A system for spraying liquid for a windshield of an aircraft includes a spray-liquid supply circuit, a pressurized-gas supply circuit designed to purge the spray-liquid supply circuit, and at least one nozzle disposed downstream from the circuits and designed to spray the spray liquid and pressurized gas on an aircraft windshield, wherein the system includes a control device able to simultaneously actuate the temporary spraying of spray liquid and of pressurized gas respectively in the spray-liquid spraying circuit and in the pressurized-gas spray circuit in such a way that a pressurized-gas spraying time is strictly greater than a spraying-liquid spraying time. For example, the control device includes a time-lag relay controlling the pressurized-gas supply circuit.

1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to a system for the spraying of spray liquid for aircraft windshields. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a purging device used to clean a spray system of this kind and eliminate all traces of spray liquid from the piping system after the spraying of such liquid. The disclosed embodiments also relates to an aircraft cockpit comprising at least one such system for the spraying of spray liquid.
When an aircraft is in flight, and in the event of heavy rain, there are known ways of improving visibility inside the aircraft cockpit by spraying a water-repellent comprising hydrophobic agents, most often consisting of silicone or solvent, on the exterior of the windshield of said cockpit. The water-repellent is preferably used when the aircraft is in flight because, when the aircraft is on the ground, the water-repellent liquid cannot be sprayed fast enough on the windshield.
2. Description
There are known prior-art spraying systems integrated into aircraft and enabling the spraying, on command, of the water-repellent liquid on the windshield of the cockpit.
FIG. 1, pertaining to the prior art, gives a schematic view of a water-repellent spraying system 1 of this kind for aircraft windshields.
The water-repellent liquid spraying system 1 is provided with a water-repellent liquid supply circuit 2 comprising a piping system 3 designed to convey the water-repellent liquid from a tank 4, at a distance from the windshield 6, up to two nozzles 5 situated at the level of the windshield 6 of the aircraft cockpit. The water-repellent liquid is projected up to the nozzles 5 through pressure within the tank 4. Generally, when said tank is full, the pressure in said tank 4 is at five bars. When the tank is empty, the pressure falls to two bars.
The aircraft pilot and/or co-pilot exercise remote control over the opening of the valves 7, situated upstream from the nozzles 5, so as to let the water-repellent liquid flow up to the nozzles 5. The term "upstream" refers to that which comes before the point considered, in the sense of flow of liquid in the supply circuit 2. When the valves 7 are closed, they block the pressurized water-repellent liquid within the piping system 3. In the event of heavy rain, to improve visibility through the windshield 6, the pilot and/or co-pilot press the control button 8 situated in the cockpit, thus actuating the temporary opening of the valves 7. When water-repellent liquid no longer needs to be sprayed on the windshield 6, the pilot and/or co-pilot releases the control button 8, thus closing the valves 7. The flow of water-repellent liquid is once again blocked upstream relative to the nozzles 5, at the valves 7.
The water-repellent liquid used to improve visibility through the windshield 6 has the main drawback of gradually clogging the piping system by the accumulated depositing of silicone on the walls of the piping system and in the nozzles 5. There is therefore a known way of draining the portion 9 of the supply circuit 2 situated downstream from the valves 7 so as to clean the piping system and the nozzles 5 once the water-repellent liquid has been sprayed on the windshield 6.
In the prior art, as shown in FIG. 1, the purging device 10 has a tubing 11 constantly conveying pressurized air tapped at the aircraft engines, provided that the engines are working, from a collector 12 to the nozzles 5, passing through the portion 9 of the piping system 3 of the supply circuit 2 situated downstream from the valves 7. Thus, the assembly formed by said portion 9 and the nozzles 5 is purged of any residue of water-repellent liquid that may get deposited once the valves 7 are closed. Furthermore, and in order to prevent any water-repellent liquid that may be contained in the downstream portion 9 of the piping system 3 of the supply circuit 2 from flowing inside the tube 11 of the purging device 10, it is possible to provide said purging device 10 with backflow check valves 13 positioned at the connection between the tube 11 of the purging device 10 and the piping system 3 of the water-repellent liquid supply circuit 2. The backflow check valves 13 permit the passage of compressed air toward the nozzles 5 and prevent the water-repellent liquid from flowing in the reverse direction.
In order that the water-repellent liquid may be sprayed before the pressurized gas when visibility through the windshield 6 has to be improved, there are known ways of maintaining the pressure of compressed air in the tube 11, at the inlet of the backflow check valves 13, at a pressure that is approximately equal to 60 millibars and in any case strictly below the pressure of the water-repellent liquid. In general, the pressure of the water-repellent liquid ranges from 5 bars to 2 bars since there is little loss of pressure during the journey in the piping system 3 of the supply circuit 2.
The circuit 2 for the supply of water-repellent liquid is actuated at specific times by the pilot and/or co-pilot when they need to improve visibility through the windshield 6, while the purge device 10 works constantly provided that the engines are in operation, pressurized air being continuously blown on the windshield 6.
Such a system therefore tends to disturb the performance of the aircraft since the pressurized air is continually tapped from these engines, thus entailing a harmful loss of load. Furthermore, the tubing 11 of the pressurized air supply circuit may be weakened by the continuous flow of pressurized air that it conveys.
Another drawback of the prior-art purging device 10 is that it necessitates the use of a tubing 11 that transits from the nose of the aircraft to the central section of said aircraft in which the turbo-jet engines are situated. The tube 11 has a length approximately equal to 30 meters and is subjected to numerous constraints since the pressurized gas flows therein constantly.
Furthermore, the installation of the purging device 10 is a lengthy, complex process. For, it is necessary to define the tubing 11 with the constraints of segregation of the systems, use fixed supports spaced out at intervals of 0.5 meters approximately and hence pierce the structure of the aircraft in order to fix these supports. The piercing in itself requires validation design studies to ensure that it does not inappropriately weaken the structure of the aircraft. Furthermore, it is necessary to match the definitions of the tubing portions from one aircraft section to another, manufacture, bend, equip and protect the entire tube 11, install the tubing portions on each of the aircraft sections etc. The test procedure can be performed only when the entire purging device 10 is connected together on the final assembly line. The test therefore can only be done once the aircraft has been assembled and the purging device 10 has been positioned, thus making it necessary to have specific tools for the pressurizing of the pneumatic circuit. The phases of the definition, manufacture, installation and testing of the prior-art purging device 10 thus entail a major loss of time.
In one embodiment, it is sought to provide a purging device that does not entail major load losses in the aircraft engines.
To this end, the disclosed embodiments propose to replace the permanent spraying of compressed air from the purging device with a time-specific spraying, on demand, of pressurized gas. The term "time-specific spraying" refers to spraying with limited duration.
The purging device according to one embodiment works for a specified limited time when it is necessary to purge the spray-liquid supply circuit for windshields so that, outside periods of heavy rain, or another situation requiring the spraying of liquid on the windshield, no fluid is sprayed on said windshield. So as to simplify use for the pilot and/or co-pilot, the purging device according to one embodiment is actuated simultaneously with the opening of the valve releasing the passage of the spray liquid to the windshield. A single command enables two actions, namely the spraying of spray liquid and the spraying of compressed gas. However, in one embodiment, although the spraying of the liquid and the gas are initiated simultaneously, the stopping of the spraying of said gas is offset in time relative to the spraying of the spray liquid. More specifically, the spraying of compressed gas stops after the stopping of the spraying of the spray liquid. This time offset between the end of the two spraying operations, even when the actuation is performed by the same action, is permitted through the use of means capable of prolonging in time the transmission of one of the pieces of information.
Thus, as in the prior art, the users have only one action to perform. However, this single action enables the commanding of two different spraying operations that are offset in time.
Naturally, it is possible to install the prolonged-action purging device of the disclosed embodiments directly on the prior-art spray liquid spraying system which uses compressed air tapped from the engines of the aircraft. Such a solution has the advantage whereby it can be used on aircraft already in service without its being necessary to carry out successive major dismantling and reinstallation operations.
Advantageously, the disclosed embodiments use an auxiliary compression device capable of tapping air directly at the place where it is situated, thus enabling the elimination of the entire tubing length for conveying gas from a particular place where it is tapped up to the nozzles. Indeed, if the compression device is available in the vicinity of the nozzles and therefore the windshield the length of tubing needed to convey compressed gas is reduced. Furthermore, it is possible to install the entire equipment of the purging device of the disclosed embodiments directly in the nose of the aircraft. Thus, the general space requirement of the purging device is reduced. Furthermore, once the purging device is installed on connected, the test can be done immediately. It is not necessary to provide pressurized air since the compression device can make direct use of the air available in the vicinity. Furthermore, this approach can be used to spray not only but also any gas on the windshield, as needed, through the availability of the air in an auxiliary tank containing the desired gas.

System for the spraying of spray liquid for aircraft windshield, and cockpit provided with such a spraying system


A radar reception device is provided. The device includes a reception signal acquirer, a signal processor, a PPI-scope generator, an A-scope generator, a display output unit, and a user interface. The reception signal acquirer acquires, in an Rθ-coordinate system, a reception signal received by an antenna that rotates at a predetermined cycle. The signal processor performs signal processing on the reception signal in the Rθ-coordinate system according to a distance, and outputs the processed signal in the Rθ-coordinate system. The PPI-scope generator converts the processed signal from the Rθ-coordinate system into an XY-orthogonal coordinate system and generates a radar image in a PPI-scope. The A-scope generator generates a radar image where the reception signal before being signal-processed is illustrated in an A-scope. The display output unit displays the PPI-scope radar image and the A-scope radar image on a display unit simultaneously. The user interface accepts a user input.

Generally, pulse radar apparatuses transmit pulsed high-frequency signals from antennas and receive reflection signals from target objects in the surroundings.
Generally, a radar apparatus includes a display device for displaying a signal received by an antenna as a radar image. A user of the radar apparatus can check the displayed radar image to confirm a target object in the surroundings. There exist various modes of displaying the signal received by the antenna, for example, JP1996-015419A and JP1993-012640B disclose an A-scope display and a PPI (Plan Position Indicator) scope display.
In the A-scope display, by taking a distance to a target object in the horizontal axis and a signal level in the vertical axis, the reception signal is displayed in a chart. The A-scope display has a merit of easily distinguishing a target object echo from a direction in which the antenna is oriented, and it is used in a tracking radar (JP1993-012640B). However, since antennas of radar apparatuses which are generally used in ships and the like always rotate, even if the signal received by the antenna is displayed in the A-scope in real time, the A-scope display is hardly of any use in a target detection. Therefore, the A-scope display is hardly used in ship radars (see L.10, 7th column of JP1995-027020B).
In the PPI-scope display, the signal received by the antenna is displayed by being plotted in a two-dimensional rectangular coordinate system. The PPI-scope display has a merit of allowing a user to easily instinctively confirm the position of the target object in a horizontal plane. Therefore, ship radars generally use the PPI-scope display.
Meanwhile, the level of a reflection signal from a target object in a close distance is high, and the level of a reflection signal from a target object in a far distance is weak. Therefore, if a radar image in the PPI-scope is generated by using the received signal as it is, since the view of the echo image becomes completely different depending on whether the target object is in a close distance or a far distance, the radar image will be difficult to be viewed.
Therefore, in the field of radar apparatus, processing which is a so-called STC (Sensitivity Time Control) of adjusting the level of the reception signal according to the distance to the target object is generally performed. Specifically, the sensitivity is decreased when the signal from a close distance is received and the sensitivity is increased as the distance is farther. For example, JP1997-072958A discloses such an STC.
With the radar apparatus, an adjustment of a characteristic of the STC becomes important to facilitate viewing of the PPI-scope radar image on display. In this regard, JP1997-072958A discloses a configuration in which the STC characteristic can be changed by adjusting it while looking at a display screen of a CRT (the display screen with the PPI-scope radar image displayed thereon) so that the image which can be easily viewed can be obtained.
With the radar apparatus, by the STC adjustment, if the echo image of the target object is eliminated along with clutter, there may be a case where an important target object cannot be confirmed with the radar image. Therefore, when adjusting the STC, the adjustment to appropriately remain the echo image of the required target object is requested.
However, with the configuration of JP1997-072958A, no method can confirm that only clutter is eliminated (the echo image of the target object is appropriately remained) by the STC processing. Therefore, whether the adjustment of the STC is appropriately performed cannot be evaluated instantly.
All told, even with the configuration which enable to adjust the STC while looking at the radar image displayed on the CRT as JP1997-072958A, in order to display the radar image so that only clutter is eliminated and the echo image of the target object is remained, the adjustment of the STC requires trial-and-error. Thus, with the configuration of JP1997-072958A, the adjustment of the STC is considered no easy.

Radar reception device, radar apparatus and radar reception signal displaying method


A polygon data sorting method and a polygon data sorting system is disclosed where the required memory capacity is not affected by changes in target data. The method sorts polygon data stored in an arbitrary order in an increasing or decreasing direction of a reference value which may be the depth of the polygon, for example. The polygon data is rearranged using the order of the reference values as an arrangement standard and includes the steps of dividing the reference values of the plurality of polygon data sets into upper digits and lower digits, registering values for the upper digits in an increasing or decreasing direction, registering the values for the upper digits and values at corresponding lower digits, and registering index numbers indicating positions where the stored polygon data reside. The polygon data may then be read in an order represented by the index numbers that correspond to the increasing or descending order of the values for the upper digits that are registered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polygon data sorting method, and a polygon data sorting system therefor. In particular, the present invention pertains to a polygon data sorting method, for a three-dimensional polygon computer graphic (CG) system, whereby a plurality of polygons are displayed by using depth values for the polygons, and to a polygon data sorting system therefor.
2. Related Arts
The sorting of polygon data is required in order to perform the removal of hidden surface in a three-dimensional polygon CG system, i.e., to remove hidden polygonal surfaces in consonance with a display priority when polygons are superimposed on a display device.
One of the methods employed for displaying polygons involves the use depth values (Z values) to determine the order in which the polygons are displayed. With this method, rearrangement of the polygon data must be performed in consonance with the depth values.
FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are diagrams for explaining the rearrangement of polygons. In FIG. 1 example polygon data are shown. This polygon has three-dimensional coordinate points P0, P1 and P2 and a representative point Pr for these three points. The point Pr is acquired as the average value for the other three points.
The representative Z value for the point Pr is the average value obtained for the depth values of the polygon, and generally, polygon sorting is performed by using the representative Z value. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining this process. Assuming that polygons C, B and A are input in the order of registration, and that their representative Z values are 16, 17 and 23, the polygons are sorted and rearranged in the descending order of their representative values. As a result, the polygons are output in the order of A, B and C.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing example polygons that are sorted and rearranged described in the descending order of their representative Z values. In FIG. 3, a plurality of polygons A, B, C, D, . . . and N are arranged in consonance with distances (representative Z values Z1, Z2, . . . and Zn) in the direction of the depth relative to the Z axis of the three-dimensional coordinates. The polygons are displayed in order as they are arranged in this manner.
Various methods, such as the one described above, have been proposed for rearranging polygon data. One method, called a quick sorting method, takes into account the fact that sorting can be performed fast by using hardware.
According to the quick sorting method, however, a problem has arisen in that the overhead for a data transfer circuit is increased because of the need for frequent data exchanges between memory areas. An additional problem that has arisen is that execution speeds vary greatly, depending on the changes in the representative Z values.
Another method that more effectively performs the exchange of data is a distribution method. This method, however, requires a greater memory capacity.

Method and system for sorting polygon data according to depth values


Provided is a membrane module which has a simple and easy structure to restrain its vessel from being increased in costs, and which allows to fabricate the vessel by a simple and easy work, and further to locate an inlet for a fluid, and others at respective predetermined positions of the membrane module.

As the structure of a conventional spiral membrane element (hereinafter referred to merely as a "membrane element" also), known is a structure equipped with a wound body yielded by winding one or more separating membranes, supply-side flow-channel matters and permeation-side flow-channel matters, one or more separating membranes, supply-side flow-channel matters and permeation-side flow-channel matters onto a perforated central pipe (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional membrane element, the view being obtained by cutting the membrane element partially. The membrane element illustrated in this figure, which is a membrane element 1, has a structure yielded by winding, around a central pipe 5, membrane members including separating membranes 2, supply-side flow-channel matters 6, and permeation-side flow-channel matters 3. More specifically, envelope-form membranes (baglike membrane) are each formed by putting two of the separating membranes 2, respectively, onto both surfaces of one of the permeation-side flow-channel matters 3, and then bonding these members to each other at their three sides. Envelope-state openings thereof are fitted to the central pipe 5. The resultants are spirally wound, together with the net-form supply-side flow-channel matters 6, onto the outer peripheral surface of the central pipe 5. In this way, the membrane element is formed. On an upstream side of this wound body R, an upstream-side end member 10, such as a seal carrier, is located; and on a downstream side thereof, a downstream-side end member 12, such as a telescoping preventing member, is located.
When this membrane element 1 is used, a raw liquid 7 is supplied from one of the two end surface sides of the membrane element 1. The supplied raw liquid 7 flows along the supply-side flow-channel matters 6 in a direction parallel with an axial direction of the central pipe 5 to be discharged as a concentrated liquid 9 from the other end surface side of the membrane element 1. As represented by broken-line arrows in the figure, a permeation liquid 8 that has permeated the separating membranes 2, in a step in which the raw liquid 7 flows along the supply-side flow-channel matters 6, flows along the permeation-side flow-channel matters 3 from openings 5a to the inside of the central pipe 5, and then flows out from one of the ends of this central pipe 5.
A conventional spiral membrane module, in which such a membrane element 1 is held in a pressure vessel, has a structure in which: the pressure vessel has, at one of the two ends thereof, a raw liquid supplying portion, and has, at the other end, a discharge portion for concentrated liquid, and a discharge portion for permeation liquid; and the raw liquid flows into the membrane element 1 by effect of a sealing member located on the outer periphery of the upstream-side end member 10.
The pressure vessel has a structure in which: the vessel has a cylindrical member and an end plate for exchanging the membrane element 1 to another membrane element; and the end plate can be fastened through, for example, bolts, to a flange portion located at an end of the cylindrical member.
In the meantime, in the case of a membrane module having a hollow fiber membrane, a vessel in which the hollow fiber membrane is held is integrated in many cases. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses, for example, the following: a structure in which a vessel holding a hollow fiber membrane has a cylindrical member and a cap that can be screwed and fitted to an end of this member, and an O ring is interposed between the two; and the matter that the cap is bonded and fixed to the cylindrical member.


A light detection and ranging device associated with an autonomous vehicle scans through a scanning zone while emitting light pulses and receives reflected signals corresponding to the light pulses. The reflected signals indicate a three-dimensional point map of the distribution of reflective points in the scanning zone. A hyperspectral sensor images a region of the scanning zone corresponding to a reflective feature indicated by the three-dimensional point map. The output from the hyperspectral sensor includes spectral information characterizing a spectral distribution of radiation received from the reflective feature. The spectral characteristics of the reflective feature allow for distinguishing solid objects from non-solid reflective features, and a map of solid objects is provided to inform real time navigation decisions.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Vehicles can be configured to operate in an autonomous mode in which the vehicle navigates through an environment with little or no input from a driver. Such autonomous vehicles can include one or more sensors that are configured to detect information about the environment in which the vehicle operates. The vehicle and its associated computer-implemented controller use the detected information to navigate through the environment. For example, if the sensor(s) detect that the vehicle is approaching an obstacle, as determined by the computer-implemented controller, the controller adjusts the vehicle's directional controls to cause the vehicle to navigate around the obstacle.
One such sensor is a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) device. A LIDAR actively estimates distances to environmental features while scanning through a scene to assemble a cloud of point positions indicative of the three-dimensional shape of the environmental scene. Individual points are measured by generating a laser pulse and detecting a returning pulse, if any, reflected from an environmental object, and determining the distance to the reflective object according to the time delay between the emitted pulse and the reception of the reflected pulse. The laser, or set of lasers, can be rapidly and repeatedly scanned across a scene to provide continuous real-time information on distances to reflective objects in the scene. Combining the measured distances and the orientation of the laser(s) while measuring each distance allows for associating a three-dimensional position with each returning pulse. A three-dimensional map of points of reflective features is generated based on the returning pulses for the entire scanning zone. The three-dimensional point map thereby indicates positions of reflective objects in the scanned scene.
A hyperspectral sensor is a spectral analysis tool that captures an image with detailed spectral information of the scene on a pixelated basis. Rather than representing an image with red, green, and blue color content information for each pixel, each pixel can include a power spectral density values for a series of wavelength ranges. For instance, a hyperspectral sensor may generate 320×460 pixel images, with sensitivity to a range of wavelengths spanning 1000 nm and a resolution of about 4 nm. The data generated from such an image can be considered a cube of data values, with 320 by 460 length and width (pixelated image size) and 250 height (1000 nm/4 nm). By providing spectral information for spatially distinct regions of an image, distinct materials can be identified according to their characteristic spectral transmission and/or reflection "fingerprints."
Some hyperspectral imagers are scanned across a scene while simultaneously taking spectra for a line of pixels. For example, received light is passed through a slit to select a single "line" of a scene being imaged. The slit of light is passed through a diffraction grating, to redirect the light according to wavelength and the diffracted pattern is passed to an imaging focal plane, where a detector characterizes the spectral content at each spectral band. Sweeping the hyperspectral sensor across a scene transverse to the elongated direction of the slit allows for gradually developing a two-dimensional picture of a scene. In another example, a series of images of a scene is captured while an adjustable filter is incrementally adjusted between each image to select for each wavelength band of interest. Each image then provides the spectral content of a scene at the particular spectral band selected for.

Characterizing optically reflective features via hyper-spectral sensor


Disclosed are a flat heat pipe which has a structure integrated with a heat sink, and a facilitated fabrication method thereof. The flat heat pipe includes: a flat body portion including a plurality of heat sink fins formed on an outer surface thereof, and a plurality of through-holes formed therein and being separated by at least one separation film; and at least one groove formed in at least one surface from among a top surface and a bottom surface of one side portion of each of the plurality of through-holes.

In general, chips or modules that are packaged in electronic systems are gradually being made more highly integrated and miniaturized due to advances in semiconductor fabrication technology. Because the thermal density of components included in electronic systems is greatly increasing due to such trends, cooling techniques are required to effectively dissipate heat. In particular, improving the contact interfaces between components which induce most of the thermal resistance in heat dissipating paths is an important issue for research.
Related art cooling devices that can be applied to miniature portable and stationary electronic systems include heat sinks, fans, and miniature heat pipes having a circular cross sectional diameter of 3 mm or greater.
Because heat sinks may be fabricated freely in terms of size and width, heat sinks have been widely used as a basic cooling means. However, when a very small size is required, the heat dissipation rate becomes relatively less due to the reduction in the heat dissipating area.
With a fan, there is a limit to how much the size thereof can be reduced, and there is the problem in which the reliability thereof is relatively reduced.
A miniature heat pipe with a circular cross sectional diameter of 3 mm or greater may be suitably compressed and used on a thin film structure. However, because a miniature heat pipe with such a circular cross sectional diameter is designed with an initially circular cross section, when the heat pipe is compressed to fit electronic equipment with a miniature and thin film structure, heat dissipating performance is greatly reduced by a change in wick structure.

Flat heat pipe and fabrication method thereof

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A method for overlay metrology and control. Simultaneous use of between-field overlay metrology to control field term alignment error at all levels and level-to-level metrology to control field term, grid term, and translation alignment errors at all levels is applied.

Semiconductor manufacturing involves the printing of multiple integrated circuit patterns on successive levels of exposure tools known as steppers. These steppers typically pattern different layers by applying step and repeat lithography exposure or step and scan lithography exposure in which the full area of a wafer is patterned by the sequential exposure of stepper fields containing one or more integrated circuits (also known as chips).
A requirement of the manufacturing process is to keep the alignment error, between levels, below acceptable product tolerances. FIGS. 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, and 1e show qualitative examples of possible field alignment errors for four adjacent fields. Specifically, FIG. 1a shows field rotation about the center; FIG. 1b shows no field errors; FIG. 1c shows X,Y translation in which all of the fields on the substrate are shifted by the same amount in the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) directions; FIG. 1d shows X,Y field magnification (i.e., the stepped fields are too small or too large); and FIG. 1e shows field skew. FIGS. 2a, 2b, and 2c show qualitative examples of possible field grid overlay errors which can result after applying the exposure systems. Specifically, FIG. 2a shows X,Y grid magnification (i.e., the fields are stepped too far apart between the "A" and the "B" levels); FIG. 2b shows grid rotation in which all of the patterns on the "B" level are rotated with respect to the patterns on the "A" level; and FIG. 2c shows grid skew.
A conventional method used to measure and control intra-field error is shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b. The "A" to "A" (or "B" to "B") type overlay errors are between-field errors that occur within a single level to itself. A single field 56 is shown in FIG. 3a having outer boxes 52 on the left and top side and inner boxes 54 on the bottom and right. Outer boxes 52 are larger than inner boxes 54. When multiple fields are stepped adjacent to one another, the two sets of boxes interlock with inner boxes 54 positioned in outer boxes 52 as shown in FIG. 3b. Metrology tools are used to measure the overlay error based on how far the inner box 54 is displaced from the center of the outer box 52. Metrology refers to measurement of the relative X and Y center displacement differences between the interlocking box-in-box structures 50 for the purposes of the drawing. Metrology can also be accomplished by other techniques; the present invention does not depend on the specific overlay measurement technique used.
Because inner boxes 54 are centered in outer boxes 52 as shown in FIG. 3b, no between-field error exists. FIG. 4 provides a qualitative example of field rotation error where the interlocking box-in-box structures 50 are displaced (i.e., inner boxes 54 are translated upward and to the right relative to outer boxes 52). FIG. 5 similarly provides a qualitative example of field Y magnification error where the interlocking box-in-box structures 50 are also displaced but in a different way.
A conventional method used to control level-to-level error is shown in FIGS. 6a, 6b, and 6c. The "B" to "A" type overlay errors occur between two overlying levels "A" and "B" FIG. 6a shows "B" level pattern 60 surrounded by outer boxes 62. FIG. 6b shows "A" level pattern 66 surrounded by inner boxes 64. Outer boxes 62 are larger than inner boxes 64. "B" level pattern 60 is placed over "A" level pattern 66 (as shown by the arrow 68) to yield the result 70 shown in FIG. 6c. As above, metrology tools are used to measure the overlay error based on how far the inner box 64 is displaced from the center of the outer box 62. Because inner boxes 64 are centered in outer boxes 62 as shown in FIG. 6c, no level-to-level error exists.
The typical process flow diagram used to correct and align an overlay system at the N.sup.th level, where two different photo tools are used, is shown in FIG. 7. U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,538 issued to Pelligrini teaches a system and method for optimizing the grid and level-to-level registration of wafer patterns. It is an example of "B" to "A" level control using two different photo tools. Pelligrini specifically addresses the equations and solutions for a two field on one field overlay system.
The conventional solution is insufficient to allow field size mixing between large field and small field applications due to the random walk accrual of incremental field error. A method of minimization of overlay error is needed for cross-boundary stepping applications in which the fields on successive levels straddle the boundaries between fields on each level.

International Business Machines Corporation


A relative pressure sensor comprises two chambers and two separating membranes respectively provided for a process pressure and an ambient pressure. The chambers are separated by a pressure-sensitive element and are filled with a transmission medium. In order to attenuate process-side overload pulses, which act upon the first separating membrane, a hydraulic damper is provided that is placed on the side of the atmosphere between the second separating membrane and the pressure-sensitive element. The pressure-sensitive element is a piezoresistive silicon chip, the transmission medium consists of silicone oil, and the damper is comprised of a filter element made of sintered bronze having 29% porosity and an 11 micrometer pore diameter. The filter element has a length of 8 mm and a diameter of 2 mm.

Such pressure sensors include, as a rule, a measuring unit with two chambers, each of which is sealed by a separating membrane, or diaphragm, and filled with a transmission medium. The separating membranes are loaded, respectively, with a pressure being measured and with a reference pressure. These pressures are transmitted via the separating membranes into the respective chambers. The chambers are separated from one another by a sensor element in the form of a pressure sensitive element, especially a measuring membrane, which is loaded on its first surface with the hydraulic pressure in the first half-cell and on its second surface with the hydraulic pressure in the second half-cell.
The present invention relates to a relative pressure sensor with hydraulic pressure transmission. Such pressure sensors include, as a rule, a measuring unit with two chambers, each of which is sealed by a separating membrane, or diaphragm, and filled with a transmission medium. The separating membranes are loaded, respectively, with a pressure being measured and with a reference pressure. These pressures are transmitted via the separating membranes into the respective chambers. The chambers are separated from one another by a sensor element in the form of a pressure sensitive element, especially a measuring membrane, which is loaded on its first surface with the hydraulic pressure in the first half-cell and on its second surface with the hydraulic pressure in the second half-cell.
The second (atmosphere-side) separating membrane serves, on the one hand, for temperature compensation of the first degree in the case of small measuring ranges, and, on the other hand, for the "second-containment", i.e. for additional protection of the environment of the device in the case of malfunctions, e.g. rupture of the first (process-side) separating membrane and/or the measuring membrane.
Especially pressure-sensitive elements of semiconductor materials have a stiffness such that the volume stroke at the pressure-sensitive element is practically negligible over the entire measuring range. This means, however, negatively, that the pressure-sensitive elements are very sensitive to needle-like pressure spikes, since scarcely any elasticity is present for absorbing such, so that a destruction of the measuring cell can result. By simple lessening of the diameter of the pressure supply line between the process-side chamber and the pressure-sensitive element, the needle pulses cannot be effectively damped, or attenuated.
German Offenlegungsschrift (laid-open application) DE 37 13 236 A1 discloses, instead, the installing, between process and the measuring cell, of a sintered metal plate, or a steel plate with one bore, or a plurality of parallel bores, of, at most, 0.5 mm diameter. This solution is not satisfactory for various reasons. On the one hand, the reduction of the hydraulic path between process and measuring cell to even a single bore of 0.5 mm diameter and bore length such as is to be expected from the shown plate thickness, offers, by far, no sufficient damping for suppressing needle-shaped, overloading, pressure spikes. On the other hand, if a damping element of a sufficiently great flow resistance for an effective damping is provided, then the reaction velocity of the sensor is significantly slowed, so that then pressure fluctuations within the measuring range of the sensor are registered only with delay.

Relative pressure sensor having an atmosphere-side damper


A round post-mix beverage dispenser includes a cylindrical carbonator, still water conduits for supplying water to be carbonated, and carbonated water output coils in the form of circular courses of tubing which surround the carbonator tank in a surrounding water bath. Syrup conduits are coiled in circular courses within the water bath. The round or cylindrical shape of the dispenser housing is adaptable to many different looks such as cans, bottles, glasses and cups. Preferably the basic cylindrical housing shape is made to look like a can of a beverage. Decorative sleeves which define or simulate the appearance of other types of containers such as bottles, cups and glasses can be easily added to the basic cylindrical housing, as desired, to provide different attractive appearances to promote sales.

The present invention relates to a compact post-mix drink dispenser with improved marketing appeal, easy-change graphics, smaller footprint, refrigeration efficiency, easier service and lower manufacturing costs. More specifically, the present invention relates to a compact drink dispenser having a cylindrical-shaped housing which can simulate a shape of various beverage containers such as cans, bottles, cups or glasses; and which has circular flow paths of product and cooling fluids to ensure more efficient refrigeration of the products being dispensed.
The majority of existing post-mix beverage drink dispensers have box-like housings which are formed from ten or more pieces of sheet metal requiring as many as thirty bending operations in order to secure the panels together in a fluid-type manner. These structures are relatively expensive to manufacture.
These conventional box-like housings also generally include fixed product graphics on the front and sidewalls thereof, which need to be shipped to refurbishment centers in order to change the graphics to provide any desired new looks.
Many of these known beverage dispensers also include rather complex built-in refrigeration systems within the housing which are difficult to service.
In addition box-like, rectangular housings require a larger footprint than needed because of dead space in the corners of the housings. Therefore, box-like housings take up more space on the counter of a fast food restaurant than desirable.
Furthermore the box-like housings usually include rectangular-shaped product cooling lines and evaporator coils which track the rectangular contour of the box-like housings. Rectangular flow paths therein include dead corners in the water bath and abrupt bends in the product cooling lines which create large pressure drops.
In addition the box-like housings require a larger water bath than needed due to the presence of the dead corners in the rectangular housings. This results in slower cool down of the water and less predictability of the ice bank shape and inside surface characteristics.
In box-like housings the ice bank tries to form a round inner surface. But this can cause freezing of the water (soda) and syrup, thus stopping or reducing the flow of the water or syrup therein.
Many existing drink dispensers utilizing refrigerated water baths also need improved carbonator devices for use in those water baths. It would be desirable to be able to reduce the number of required components of those carbonators and the heat transfer efficiency thereof.
Generally compact drink dispensers also utilize a single dispenser nozzle for dispensing plural products resulting in flavor carry over problems.
Existing drink dispensers having refrigerated water baths generally place flow control regulators downstream of the product cooling lines therein because they are more accessible and less cumbersome to manually adjust. However, if this adjustment problem could be solved it would be advantageous to place the flow regulators upstream of the water bath where temperatures are higher. As is known small changes in low temperatures of fluids create large changes in viscosity; but this is not true for high temperatures.
While some drink dispensers are known in the art which utilize cylindrical housings and associated cylindrical carbonators, such devices do not recognize all of the potential advantages of these cylindrical shapes which are useful in overcoming the above described problems of box-like housing structures.
Accordingly, a need in the art exists for a compact drink dispenser which overcomes all of the above disadvantages of box-like drink dispenser structures associated with the majority of the commercial post-mix dispenser units in the marketplace.


Methods and apparatuses for performing geotagging referencing in both indoor and outdoor environments are presented. In some embodiments, a mobile device may record a digital media object comprising at least one digitally recorded event of a surrounding environment of the mobile device. The mobile device may obtain at least one geotagging datum, the at least one geotagging datum comprising at least one timing measurement from at least one reference source. The mobile device may determine a location of the digital media object using the at least one geotagging datum. The mobile device may then label the digital media object with the location of the digital media object.

Geotagging is a media-recording process that is becoming more common to consumers in the digital age. In some cases, geotagging presents merely additional information that can help describe the context of the recorded media. In other cases, geotagging may present convenient and important information that might be otherwise difficult to convey or tie to the recorded media. As geotagging becomes more widespread, it may be desirable to increase the capabilities and functionality of geotagging to be more useful and convenient for consumers.


Provided is a treatment method that directly and separately separates and recovers a resin phase and an inorganic filler phase from a coating mist for an organic solvent-based coating used in general coating application. In a method that collects an organic solvent-based coating spray mist, the treatment method for the organic solvent-based coating spray mist is characterized by including a step for collecting the spray mist by bringing the organic solvent-based coating spray mist into contact directly and at high speed with water that comprises strong alkaline electrolysis water and in which the pH is maintained at 9 or higher and ORP is +200 mV or lower and a step for thereafter separating a solid portion, which has been formed, from the water that comprises the strong alkaline electrolysis water in which the spray mist has been collected. Additionally, the coating mist can be recovered with excellent efficiency and as a reusable resource.

In the fields such as the metal-coating and plastic-coating fields, there has conventionally been known a method for spraying a coasting on a subject to be coated for the preparation of a coated article.
Under the present circumstances, however, it has been recognized that such a method suffers from the following problem. The coating actually sprayed on a subject to be coated is not entirely applied to or deposited on the subject, but 20 to 80% of the sprayed coating is lost in the form of surplus coating material spray mist without being rightly applied onto the surface of the subject.
Such surplus coating material spray mist cannot be left just as it is and therefore, the coating mist should be collected and it must then be processed in some way. As a means for collecting the surplus coating mist, there has currently been adopted a method comprising the step of collecting the surplus coating mist through aspiration or suction while using a suction fan so that any worker involved in the spray-coating operations never takes the same in his body system during the respiration or breathing. However, this method requires the use of any additional treatment of the surplus coating mist after the collection thereof through the aspiration.
It has been common that a paint spray booth (a wet paint spray booth) is used during the coating or spraying operations.
More specifically, there has been known a method for treating coating mist, in which the foregoing paint spray booth (wet paint spray booth) used in the method is equipped with a device for treating the coating mist which is put side by side with the paint spray booth, and which comprises the steps of providing a pool for accumulating, for instance, tap water, industrial water or underground water, as circulating water, and bringing the circulating water into contact with the coating mist to thus collect and recover the latter.
An embodiment of such a wet paint spray booth is shown in FIG. 2 attached hereto.
In FIG. 2, circulating water 12 in the circulating water system is sent to a conduit pipe 24 through a pipe arrangement 11 provided with a pump 23, the circulating water overflowing from one side of the conduit pipe runs down along a water curtain plate 22, while the coating mist 20 sprayed through a spray gun 19 for coating is entrained in or accompanied by the air stream 27 generated by the action of a suction fan 8 to thus collect the coating mist 20 and to thereby store the same in a water tank 1.
To separate the coating mist 20, which has been entrained in and mixed with the circulating water 12, into its solid content and water, it has been common that a flocculating agent 25 (an alkaline agent or an acidic agent) and further a modifying agent are incorporated into the circulating water 12 for the purpose of settling the coating mist 20 in the water to thus convert the latter into sludge 15.
When it is intended to reuse the circulating water 12, it would be necessary to eliminate any adverse effect due to, for instance, the clogging of the pipe arrangement 11 with the coating mist or the solid content thereof and accordingly, a filter 26 is attached to the pipe arrangement for the removal of these materials, which may cause any clogging, through the filtration of the circulating water 12. The circulating water can thus be returned back to the conduit pipe 24 through the pipe arrangement 11 provided with a pump 23 for the recirculation of the same.
It has been the current status of the wet paint spray booth that the components of a coating have been collected and recovered from the coating mist 20 in this manner, while making use of circulating water 12.
However, there have been known various kinds of coatings used properly depending on various purposes or applications and there have not yet been known any flocculating and/or modifying agent which can effectively be used for all of such coatings of different kinds.
In addition, even if an agent such as a flocculating or modifying agent is quite compatible with a coating, the concentration thereof included in the circulating water should always be managed or controlled accurately so that the agent can actually exert its full effect.
Moreover, in the conventional treating method of coating mist of an organic solvent-based coating, the resulting sludge 15 is, in general, one comprising a resin phase containing a resin component such as an epoxy resin, an acrylic resin and an alkyd-melamine resin and a phase comprising inorganic fillers mainly composed of metal compounds such as pigments and fillers, which are mixed with one another, even if all of the foregoing requirements are completely satisfied. For this reason, any conventional method cannot efficiently separate the resin phase from the inorganic filler phase and separately recover them in their reusable forms (see, for instance, the passages appearing in the section [0003] included in Patent Document 1 specified below).
The circulating water used in the wet paint spray booth employed in the foregoing conventional method is simply city water, industrial water or underground water. For instance, in case where city water is used as the circulating water, the pH value thereof ranges from 6.5 to 7.5 and the ORP value thereof ranges from about +400 mV to about +650 mV, although city water may vary from region to region and accordingly, the physicochemical properties thereof may likewise vary.

Coating material spray mist treatment method


There is provided a continuous casting and rolling process for continuously producing a deformed fine grain solid metal composition suitable for semi-solid forming. The process is characterized by high throughput, continuity, and precise control of the process parameters, such as solidification rate, rolling temperature and speed and total deformation. The solidification rate is preferred to be in a range of 10 to 150xc2x0 C./s, and the total deformation is controlled to be larger than a Mises effective strain of 2.3 to obtain a deformed fine grain structure with enough distortion energy. A method combining the continuous casting and rolling process of preparing semi-solid raw material with semi-solid forming of shaped articles is also disclosed.

The invention herein relates to methods for producing fine grained metal compositions for use in semi-solid metal forming and for semi-solid forming of shaped articles.
Semi-solid metal forming, i.e., forming a metallic alloy at a temperature between its equilibrium liquidus and equilibrium solidus temperatures, is a hybrid metalworking process combining the elements of both casting and forging/extrusion. One of the key elements for the successful operation of a semi-solid forming process is the microstructure of metallic alloy being thus formed. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cmetalxe2x80x9d is used to designate a metallic alloy with a major metallic constituent (base metal) along with various amounts of intentional additions (metallic and non-metallic) that modify the property of the base metal, as well as trace impurities that are deemed to not greatly deteriorate the performance of the alloy when used to fabricate articles thereof.
Conventionally solidified metals cannot be utilized in a semi-solid condition, since a structure of dendritic network forms upon solidification in such metals. Cracks and segregates will occur when a conventionally solidified metal is formed in partially liquid/solid state. Previous studies have shown that raw material of a semi-solid forming process must have a structure comprised of globular or spheroidal grains contained in a lower melting alloy matrix. When heated to a semi-solid temperature, the globular solid phase is retained, suspended in the lower melting alloy liquid matrix.
Producing semi-solid raw material requires specialized techniques. Thermal transformation processes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,106,956, 5,009,844 and 5,571,346 where solidified metal having a fine dendritic microstructure is heated to and maintained at a superheated temperature above the solidus temperature of the metal, while keeping its body in a solid shape. After the dendritic networks are thermally transformed into globular solid particles, the metal is then formed in semi-solid conditions into an article.
Vigorous agitation processes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,902,544, 3,948,650, 3,954,455, 4,310,352 (mechanical stirring) and 4,229,210 (inductive electromagnetic stirring) where during billet casting, a metal is agitated while it is in the semi-solid state and then cooled to solidify, forming the primary solid phase comprising discrete degenerate dendrites or nodules while preventing the formation of interconnected dendritic networks. Among the various agitation processes, the magnetohydro-dynamic (MHD) casting process has been commercially applied for producing a variety of fine-grain (mean grain effective diameter about 30 xcexcm) aluminum alloy bars (diameters varying from 38 to 152 mm) which satisfy the requirements of semi-solid forming. However the agitation processes have practical limitations for casting bars with diameters less than about one inch due to very low productivity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,374 discloses a xe2x80x9cSIMAxe2x80x9d (strain induced, melt activated) process to make raw material for semi-solid forging. In the process, a solid metal composition is prepared by heating a conventionally solidified and homogenized ingot to a temperature in the hot deformation range of the metal, followed by hot extrusion or hot rolling plus additional cold working, resulting in an essentially directional grain structure. By heating the composition to a temperature above the solidus and below the liquidus, its directional grain structure transforms to a partially solid, partially liquid mixture comprising of uniform discrete spheriodal particles contained in a lower melting liquid matrix. The heated alloy is then formed and solidified while in a partially solid, partially liquid condition, the solidified article having a uniform, fine grained microstructure.
In comparison with MHD casting, the SIMA process described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,374 provides an effective method for producing small-diameter alloy bars (diameters less than 38 mm or 1.5 in.) employed in semi-solid forging. For large sizes, however, the economics of the process are not competitive with those of MHD casting for most metal alloys. Furthermore, the procedure of the SIMA process is very cumbersome, comprising the five discrete operations: conventional casting, image homogenization, heating, hot working and cold working. The nature of the process limits its application on a practical and economical scale, for not only large size but also small size semi-solid raw materials.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a more superior process for producing a fine-grained solid metal composition suitable for semi-solid metal forming.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a more economical process for producing a fine-grained solid metal composition suitable for semi-solid metal forming. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process and apparatus for preparing, delivering and semi-solid forming the above precursor material.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process of continuous casting and rolling followed by liquid quenching for producing a solid metal composition and structure suitable for semi-solid forming. The process includes providing and delivering a molten metal alloy to a mold of a continuous caster, solidifying the molten metal alloy at a specific rate, continuously rolling the solidified metal to a specific total area reduction by passing through 4 to 12 rolling stands, quenching the solidified and rolled metal, and taking up the product either in coil or as short lengths. The solidifying rate is preferred to be in a range of 10 to 150xc2x0 C./s to provide a fine dendritic microstructure in the solidified metal, with the dendritic grain size in the range of 20 to 150 xcexcm and the dendritic arm spacing in the range of 2 to 30 xcexcm. Hereinafter, grain size is measured by mean grain effective diameter. The total area reduction of the continuous rolling is larger than 90% (equivalent to Mises effective strain of 2.3) to provide a fine-grained deformation microstructure in the rolled metal having a grain size less than 20 xcexcm and a subgrain size less than 2 xcexcm. The quenching retains the deformed fine grain structure in the cast and rolled material. Liquid quenching is preferred to obtain the fine grain structure.
The continuously cast and rolled metal composition is heated to a temperature between the solidus and liquidus temperatures to obtain a microstructure which comprises discrete spheroidal particles suspended in a lower melting liquid matrix. The term xe2x80x9csemi-solidxe2x80x9d refers to a microstructure of spheroidal particles suspended in a lower melting liquid matrix, where solid loading is between 10 to 90%. The semi-solid precursor material is then xe2x80x9cformedxe2x80x9d by one of the many metal forming processes. This forming process utilizing the precursor material is characterized by high tool life and lower requirements for forming pressure. The articles thus formed have near-net shape and possess superior mechanical properties. The article formed by using the precursor material is characterized by a fine grained microstructure, with discreet spheroidal shaped particles suspended in a lower-melting matrix. The present invention can utilize any size of the precursor material, and the preferred range is bar stock of diameters less than 50 mm.
The throughput of the continuous casting and rolling process is higher than an other known process for making semi-solid precursor material. A typical continuous casting and hot rolling line can produce precursor material at a rate of 6 to 8 tonnes per hour. With modern computerized control systems this productivity can be further enhanced. It has been found that with typical single-wheel casting systems, increasing the cross-sectional area of the cost bar increases the casting throughput; however, as this cross-sectional area increases, segregation of the alloying elements becomes more pronounced.
The another aspect of the present invention provides a method which combines the continuous casting and rolling process for preparing semi-solid precursor material with a process of semi-solid forming of this precursor material into shaped articles. The apparatus employed in this method includes a caster for continuous casting, rolling stands, means for sawing or shearing the rolled metal into slugs of required length, means for heating the slugs to a temperature between the solidus and liquidus temperatures of the metal, means for delivering the rolled and heated slugs to the forming machine, and means for semi-solid die casting or semi-solid forging the slugs into shaped articles.
At first, in the combined process, a molten metal alloy is fed into a mold of the continuous caster and solidified at a solidification rate of preferably 10 to 150xc2x0 C./s to provide a fine dendritic microstructure in the solidified metal, with the dendritic grain size in the range of 20 to 150 xcexcm and the dendritic arm spacing in the range of 2 to 30 xcexcm. The solidified metal then undergoes a specific total area reduction by passing through 4 to 12 rolling stands. The total area reduction of the continuous rolling is larger than 90% (equivalent to Mises effective strain of 2.3) to provide a fine-grained deformation microstructure in the rolled metal having a grain size less than 20 xcexcm and a subgrain size less than 2 xcexcm. The rolled metal is then on-line sawed or sheared into slugs of required length. Optionally, the rolled metal can be quenched before or after sawing. The slugs are then delivered to the heating means to be heated at a rate of 0.5 to 20xc2x0 C./s to a temperature between the solidus and liquidus temperatures of the metal, and holding the heated at the temperature for 1 to 30 minutes. The heated slugs are then delivered to the forming machine. Semi-solid die casting or semi-solid forging can be used to shape the heated xe2x80x9csemi-solidxe2x80x9d slugs at injection speeds of 0.5 to 15 m/s. The slugs are typically shaped by utilizing a hydraulically powered ram to force into a die or mold (as in die-casting) or by closed die drop-forming (as in forging). Optionally, the semi-solid forging can be multi-stage process where the slug is preformed. The preformed slug can then be either solid forged or semi-solid forged into the article.

Processes for continuously producing fine grained metal compositions and for semi-solid forming of shaped articles


A grading device includes an assembly drum with feeding grooves, and a grading drum arranged adjacent to the assembly drum and rotating in the opposite direction from that of the assembly drum at twice the peripheral speed. The grading drum has a pair of groove arrays which have grading grooves with a pitch twice that of feeding grooves on the assembly drum. The grading grooves of adjacent arrays are shifted from each other by a half pitch. The grading device further includes a pair of fork claws for holding a pair of charcoal plugs received in the feeding groove in cooperation with the outer peripheral surface of the grading drum when the paired charcoal plugs on the assembly drum pass by the grading drum. The paired charcoal plugs are put into the corresponding grading groove while rolling on the grading drum.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filter plug feeding apparatus for manufacturing filter plugs for cigarettes, and in particular, to a grading device for separating components or elements of filter plugs coaxially arranged, from one another in their feeding direction during the filter plug manufacturing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical example of a filter cigarette manufacturing machine or a so-called filter attachment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,734. This conventional filter attachment is provided with a filter plug feeding apparatus, which forms dual filter plugs, and feeds the formed filter plugs to grooved drums which constitute a transportation path of the filter attachment. The transportation path is used to transport pairs of cigarettes in the filter attachment.
More specifically, the feeding apparatus comprises a pair of hoppers, which are stored individually with charcoal filter rods and plain filter rods. The charcoal and plain filter rods delivered from the pair of hoppers are transferred toward the transportation path. In this process of transfer, various operations, such as cutting, separation, joining, grading, orientation, etc., are carried out. At the end of the transfer process, dual filter plugs are formed each having one plain plug and a pair of charcoal tips situated individually on the opposite sides thereof. Each dual filter plug formed in this manner is fed to the transportation path, and is located between a pair of cigarettes on this transportation path. Plain plugs and charcoal tips are obtained by cutting plain filter rods and charcoal filter rods, respectively.
In the filter attachment, thereafter, the pair of cigarettes and the dual filter plug are connected to one another by means of a tip paper piece, whereupon a double filter cigarette which is equivalent to two filter cigarettes is formed. The double filter cigarette is cut into two equal parts or filter cigarettes.
The formation of the dual filter plug mentioned before will be described below in detail. The charcoal filter rod is cut into a pair of charcoal half rods. These charcoal half rods are separated from each other in their axial direction. On the other hand, the plain filter rod is supplied between the pair of charcoal half rods, and is situated coaxially with these charcoal half rods.
The paired charcoal half rods and the plain filter rod are individually cut into equal parts to obtain a pair of charcoal groups and one plain group. Elements in the respective groups are plural charcoal chips or plain plugs, which are coaxially situated.
The aforesaid dual filter plug is formed by combining charcoal chips taken out one by one from individual charcoal groups and one plain plug taken out from the plain group.
In order to form a dual filter plug, during a process of feeding charcoal and plain groups, it is required to separate elements of each group from each other in their feeding direction, that is, to perform grading so that only a paired charcoal and one plain plug are coaxially situated.
For this reason, a device for separating elements in each group from each other in the feeding direction, that is, a grading device, is incorporated into the known filter plug supply apparatus described before. The grading device includes means for successively catching elements in each group in order to temporarily stop the feeding of the elements or means for decreasing or increasing the feeding speed of the elements in the group. Thus, the group elements can be separated from each other in the feeding direction.
However, in the grading manner described above, excessive force is applied to these elements because the feeding speed of individual elements is suddenly varied. For this reason, an impression occurs on the outer peripheral surface of these elements, that is, charcoal chips and plain plugs, or chips or plugs are collapsed, causing deformation. In particular, in the case where charcoal chips and plain plugs are obtained by cutting a neo-filter rod made of a pulp fiber, restoring ability of these chips and plugs is low; therefore, the above-mentioned impression or deformation is easy to leave therein. Such an impression or deformation influences formation and feeding of dual filter plugs in the next stages, and causes a disadvantage that the supply of dual filter plugs to the aforesaid transportation path becomes impossible, or wrapping of chip paper piece in the filter attachment is defective.

Grading device, used in manufacture of filter plugs for cigarettes


A network processor includes a system-onchip (SoC) macro core and functions as a single chip protocol converter that receives packets generating according to a first protocol type and processes the packets to implement protocol conversion and generates converted packets of a second protocol type for output thereof, the process of protocol conversion being performed entirely within the SoC macro core. The process of protocol conversion contained within the SoC macro core does not require the processing resources of a host system. The system-on chip macro core includes a bridge device for coupling a local bus in the protocol converting multiprocessor SoC macro core local bus to peripheral interfaces coupled to a system bus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network processor devices and storage area networks, and in particular, a system and method to span multiple network protocols by providing an architecture for protocol conversion implemented within a single IC chip or as a sub-processor core component in a conventional SoC, DSP, FPGA, or similar integrated circuit sub-system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As market shifts toward storage area networks (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) systems, as well as with the massive expansion of the Internet, new demands on server and storage designs are placed. Storage attached via parallel SCSI connections is being replaced by Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Networks (SANs), and other emerging networking architectures, such as iSCSI and Fibre Channel over IP (FC-IP). iSCSI involves transfers of block data over TCP/IP networks, typically built around Gigabit Ethernet, while FC-IP is an Internet Protocol (IP) based storage networking technology which enables the transmission of FC information by tunneling data between SAN facilities over IP networks.
General purpose CPUs either cannot meet the computational requirements of the network protocol conversion, or are too expensive in terms of unit cost, space and power. This has led to the offloading of many of the networking and protocol processing functions from host processors into host-bus-adapters (HBAs) or Network Interface Controllers (NICs). Initially, most HBAs and NICs were implemented in ASICs using hardwired logic. But as the need to implement complex network protocols arose, such as TCP/IP or iSCSI, programmable solutions have become attractive because of a number of advantages they offer: they can accommodate different and evolving protocols; they are easily upgradeable via program changes; they offer a faster time to market.
The existing SANs are often physically remote, sometimes at greater distances, and are often using multiple network architectures. To consolidate existing SANs and to utilize existing WAN and LAN infrastructure there is a need for network protocol conversion, both in the data communications and telecommunications fields. The protocol conversion would allow seamless integration and operation of all different parts in the system.
A system level protocol convertor product was announced by Brocade Communications Systems for multiprotocol fabric routing services [http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031028/sftu100—1.html], which plan to provide Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel (FC-to-FC), iSCSI-to-FC bridging and Fibre Channel to FC-IP translation.
Existing protocol converters integrate multiple chips on a card to obtain desired logic functionality, or more commonly a host bus adapter card (HBA) plugged into a existing host system, or as a daughter card on a main host I/O card, resulting in bulky and a more costly product in terms of unit cost, space and power. In addition, existing protocol converters are not programmable or with very limited programmability, and not easily upgraded to accommodate different or new protocols. In addition, a variety of physical layer access modules or chips are present, their implementations and circuit technology often being optimized for one particular physical layer protocol, requiring the replacement of an entire Host Bus Adapter (HBA) card or several components when a newer physical layer protocol is required on a port. Conversion within the same physical I/O card is not typically done, and not within a single chip solution or as an embedded core within an SoC semiconductor device.
A System-on-Chip design 20 according to the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 1. It comprises a processing element such as a PPC440 (Power PC) 25, a local processor bus (PLB) 21, on-chip peripheral bus (OPB) 24, and a number of components, such as SRAM 15, DDR controller 18, PCI-X bridge 22, DMA 26 and DMA controller 28, an Ethernet Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol device 50 employed to provide the data link layer for an Ethernet LAN system, processor core timers 33 and interrupt controller 35, and an OPB bridge 29 interfacing with the OPB bus 24 and PLB 21. In the prior art implementation depicted in FIG. 1, I.B.M.'s embedded PowerPC 440 processor core and the CoreConnect local bus are utilized, but similar configurations may be found that use other embedded processor cores, such as ARM see, for instance, http://www.arm.com/products/?OpenDocument, MIPS (See MIPS: "MIPS32 4KP —Embedded MIPS Processor Core" at http://www.ce.chalmers.se/˜thomasl/inlE/mips32 —4Kp_brief.pdf) processing cores, etc. As shown in FIG. 1, other devices provided for interfacing with the On-chip Peripheral bus 24 include one or more of the following: a RAM/ROM Peripheral controller 45a, an external bus master 45b, a UART device 45c, an Inter-IC bus (12C) interface 45d, general purpose I/O interface 45e and a gateway interface 45f.
Relevant references describing aspects of SoC processor and component design include:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,977 describes a System on a chip (SOC) that contains a crossbar switch between several functional I/Os internal to the chip and number of external connection pins, where the number of pins is less than the number of internal I/Os.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,594 describes an apparatus and method implementing a crossbar switch for configurable use of group of pads of a system on chip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,630 describes an apparatus and method implementing a crossbar switch for providing shared access control device for integrated system with multiple functional units accessing external structures over multiple data buses.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. US2002/0184419 describes an ASIC which enables use of different components for a system on a chip using a common bus system and describes wrappers for functional units with different speed and data width to achieve compatibility with a common bus.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. US2002/0176402 describes an octagonal interconnection network for linking functional units on a SoC. The functional units on the interconnection network are organized as a ring and use several crossing data links coupling halfway components.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. US2001/0042147 describes a system resource router for SOC interconnection, comprising two channel sockets with connect each data cache (D-cache) and instruction (I-cache). Also included are external data transfer initiators, two internal M-channel buses, and an M-channel controller to provide the interconnection.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. US2002/0172197 describes a communication system connecting multiple transmitting and receiving devices via a crossbar switch embedded on a chip in a point-to-point fashion.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. US2001/0047465 describes several variations of an invention providing a scalable architecture for a communication system (typically a SOC or ASIC) for minimizing total gates by dividing transmissions into individual transmission tasks, determining a computational complexity for each transmission task and computational complexity being based on the number of MIPS per circuit.
In the reference entitled "On-Chip Interconnects for Next Generation System-on-Chips" by A. Brinkmann, J. C. Niemann, I. Hehemann, D. Langen, M. Porrmann, and U. Ruckert, Conf. Proceedings of ASIC2003, Sep. 26-27, 2003, Rochester, N.Y., there is described an SoC architecture utilizing active switch boxes to connect processor cells for enabling packet network communications. This paper makes no mention or description of a processor core with multi-threading capability.
In the reference entitled "A Comparison of Five Different Multiprocessor SoC Bus Architectures" by Kyeong Keol Ryu, Eung Shin, and Vincent J. Mooney, Conf. proceedings of Euromicro Symposium on Digital System Design (DSS'01), Sep. 04-06, 2001, Warsaw, Poland, there is described Multiprocessor SoC bus architectures including Global Bus I Architecture (GBIA), Global Bus II Architecture (GBIIA), Bi-FIFO Bus Architecture (BFBA), Crossbar Switch Bus Architecture (CSBA), and CoreConnect Bus Architecture (CCBA).
The approaches based on a single embedded processor provide a cost-effective, integrated solution to some applications but may lack the computational power required by more demanding Applications, and flexibility for protocol conversion or future protocol speed increases, for example 2.5 Gbps Fibre Channel to 10 Gbps Fibre Channel.
Within the last few years, the computational capabilities of the SoC of FIG. 1 have been enhanced, in a number of networking applications, through the addition of special-purpose processor cores (accelerators) 39 attached to the common bus(PLB), as shown in FIG. 2, operating in parallel with the processor core 25). These additional special-purpose processor cores 39a, 39b, etc. are usually small in silicon area, as many of the features found in typical general-purpose processors (e.g., a memory management unit to support virtual addressing, etc.) are excluded. Examples of this approach are IBM's PowerNP (See for example, the reference entitled "IBM Power Network processor architecture," Proceedings of Hot Chips 12, Palo Alto, Calif., USA, August 2000, IEEE Computer Society by M. Heddes, and NEC's TCP/IP offload engine, (See for example, the reference entitled "NEC's New TCP/IP Offload Engine Powered by 10 Tensilica Xtensa Processor Cores," at http://www.tensilica.com/html/pr—2003—05—12.html). Although these systems are programmable and, consequently, more flexible compared to hardwired accelerators, they suffer from several drawbacks: a) they induce additional traffic on the SoC bus (e.g., PLB 21), as the bus must now support both instruction and data streams to the processor accelerators possibly causing bandwidth contention and limiting system performance; b) the SoC bus is often not optimized for multiprocessor performance but for compatibility with standardized components and connection protocols in a SoC system; and, c) the processor accelerators 39 often implement only a very limited instruction set and use assembler language, thus making the development and maintenance of applications running on the processor accelerators very difficult and costly.
A third type of SoC design 75 is an embedded processor core connected via a crossbar switch, such as Motorola's MPC 5554 Microcontroller (Design News, Nov. 3, 2003 page #38) a block diagram of which is depicted in FIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 3, Motorola's SoC design consists of many similar elements as the SoC designs of FIGS. 1 and 2 including a PowerPC processor core, memory and bus interfaces, however, more notably, implements a 3×5 Crossbar switch 72 as a replacement for one of the local buses. By incorporating a crossbar switch 72 into the SoC design, the processor core communications may occur faster, with three (3) lines working simultaneously, thereby addressing the bandwidth contention problems to some degree. However, the SoC is still not optimized for multiprocessor support, or more advanced functions like protocol conversion within a single SoC chip, or high speed interfaces. The I/O communication within the chip is limited by the crossbar switch, and still requires communication with the external bus interface and host system bus, limiting performance and flexibility of the micro controller (SoC chip) for any future upgrades. Any protocol conversion would be required to be performed off-chip, in several stages, or chips. In addition, a data packet can not be decoupled from instructions placed onto the host system bus. In the example in FIG. 3, one protocol, for example, the FlexCan (CAN protocol: "Control Area Network) data stream typical used in automotive applications, is now being implemented in the Motorola MPC5554 chip via an external I/O bridge 78, as well as other protocols such as the DSPI (or "Serial Perphical Interface"), or eSCI ("Enhanced Serial Communication Interface"), each protocol or I/O specific stream passes through an I/O bridge, crossbar switch, and typically either an internal chip bus, or external bus interface to the system bus.
Currently, there is no protocol conversion today within a single chip and no means for protocol conversion with an embedded core, attached to the internal chip bus, from one independent protocol or protocol version level to an entire new protocol or version level.
Current protocol conversion only takes place at the system, or card level, involving multiple chips as mentioned earlier, one example is the Brocade Silkworm Fabric Application Server mentioned earlier for SAN networks (See, for example, http://www.brocade.com/san/extending_valueof_SANsjsp) as shown in FIG. 4.
In the prior art Brocade system 100 depicted conceptually in FIG. 4, for example, Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel (FC-to-FC) Routing 102, iSCSI-to-FC bridging 104 and Fibre Channel to FC-IP translation 110 capability is provided. Brocade's design is an improvement over the existing art today, in that one fiber I/O port card can support multiple protocols and even migrate from one protocol to another on the same I/O card without disturbing traffic on the other ports within a system. This is accomplished by splitting the data and control frames in the processing function of packets, several in-line RISC processor chips with local memory and frame buffers, software pre-processors, and translations engines within the processor card. This is an improvement over standard single HBA cards, allowing two network protocols within a single HBA card, eliminating cost and space, flexibility of changing protocols without disturbing traffic on the main system bus, data transfer overhead and memory contention on the main system processor memory. The multiprocessors in Brocade's approach are fully pipelined, attached to local memory.
It would be highly desirable to incorporate this functionality within a single chip as opposed to a single HBA card or bridge card, enabling true protocol conversion within a single chip, processing the data and control frames within the protocol converter to deliver a complete packet to a local SoC bus, or system bus. This would enable further potential reduction of I/O cards, savings in hardware (number of chips), less bandwidth contention, memory contention, and enable higher protocol speeds, and more processors within a SoC chip (or attached to a local system bus), and higher throughput.

Network processor system on chip with bridge coupling protocol converting multiprocessor macro core local bus to peripheral interfaces coupled system bus

International Business Machines Corporation


A simple, reliable system is provided for automatically dosing vehicle fuel tanks with a fuel additive, particularly a concentrate containing a fuel borne catalyst (FBC), using gravity as the means of injection, preferably with no electronics or complex mechanical parts. The system includes a supply line for feeding fuel additive by gravity from an additive reservoir and opening into a filler spout of a fuel tank, a ball-in-seat valve at the end of the supply line biased in normally closed position and operable to an open position by mechanically pressing a release on the ball-in-seat valve, and a pivotable lever positioned within the filler spout and including a projection capable of mating with the ball-in-seat valve release upon pivotable movement. Upon insertion of a filler hose into the filler spout, the filler hose moves the lever and projection to press the release on the ball-in-seat valve thereby dispensing additive.

The invention relates to a simple, reliable system for automatically dosing vehicle fuel tanks with a fuel additive, particularly a concentrate containing a fuel borne catalyst (FBC), using gravity as the means of providing a constant flow into the fuel, preferably with no electronics or complex mechanical parts.
Fuel additives are known in the art to provide improvements in combustion, handling and storage characteristics of fuels such as gasoline, diesel and alternative and bioderived fuels used in internal combustion engines. Exemplary additives used to control engine deposits, improve cold flow characteristics, promote more complete in-cylinder combustion or regenerate a diesel particulate filter.
The invention relates to simple mechanical devices that enable a simple and reliable introduction of a fuel additive into the fuel tank when fueling a vehicle, particularly one powered by a medium or light duty diesel engine. Fuel additives, especially FBC's in the form of concentrates containing platinum group metals, cerium, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium and the like or combinations, can enable cleaner burning of a fuel in an engine, thereby allowing for more efficient operation of the engine. The additives can also reduce pollutants as a primary measure or in combination with an after treatment device.
While additives can be added to the fuel at any point in the distribution chain including at the refinery or bulk storage terminal, there are many cases where addition of additives to specific vehicle fuel tanks is desired. Vehicles equipped with diesel particulate filters can rely on fuel borne catalyst additives to regenerate filters; however not all vehicles in a fleet may have filters and therefore additive treated fuel may be desired for a select group of vehicles. In other cases vehicles may fuel away from a home terminal at retail fuel outlets where additive treatment may not be available at the fuel dispensing site. With this system, vehicles are free to fuel to fuel at any location and still receive treated fuel.
Many prior art systems proposed for dosing additives involve complex monitoring electronically and/or mechanically to achieve the desired concentration of active catalytic metals in the fuel. The provision of systems that require modifications to fuel tanks or to wiring harnesses are not practical for retrofit applications due to the great variety of trucks being used commercially, even by a single fleet owner. On board dispensing systems mounted on a vehicle are known in the art and generally include a reservoir to store liquid additive on the vehicle to treat a known amount of fuel. These systems typically involve measurement of fuel level in the fuel tank using floats or sensors and the use of hydraulic or electric pump and metering systems to dispense additive from the reservoir into the fuel tank or fuel feed line to or from the engine. Other systems can inject pulses of additive under pressure at preset time intervals or as a function of engine operation by using an electronically controlled solenoid valve or pulsed pumping system. These systems all involve sophisticated and expensive electronics, pumps, controllers and sensors to meter the additive and often lead to high or low additive concentrations in the fuel tank as fuel level rises or falls due to addition or consumption of fuel. this system does not require any of these parts.
Yet other prior art systems require operator monitoring and/or intervention. However, fleet operators need the assurance that an FBC additive concentrate is being properly added to the fuel of designated vehicles without requiring a particular operator to perform any task other than his normal fueling operation. Operator monitoring or intervention can be problematic, especially where the same vehicle is used by different operators.
Current and proposed regulations challenge manufacturers to both achieve good fuel economy and reduce emissions. While fuel additives will likely be necessary to achieve the objectives of the regulations, the art has provided no simple device capable of metering an effective additive into the fuel in a reliable manner with no operator intervention or attention.
What is needed is a simple mechanical additive dosing system that dispenses additive into the fuel in proportion to the fuel being added to the fuel tank of an internal combustion engine.

Gravity feed ball-in-seat valve with extension unit for dosing fuel additives


A piezoelectric ceramic composition comprising: a matrix material comprising at least two matrix components having a perovskite structure or consisting of said matrix components; a first matrix component being selected from (Bi0.5A0.5)EO3 and BaEO3; and a further matrix component being Bi(Me0.5E0.5)O3, wherein A is selected from an alkali metal, particularly sodium or potassium, or a mixture of alkali metals; wherein E is independently selected from titanium, zirconium and mixtures of titanium and zirconium; and wherein Me is selected from bivalent metals.

Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment was seriously considered in a number of European Union (EU) legislations and directives (e.g. Marketing of Products Package, RoHs, EuP, etc.) so as to contribute to the protection of human health and environmentally sound recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The last proposal on RoHS (December 2008) sets a stricter ban of hazardous substances for a wider scale of applications. Particularly in medical devices and monitoring and control instruments, the use of lead in electronic ceramic parts (by more than 0.1 weight %) is not an exemption any more after 1Jan. 2014. However, up to date most of the high Performance piezoelectric devices (sensors, actuators, resonators and so on) have a lead-containing ceramic part. Typically the piezoelectric composition bases on the solid solution of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and is in the vicinity of the morphortropic phase boundary (MPB) between lead titanate (PbTiO3) and lead zirconate (PbZrO3). The toxic element, lead (Pb), has a content of more than 60 weight % in these materials and thus leads to serious environmental problems both in producing and in post-treating of related WEEEs.
Numerous investigations have been done all over the world particularly in the last 10 years in order to find environmentally friendly substitutions for PZT. Unfortunately a real lead-free material which can completely replace PZT, both in terms of technical performance and in terms of production cost, has not been developed yet. Optimized compositions/structures/techniques have brought about some comparable piezoelectric properties corresponding to specific applications where large electro-strain is not a crucial issue. However, reported materials targeting actuation applications usually have a lower electrostrain response in comparison to that of soft PZT.
With the progress of materials science and engineering, piezoelectric properties of environmentally friendly piezoelectric ceramic materials have been greatly enhanced in the last two decades by optimizing composition, microstructure and processing related parameters. Three important perovskite families, namely barium titanate (BaTiO3-BT), potassium sodium niobate (K0.5Na0.5NbO3-KNN), and bismuth sodium titanate (Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-BNT) have been intensively studied.
Barium titanate is one of the best known ferroelectrics, and achievements in improving its piezoelectric performance have been attained mostly by tuning the ferroelectric/ferroelastic domain configurations:    a) by fabricating specially oriented ceramics or single crystals, the anisotropic effect of the intrinsic piezoelectric properties can be used (maximum d33 of 203 pC/N);    b) by special poling treatment on single crystals, or using advanced sintering technology, the non-180° domains can be refined down to sub-micron scale, and the extrinsic contribution of their boundaries to piezoeffect be strongly enhanced (maximum d33 of 500 pC/N);    c) using random field defects (e.g. acceptor substitution and oxygen vacancy couples), the crystal or ceramic can be completely poled and re-depoled by applying and removing electric field. Ultrahigh electro-strain is thus caused by completely reversible domain switching. However, limited by the relative low Curie temperature, TC(˜130° C.), use of this material family is nearly excluded from high performance actuators.
Potassium sodium niobate (K0.5Na0.5NbO3) is a composition close to the MPB between potassium niobate and sodium niobate and has a high TC of more than 400° C., but its application has been strongly limited by the poor sinterability for a long time. Recently it was found that by introducing Li on A-site and Ta and/or Sb on B-site of the KNN lattice, the polymorphic phase boundary between tetragonal and orthorhombic phases can be shifted to the vicinity of room temperature, and with proper sintering aids the sinterability is greatly improved and piezoelectric properties greatly increased (maximum S33/E33 of 300 and 750 pm/V for random or oriented ceramics, respectively—Y. Saito et al. "Lead-Free Piezoceramics," Nature, 432 [4] 84-7 (2004)). Even with optimized compositions and processing conditions, the improved piezoelectric properties of KNN-based ceramics is much lower than typical soft PZT, and their stability against temperature cycling degrades due to the orthorhombic/tetragonal phase transition. At the same time, textured ceramic processing routine has been developed to take advantage of the lattice anisotropicity. The textured ceramics have much better piezoelectric performance (which is comparable to soft PZT) but the complicated processing procedures and the increased cost practically prevent them from use in actuators.
Investigations on bismuth sodium titanate (Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3) ceramics have been focused on finding MPB compostions with other perovskites like BaTiO3, Bi0.5K0.5TiO3, K0.5Na0.5NbO3, and so on. Enhanced piezoelectric properties have been achieved (maximum d33 of 328 pC/N) but the best electrostrain response is still far below that of soft PZT. In addition, BNT-based materials usually have a low depoling temperature, Td, above which the polarization and/or piezoelectricity disappear due to the ferroelectric/antiferroelectric phase transition. Typically Td ranges from 100 to 250° C. and strongly limits the use of ferroelectric BNT-based ceramics in modern actuators. Texturing processes have also been studied but the improvement is not appreciable even disregarding the increased cost (maximum S33/E33 of 370 pm/V).
Recently it was reported that Td can be shifted down to below room temperature in properly modified ENT materials (S. T. Zhang et al. "Giant strain in lead-free piezoceramics Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3—BaTiO3—K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (BNT-BT-KNN) -system", Applied Physics Letters 91, 112906 (2007)). In these compositions ultrahigh strain can be achieved due to the electric field induced ferroelectric phase transition. The effective piezoelectric constant (Smax/Emax) can be comparable (in ceramics maximum S33/E33 of 690 pm/V) or even superior to (in single crystals maximum S33/E33 more than 2000 pm/V) some of the soft PZT ceramics. Furthermore, the depoling temperature is not a practical limit any more as herein the piezoelectricity is not a necessity for the large strain behavior.

Piezo-electric ceramic composition, method for producing the composition, and electric component comprising the composition