The variations in resistance value in usual ECL circuit is undesirable since it should be suppressed within several % in terms of relative value.

Bipolar transistor structure with polycrystalline resistor layer


The present invention was made to develop a new material possessing simultaneously the two properties of geometrically frustrated state having a magnetic controllability and good conductivity which leads to applications for electrical controllability and thermal storage. This object is achieved by the conductive material having the pyrochlore structure represented by the general formula R2Ir2O7, where R is a rare earth element or elements of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu and Y. When, especially, R is an element or elements of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm and Eu, the material possesses metallic electrical conductivity, so that it is useful for magnetically controllable functional electronic materials and thermal storage materials having large thermal capacity.

Conventional electronic functional materials using the interaction between magnetic ions and electric conduction electrons in a solid include various magnetic memory elements and giant magnetoresistive elements. The magnetic states of those functional materials are the long range ordered states in which they are energetically stable under given circumstances.
When the interaction between the geometrical arrangement of the magnetic elements on the lattice sites and the magnetic moments (or spins) of the magnetic elements satisfies a certain condition, the spin arrangement is not determined unique but many states having the same energy level degenerate even in the proximity of the absolute zero temperature. This situation is termed as "geometrical frustration".
In that case, though, the degenerated states separate again when an external effect, such as an external magnetic field, is applied. This means that the magnetic state of the crystal can be controlled by applying an external effect such as an external magnetic field. Also, in that case, it is known that other quantum effects such as an anomalous Hall effect due to a local magnetic field may occur.
On the other hand, the crystal field effect is also important due to the coupling of orbital angular momenta and spins of electrons. Owing to this effect, energy levels can be changed by a magnetic field, which means that the magnetic states of a crystal can be controlled.
In oxides having the pyrochlore structure as shown in FIG. 1, the three-dimensional network of corner-sharing tetrahedra (with an O atom at the corner) causes geometrical frustration when magnetic elements R exist at the corners. When rare earth elements are used in this case, the crystal field effect is also important. That is, both the geometrical frustration and the crystal field effect characterize the system.
In some oxides having the pyrochlore structure, the geometrical frustration is also called as "spin ice", because of the analogy in the spin arrangement of oxygen-magnetic ion system to the spatial arrangement of the oxygen hydrogen system in water ice (M. J. Harris et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 2554-2557 (1997)).
Known compounds of such kind include Ti pyrochlore oxides (e.g., Ho2Ti2O7: M. J. Harris et al., ibid; Dy2Ti2O7: A. R. Ramirez, Nature 399, 333-335 (1999)) and Sn pyrochlore oxides. But these oxides are insulators, so that the practical use or application to electrical functional elements are quite limited.
Among Mo- (e.g., Y2Mo2O7: M. J. P. Gingras et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 947-950 (1997)), Mn- and Ru-pyrochlore oxides, some are electrically conductive, but they develop well known magnetically ordered states such as the spin-glass ordering or antiferromagnetic ordering due to disorders contained in those materials or due to the structural phase transition, so that the large specific heat that should develop when the geometrical frustration exists does not appear.
As explained above, the state containing the geometrical frustration can be called as a "magnetic state containing controllability" in the sense that the magnetic state can be controlled by applying an external magnetic field. In that case, though, its application to industrial use is practically quite limited if it is not associated with some device for controlling it or with some sensor for detecting the magnetic state. Thus, for the purpose of industrial application, it is desired to develop a material which can show the spin ice state, or similar state, and has a good electrical conductivity.
It is another advantage that such a material that develops no magnetic transition to long range ordered magnetic state down to low temperatures has a large specific heat in a wide range of temperature. When such a material is intended to be used for a thermal storage material, it is strongly desired to have a large thermal conductivity to exchange heat with peripheral devices. From this point also it is desired to have a good conductivity or to be metal, rather than an insulator.

Pyrochlore iridates having metallic conductivity and their production method


A dual loop, clock synchronization circuit for a receiver in a communication system. The circuitry uses a first loop of a digital phase lock loop for coarse synchronization to time stamps within the received data and uses a second loop for fine synchronization of a second numerically controlled oscillator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication systems and, more particularly, to circuitry for providing accurate, synchronized timing between a transmitter and receiver of multimedia content.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication systems that communicate multimedia content, such as audio and video files, are required to utilize accurate timing such that the sequence of events within the multimedia content can be reconstructed at the receiver. To facilitate such timing synchronization certain protocols are applied to the transmission. The source circuitry (the transmitter) utilizes a time stamp flag (TSF) timer and a media access control (MAC) protocol such that a 27 MHz clock can be used in the source circuitry for timing of the transmission without directly encoding the clock into the transmission.
The sink circuitry (the receiver) utilizes the TSF to properly order the multimedia information for display by the receiver. However, the 27 MHz clock that is used in the sink circuitry is not synchronized with the source circuitry 27 MHz clock, i.e., the receiver-transmitter operate as an open-loop system with respect to the 27 MHz clock. As such, any phase shift that occurs between the source and the sink circuitry due to channel dynamics causes a timing error to accumulate between the source and sink circuitry. When the misalignment has a length of approximately a frame of multimedia data, the sink circuitry deletes or drops a frame. In most applications, a single dropped frame to realign the source and sink circuitry is not recognized by a viewer or user of the multimedia data. However, in some situations, a frame drop is recognizable to the viewer and must be avoided.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for circuitry that provides synchronization between the source and sink circuits of a communication system.

Method and apparatus for providing synchronization in a communication system


The present invention provides for an apparatus for retrofitting an existing wooden door having opposing surfaces to upgrade the fire rating of the existing door. The apparatus includes a door cover steel sheet having a non-combustible insulating coating on an interior surface for coveting at least one surface of the door and a lock set reinforcement bracket having a non-combustible insulating coating on an interior surface for surrounding the lock set opening on an opposing surface of the door, the apparatus providing at least a twenty minute fire rating to the retrofitted door. In an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for increasing the fire rating of a door having opposing surfaces. The method comprises attaching to a first surface of the door, a door cover steel sheet having a non-combustible insulating coating on an interior surface to cover the entire surface of the door and attaching to a second surface of the door, a lock set bracket having a non-combustible insulating coating on an interior surface to surround at least a lock set opening in the second surface of the door, the modified door having at least a twenty minute fire rating.

Present regulations in many jurisdictions require that doors in public building have at least a twenty minute fire rating. This rating provides that the door should act as a fire break to prevent passage of the fire through the door for at least a period of twenty minutes. Some jurisdictions also have regulations requiring upgrading of fire protection ratings of existing doors in existing buildings either at time of renovation of the space or, in some cases, within a fixed period of time. Up to the present time, in order to upgrade the fire protection rating of the door, it has been necessary to replace the existing door by a new fire rated door. In some instances, replacement of such doors may be difficult and may require replacement of the frame of the doors as well. In addition, in unique historic buildings, the replacement of the doors is also difficult due to the unique value of the existing doors. It would thus be desirable to have a means of upgrading existing doors in a building to the proper fire rating.

Apparatus for retrofitting an existing door to provide a fire rating to the unrated existing door


A travel control method includes estimating the position of a subject vehicle on the basis of a detection result of a first detector, detecting a lane in which the subject vehicle travels, on the basis of a detection result of a second detector, determining that whether the position of the subject vehicle based on the positional information is included in the lane and outputting the determination as a first determination result, and determining that whether the position of the subject vehicle estimated on the basis of the detection result of the first detector is included in the lane and outputting the determination as a second determination result, and a step of performing a position estimation process of estimating the position of the subject vehicle on the basis of the detection result of the first detector when the first determination result and the second determination result are not identical.

A technique has been conventionally known which includes detecting the position of a subject vehicle on the basis of an image captured by a camera and correcting the detected position of the subject vehicle on the basis of a measurement result obtained using the global positioning system (GPS) (see Japanese Application Publication No. JP2014-115247A).
In the above conventional technique, the measurement value obtained using the GPS may significantly vary in some cases, such as when the GPS switches satellites, and an erroneous determination may be made that a lane in which the subject vehicle does not actually travel is recognized as the lane in which the subject vehicle travels.

Travel control method and travel control apparatus


A tool for the selective severing of a conductor in a multi-conductor flat cable and preforming the remaining free end comprising a punch means with a first conductor relief slot and a die means with a second conductor relief slot such that when the die and punch means are applied to a conductor it is severed and the free end trapped between the first and second conductor relief slots. Guides on the tool and die means permit alignment of the tool with a selected conductor while grooves on the die means prevent unwanted cable movement.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the selective severing of at least one conductor of a multi-conductor flat cable and preforming the resulting free end.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art techniques for the selective severing of a single conductor of a multi-conductor flat cable involve the use of side cutters carefully applied by a technician to the desired conductor. However, because of the small size of the conductors and the large size of the side cutters it is not unusual to cut two or three conductors or to injure the insulation of the conductors adjacent the one to be cut.


Offset values, such as Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) values in video coding standards such as the High Efficiency Video Coding standard (HEVC), may be improved by performing calculations and operations that improve the preciseness of these values without materially affecting the signal overhead needed to transmit the more precise values. Such calculations and operations may include applying a quantization factor to a video sample and at least some of its neighbors, comparing the quantized values, and classifying the video sample as a minimum, maximum, or one of various types of edges based on the comparison. Other sample range, offset mode, and/or offset precision parameters may be calculated and transmitted with metadata to improve the precision of offset values.

The present invention relates to a method of reconstructing signal amplitudes for video coding and compression. More specifically, it relates to methods for quantization and adaptive dynamic range signaling in Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) processes in video coding and processing systems such as within the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard.
The HEVC standard, currently published as ISO/IEC 23008-2 MPEG-H Part 2 and ITU-T H.265, introduced several new video coding tools designed to improve video coding efficiency over previous video coding standards and technologies, including, but not limited to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC1, and VP8. One of these tools is the SAO, which is a filtering mechanism typically performed after deblocking filtering. The process may be in-loop, e.g., impacting subsequent pictures that may use an SAO processed picture as a reference, or out of loop, e.g., only impacting display or other subsequent processing outside an encoder. SAO groups reconstructed pixels into categories and reduces distortion by applying an offset to pixel values based on a predefined categorization or classification process.
SAO, as defined in the HEVC specification, supports two operating modes: an edge offset mode and a band offset mode. In the edge offset mode, the value of a predetermined sample may be compared to two of eight neighboring samples in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. Based on a simple direct comparison of sampled values, the predetermined sample may be classified into one of several categories. In the band offset mode, the amplitude of a predetermined sample may be used to categorize the sample into 1 of 32 bands. An offset may be specified for the sample if it is categorized into 1 of 4 contiguous bands in the set of 32 bands for which SAO supports an offset parameter.
The existing HEVC standard includes limitations on SAO methods with respect to classification and overhead. In this regard, the classification process is limited by bitdepth, precision, color, and the number of bands used for the classification. To reduce the overhead needed to signal offset values, the existing HEVC standard limits both the number of bands into which an offset may be provided, and also the ability to specify precise offset values for each of the different pixel categories. For example, limiting the maximum value of offset values for bit depths above 10 bits reduces the preciseness of SAO values at higher bit depths in favor of an increased dynamic range covered by the SAO values. However, in some instances, higher precision of SAO values may be more important for image quality purposes than a high dynamic range, such as when the offset to be added is within a small range. There is therefore a need for a more flexible approach to SAO that is able to classify samples with less susceptibility to noise, and to expand the precision of applied offsets while minimizing the impact on the dynamic range of the offset values and/or the signal overhead needed to transmit these offsets.


A vertical planting tray comprising a plurality of substantially horizontal shelves held together by outer side walls and a plurality of vertical struts located therebetween with the struts connected to and supporting the shelves, the struts being substantially thin and narrow an defining a plurality of planting stations with the horizontal shelves in which vertical plants may be grown. The substantial open wall structure between stations permits improved plant performance.

There has been increasing use of indoor plants in many environments. Such plants can be free standing or can be held in vertical planter trays attached to a vertical surface with a plurality of locations within the tray containing soil and vegetation, which is both healthy and attractive.
Additionally, there has been increasing use of outdoor vertical growing systems, and overall the field has been growing and becoming increasingly more valuable.
There is prior art relating to vertical planter tray systems, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,921,599 is an example of one such system. Additionally, the prior art cited in the '599 patent contains other prior art relating to such vertical planter tray systems.
Generally, the prior art suffers from several problems, among which are the prevailing use of individual isolated cells contained within substantially solid walls for the growing medium contained therein. The health of the growing plants in such cells is impeded by such construction because natural healthy growth of a plant is without physical barriers, and placing artificial restraints and boundaries around the plant as it grows stunts and reduces healthy growth.
Many prior art systems limit the ability for free irrigation between neighboring plant stations by improperly restraining the flow of liquid therebetween.
An object of this invention is to provide an improved vertical tray planter system in which growth of vegetation is enhanced and not unnecessarily retarded.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved water flow irrigation system further enhancing healthy growth of the plants contained within the system.
Yet another object of this invention is to improve water flow between adjacent growing stations, thereby maximizing irrigation and plant feeding, all while being contained within the vertical planter tray system of this invention.
Another object of this invention is to provide an easy snap in construction methodology, permitting easy assembly of the invention.
Another object is to provide an improved trough system for directing and controlling liquid flow.
Additional improvements relate to improving providing planting trays which rest in each other.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a vertical planting tray system in which there are substantially no vertical walls between stations but merely vertical struts or supports, thereby creating a minimum concept of individual cells for planting purposes without restraining growth of the vegetation contained therein.
Other objects, advantages and features of this invention will become more apparent from the following description.


Briefly, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, an apparatus and method to store initialization and configuration information is provided. The method may include storing basic input/output system (BIOS) software in a polymer memory. The method may further include copying a first portion of the BIOS software from the polymer memory to a random access memory (RAM) buffer of a memory controller, wherein the RAM buffer has a storage capacity of at least about two kilobytes (KB).

In some computing systems, the basic input/output system (BIOS) software may be stored in a flash electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). Flash memory is a relatively expensive memory, and because of this, the amount of memory available for the BIOS software is typically relatively small. Accordingly, due to the space constraint, some existing BIOS software may be limited in terms of its features and functionality.
Thus, there is a continuing need for alternate ways to store BIOS software in a computing system.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus to store initialization and configuration information


A punched card control system for an embroidery machine which has an embroidery creel and a drive mechanism for driving the creel includes a number of lifter rods each arranged to sense a corresponding hole in successive groups of holes punched in a card or tape, each group of holes representing an operating instruction for the embroidery machine. A feed mechanism advances the card past the lifter rods while each rod is in a rest position relative to the feed mechanism, so that the holes of each group are confronted by corresponding ends of the lifter rods. The feed mechanism then displaces the card a certain distance toward the rods so that those rods whose ends confront holes in the card remain stationary, while the remaining rods are contacted at their ends by the card which then moves these rods from their rest positions. A reading device including electrical switching elements responds to the position of each lifter rod and provides corresponding output signals over a number of line channels. A control device is coupled between the channels of the reading device and the embroidery creel drive mechanism, and activates the drive mechanism so that the embroidery creel is adjusted in accordance with the output signals from the reading device.

The present invention relates to a punched card control system for an embroidery machine, the system operating to control a drive mechanism in the machine which controls the movement of an embroidery creel.
A device for stitching, quilting or embroidering lengths of cloth or the like is known in which a conventional embroidery creel includes two carriages. The carriages are movable in mutually perpendicular directions so that the embroidery operation can be carried out by the machine in which the device is used. Control of the carriage movements is effected by way of a computer in which instructions are provided on a jacquard tape or card. The jacquard tape is punched in several rows according to a specific code which corresponds to the desired thread pattern. As the tape is being read, it moves directly against a number of pins each of which triggers a pulse when it senses a hole in the tape. However, when the tape is read in this manner, considerable interference due to, e.g., physical damage or taped over holes, may occur due to false actuations by the pins.
In addition, a drive arrangement for adjustment of embroidery frames in embroidery machines is known in which adjusting movement of the embroidery frames is provided in mutually perpendicular directions by means of conventional hydraulic adjustment drive mechanisms. These hydraulic drive mechanisms are connected with actual value transducers, and are controlled with electro-hydraulic control valves by a desired value transducer which is controlled by punched cards. Thus, a control device is provided which represents a considerable reduction in size of the known automatic mechanical control for embroidery machines, wherein movements representing a direction of rotation and rotational speeds in either direction are generated in the usual manner in a mechanism which is considerably reduced in size, and these movements are transferred to the desired value electrical transducer. Of course, such an arrangement can only be applied in new embroidery machines, since most all parts in existing automatic control mechanisms in embroidery machines would not be required. This arrangement is also very expensive, since it must effect an adjustment of the desired value transducer by mechanical means.
In the known arrangement discussed above, it is also suggested that the electrical contacts be controlled directly by a punched card which, for example, could be implemented by means of light sensitive electrical sensors. It is also known to transfer a punched card directly through a electrical or electronic reader wherein appropriate pulses are then triggered. These punched card arrangements have a proven disadvantage, however, in that the punched cards which are used must be new, i.e., they must not be physically damaged, nor may they have oil spots or the like such as might tend to make the cards translucent and falsely trigger the sensors in the reader.
Changes in the hole patterns in punched cards used in the embroidery industry occur quite often, and such changes are usually manually effected by a foreman with the aid of punch pliers. During the correction of a punched card, some of the existing holes may be taped over with clear or translucent adhesive tape strips. Also, it has become known that if there are, for example, oil spots on the punched card, which occurs quite often in the embroidery industry, the punched card becomes translucent. Because of the taped over areas, oil spots and the like which provide translucent regions on the cards, the card reader sensors are actuated even though no holes are actually present at such regions.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the above disadvantages and to provide a punched card control system for an embroidery machine which is simple to assemble and, nevertheless, efficient in its operation.
In accordance with the present invention, a punched card control system for an embroidery machine which has an embroidery creel and a first drive mechanism for driving the embroidery creel, includes a number of lifter rods each arranged to sense a corresponding hole in successive groups of holes arranged in a card, each group of holes representing an operating instruction for the embroidery machine. A feed mechanism advances the card past the lifter rods while each rod is in a rest position relative to the feed mechanism, so that the holes of each group are successively confronted by corresponding ends of the lifter rods. The feed mechanism then displaces the card a certain distance toward the rods so that those rods whose ends confront holes in the card remain stationary, while the remaining rods are contacted at their ends by the card which then moves these rods from their rest positions. A reading device including electrical switching elements responds to the condition of each lifter rod and provides corresponding output signals over a number of line channels. A control device coupled between the reading device channels and the first drive mechanism controls the first drive mechanism to adjust the movement of the embroidery creel in accordance with the output signals provided over the channels.
With the punched card control system of the present invention, each punched card is read mechanically with the result that minor damage such as oil spots on the card does not result in a false reading but, while electrical or electronic control of the drive mechanisms in the embroidery machine can take place. Mechanical reading and electrical or electronic reading techniques are combined so as to provide a considerable reduction in the number of mechanical parts used as compared to conventional automatic control systems. Yet, the advantages attendant to mechanical reading of the punched cards are maintained. Since heavy mechanical parts are not attached to the lifter rods, these rods can be of a much lighter construction and the forces required of springs which return them to their rest positions can be made considerably smaller. This arrangement also greatly reduces the wear of the punched cards since the contact pressure exerted by the lifter rods against the cards when the rods are at their rest positions can be greatly reduced or eliminated.
Existing automatic embroidery machines can also be easily converted in accordance with the present invention, since only appropriate electrical or electronic switching elements need be provided for already existing lifter rods which read the punched cards. A drive mechanism for driving the creel must also be provided. It can be shown that a punched card control system according to the present invention allows a large number (about 350) of the mechanical parts usually required in an embroidery machine to be omitted, which represents about 50 to 60% of the total number of mechanical parts normally provided. Accordingly, higher operating speeds and correspondingly faster stitch sequences can be realized, and a significant noise reduction will result as well. This noise reduction can be realized not only in new embroidery machines constructed according to the present invention, but also in old embroidery machines which are modified in accordance with the invention. In addition, wear and tear, the need for repairs, and lubrication and maintenance costs are significantly reduced, while the durability of the machine is substantially increased.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the accompanying drawing and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention.

Punched card control system for embroidery machine


A composite-link rear axle has a flexurally rigid and torsionally resilient transverse member with a longitudinal member connected to it at each end by a plug connection, each longitudinal member being designed to receive a wheel carrier at one end and for articulation a vehicle body at the other end. The torsional rigidity of the transverse member and therefore the stabilizer effect are reduced by providing the plug connection with a sliding guide so that slight displacement of the transverse member in its longitudinal direction corresponding to the vehicle transverse axis with respect to the longitudinal member is possible in the region of the plug connection.

This invention relates to composite-link rear axle arrangements having a flexurally rigid and torsionally resilient transverse member and a longitudinal member attached to each end of the transverse member by a plug connection in which each longitudinal member is adapted to receive a wheel carrier at one end and to be articulated to a vehicle body at the other end.
A conventional composite-link rear axle arrangement disclosed in German Offenleguengsschrift No. 44 41 971 has a transverse member and two longitudinal members which are attached to the respective opposite ends of the transverse member. In this arrangement, the longitudinal members are appropriately designed at one end to receive a wheel carrier and at the other end for articulation to a vehicle body. In addition, the transverse member is designed to be flexurally rigid but torsionally resilient and the longitudinal members are connected to the transverse member so that a stabilizer effect can be achieved with respect to the compression and expansion movements of the wheels, permitting the transverse and longitudinal forces acting on the vehicle wheels to be absorbed by the entire composite-link rear axle. Usually, the transverse member and each longitudinal member are produced from an aluminum alloy, the opposite ends of the transverse member being plugged into corresponding recesses in the longitudinal members which are provided for this purpose. The plug connections thus made between the transverse member and the longitudinal members are then rigidly attached by an appropriate method such as by adhesive bonding, welding, riveting or appropriate shaping. This attachment technique may vary depending, in particular, on whether the transverse member is designed, for example, as an extruded part with a semi-open profile and whether the longitudinal member is a casting or has a ribbed extruded shape.
Such conventional composite-link rear axle arrangements do not have the best possible design. In general, the outer regions of the transverse member are designed so that they are received in a groove-like guide of the corresponding longitudinal member. Since the traverse member is made of a light metal having a substantially lower modulus of elasticity than that of steel, the flange width of the light-metal profile of the transverse member must be extremely large in the outer region if a predetermined torsional rigidity is to be ensured. Consequently, when torsion occurs in use there is a correspondingly pronounced cambering of the outer regions of the transverse member flange regions. This cambering causes the outer flange regions of the transverse member to be displaced in the direction transverse to the vehicle, referred to herein as a Y axis displacement, which is sometimes very pronounced. Since the outer regions of the transverse member which are plugged into the longitudinal member are generally firmly clamped in the direction of the vehicle transverse axis i.e., the Y-direction, by a welded joint, or by screws, or the like, the torsional rigidity of the transverse member is increased undesirably. The result is that, because of this high rigidity, the stabilizer effect to be achieved is likewise too high.


Executing a Next Instruction Access Intent instruction by a computer. The processor obtains an access intent instruction indicating an access intent. The access intent is associated with an operand of a next sequential instruction. The access intent indicates usage of the operand by one or more instructions subsequent to the next sequential instruction. The computer executes the access intent instruction. The computer obtains the next sequential instruction. The computer executes the next sequential instruction, whose execution comprises, based on the access intent, adjusting one or more cache behaviors for the operand of the next sequential instruction.

The present invention relates, in general, to computer systems, and in particular, to computer system processor instruction processing functionality.
From the 1960s to the present, a type of computer system, because of its essential nature in large-scale computing power, became known as the "mainframe". This mainframe (computer) operates upon a set of principles of operation which state the architecture of the machine by describing the instructions that may be executed on the mainframe.

Next instruction access intent instruction for indicating usage of a storage operand by one or more instructions subsequent to a next sequential instruction

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A method for modifying an object design using a computer comprises the steps of: selecting a first sub-design of the object design comprising a first free form deformation geometry and a first free deformation control volume that is variable and adaptive; choosing a second sub-design comprising a second free form deformation geometry; and replacing the first geometry with the second geometry.

Free Form Deformation (FFD) techniques have been introduced to manipulate objects in computer graphics and computer animations. The FFD has been applied to optimize shapes of aerodynamic objects in conjunction with evolutionary algorithms. The FFD techniques is known to provide a reasonable compromise in the flexibility of shapes and a small number of parameters, which in turn results in a small dimensional search space for the optimization. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the shape deformations defined by the FFD techniques can be applied equally well to deform a grid for computational fluid dynamics calculations. Using the FFD techniques, it is possible to obviate generating of the manual grid even for complex geometries. In many cases, design optimization of complex shapes becomes feasible only when the FFD techniques are used for the representation. In the FFD techniques, deformations of an initial design are described instead of the geometry itself. Therefore, the number of parameters is independent of the complexity of the shape and is determined solely by the required flexibility of the deformation.
An FFD system is generally defined by a lattice of control points. A modification in the positions of the control point results in a deformation of the geometry inside the control volume. For optimization, it is important to minimize the number of parameters. The reduction in the number of parameters is achieved by properly initializing the control volume because the number and position of control points determine the flexibility of the shape.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the basic idea of the FFD. The sphere of FIG. 1 represents the target object of the optimization. The target object is embedded in a lattice of control points (CP). First, the coordinates of the target object must be mapped to the coordinates in the spline parameter space, according to a procedure known as 'freezing.' If the object is a surface point cloud of the design or a mesh that originates from an aerodynamic computer simulation, each grid point must be converted into spline parameter space to allow the deformations. To perform this calculation, various methods have been proposed including, for example, Newton approximation or similar gradient based methods.
After freezing, the object can be modified by moving a CP to a new position. The new CP positions are the inputs for the spline equations based upon which the updated geometry is calculated. Because everything in the control volume is deformed, a grid from computational fluid dynamics that is attached to the shape is also adapted. Hence, the deformation affects not only the shape of the design but also the grid points of the computational mesh needed for the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) evaluations of the proposed designs. The new shape and the corresponding CFD mesh are generated at the same time without the need for an automated or a manual re-meshing procedure. This feature significantly reduces the computational costs and allows a high degree of automation. Thus, by applying FFD the grid point coordinates are changed but the grid structure is kept intact.
One main disadvantage of the FFD method is its sensitivity to the initial placement of the control points. An inappropriate set-up increases the necessary size of the parameter set; and therefore, increases the dimensionality of the search space. One of the reasons for the inappropriate set-up is that the influence of a control point on an object decreases as the distance from the object increases. Even a small object variation requires a large modification of the control point if the initial distance between the object and the control point is large (this also violates the strong causality condition that is particularly important for Evolution Strategies). The large modification of the control point in turn often modifies other areas of the design space that has to be compensated for by moving other control points. Hence, correlated mutations of control points are often necessary for a local change of the object geometry.
To reduce the effect of the initial positions of the control points, direct manipulation is introduced as a representation that allows determination of variations directly from the shape. Therefore, local deformations of the object depend only on the so-called object points.
Direct manipulation of the free form deformations (DFFD) is an extension of the standard FFD. Instead of moving control points (CP) having effect on the shape that is not always intuitive, the designer is encouraged to modify the shape directly by specifying so-called object points (OP).
Although the initial setup of the control volume in the DFFD is similar to the FFD, the control volume becomes invisible to the user and correlated modifications are calculated analytically. In a first step, the lattice of control points is constructed and the coordinates of the object and the CFD mesh are frozen. The control volume, however, can be arbitrary. That is, the number and positions of control points do not need to have any logical relationship to the embedded object other than the fact that the number of control points determines the degree of freedom for the modification. In the next step, the designer specifies object points, which define handles to the represented object that can be repositioned. The shape is modified by directly changing the positions of these object points. The control points are determined analytically so that the shape variations (introduced by the object point variations) are realized by the deformations associated with the new control point positions. In other words, the control points are calculated in such a way that the object points meet the given new positions under the constraint of minimal movement of the control points in a least square sense. Of course the object variations must be realizable by the deformations from the newly calculated positions of the control point. That is, if the number of control points is too small, some variations given by the new position of the object may not be represented by a deformation.
FIG. 2 illustrates an object point at the top of the sphere. The designer is able to move this object point upward without any knowledge of the "underlying" control volume that may be initialized arbitrarily. The direct manipulation algorithm calculates the corresponding positions of the control points to mimic the targeted object point movement. The solution is shown in FIG. 2. The object point is chosen directly from the surface and the required movements of the control points to realize the target movement of the object point are calculated, for example, by the least squares method. The dotted control volume is invisible to the designer because the designer works directly on the object points, and the control volume may be chosen arbitrarily.
The DFFD has several advantages over the standard FFD when combined with evolutionary optimization. The construction of the control volume, and the number and distribution of control points in the DDFD are not as important as in the standard FFD. Furthermore, the number of optimization parameters equals the number of object points.
There are mainly two typical issues with the FFD. First, using the FFD, it is only possible to deform a design given initially. That is, the possible shape modifications are limited by the design which was initially chosen for deformation. Conceptual or structural changes are very difficult to achieve. For example, introduction of holes or edges is either impossible or requires a huge amount of modification to the control points.
Additionally, this process is very difficult and even impossible when dealing with designs that are not allowed to include holes in the represented space. This problem occurs when the FFD is used for deforming systems that are analyzed with computational calculation methods such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) or Finite Element Methods (FEM) to calculate specific features of the design. For example, if CFD is applied, a computational grid must be built according to the given geometry. If a hole must be introduced in the design, the hole must be meshed and be interfaced properly to the existing mesh to provide the grid for a CFD simulation. In the standard FFD method, this is not possible without a remeshing procedure that is very time consuming.
As a consequence, changes in the design are desired which provide structural design changes without holes in the represented space.
Secondly, when the FFD is applied, the design is modified by moving control points and applying the new positions of the control point to update the design. Issues often arise when control points must be moved for a significant distance to reflect a desired design change. Such moving of the control points results in a control point set that is very ill-structured because many control points are quite close to each other. If control points are very close, further design modifications are very difficult to achieve without having loops in the geometry. Therefore, a reorganization of the representation of the control points is strongly needed in order to allow further modifications to the design.


An instruction value conversion section (31) of an operation target calculation section (30) converts an instruction signal from a joystick (25). In order to obtain a movement mode of a ship intended by an operator, a target propeller speed calculation section (32) calculates, using each converted value, target rotation speed of right and left propellers (13) and the propeller (14b) of a thruster (14). At a main engine operation control section (40), a slip rate determination section (41) calculates the slip rate U of a clutch mechanism (120) of a marine gear (12) in order to rotate the propellers (13) at the target rotation speed. A drive control section (42) controls operation of the main engine (11) and the clutch mechanism (120). Further, in a thruster operation control section (50), a drive control section (52) controls drive of the propeller (14b) in the rotational direction determined by an operation determining section (51).

Conventionally, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3057413, an automatic ship-steering device has been known. The disclosed automatic ship-steering device is configured such that a remote operation box is connected to a control and arithmetic device. The remote operation box has a joystick lever for setting the direction of movement of a hull in accordance with the direction of tilt of the lever and for setting the speed of movement of the hull in accordance with the angle of tilt of the lever, and a swing dial for setting the direction of swinging of the hull in accordance with the direction of turning of the dial and for setting an angular speed of swinging in accordance with the quantity of turning of the dial. During dead slow run, which is achieved by rotating propellers at dead slow speed by means of a speed reducer, a ship operator can turn the hull, cause the hull to undergo pinwheeling, or move the hull translationally by operating only the joystick lever and the swing dial.
The above-mentioned automatic ship-steering device allows a ship operator to turn the hull, to cause the hull to undergo pinwheeling, or to move the hull translationally at dead slow speed by operating only the joystick lever and the swing dial, without need to operate other equipment. Thus, for example, when the automatic ship-steering device is applied to a large ship, since, usually, a seaman who is familiar with behavioral variations of the ship steers the ship, use of the automatic ship-steering device improves operability and allows the seaman to readily move the hull. However, the joystick lever and the swing dial must be operated individually. Therefore, when the automatic ship-steering device is applied to a small ship, there arises a case where a user who is unfamiliar with the behavioral variations of the ship steers the ship. In such a case, the user may fail to readily move the hull by operating the joystick lever and the swing dial. In some cases, a small ship is not equipped with a speed reducer. Such a small ship encounters difficulty in maintaining dead slow run. This may make steering more difficult.
As for a device for maintaining dead slow run, there has been known a slip ratio adjuster for a marine gear as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. H7-196090. The slip ratio adjuster has a controller for controlling a solenoid which hydraulically controls a clutch of the marine gear, via a PID control circuit and a PWM control circuit. The controller has a variable resistor. A control-range-adjusting trimmer is connected in series with the variable resistor. Thus, even when a ship operator sets the maximum rotational speed of a screw (propeller) to an arbitrary value, a voltage corresponding to the rotational speed of the screw (propeller) can be divided through adjustment of the control-range-adjusting trimmer. By controlling the solenoid with the divided voltage, the full range of the controller can be modified so as to correspond to the set maximum rotational speed. Therefore, fine adjustment of rotation of the screw (propeller) can be carried out with ease.
However, according to the conventional adjuster for adjusting the slip ratio of the marine gear as mentioned above, the slip ratio is adjusted merely proportionally in association with modification of the full range of the controller, thereby adjusting the rotational speed of the screw (propeller). That is, the slip ratio is not adjusted in consideration of ship behaviors. Therefore, for example, even when a ship operator is to run a ship at dead slow speed by operating the controller, the screw (propeller) may fail to actually rotate due to influence of disturbances, such as a resistance force against rotation of the screw (propeller), waves, and wind. Thus, the speed of movement of the ship varies nonlinearly in relation to a control input to the controller, and dead slow run intended by the ship operator may fail to be maintained. Therefore, the ship operator must control the controller at all times, so that ship-steering operations become complicated.


Disclosed herein is an outboard motor comprising a propulsion unit including a first member movable vertically to actuate a transmission in response to such vertical movement, a second member rotatably supported by the propulsion unit and adapted to be rotated by an operator either directly or indirectly, and a connection for detachably connecting the first and second members to effect vertical movement of the first member in response to rotation of the second member, which connection includes an aperture in the first member, a stud fixedly extending from the second member for movement in common therewith and received in the aperture, a resilient member fixed to the second member for movement in common therewith and including a part movable relative to the second member between an interfering position wherein the part is engagable with the first member to prevent withdrawal of the stud from the aperture and a spaced position affording removal of the stud from the aperture, a tab connected to the resilient member and adapted for actuation by an operator to deflect the part away from the interfering position, and a stop fixed to the second member for movement in common therewith and for preventing deflection of the part beyond the spaced position in the direction from the interfering position.

The invention relates generally to marine propulsion devices and, more particularly, to outboard motors. Still more particularly, the invention relates to a means for detachably connecting two members operable to actuate a transmission or clutch.
Attention is directed to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,597,868 and 4,867,717 which disclose arrangements for detachably connecting two members operable in unison to actuate a clutch or transmission in a marine propulsion device.


A linear illumination device, includes: a light conducting body; a light diffusion portion formed at least on one side surface in a longitudinal direction of the light conducting body; a light output portion formed in a portion of the light conducting body opposing the light diffusion portion; a light source portion disposed at a first end of the light conducting body; and a light reflecting layer provided at a second end opposing the first end of the light conducting body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a linear illumination device having a light conducting body and an image reading apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in an illumination device for a facsimile apparatus or an image reading apparatus such as a scanner and a bar code reader, an LED array in which a number of light-emitting devices such as light-emitting diodes are arranged in an array are generally used. (In this application, light-emitting devices such as light-emitting diodes are collectively referred to as LEDs.) In an illumination apparatus with such a structure, a decrease in the number of LEDs to be used in a light source portion causes a decrease and a variation of the illuminance, which makes it difficult to decrease the number of LEDs. Furthermore, since an LED emitting blue light is expensive, it is difficult to reduce fabrication cost.
On the other hand, as a method for decreasing the number of LEDs for the purpose of reducing fabrication cost, a technique of using a light conducting body has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 8-43633. A structure of an illumination device 100 based on such a conventional technique is shown in FIG. 16.
In an illumination device 100 shown in FIG. 16, one side surface of a bar-shaped light conducting body 101 is provided with a light diffusion portion 102 in parallel with an axis of the light conducting body 101. Illuminants 103 are formed on both ends of the light conducting body 101 so as to be close to light incident surfaces 104a and 104b. Light which is incident upon an inside of the light conducting body 101 from the illuminant 103 travels through the light conducting body 101 in accordance with Snell's law. Light which reaches the light diffusion portion 102 on its way is reflected and diffused by the light diffusion portion 102, and is output from a light-emitting surface 105 opposing the light diffusion portion 102 of the light conducting body 101.
Furthermore, a structure of an image reading apparatus 200 using a conventional illumination device 210 is shown in FIG. 17.
In the illumination device 210 of the image reading apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 17, LEDs 214 are mounted on a printed wiring board 212 as a light source portion, and the LEDs 214 are sealed with a transparent resin 216. The illuminance of the LEDs 214 is determined based on a current flowing therethrough. The level of the current is set by a resistance value of a resistor 218.
Output light 220 from the illumination device 210 passes through a cover glass 222 (which functions as a document table and a cover), is incident upon a surface of an original surface (i.e., a document surface) 224 (subject) to be illuminated, and is reflected from the original surface 224. Reflected light 226 passes through the cover glass 222, and is incident upon a rod lens array 230 fixed by a metal frame 228. An image of the original surface 224 is formed on a photoelectric conversion element 234 mounted on a wiring board 232 by the rod lens array 230.
Furthermore, the printed wiring board 212 on which the LEDs 214 are mounted and the wiring board 232 on which the photoelectric conversion element 234 is mounted are electrically connected to each other via leads 236, for example, with a solder 238.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional illumination device 100 shown in FIG. 16, the illuminants 103 as a light source portion are required to be placed on both ends of the light conducting body 101, which enlarges the size of the device. Therefore, when such an illumination device 100 is used as a contact-type image sensor or the like which is intended to be miniaturized or made compact, inconvenience of enlargement of the entire structure is caused.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned conventional image reading apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 17 uses the leads 236 for electrically connecting the illumination device 210 to the photoelectric conversion element 234. Therefore, particularly in a system in which the three LEDs 214 respectively emitting three colors of light (i.e., red, blue, and green) are used as a light source and a colored original (document) is read by switching between the LEDs, the number of the leads 236 increases, causing inconvenience of complicated wiring. In addition, due to the increase in number of the leads 236, a space for accommodating the wiring therein is required to be enlarged, which hinders miniaturization of an image reading apparatus. Furthermore, when leads with a small diameter are used for the purpose of decreasing an occupied space of the leads 236, it becomes difficult to attach the leads 236 to the wiring boards 212 and 232, and the leads 236 become likely to be cut.

Linear illumination device and image reading apparatus using the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A radio communication apparatus is disclosed, that comprises a receiving portion for receiving a radio signal transmitted from a base station, the radio signal including character codes, a display portion for displaying a character string corresponding to character codes received by the receiving portion on a plurality of lines, a detecting portion for detecting a particular character from the character string displayed on the display portion, and a display controlling portion for displaying a word just after the particular character at the beginning of the next line. According to the present radio communication apparatus , a word in a message composed of a character string is prevented from being displayed in a plurality of lines. Thus, a character string is displayed on the screen of the display portion in such a manner that the user can easily read the character string.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio communication apparatus for use with a mobile station of a radio communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a digital mobile communication system has provided a character data service for allowing communication terminals to exchange character data. Each communication terminal has a key input portion and a display portion (such as a liquid crystal display). With the input portion of the communication terminal on the transmission side, the user can input a desired message as a character string code. The message being input is displayed on the display portion. In the communication terminal on the reception side, the received character string code is converted into character data and displayed on the display portion.
When a message described in English is communicated, a space is placed between each word. A message is communicated as a character string code including space codes between each communication terminal. Thus, as shown in FIG. 11, a character string that composes one word may be displayed on two lines. To prevent a word from being divided, the transmission side may manually add a required number of space codes to a character string code. However, such a method results in increasing work. In addition, the number of characters displayed on the display portion may vary in each terminal unit. Moreover, when a communication is broken due to a deterioration of a radio communication environment such as fading, to minimize the length of communication data, it is undesirable to use space codes to fill in a line.
As another method, control codes may be placed in a character string code. However, in this method, since the communication data becomes long, this method is not proper.
Thus, since it is preferable to minimize the length of the communication data transmitted between communication terminals, it is preferable that a communication message is composed of only character codes. However, in this case, since a character string that composes a word as in English is often displayed on two lines, the user cannot easily see the resultant message.


A zoom lens which has good optical performance with the number of lenses reduced as a result of forming a diffraction optical surface is disclosed. The zoom lens includes, in order from object side to image side, a first lens unit consisting of a positive lens element and having a positive optical power, a second lens unit having a negative optical power, a third lens unit having a positive optical power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive optical power. When zooming is performed from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, the first lens unit and the third lens unit are moved so that, at the telephoto end, they are closer to the object side, and the second lens unit is moved so that, at the telephoto end, it is closer to the image side. The zoom lens further includes at least one diffraction optical surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens and an optical apparatus using the zoom lens, and, more particularly, to a zoom lens that is suitable for use in an optical apparatus, such as a photographic camera, a video camera, a digital camera, or a broadcasting camera, in which aberrations, particularly chromatic aberration, have been properly corrected by using a diffraction optical surface in a portion of a lens system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, smaller and lighter optical apparatuses, such as home videos and digital cameras, have caused a demand for an image pickup zoom lens device, used in such optical apparatuses, that has a small overall length and whose front lens unit has a small diameter.
What is called a rear focus zoom lens device that performs focusing as a result of moving a lens unit other than a first lens unit disposed at an object side is known as one means for achieving this object.
In general, the first lens unit of the rear focus zoom lens device has a smaller effective diameter than the first lens unit of a zoom lens device that performs focusing as a result of moving the first lens unit. Therefore, it becomes easier to reduce the size of the entire lens system, and to perform a shooting operation at a close distance, particularly at a very close distance. In addition, since a small, light lens unit is moved, only a small driving force needs to be exerted on the lens unit, so that, for example, proper focus can be quickly obtained.
Such a rear focus zoom lens device is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Nos. 62-24213 and 62-247316. The rear focus zoom lens devices disclosed in these documents comprise four lens units, which are, in order of lens units from the lens unit closest to the object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. The second lens unit is moved to change magnification, and the fourth lens unit is moved to perform focusing and to change an image plane with changes in magnification.
In general, in order to effectively increase mountability to a camera when the camera is not used, the lenses are collapsibly mounted therein. However, in the zoom lens device of the above-described type whose second lens unit takes over most of the magnification change function for changing magnification, sensitivities of the first and second lens units with respect to decentering are too large, so that this type of zoom lens device is not suited to be collapsibly mounted to the camera.
To overcome this problem, a zoom lens device having a magnification change ratio of the order of 3 has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-62687 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,228). This zoom lens device comprises four lens units, which are, in order of lens units from the lens unit closest to the object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. The first lens unit consists of a single lens, and the second, third, and fourth lens units are moved to perform magnification changes. The fourth lens unit is moved to perform focusing. Therefore, the optical system is simplified, thereby allowing it to have a structure that is suitable for collapsible mounting.
On the other hand, in recent years, a method that uses a diffraction optical element (diffraction optical surface) has been proposed as a method of restricting the occurrence of chromatic aberration.
For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 4-213421 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,706) and 6-324262 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,321), chromatic aberration is reduced by using a diffraction optical element for the single lens. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,790, the use of a diffraction optical element in the second lens unit or the third lens unit of the zoom lens device is proposed in order to reduce the number of lenses used and the size of the zoom lens device compared to conventional zoom lens devices. However, the reduction in the number of lenses and the reduction in the size of the zoom lens device have not been satisfactorily achieved.
The zoom lens devices disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 9-211329 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,872,658) and 11-271616 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,743) each comprise four lens units, which are, in order of lens units from the lens unit closest to the object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power. The first lens unit consists of a single lens, and a diffraction optical surface is used in the first lens unit in order to reduce the number of lenses used and to reduce the size of the zoom lens device.
When, in order to reduce the size of the optical system, an attempt is made to reduce the number of lenses used by merely increasing the refractive power of the lens units, the thicknesses of the lenses increase. Therefore, the size of the optical system is not satisfactorily effectively reduced and, at the same time, it becomes difficult to correct various aberrations.
When an attempt is made to collapsibly mount the lenses when they are not used, mechanical structural errors, such as lens tilting, inevitably become large, so that, when lens sensitivity (that is, the ratio of the amount of displacement of an image plane to the amount of displacement per lens) becomes large, optical performance deteriorates and image jitters occur when magnifications change. Therefore, it is desirable that the sensitivities of lens units be kept as small as possible.
In zoom lenses comprising four lens units, which are a lens unit having a positive refractive power, a lens unit having a negative refractive power, a lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a lens unit having a positive refractive power, when an attempt is made to perform magnification changes by moving only the second lens unit and the fourth lens unit, most of the task of changing magnification must be performed by the second lens unit, so that the refractive powers of the first and second lens units inevitably need to be made large.
In contrast, the zoom optical system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-62687 is suited to be formed into a collapsible mount structure because the sensitivities of the first and second lens units become relatively small. However, since the first lens unit is fixed when magnification is being changed, it is difficult to obtain a high magnification change ratio equal to or greater than 5.
In zoom lens devices having a high zoom ratio equal to or greater than 5, it is difficult to properly correct changes in chromatic aberration that occur with changes in magnification unless chromatic aberration that occurs in each of the lens units is corrected to a certain extent. Although the number of lenses used can be reduced using aspherical surfaces in the optical system, when an attempt is made to reduce the number of lenses used by merely using aspherical surfaces, the refractive powers of the positive lenses become too large, so that the lenses need to be formed with shapes that are difficult to manufacture. Therefore, the refractive power at a magnification change portion needs to be weakened, thereby making it difficult to reduce the overall length of the zoom lens device.
In order to overcome these problems, various zoom lens devices that include diffraction optical surfaces have been proposed. However, in order to obtain a high-performance optical system that is adaptable to, for example, digital still cameras having two million or more pixels by using a magnification change ratio of the order of 5 and a simple structure, it is necessary to properly set the lens structure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a zoom lens which comprises a diffraction optical surface in a portion of an optical system in order to reduce chromatic aberration that occurs in each lens unit by combining diffractive optical action and achromatization effect of a diffractive system, which has reduced overall length as a result of reducing the number of lenses used while the refractive power at a magnification change portion is maintained, and which provides good optical performance over the entire magnification change range from a wide angle end and to a telephoto end. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an optical apparatus using the zoom lens.
To these ends, according to the present invention, there is provided a zoom lens that includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens unit consisting of a positive lens element and having a positive optical power (equal to the reciprocal of the focal length), a second lens unit having a negative optical power, a third lens unit having a positive optical power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive optical power. In the zoom lens, when zooming is performed from a wide angle end to a telephoto end, the first lens unit and the third lens unit are moved so that, at the telephoto end, they are positioned closer to the object side than to the wide angle end, and the second lens unit is moved so that, at the telephoto end, it is positioned closer to the image side than to the wide angle end. The zoom lens also includes at least one diffraction optical surface.
Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

Zoom lens and optical apparatus using the same


Spark plug with an electrically insulating ceramic insulator (1), a metallic spark plug body (2), a ground electrode (3) and a middle electrode (4) which is located centrally in a hole (5) of the ceramic insulator (1), around the ignition-side end area on the periphery of the middle electrode (4) a peripheral tip (10) being formed which encompasses the middle electrode (4) in an annular manner.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a spark plug with an electrically insulating ceramic insulator.
2. Description of the Related Art
In these conventional popular spark plugs with a spark gap in air malfunctions often occur due to fouling; they include restart and cold starting problems which due to low shunt resistance of the insulator base which is caused by electrically conductive combustion residues (carbon) lead to malfunction of the spark plug.
Therefore, the object of the invention is to make available a spark plug with cold starting properties which have been greatly improved, in which the aforementioned problems are greatly reduced.
The object in accordance with the invention is achieved by providing a spark plug with an electrically insulating ceramic insulator, a metallic spark plug body, a ground electrode and a middle electrode centrally located in a hole of the ceramic insulator, whereby a peripheral tip is formed around the ignition-side end area on the periphery of the middle electrode, the peripheral tip encompassing the middle electrode in an annular manner.


An electrochemical storage device which has electrode plates of different polarity which are alternately stacked on one another to form an electrode stack. Each of the electrode plates is formed from an electrode framework with a current-collecting lug arranged thereon. Identically polarized current-collecting lugs of an electrode stack are connected in an electrically conductive fashion to a terminal yoke. In order to ensure better welding, the terminal yoke has at the location of the current-collecting lugs a transverse slot into which the free end region of a current-collecting lug projects. The current-collecting lug is attached to the terminal yoke on the flat side that is remote from the electrode stack.

The present invention relates to an electrochemical storage device having electrode plates of different polarity alternately stacked on one another, each electrode plate being formed from an electrode framework having a current-collecting lug arranged thereon, the individual, identically polarized current-collecting lugs being connected in an electrically conductive fashion with their weld-on rims arranged on their free end region to a terminal yoke extending parallel to the electrode stack formed from the electrode plates and transverse to the flat side of the current-collecting lugs. The present invention also relates to a method for producing an electrochemical storage device which has a plurality of electrode plates formed in each case from an electrode framework having a current-collecting lug welded on the end, the individual, identically polarized current-collecting lugs being connected in an electrically conductive fashion with their weld-on rims arranged on their free ends to a terminal yoke. Each of the current-collecting lugs is connected at the end by in each case one electrode framework to an electrode plate, the electrode plates being stacked on one another with the intercalation of various parts such as separators, recombiners etc. transverse to their flat irons to form an electrode stack. The electrode stack is insulated on the outside and inserted into a housing. The current-collecting lugs respectively of the same polarity are connected with their weld-on rim arranged on the free end region to a terminal yoke assigned to this polarity and on which a terminal pillar is arranged.
The fundamental electrochemical storage device of the above-described generic type has electrode plates of different polarity stacked on one another, each electrode plate being formed from a current-collecting lug having an electrode framework arranged on its one end region. The electrode plates are stacked on one another alternately to form an electrode stack, with separators being arranged between electrode plates of different polarity and recombiners being arranged between two successive electrode plates of the same, negative polarity, and electrode plates of the same polarity being connected to one another in an electrically conductive fashion via a terminal yoke. The current-collecting lugs are welded to the terminal yoke by electrical resistance welding along a weld-on rim arranged at their end region, for the purpose of electrically connecting the electrode plates of the same polarity. In order to simplify the welding, the weld-on rims of the current-collecting lugs are bent transverse to the flat side of the other current-collecting lug, preferably by an angle of approximately 90.degree., the weld-on rim being provided with welding knobs in order to improve the welding result. In spite of these welding knobs, defective or poor welds keep recurring, which particularly in the case of high-quality electrochemical storage devices such as, for example, batteries for space, signify rejection.
An object of the present invention is to improve a fundamental storage device of the initially described type to reduce rejections due to welding the current-collecting lugs to the terminal yoke. Furthermore, a method for producing it is to be developed.
This and other objects are achieved by the present invention which provides an electrochemical storage device comprising electrode plates of different polarity alternately stacked on one another to form an electrode stack, each electrode plate including an electrode framework and a current-collecting lug arranged thereon, the current-collecting lugs having weld-on rims arranged on a free end region. A terminal yoke extends parallel to the electrode stack and transverse to a flat side of the current-collecting lugs, with individual identically polarized current-collecting lugs being connected in an electrically conductive fashion with their weld-on rims to the terminal yoke. The terminal yoke has a flat side remote from the electrode stack, and a transverse slot at a location of a current-collecting lug into which the free end region of the current-collecting lug at least projects. The current-collecting lug is attached to the terminal yoke in the region of the flat side of the terminal yoke.
The above-stated objects are also achieved by an embodiment of the present invention which provides a method for producing an electrochemical storage device comprising forming a plurality of electrode plates by welding a plurality of current-collecting lugs respectively on an end of an electrode framework, stacking the electrode plates on one another with the intermediate positioning of elements transverse to flat sides of the electrode plates to form an electrode stack, and insulating outer regions of the electrode stack. The electrode stack is inserted into a housing. The weld-on rims of the current-collecting lugs are plugged into transverse slots of the terminal yoke. In an electrically conductive manner, the individual, identically polarized current-collecting lugs are connected to a terminal yoke assigned to this polarity, the current-collecting lugs being connected to said terminal yoke by weld-on rims of free ends of the current-collecting lugs to the terminal yoke, the terminal yoke having webs between the transverse slots, and a terminal pillar. The step of connecting the current-collecting lugs to the terminal yoke includes electrical resistance welding the weld-on rims of the current-collecting lugs to the webs of the terminal yoke.
Due to the design according to the invention of the current-collecting lug and the terminal yoke, the weld of the terminal yoke with the weld-on rims of the current-collecting lug, which weld is easy to produce, has a high strength and low contact resistances, these properties being ensured even in the case of high vibration loads on the electrochemical storage device.
A further advantage is that, with a welded connection of the terminal yoke and the current-collecting lug as against a screwed connection, a plurality of components are spared and thus the mass of the storage device is reduced, the overall height of the storage device is reduced and the contact resistance between the current-collecting lug and terminal yoke is lower. On the production side, there is the further advantage that the production of the storage device according to the invention can be automated since, inter alia, the welding zones are easily accessible after the assembly of the cell stack. The result is that, despite the higher quality of the electrochemical storage device and despite reduced rejection during production, there is a reduction in cost during production of the electrochemical storage device and a shorter production time.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Electrochemical storage device and method for producing same

Daug-Hoppecke Gesellschaft fuer Batteriesysteme mbH


A device for a battery with a spacer preventing direct physical contact between first and second batteries arranged in physical series. A resilient conductor providing an electroconductive contact between a center electrode of the first battery and a terminal electrode of the second battery is held by the spacer.

The field of the present invention is devices for protecting battery electrodes.
Dry cell batteries typically used for portable devices such as flashlights, toys and the like are cylindrical and are provided with a center electrode and a terminal electrode. The center electrode is usually formed as a pin like protrusion having a diameter which is much smaller than the outside diameter of the battery. This center electrode usually forms the positive pole. At the other end of the battery, a terminal electrode is formed which is shaped as a flat contact plate having a much larger diameter than the center electrode. Frequently, the batteries are arranged physically as well as electrically in series in that the center electrode of a first battery directly contacts the terminal electrode of a second battery. If more than two batteries are provided, the center electrode of the second battery directly contacts a terminal electrode of a third battery and so on.
In a flashlight for example, an electrical circuit is typically established from one electrode of a battery, e.g. the center electrode of the foremost battery, through a conductor to a switch, and then to one electrode of the lamp bulb. After passing through the filament of a lamp bulb, the electric circuit emerges through a second electrode of the lamp bulb in electroconductive contact with a conductor, which in turn is etectroconductively connected with the flashlight housing. The flashlight housing itself when made of metal, or a conductor extending along the inner side of the housing, e.g. if the housing is made of plastic, typically provides an electroconductive path to an electrical conductor, generally a spring element, which is in contact with the other electrode of a battery, i.e. typically the terminal electrode of the rearmost battery. Actuation of the switch to complete the electrical circuit enables electrical current to pass through the filament, thereby generating light which is typically focussed by a reflector to form a beam of light.
In the case of medium and larger sized batteries or rechargeable storage batteries, which are often used in flashlights for public safety purposes by police and fire protection personnel, the electrodes of the batteries may be deformed by physical impact to which the flashlight may be subjected. On the one hand, the terminal electrode might be deformed since it comprises a relatively large diameter and, therefore, a low rigidity. On the other hand, the center electrode might be deformed since it is subjected to a relatively high compressive stress due to it's small diameter. In particular, it often happens that besides a deformation of the pin like protrusion itself another deformation pushing the whole pin like protrusion along the center axis of the battery takes place. Although the problems above can occur if only two batteries are connected in series, the electrodes are even more likely to be deformed if a column consisting of a larger number of batteries is provided, e.g. a column of four or five batteries, since the weight of the battery column is larger when more batteries are provided. Therefore, the impact shock received by the electrodes is increased with greater numbers of batteries. The probability of a deformation is still higher if heavier batteries comprising a larger outside diameter are used since in this case the impact shock is still further increased. If an extensive deformation of the electrodes has taken place, the rearmost electrode might loose contact with the rearmost conductor which is generally a spring conductor, or the foremost electrode might loose contact with the conductor connected to one of the two electrodes of the lamp bulb. Moreover, it is possible that the electrodes of the batteries will loose contact with each other so that they are spaced with respect to each other in lengthwise direction. In this case, the electric circuit is no longer closeable and therefore the lamp bulb can no longer be switched on.