The present invention relates to a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) which significantly enhances power density as well as structural reliability and method for producing the same. More specifically, it relates to the Membrane Electrode Assembly which has a plurality of protuberances and method for producing the same. The present invention involves making supporting bodies to have a plurality of protuberances on one side of the supporting bodies, forming a catalyst layer on one side of the supporting bodies having the protuberances, interposing a polymer-electrolyte-membrane between the supporting bodies, aligning the supporting bodies for the protuberances to engage each other; and hot-pressing the aligned supporting bodies. The present invention can increase the area of a three-phase boundary in which oxidation-reduction reaction of hydrogen and oxygen occurs and decrease resistance to ion conduction; consequently fuel cells have the characteristic of a large output of power density.

Recently, problems relating to the rapid increase in the demand for power, depletion of fossil fuels, and environmental pollution have become more and more serious. Therefore, interest in a fuel cell that can resolve the problems of this environmental pollution along with the supply and demand of energy has been increasing more and more.
The general efficiency of an internal combustion engine is 10˜20%, however, the fuel cell can increase efficiency over 75% by using the heat generated in the fuel cell. Also, the quantity of nitrogen compound or sulfur compound contained in exhaust gas is very low, and almost no noise or vibration results.
Also, the fuel cell can be produced in various capacities, equipped within a power demand area, and therefore decrease equipment relating to the transmission and transformation of electricity.
The following table 1 represents various kinds of fuel cells.
TABLE 1PhosphoricPolymerAcid FuelMolten CarbonateSolid OxideElectrolyte FuelAlkaliCellsFuel CellsFuel CellsCellsFuel CellsAbbreviationPAFCMCFCSOFCPEFCAFCGasHydrogenHydrogen,Hydrogen,HydrogenHydrogencarbon monoxidecarbon monoxideElectrolytePhosphoric acidLithium carbonate,StabilizedCationic exchangePotassiumPotassium carbonatezirconiamembranehydroxideIonHydrogen IonCarbonic acid ionOxygen ionHydrogen ionHydroxyl ionOperatingAbout 200° C.About 650° C.About 1000° C.normalnormaltemperaturetemperature~temperature~about 100° C.about 100° C.Efficiency40~50%45~60%50~60%40~60%45~60%MaterialsCity gas LPG etcCity gas, LPG, coalCity gas, LPG etcCity gas, LPG etcHydrogenetc
Referring to table 1, various kinds of fuel cells are as follows. That is, they include Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells(MCFC) which operate in high temperature over 600° C., Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells(PAFC) which operate in comparatively low temperature under 200° C., Solid Oxide Fuel Cells(SOFC) and Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells(PEFC) and so on. Also, Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) use methanol as the fuel.
Over all, the Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC) use a polymer electrolyte membrane having the characteristic of exchanging a hydrogen ion as the electrolyte. Also, the Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC) are called various names like Solid Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (SPEFC) or Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC), however, they will be called Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC) in the following.
The Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells(PEFC) have a low operating temperature of about 80° C., high efficiency, good current and output power density, short warming time, and rapid response to change of load in comparison with the other fuel cells.
Especially, the Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC) are unnecessary to control an electrolyte and less sensitive to pressure change of reaction gas because a polymer electrolyte membrane is used as an electrolyte. Also, its design is simple, manufacture is easy, and output range is various. Therefore, the Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFC) are applied to various field like a power source for a pollution free vehicle, on-the-spot generation of electric power, a mobile power source, a military power source and so on.
The basic principle of the fuel cell is to make electricity and water from oxygen and hydrogen. Namely, chemical energy is transformed to electric energy directly in steady combustion of fuel and hydrogen supplied from the outside.
The reaction formula in each electrode is as follows.
The reaction formula in anode is as Reaction Formula 1.H2(g)2 2H+2e−  [Reaction Formula 1]
The reaction formula in cathode is as Reaction Formula 2.
[Reaction Formula 2]
            1      2                          O        2                          (        g        )              +      2              H      +        +      2              e      -            2                                H      2            O
The total reaction formula is as Reaction Formula 3.
[Reaction Formula 3]
            H      2                  (      g      )        +            1      2                          O        2                          (        g        )                  2                                H      2            O
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross section of a unit cell that consists of conventional fuel cells.
The fuel cell stack includes a plurality of membrane electrode assemblies piled. And the fuel cell comprising only one membrane electrode assembly is called a unit cell. The real fuel cell stack has the structure of unit cells piled.
The voltage of one membrane electrode assembly is about 0.7V, and the output voltage of the stack increases in proportion to the number of membrane electrode assemblies. The current is in proportion to the area of the membrane electrode assembly, therefore the wider the area is, then the more the current is generated. Generally, the current density of membrane electrode assembly is about 200–500 mA/cm2.
Referring to FIG. 1, in the anode 100 of unit cell the electron is generated as the result of oxidation reaction occurring in supplying and exhausting hydrogen. And the water is generated as the result of a reduction reaction occurring in supplying and exhausting oxygen.
The oxidation and reduction occurs in the catalyst layer 130, which is formed between two porous carbon electrodes and the polymer electrolyte membrane The polymer electrolyte membrane 120 delivers the hydrogen ionized in the anode 100 to a cathode 110.
The membrane electrode assembly is manufactured by hot-pressing of the polymer electrolyte 120 and the catalyst layer 130. The anode 100 and the cathode 110 of PEFC are comprised1 of the catalyst layer 130 and the supporting bodies 100.
Separators (also, they are called bipolar plates) 160, 165 on which a flow field 140 is formed, can supply hydrogen and oxygen and exhaust the water and is located outside of the membrane electrode assembly.
The separator is a conductive plate including the flow field on one side, and the hydrogen and oxygen can move through the flow field. The separator conducts the electron generated in anode to cathode, supports the membrane electrode assembly, supplies two electrodes with fuel and oxygen, and removes water generated while operating the fuel cell.
The unit cell includes the membrane electrode assembly, the separator, and a gasket 170,180 preventing the gas or the liquid from flowing out. Also, the unit cell includes a copper plate 190,195 which can fix the unit cell in the end portion of the unit cell.
The fuel cell stack is manufactured by piling the unit cells. The hydrogen gas channel is formed on one side of the separator, and the oxygen gas channel is formed on the other side of the separator.
The problem with the past technique will be explained in connection with improving the performance of membrane electrode assembly.
In order to improve performance of the membrane electrode assembly, it is necessary to promote an oxidation-reduction reaction through the efficient use of a catalyst, decrease contact resistance between the polymer electrode assembly and the electrodes, increase the area of the three-phase boundary of gas-electrolyte-catalyst, and lessen the thickness of the polymer electrode assembly.
Therefore, research and development have been undertaken to improve the polymer electrolyte membrane, promote the rate of catalyst utilization, improve the catalyst coating process, increase the area of the three-phase boundary of gas-electrolyte-catalyst, and decrease contact resistance between the polymer electrode assembly and the electrodes.
However, improving the performance of the membrane electrode assembly through the above-mentioned method may be difficult.
In the following, conventional representative methods for improving performance of the membrane electrode assembly and the problems corresponding to the methods will be explained.
The first method is to improve the polymer electrolyte membrane. The polymer electrolyte membrane must have high conductivity of hydrogen ion and almost no conductivity of electron. Also the polymer electrolyte membrane must have less movement of reaction gas or water than that of an ion but good mechanical and chemical stableness.
The Nafion membrane (Dupont Co.) used in PEFC is perfluorinated sulfonic acid series. The hydrogen must be hydrated to be conducted in the Nafion membrane and passes through in the Nafion in the form of H3O+.
Therefore, if the polymer electrolyte membrane becomes dry, the conductivity of hydrogen ion becomes low, and the polymer electrolyte membrane will contract to increase contact resistance between the polymer electrolyte membrane and the electrodes. That is to say, the thinner the polymer electrolyte membrane is, the less the ohmic resistance of hydrogen ion is, and consequently the current density increases.
However, it is difficult to lower the thickness of polymer electrolyte membrane because of mechanical solidity. The thickness of Gore-Select membrane (Gore Associate Co.) having a good mechanical property of matter is about 20˜30 μm.
Accordingly, a new polymer electrolyte membrane needs to be developed which does not require humidification, can be operated in high temperature over 200° C., and has good mechanical and chemical duration. However, there is no the polymer electrolyte membrane that complies with the qualifications mentioned above.
The second method is to improve the efficiency of a catalyst. The oxidation and reduction of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas occurs in catalyst layer. Therefore, the efficiency of a catalyst is very important.
However, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of a catalyst by improving a dispersion degree of the catalyst because the catalyst is a precious metal.
The representative method for improving the efficiency of a catalyst is to use supported Pt/C whereby platinum is coated on a surface on a minute carbon particle of 2˜5 nm size (Vulcan XC-72, Cabot Co.).
However, the above-mentioned method that can increase the effective surface area of a platinum particle by using a small quantity of a catalyst can't give prominent performance improvement.
A uniform and thin catalyst layer can decrease the contact resistance. Namely, lessening the thickness of the polymer electrolyte membrane can decrease the voltage drop in PEFC.
However, the thickness of the polymer electrolyte membrane must be sufficiently thick to support the membrane electrode assembly. Therefore, the reproducibility and stableness of a method for producing the membrane electrode assembly restricts the thickness of the polymer electrolyte membrane to be hundreds of micrometer.
The third method is to improve the degree of homogeneousness. Namely, during hot-pressing the degree of homogeneousness can be increased by controlling temperature, pressure, time, and humidity. However, a high possibility exists that the degree of homogeneousness becomes low and contact resistance becomes high in a preponderance of pressure because the polymer electrolyte and the electrodes are contacted on flat side.
As mentioned above, the method for improving the performance of the membrane electrode assembly is concentrated on the improvement of material comprising the membrane electrode assembly or the activation of reaction centering around the catalyst.
On the contrary, no method exists for increasing a reaction effective method or decreasing the contact resistance through improving the structure of the membrane electrode assembly.

Method for producing membrane electrode assembly


A method and apparatus for processing an image. Specifically, one exemplary embodiment of the method comprises inputting an image into a pixel array producing pixel output signals, executing an image edge detection routine on the pixel output signals that detects pixels defining an image edge, grouping the edge defining pixels into a predetermine plurality of regions based on luminance intensity values of the edge defining pixels, using the grouping to define a non-linear transform function operation over a range of luminance intensity values of the edge defining pixels, applying the non-linear transform function to luminance intensity values, and using the edge defining pixels having the applied non-linear transform function to produce an enhanced image from the input image. One exemplary embodiment of the apparatus comprises a programmed processor that executes the method described above.

Integrated circuits, including dies, for example, imager dies such as charge-coupled-devices (CCD) and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) dies, have commonly been used in image reproduction applications.
Imager dies, such as the CMOS imager die, typically contain thousands of pixels in a pixel array on a single chip. Pixels convert light into an electrical signal that can then be stored and recalled by an electrical device such as, for example, a processor. The electrical signals that are stored may be recalled to produce an image on, for example, a computer screen or a printable media.
Exemplary CMOS imaging circuits, processing steps thereof, and detailed descriptions of the functions of various CMOS elements of an imaging circuit are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,630; 6,376,868; 6,310,366; 6,326,652; 6,204,524; 6,333,205 each of which being assigned to Micron Technology, Inc. The disclosures of each of the forgoing patents are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an imager die 10, having a CMOS imager device 8. The CMOS imager device has a pixel array 14 that comprises a plurality of pixels arranged in a predetermined number of columns and rows. The pixel cells of each row in pixel array 14 are all turned on at the same time by a row select line, and the pixel cells of each column are selectively output by respective column select lines. A plurality of rows and column lines are provided for the entire pixel array 14. The row lines are selectively activated in sequence by the row driver 1 in response to row address decoder 2 and the column select lines are selectively activated in sequence for each row activation by the column driver 3 in response to column address decoder 4. The CMOS imager device 8 is operated by the control circuit 5, which controls address decoders 2, 4 for selecting the appropriate row and column lines for pixel readout, and row and column driver circuitry 1, 3 to apply driving voltage to the drive transistors of the selected row and column lines.
The pixel output signals typically include a pixel reset signal Vrst taken from a charge storage node when it is reset and a pixel image signal Vsig, which is taken from the storage node after charges generated by an image are transferred to the node. The Vrst and Vsig signals are read by a sample and hold circuit 6 and are subtracted by a differential amplifier 7, which produces a difference signal (Vrst−Vsig) for each pixel cell, which represents the amount of light impinging on the pixels. This signal difference is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter 9. The digitized pixel difference signals are then fed to an image processor 11 to form a digital image. In addition, as depicted in FIG. 1, the CMOS imager device 8 may be included on a single semiconductor chip to form the imager die 10. The imager die 10 can be included in a number of image reproduction applications, including, but not limited to, cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs), scanners, facsimile machines, and copiers.
Users often desire to see images full of contrast in image reproduction applications, such as, for example, a photograph. Such images are visually pleasing because they look lively, clear and have lots of details. Known methods for contrast improvement include modifying transfer function ("s-curve"), contrast stretching, histogram equalization, and amplifying luminance component. Each method has its own drawbacks, which may result in poor image quality.
Accordingly, there is a desire and need for processing an image to increase the contrast of the image, without adversely affecting the visual quality of the image.

Apparatus and method for processing images


In an automatic electronic discovery search tool, documents can be clustered into a cluster hierarchy using data contained in a first field of the documents. One of more levels of the cluster hierarchy are merged. Merged clusters are further clustered using data contained in a second field of the documents. The first field and second field may be determined by the signal-to-noise ratio of the data contained in the fields. Clusters may be filtered or used in a document review tool.

Electronic discovery tools allow corporations and other companies to review documents to be used in litigations and other proceedings. As businesses rely on computers more and more, the amount of documents produced in a given litigation quickly grows in size. Managing large document repositories and effectively reviewing the documents poses many issues to law firms and their clients.
Grouping documents according to a common theme allows reviewers to become knowledgeable about the particular theme of the document they are reviewing, and allows for faster and more accurate review by preventing context switches. Additionally, grouping documents together allows for certain bulk operations, such as discarding of a large group of documents that are very likely to be not relevant to the litigation.

Adding document filters to an existing cluster hierarchy


An integrated circuit in a hard disk drive contains a resistance measurement circuit for a magnetoresistive head. The relationship between the amount of a resistance change in the magnetoresistive head and the amount of a temperature rise, the relationship between the amount of a temperature rise and the average amount of magnetoresistive head protrusion, and a permissible temperature rise value for magnetoresistive head life optimization are entered in a PC. The amount of a resistance change is calculated from a magnetoresistive head's initial resistance value and a resistance value prevailing after power application to a heater. The amount of a temperature rise is determined from the amount of a resistance change. The amount of protrusion is determined from the amount of a temperature rise. If a required protrusion amount is not reached by the amount of protrusion, the amount of power application is increased. If the required protrusion amount is reached by the amount of protrusion, the prevailing amount of power application is regarded as a heater's initial power application amount for shipment and stored in an MPU.

The present invention relates to a magnetic disk drive that uses a magnetoresistive head, and more particularly to a method of setting the amount of power application to a heater for controlling the magnetoresistive head flying height.
In recent years, the magnetic recording density provided by a magnetic disk drive has remarkably increased. It is mainly due to an extreme reduction in the magnetic head flying height, that is, the gap between a magnetic recording medium and magnetic head in the magnetic disk drive, which relates to a major technology for magnetic recording density increase. However, when the flying height decreases, the probability with which the medium strikes against the magnetic head increases, thereby giving rise to various problems including thermal asperity occurrence, head output attenuation, and head noise increase. Under these circumstances, a new technology is proposed for use with the magnetic head and magnetic disk drive. This technology controls the gap between the medium and magnetic head to such an extent as to avoid the above problems and decreases the gap only when a signal is to be written onto the medium or a medium signal is to be read.
An inductive magnetic head and magnetic disk drive disclosed, for instance, by Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-20635) are such that a thin-film resistor (heater) is embedded in the magnetic head and heated to vary the flying height. A magnetoresistive head and magnetic disk drive disclosed, for instance, by Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-272335) are such that a signal write section is separate from a signal read section while a heater is incorporated to control the gap between a magnetic recording medium and the magnetic head. A magnetic head slider and magnetic disk drive disclosed, for instance, by Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-241092) are such that a heater is positioned so as to avoid a temperature rise in a magnetoresistive element and used to control the flying height.
For exercising control to optimize the power application amount for heating the thin-film resistor, the above conventional technologies detect contact between the head and medium, detect the head output level, bring the head into point contact or line contact with the medium, or detect the head ambient temperature and convert it to flying height information.

Method of setting the amount of power application to heater incorporated in magnetoresistive head and magnetic disk drive

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


A structured data store service, such as a database service, may implement fine-grained access to data maintained at the database service using federated identity. Fine grained access requests may be received at a database service for specified data maintained for an application provider from a client of the application provider. An access credential may be also be received. Verification of the access credential may be obtained, and the database service may evaluate the fine-grained access request according to a delegation policy corresponding to the access credential to determine whether the fine-grained request is authorized. If authorized, the fine-grained access request may be service. If not authorized, the fine-grained access request may be denied. In some embodiments, multiple application clients may have the same authorization for data, such as read authorization, while another one or more application clients may have different authorization for the data, such as write authorization.

Database systems provide back-end data storage and manipulation for countless applications, services, or systems. Typically, these applications, services, or systems may access a database in order to perform various functions. For example, a back-end database for a blog application may store entries, comments, images, and other information in a database maintaining content for the blog application. The blog application may access these entries, comments, images, or other information in order to display the content for the blog application on a website. With the advent of the Internet, the number of applications, services, or systems continues to grow, increasing the amount and complexity of information maintained by database systems for other applications. Cloud computing, content delivery networks, data storage, social media, gaming, messaging, and e-commerce are just some of the applications, systems, or services relying upon database systems.
The growth in applications, systems, or services relying upon database systems also prevents a challenge to database systems to provide more efficient and secure access to data maintained in respective databases. Some applications, services, or systems are operated by multiple users, implement multiple components, nodes, or subsystems with differing functions, or otherwise may need to provide or access different data maintained in a database system. Thus, access controls to data maintained in a database system are also often implemented by applications, systems, or services in order to ensure that the correct data for the various users, components, nodes, or subsystems in secure and efficient ways. However, burdening the applications, systems, or services with providing access control may reduce efficiency (e.g., creating an access bottleneck), increase costs (e.g., implementing additional components such as middle tiers), and introduce additional security vulnerabilities (e.g., SQL injection attacks).
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words "include", "including", and "includes" mean including, but not limited to.

Fine-grained structured data store access using federated identity management


Provided is a method, system and program for synchronizing sequential subtasks of a task, so that the subtasks can be dispatched to generate operations in a particular sequence. In one embodiment, a subtask which has been prepared for dispatching is queued in a queue until the queued subtask is the next subtask in sequence for dispatching. In one embodiment, the subtasks may be sorted in the queue by task and by subtask sequence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for transmitting tasks from one processor to another.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disaster recovery systems can address a sudden catastrophic failure in which data is lost at a location. To assist in recovery of data updates, a copy of data may be provided at a remote location. Such dual or shadow copies are typically made as the application system is writing new data to a primary storage device.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), the assignee of the subject patent application, provides several remote mirroring systems, including, for example: a synchronous Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (PPRC®) service and a PPRC® Extended Distance service in an Enterprise Storage Server (ESS) system. Some IBM mirroring systems are described in IBM publication "Remote Copy: Administrator's Guide and Reference," IBM document no. SC35-0169-02 (IBM Copyright 1994, 1996). The synchronous PPRC ® service provides a technique for recovering data updates that occur between a last, safe backup and a system failure. Such data shadowing systems can also provide an additional remote copy for non-recovery purposes, such as local access at a remote site. With the synchronous PPRC® service, a primary storage subsystem maintains a copy of predefined datasets on a secondary storage subsystem. The copy may be used for disaster recovery. Changes to data are copied to the secondary storage subsystem as an application updates the data. The copy is maintained by intercepting write instructions to the synchronous PPRC® dataset and generating appropriate write instructions from the primary storage system to the secondary storage system. The write instructions may update data, write new data, or write the same data again. The synchronous PPRC® service copies data to the secondary storage subsystem to keep the data synchronous with a primary storage subsystem. That is, an application system writes data to a volume and then transfers the updated data over, for example, Enterprise System Connection (ESCON®) fiber channels to the secondary storage subsystem. The secondary storage subsystem writes the data to a corresponding volume.
With synchronous PPRC®, the copy at the secondary storage subsystem is maintained by intercepting write instructions to the dataset at the primary storage subsystem and generating appropriate write instructions from the primary storage system to the secondary storage system. PPRC® Extended Distance service does not write to secondary storage subsystem before acknowledging to the host the write to the primary. Instead, for the PPRC® Extended Distance service, when a track is written, information is stored that indicates that the track is to be transferred to the secondary storage subsystem at a later time. An asynchronous process collects updates at the primary storage subsystem and sends the updates to the secondary storage subsystem.
Computing systems often include one or more host computers ("hosts") for processing data and running application programs, direct access storage devices (DASDs) for storing data, and a storage controller for controlling the transfer of data between the hosts and the DASD. Storage controllers, also referred to as control units or storage directors, manage access to a storage space often comprised of numerous hard disk drives connected in a loop architecture, otherwise referred to as a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD). Hosts may communicate Input/Output (I/O) requests to the storage space through the storage controller. To maintain availability in the event of a failure, many storage controllers known in the prior art provide redundant hardware clusters.
Each hardware cluster comprises a processor complex, cache, non-volatile storage (NVS), such as a battery backed-up Random Access Memory (RAM), and separate power supply to provide connection paths to the attached storage. The NVS in one cluster backs up write data from the cache in the other cluster so that if one cluster fails, the write data in the cache of the failed cluster is stored in the NVS of the surviving cluster. After one cluster fails, all Input/Output (I/O) requests would be directed toward the surviving cluster. When both clusters are available, each cluster may be assigned to handle I/O requests for specific logical storage devices configured within the physical storage devices.
Each storage controller may have an adapter to communicate over a network with a host computer or another storage controller. For example, the write instructions from the primary storage controller to the secondary storage controller may be generated by a processor of the adapter of the primary storage controller and issued over the network to the secondary storage controller. The network may comprise a Storage Area Network (SAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Intranet, the Internet, Wide Area Network (WAN), etc.
The adapter as well as the clusters of the storage controller may each have a mail manager process to communicate with each other. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, an application program 18 operating under an operating system 20 of one cluster 21 can instruct its mail manager process 22 to send a task, subtask or other remote operation request to a network adapter 23. The mail manager process 22 of the cluster folds the remote operation requests into mail messages which are placed in an outgoing mail queue 28. The mail manager process 22 pulls the mail messages from the outgoing mail queue 28 and stores the mail messages containing the remote operation requests in a memory area of the adapter referred to as an incoming mail queue 30. Conversely, an application program 38 operating under an operating system 40 of the adapter 23 can instruct its mail manager process 42 to send a task, subtask or other remote operation request to the cluster 21. The mail manager process 42 of the adapter 23 pulls the mail messages from the outgoing mail queue 48 and stores the mail messages containing the remote operation requests in a memory area in an incoming mail queue 50 of the cluster 21.

Method, system, and program for synchronizing subtasks using sequence numbers


Engine control method for protecting the engine during reverse rotation, and involving the following steps: when a first prediction of the engine speed at a next top dead center is below a predetermined lower threshold, inhibiting the next combustion for this cylinder of the engine, and when the first prediction of the engine speed is between the predetermined lower threshold and a predetermined upper threshold, and the engine reaches a second measurement predetermined angular position which is subsequent to the first measurement position, activating the prediction means again in order to obtain a second prediction of the engine speed at the next top dead center.

The internal combustion engines commonly used, notably in automobiles, are designed to rotate in a single direction of rotation. However, there are isolated risks of the direction of rotation of the engine being reversed in certain situations, and notably as the engine stops, whether this be a normal stop commanded by the driver, or an accidental stop resulting from the stalling of the engine.
Instances in which a combustion operation takes place in a cylinder of the engine when this engine has just experienced a reversal of its direction of rotation constitute a critical case which may damage the engine. This is because such combustion will accentuate the rotation in the reverse direction and, in addition, if the engine is fitted with a dual mass flywheel, this critical case may lead to damage or even destruction of the dual mass flywheel.
Because significant damage may be caused during a reversal of the direction of rotation of an internal combustion engine, there are solutions in existence for protecting the engine in such circumstances.
Patent application FR2995939, incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for estimating the speed of an engine in a predetermined position, which can be used with a view to determining, in advance, a risk of reversal of the direction of rotation of the engine. The estimated speed of the engine, for example at the next top dead center for a cylinder, is compared against a predetermined threshold. If the estimate is below this predetermined threshold, the step of triggering combustion at the top dead center concerned is inhibited.
The methods of the prior art succeed in protecting the engine in a great many cases, but their reliability is dependent on the choice of the predetermined threshold. If the predetermined threshold is set at a value that is not very high, there are a certain number of rotation-reversal situations that will not be detected, notably the most critical situations relating to a sharp and late variation in engine speed. Conversely, if the predetermined threshold is set at a high value, the number of false detections will be great, which is to say that multiple situations will be identified as involving a risk of reversal of the direction of rotation of the engine, even though this reversal of the direction of rotation does not actually occur, this leading to multiple and undesirable instances of combustion being inhibited. The setting of the predetermined threshold is therefore a compromise between the effectiveness with which a potential reversal of the direction of rotation of the engine can be detected, and the effectiveness of the propulsion afforded by the engine.

Engine control method for protecting an internal combustion engine during reverse rotation


A receiving gripper for a rapier loom, wherein at least the moving part is made of a ceramic material.

A. Field
The present invention relates to a receiving gripper for a rapier loom, said gripper comprising a component fitted with a clamping hook having a clamping surface and comprising a movable component fitted with a mating clamp face associated with said clamping hook's clamping surface.
B. Related Art
In receiving grippers of the above-mentioned type, the component fitted with the clamping hook is mounted to a gripper tape or to a guide element extension of the tape. The movable component is movable in such a manner that its mating clamp face is advanced by a biasing spring toward the clamping hook's clamping surface so the mating clamp face may be lifted off the hook's clamping surface. It is known in this respect to design the movable component as an element moving in the gripper's longitudinal direction of motion (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,736,777 and 4,739,805), although said element also may be designed as a two-arm lever pivoting about a pivot axis (U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,532). Whether longitudinally translatable or pivotable about a pivot axis, the movable component is typically made of metal.


An electric motor-actuated packer and/or anchor (EMAP/A) apparatus and method for use in downhole operations. The apparatus includes a packer subassembly and/or a slip subassembly and can be: set in a packer and anchor mode; set in an anchor-only mode without energizing the packer elements; repeatedly set and unset without run-in string manipulation; run in a multiple, or redundant, configuration within a given tool string, with each EMAP/A apparatus capable of being set/unset independently of the others; and combined within a tool string in a straddle packer configuration, with inverted and non-inverted EMAP/As providing the ability to isolate an interval of interest from both above and below the interval. Among other uses, the apparatus and method are well suited for application in a single-trip, e-coil conveyed completion system, and particularly one providing for radial hydraulic jetting.

Advances in drilling technology have enabled oil and gas operators to economically "kick-off" and steer wellbore trajectories from a generally vertical orientation to a generally horizontal orientation. The horizontal "leg" of each of these wellbores now often exceeds a length of one mile, and sometimes two or even three miles. This significantly multiplies the wellbore exposure to a target hydrocarbon-bearing formation (or "pay zone"). As an example, consider a target pay zone having a (vertical) thickness of 100 feet. A one-mile horizontal leg exposes 52.8 times as much pay zone to a horizontal wellbore as compared to the 100-foot exposure of a conventional vertical wellbore.
FIG. 1 provides a cross-sectional view of a wellbore 4 having been completed in a horizontal orientation. It can be seen that the wellbore 4 has been formed from the earth surface 1, through numerous earth strata 2a, 2b, . . . 2h and down to a hydrocarbon-producing formation 3. The subsurface formation 3 represents a "pay zone" for the oil and gas operator. The wellbore 4 includes a vertical section 4a above the pay zone, and a horizontal section 4e. The horizontal section 4c defines a heel 4b and a toe 4d, with an elongated leg there between that extends through the pay zone 3.
In connection with the completion of the wellbore 4, several strings of casing having progressively smaller outer diameters have been cemented into the wellbore 4. These include a string of surface casing 6, and may include one or more strings of intermediate casing 9, and finally, a production casing 12. One of the main functions of the surface casing 6 is to isolate and protect the shallower, fresh water bearing aquifers from contamination by any wellbore fluids. Accordingly, the surface casing 6 is almost always cemented 7 entirely back to the surface 1.
Surface casing 6 is shown as cemented 7 fully from a surface casing shoe 8 back to the surface 1. An intermediate casing string 9 is only partially cemented 10 from its shoe 11. Similarly, production casing string 12 is only partially cemented 13 from its casing shoe 14, though sufficiently isolating the pay zone 3.
The process of drilling and then cementing progressively smaller strings of casing is repeated several times until the well has reached total depth. In some instances, the final string of casing 12 is a liner, that is, a string of casing that is not tied back to the surface 1. The final string of casing 12, referred to as a production casing, is also typically cemented 13 into place. In the case of a horizontal completion, the production casing 12 may be cemented, or may provide zonal isolation using external casing packers ("ECP's), swell packers, or some combination thereof.
Additional tubular bodies may be included in a well completion. These include one or more strings of production tubing placed within the production casing or liner (not shown in FIG. 1). By way of example, but not by way of limitation, tubing strings can be used for purposes of cementing/squeezing, casing testing, hydraulic fracturing, acidizing, other stimulation techniques, production, etc.
In a vertical well completion, the tubing string will typically extend from the surface 1 to a designated depth proximate the production interval 3 and may be attached to a packer (not shown). The packer serves to seal off the annular space between the tubing string and the surrounding casing 12. In a horizontal well completion, the tubing string is typically landed (with or without a packer) at or near the heel 4b of the wellbore 4.
In some instances, the pay zone 3 is incapable of flowing fluids to the surface 1 efficiently. When this occurs, the operator may install artificial lift equipment (not shown in FIG. 1) as part of the wellbore completion. Artificial lift equipment may include a downhole pump connected to a surface pumping unit via a string of sucker rods run within the tubing. Alternatively, an electrically-driven submersible pump may be placed at the bottom end of the production tubing. As part of the completion process, a wellhead 5 is installed at the surface 1. The wellhead 5 serves to contain wellbore pressures and direct the flow of production fluids at the surface 1.
Within the United States, many wells are now drilled principally to recover oil and/or natural gas, and potentially natural gas liquids, from pay zones previously thought to be too impermeable to produce hydrocarbons in economically viable quantities. Such "tight" or "unconventional" formations may be sandstone, siltstone, or even shale formations. Alternatively, such unconventional formations may include coalbed methane. In any instance, "low permeability" typically refers to a rock interval having permeability less than 0.1 millidarcies.
In order to enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons, particularly in low-permeability formations, subsequent (i.e., after perforating the production casing or liner) stimulation techniques may be employed in the completion of pay zones. Such techniques include hydraulic fracturing and/or acidizing. Where the natural or hydraulically-induced fracture plane(s) of a formation is vertical, a horizontally completed wellbore allows the production casing to intersect, or "source," multiple fracture planes. Accordingly, whereas vertically oriented wellbores are typically constrained to a single hydraulically-induced fracture plane per pay zone, horizontal wellbores may be perforated and hydraulically fractured in multiple locations, or "stages," along the horizontal leg 4c, producing multiple fracture planes.
FIG. 1 demonstrates a series of fracture half-planes 16 along the horizontal section 4c of the wellbore 4. The fracture half-planes 16 represent the orientation of fractures that will form in connection with a known perforating/fracturing operation. The fractures are formed by the injection of a fracturing fluid through perforations 15 formed in the horizontal section 4c.
According to principles of geo-mechanics, fracture planes will generally form in a direction that is perpendicular to the plane of least principal stress in a rock matrix. Stated more simply, in most wellbores, the rock matrix will part along vertical lines when the horizontal section of a wellbore resides below 3,000 feet, and sometimes as shallow as 1,500 feet, below the surface. In this instance, hydraulic fractures will tend to propagate from the wellbore's perforations 15 in a vertical, elliptical plane perpendicular to the plane of least principle stress. If the orientation of the least principle stress plane is known, the longitudinal axis of the leg 4c of a horizontal wellbore 4 is ideally oriented parallel to it such that the multiple fracture planes 16 will intersect the wellbore at-or-near orthogonal to the horizontal leg 4c of the wellbore, as depicted in FIG. 1.
In actuality, and particularly in unconventional shale reservoirs, resultant fracture geometries are often more complex than a single, essentially two-dimensional elliptical plane. Instead, a more complex three-dimensional Stimulated Reservoir Volume ("SRV") is generated from a single hydraulic fracturing treatment. Hence, whereas for conventional reservoirs the key post-stimulation metric was propped frac length (or "half length") within the pay zone, for unconventional reservoirs the key metric is SRV. Simply put, the higher the SRV, the better the overall frac effectiveness.
In FIG. 1, the fracture planes 16 are spaced apart along the horizontal leg 4c. The desired density of the perforated and fractured intervals along the horizontal leg 4c is optimized by calculating: (a) the estimated ultimate recovery ("EUR") of hydrocarbons each fracture will drain, which requires a computation of the SRV that each fracture treatment will connect to the wellbore via its respective perforations; less (b) any overlap with the respective SRV's of bounding fracture intervals; coupled with (c) the anticipated time-distribution of hydrocarbon recovery from each SRV compartment; versus (d) the incremental cost of adding another perforated/fractured SRV compartment.
The ability to make this calculation and replicate multiple vertical fracture networks along a single horizontal wellbore is what has made the pursuit of hydrocarbon reserves from unconventional reservoirs, and particularly shales, economically viable within relatively recent times. This revolutionary technology has had such a profound impact that currently Baker Hughes Rig Count information for the United States indicates only about one out of every fifteen (7%) of wells being drilled in the U.S. are classified as "Vertical", whereas the remainder are classified as either "Horizontal" or "Directional" (85% and 8%, respectively). That is, horizontal wells currently comprise approximately six out of every seven wells being drilled in the United States.
In the initial completion or the re-completion of hydrocarbon-producing and saltwater disposal wells, it is imperative that sufficient zone isolation is maintained as to maximize the effectiveness of any stimulation treatments of the pay zone. This is especially true of a hydraulic fracturing operation, or "frac", particularly in horizontal wellbores in which dozens of frac's are pumped in individual "stages" (wherein multiple sets of perforation "clusters" typically receives a given frac stage). Specifically, in a new well completion (working "toe" to "heel"), prior to stimulating targeted perf clusters with a given frac stage, those perforations must be isolated from any open perf downhole. Even more demanding, in a recompletion scenario, pre-frac zonal isolation may require isolating the target clusters from existing open perforations both downhole and uphole of the target clusters.
One of the preferred . . . and certainly among the most efficient . . . isolation processes is to employ a "single-trip" system. Such a system can accomplish these multiple isolation processes in such a manner as to leave a "clean" wellbore . . . that is, a wellbore free of ball seats, bridge plugs, or other zonal isolation remnants necessitating a cleanout run. The clean wellbore provided by a single-trip system is therefore ready for flowback, for landing the production tubing up and (if necessary) artificial lift equipment, or for other subsequent production operations. To further optimize the frac operation, as many individual intervals or stages as possible would be independently isolated to permit ideal stage spacing, and to do so without adding additional run-in string trips, plug pump downs, or other costly operations. One way to accomplish this multiplicity of zonal isolations for hydraulic fracturing optimization is by using coiled tubing as the retrievable isolation equipment's run-in string, accompanied with annular frac techniques. That is, fracking while the run-in string remains in the wellbore, by either: (a) pumping the frac treatment down the production casing but outside of the run-in string; i.e., pumping only through the run-in string-casing annulus; or, (b) pumping the frac treatment down both the run-in string-casing annulus and also down the run-in string itself. Commonly, when the latter technique is employed, only the annular-pumped frac slurry will contain proppant, while the run-in string slurry will be a 'clean' fluid. This provides for a quick 'reverse-out' of any excess proppant or proppant-laden fluid by simply ceasing annular pumping while continuing pumping down the run-in string.
In the isolation and stimulation of a perforated casing interval in a wellbore, the ability to seal between the well casing and well tubing is paramount. The sealing assembly, or "packer", must be robust enough to withstand downhole temperatures and pressures, and durable enough to be activated and deactivated, or "set" and "released", multiple times. In the two-mile, and longer wellbore lateral lengths characteristic in today's shale play development, for example, upwards of 50 or more frac stages can necessitate dozens or even hundreds of packer setting-and-releasing sequences to provide the requisite zonal isolations. After the isolation and/or stimulation operations are complete, the packer must be retrievable such that the packer can be completely removed from the wellbore and subsequent operations can commence. Current packer technology centers around two general packer types, each employing their respective seal activation methods.
The most common type of resettable packer currently used in the art is a "mechanical" packer, also referred to as a hook wall or conventional packer, that uses axial forces applied via the run-in string to expand or energize solid elastomeric "packer elements". A mechanical packer is used in almost every completion to isolate the annulus from the production conduit, enabling controlled production, injection or treatment. A typical mechanical packer assembly also incorporates a slip arrangement which is actuated to "hook" the casing wall, thereby anchoring the apparatus in place at a desired set point in the well casing.
Another less common type of packer is an "inflatable packer". Inflatable packers comprise hollow, bladder-type packer elements that are expanded by filling the hollow elements with a pressurized fluid, thus causing the elements to expand and seal against the inner casing wall in somewhat of a balloon-like process. In preparation for setting the inflatable packer, a drop ball or series of tubing movements are generally required, with the hydraulic pressure required to inflate the packer provided by carefully applying surface pump pressure."
Another type of packer type is a "cup packer", which utilizes one or more constant casing wall-contacting, swab-type cups that, for a seal against the casing wall, can expand slightly as differential fluid pressure is received in the concave surface of the packer element(s), thereby creating a seal at the cup-casing interface. Accordingly, in a sense, cup-type packers are just another form of hydraulic-set packer. Cup-type packers are typically used in less severe, shallower and/or lower pressure applications.
Of the three prior types of packers just discussed (i.e., mechanical, inflatable, and cup-type), the latter two typically do not incorporate slips, or any other mechanical anchoring mechanism, to establish stationary (static) positioning of the packer at the desired locus within the wellbore.
Another distinction is the power source used for actuating the mechanical operations of setting and unsetting the slips and/or energizing the packer elements. For example, Halliburton Energy Services' "Actuated Inflatable Packer" (shown in WO2019083922A1), uses electric power to move a sleeve in a valve such that an inflation fluid and surface pressure can be used to inflate/deflate an inflatable element. The Actuated Inflatable Packer is apparently designed for lighter duty and does not provide zonal isolation within hydraulic fracturing operations. That is, it has no mechanically set slip segments to rigorously locate the packer, and thus it cannot function as both a tubing anchor and a packer. Since the inflatable element is expanded with pressurized fluid pumped from the surface after an inflation port is opened with an electrically-powered actuator, the pack-off (i.e., the expansion of the packing element) is accomplished via hydraulic power, not electrical power. Accordingly, in WO2019083922A1, electrical power is used only for opening or closing a port, rather than being used to physically expand the inflatable element. Consequently, without the addition of both fluid and pressure, the inflatable element is not and cannot be expanded.
The packing (sealing) elements of a mechanical packer are compressed or energized with a mechanical, axial force to cause expansion, thereby sealing between the run-in tubing, or tubing "string", and the internal casing wall. The pressure inside the element (i.e. "rubber pressure") induced by these mechanical forces, should be sufficient to withstand the external pressure applied during stimulation treatments (and particularly, hydraulic fracturing), testing or other downhole pressure-generating operation.
The slips used in mechanical packers typically have multiple curved rows of hardened serrated teeth, wickers, or other gripping features which are usually case-hardened to bite into or grip against the internal diameter ("I.D.") of the casing wall to thereby keep the packer stationary when external pressure is applied during typical stimulation or testing operations. The slips also typically have angled inner surfaces which ride up on a mating cone beneath the slips which is angled to force the slips radially outward against the casing wall. Alternatively, another common technique utilizes hardened tungsten carbide inserts pressed or braised into a machined or cast cavity in the slip, thus providing a hardened gripping surface on the outside of the slip that will engage the inner surface of the well casing.
Sequentially, the slips of the mechanical packer are set first, thereby providing a stable, stationary resistance to the force used to expand the packer elements. Depending on the particular design, this force can be provided by either set-down or pick-up of the run-in string, or an electric wireline setting tool, hydraulic pressure, or a combination of these methods to provide the required pack-off force to the packer elements. Regardless of how this force is generated, and whether it is made up of tensile and/or compressive forces, the forces are transmitted to the packer elements to generate sufficient packoff force for the packer elements to seal against the inner casing surface. Once the packer is set, the slips remain engaged in the casing wall to keep the packer from moving when external pressure is applied (for example, as during a frac treatment) until the packer is released.
The axial forces for actuating a mechanical packer can be generated using various methods, most of which, aside from a "tubing-set" packer, require a separate setting tool to translate setting forces to the packer. Consequently, these tools, heretofore, have not typically been resettable. The term "resettable" refers to the ability to repeatedly set, then release, and then reset a packer or anchor. The terms "release", "released" or "unset" mean that the energy or packoff force is sufficiently removed from the packer elements and/or slips, such that the packer elements no longer provide an effective seal against the ID of the casing, nor do the slips any longer fix the position of the apparatus within the casing.
The axial force-generating setting sequences produced by setting tools can be initiated with electric wireline power, hydraulic/hydrostatic pressure or combinations thereof. A brief discussion of electric wireline setting tool operation is provided here to differentiate the relevant wireline setting-related methods and apparatuses from the methods and apparatuses presented in the present disclosure. Use of an electric wireline setting tool, e.g. "Baker Hughes Model E-4™ Wireline Pressure Setting Assembly" (WLPSA), initiates the setting sequence of a mechanical packer by passing current from the surface through the wireline firing head to a primary ignitor, that ignites a small cylindrical pellet-shaped secondary power charge that in turn ignites a power charge. The power charge is a gas-generating flammable solid (typically, a UN 1.4S classified explosive) that increases the pressure in the setting tool to move, or "stroke", the setting tool axially and generate the setting force required to set a mechanical packer. Once the packer setting sequence has been completed, the WLPSA "shears off" from the packer through the tensile and/or shear failure of a sacrificial tension sleeve, stud, pin, etc. at a predetermined tensile and/or shear force value. The WLPSA is then retrieved from the well leaving the packer in place such that tubing can be run in the well to engage the packer. The electrical ignition of the primary ignitor inside the firing head of the WLPSA is the sole function which the electric power performs in the wireline setting of a mechanical packer. That is, the packer is set by the power of the explosive . . . NOT by electric power.
Also in contrast to the present invention, when setting an inflatable packer, the inflatable packer relies on the friction between the inflated element and the inner casing wall to hold the packer in place. Some inflatable elements may have reinforcing thin metal strips, slats, or "ribs", and may have the ribs exposed to the wellbore where a portion of the outer rubber cover of the inflatable element has been removed. These exposed ribs are intended to help hold or anchor the inflatable packer in place when the element is inflated against the casing wall. However, the exposed ribs have only the internal pressure within the inflatable element to force them against the casing wall. The hardness and casing-engaging capability of the ribs is limited given the requirement of the ribs to flex as the inflatable element is inflated.
Unfortunately, the frictional forces between an inflated packer element and the casing wall can be overcome by the stimulation pressure applied above the inflated packer. The differential stimulation pressure above the inflated element generally acts on the annular cross-sectional area between the run-in string outer diameter (OD) and the casing inner diameter (ID). The stimulation pressure acting on that annular area and overcoming the frictional forces of the inflatable packing element can cause the packer and the run-in string to move down hole. For example, using 2″ OD coiled tubing inside 5-½″ OD, 17 #/ft casing (4.892″ ID), a differential pressure above the packer of 1,000 psi can generate over 15,000 lbs of downward force on the packer. The downhole movement of the packer and run-in string during a hydraulic fracturing procedure, or "frac", a test, or a stimulation operation can result in failure of the inflatable packer and/or parting of the run-in string due to tensile failure resulting in costly fishing/workover operations. An inflatable element failure would likely occur, however, before parting the run-in string. Nonetheless, a costly round trip of the run-in string to replace the failed packer would be required before stimulation or other operations could resume. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure the differential pressure above the inflatable element is not allowed to exceed the frictional forces of the inflated element against the inner wall of the casing.
Similarly, the differential pressure from below the inflatable element also cannot be allowed to exceed the frictional forces between the inflated element and the casing wall. The differential pressure below the inflatable packer on the bottom of the run-in string generally acts on an area from the ID of the run-in string to the ID of the casing acting to move the inflatable packer uphole. The uphole movement of the packer and the run-in string can cause the packer to fail and/or the run-in string to buckle, resulting in costly round trips of the run-in string to replace the packer and/or damaged tubing. Similar to the previous example with 2″ OD, 0.125″ wall thickness coiled tubing inside 5-½″ 17 #ft. (4.892 ID) casing, a 1,000 psi pressure differential below the inflatable packer at the bottom of the run-in string would generate in excess of 16,000 pounds of upward force on the packer. An inflatable element failure could occur before buckling, or the run-in string could otherwise be permanently deformed. In any case, a costly round trip of the run-in string to replace the failed packer would be required before stimulation operations could resume. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure the differential pressure above the inflatable element is not allowed to exceed the frictional forces of the inflated element against the inner wall of the casing. Pressures generated during hydraulic fracturing operations generally well exceed the 1,000 psi used to illustrate the forces amassed in the previous examples, making inflatable packers less suitable than mechanical packers for fracturing operations, if not entirely unsuitable altogether.
Mechanical packers' superior slip-and-cone anchoring ability, solid cross-section, elastomeric scaling element designs and generally overall higher pressure handling capabilities, as compared, for example, to an inflatable packer, make mechanical packers better suited for higher pressure fracturing, stimulation and testing applications. But current mechanical packer technology has limitations in horizontal wells, especially as the lateral sections in the horizontal wells continue to get longer, often exceeding one, two and even three miles. As a case in point, Surge Energy completed 52 frac stages in April 2019 in their Medusa Unit C 28-09 3AH well with a lateral length of 17,935 feet.
Mechanical packers require axial force to move cones under slips, to simultaneously actuate the slips and to energize the packer elements. However, the 90° transition from the vertical portion of the wellbore to the horizontal portion, or "lateral", and the tremendous length of the horizontal lateral, make the manipulation (i.e., the rotation and/or axial reciprocation) of the run-in string (for both threaded and coiled tubing) for setting and/or releasing the packer elements and/or slips of a mechanical packer very difficult. Consequently, between each perforating and fracking operation for a given "stage", typically it is preferred that wireline plugs be "pumped down" into the lateral and set at their desired placement points. Hence the use of the moniker. "plug-'n-perf", for this the most common of horizontal completion methodologies. Coiled tubing can only be run to certain lateral lengths before downhole oscillation, vibration, or a tractor tool, which actually pulls the distal end of the coiled tubing, must be employed to extend the coiled tubing further into the lateral.
The reciprocation of a coiled-tubing run-in string for operating a resettable mechanical packer can be especially challenging, particularly in longer lateral horizontals and/or laterals drilled along undulating ("porpoising") paths, wherein the amount of "tubing stretch" and friction encountered are often unknown, and can greatly complicate the determination of how much force is actually being transmitted to the packer. In addition, every reciprocation of the coiled tubing run-in string, creates additional fatigue as the coiled tubing passes through the injector head and gooseneck surface equipment thereby reducing the useful life of the coiled tubing with each reciprocating cycle. Coiled tubing reciprocation can also create depth control challenges given the torque and drag issues associated with running pipe through a 90° curve in a horizontal well. Torque and drag force prediction and calculations are so complex that they require specialized torque and drag software packages to fully predict and interpret. Further, reciprocation-only setting and unsetting precludes selective redundancy . . . that is, being able to run two or more packers and/or bridge plugs and select which one(s) are to be actuated. Such redundancy is of huge benefit in longer laterals, where total non-productive time ("NPT") for tripping in and out to replace a failed (single) packer/bridge plug would be cost prohibitive.
However, to date, the only known mechanism capable of repeatably generating sufficient axial forces needed to fully activate a retrievable, resettable mechanical packer multiple times (as required to stimulate multiple stages in a horizontal well) is reciprocation of the run-in string. Consequently, in spite of the difficulties and shortcomings discussed above, reciprocating packer setting/releasing methods are still being used as a means to repeatably set mechanical packers and/or bridge plugs in horizontal well completions. NCS Multistage (NCSM), for example, has used coiled tubing run-in string reciprocation with their "Mongoose" system which incorporates a multi-set bridge plug.
Thus, what is needed is a packer and/or anchor apparatus and method (a) that do NOT require the use of additional run-in string manipulation for isolating the annular space between the run-in string and the well casing, above and/or below an interval of interest, in a horizontal wellbore or a wellbore of any another inclination; (b) that eliminate coiled tubing manipulation-related depth control issues; (c) that can repeatably perform hundreds of zonal isolation cycles in a single run-in string trip, as is typically required in horizontal and especially extended length lateral horizontal well applications; (d) that do not reduce the useful life of the run-in string with each set/release interval isolation cycle; (e) that provide for selective redundancy in running and operating multiple apparatuses; and (f) that allow the apparatus to be placed anywhere in the tool string, in that the apparatus provides for conducting mechanical forces (reciprocation and rotation), hydraulic power (has a closed fluid pathway through it), electric power (conducts a multi-conductor cable through the tool body), and fiber optic capacity (conducts fiber optic line through the tool body) from end-to-end, so that the placement of the apparatus does not preclude any otherwise plausible tool string component sequencing; and, that is compatible with downhole tractors to permit testing and/or stimulation of the entire lateral independent of lateral length.
The apparatus and method will preferably also be robust enough to withstand hundreds of set/release cycles at downhole temperatures and pressures consistent with testing, stimulation and/or hydraulic fracturing operations, particularly common in deeper and/or longer horizontal laterals. The isolation system will preferably be capable of repeatably and reliably isolating downhole intervals of interest from other intervals previously opened and stimulated, regardless of the relative location of the previously opened intervals. Further, the apparatus and method will preferably be able to complete the requirements for all of the lateral isolation operations in a single trip of the run-in string. Thus, the isolation system will preferably be compatible with annular frac procedures in order to leave a clean, production-ready wellbore. Moreover, setting, unsetting, and resetting the apparatus will preferably be achievable without additional run-in string manipulation (e.g., other than that required to move the packer/anchor to the next setting location.) Finally, because unconventional, horizontal well operations typically require so many isolation operations, in order to maintain a "single-trip" operation, multiple apparatuses will preferably be selectively operable, to set/unset/reset for purposes of redundancy, and/or isolating an interval from both above (uphole) and below (downhole).

Electrically-actuated resettable downhole anchor and/or packer, and method of setting, releasing, and resetting


The movable portion of the first terminal of the first connector is formed to be larger in the width direction than in the thickness direction, so as to be elastically deformed in the front-back direction of the connector, and the movable portion of the second terminal of the second connector is formed to be larger in the thickness direction than in the width direction, so as to be elastically deformed in the width direction of the connector. Therefore, the movable portions can be formed with an increased cross-sectional area, thereby enabling the allowable current of the terminals to be increased, unlike a configuration in which the movable portion is elastically deformable to a sufficient extent both in the front-back direction and in the width direction of the connector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector used for connecting, for example, a pair of printed substrates to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Connector units are thus far known that include a first connector attached to one of a pair of substrates disposed such that respective surfaces oppose each other, and a second connector attached to the other substrate, the first connector and the second connector being configured to be fitted together to connect the substrates, for example as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-18785.
One of the connectors includes a fixed housing to be fixed to the substrate, a movable housing disposed to move relative to the fixed housing in a front-back direction and a width direction of the connector, and a plurality of terminals each having an end portion retained by the movable housing and the other end portion retained by the fixed housing. The movable housing is displaced relative to the fixed housing by elastic deformation of a movable portion provided between the end portions of each of the terminals, so as to absorb a positional shift between the substrates arising from vibration or impact.
With the mentioned connector unit, the positional shift between the substrates takes place in the front-back direction and the width direction of the connector, however only the terminals of one of the connectors are elastically deformable so as to allow the movable housing to be displaced. Accordingly, the movable portion of the terminal has to be elastically deformed by a sufficient amount in both the front-back direction and the width direction of the connector. Therefore, the movable portion in the terminal of one of the connectors is formed in a shape having a generally square cross section and with a small cross-sectional area. Such a configuration impedes an increase in allowable current of the terminal, thus making it difficult to employ the connector for large-current devices.
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the foregoing drawback, and provides a connector that enables the allowable current of a terminal to be increased, despite the connector being configured to move in a front-back direction and a width direction relative to a mating connector.


The present disclosure relates to a light emitting diode packaging structure and the method of manufacturing the same. The light emitting diode packaging structure has an insulating substrate with through holes formed on each side of the upper surface thereof, the through hole being filled with conductive metal. Additionally, a n-type layer, an active layer, a p-type layer, an insulating layer and a p-type electrode are formed on the insulating substrate. The structure further may include a n-type electrode provided on a side of the upper surface of the n-type layer; a first back electrode provided at one side of the back surface of the insulating substrate; a second back electrode provided at the other side of back surface of the insulating substrate; and an optical element packaged on the base substrate.

The conventional process for manufacturing a light emitting diode (LED) generally consists of three main steps including material epitaxy, chip technology and chip package. The basic function of semiconductor device package is to connect a chip electrode of a microsize chip to a relative big electrode structure so as to obtain facility for usage.
The packaging process for manufacturing a light emitting diode generally involves using a type of substrate or package or lead frame, bonding the light emitting diode chip on the substrate or package or lead frame in one way, and then connecting an electrode on the upper portion of the chip to a corresponding electrode of the substrate or package or lead frame by a ball bonding, so as to achieve electrical connection. Finally, a transparent package material is applied to the substrate or package or lead frame to finish an encapsulation or coverage in certain way, in which the transparent material is sometime formed to a certain shape in the macroscopic level to improve light extraction efficiency. Alternatively, a corresponding fluorescent material may be used for packaging or covering the chip, to achieve a certain application. As for this aspect, various package types and special functions thereof are respectively described in patents NO. US2010267174A1, US2005151142A1, CN201081157Y, CN201074776Y, US2008089064A1, CN201074776Y, CN101222012A, CN101409266A, CN10137137B, CN101060116B and EP2270889A2. As the development of the semiconductor technology, the proportion of material epitaxy and chip technology in cost to all the manufacture process of the light emitting diode decreases while the expense of package step is hard to be minished due to material expense, relative more steps and lower technological level. Therefore, it tends to develop integration and miniaturization of light emitting diode device. Currently, some wafer level packaging methods of light emitting diode device are disclosed to use a type of wafer (e.g., silicon wafer, ceramic plate, etc.) for substrate supporting the light emitting diode, such as, a packaging pattern of light emitting diode on an AlN substrate, originated from VisEra Technoloty. A type of chip scale packaging of light emitting diode (e.g., ZL200610108560.4 filed by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Incorporated, and US20100163907A1 filed by China's Taiwan crystal aureole electric Co. LTD) is also disclosed. However, the disclosed methods of packaging still troublesomely involve times of transfer of a wafer or a plurality of wafers and thus relative material expense and many process steps. The current most of light emitting diodes are packaged by the methods mentioned above.

Packaging structure of light emitting diode and method of manufacturing the same

Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences


Disclosed herein are various compositions comprising neoplastic formulations and their methods of use.

Liposome formulations of chemotherapeutic agents, like vincristine, may provide significant anti-cancer clinical benefit over their non-encapsulated forms. Pharmaceutical nanoparticle formulations may allow extended drug retention in vivo, longer pharmacokinetic half-lives, and increased accumulation at tumor sites, which may translate into improved clinical outcomes. These characteristics may be particularly attractive for cell cycle specific drugs like Vincristine, which disrupts tubulin binding during cell mitosis. The dramatic liposomal derived advantage is highlighted in the ability to potentially administer Vincristine Sulfate Liposome Injection (VSLI) without a dose cap and may even allow dose intensification. Whereas non-encapsulated vincristine may be prescribed with a dose cap to avoid serious dose limiting neuropathogical toxicities.
The efficacy of the liposomal formulation seems to lie in the ability of the liposome to retain the therapeutic agent and maintain the chemical stability of the active agent. It is thought that when liposomes composed of sphingomyelin-cholesterol are used, as in VSLI, these hydrolysis resistant liposomes allow therapeutically meaningful drug retention times. However, the chemical instability of vincristine can limit the shelf-life stability of VSLI. Stability studies for Marqibo® seem to show that VSLI degradation occurred within 24 hours of constitution at room temperature. The current approved FDA label calls for administration within 24 hrs following constitution. As a result of the long term stability limitations seen with VSLI, it is prepared in the pharmacy just prior to administration.
As a result of the inability to achieve a nominally stable ready-to-use formulation, Vincristine Sulfate Liposomes Injection (0.16 mg/mL) (VSLI) is constituted at the pharmacy from three drug product components supplied as part of the Marqibo® Kit. The three drug product components are Vincristine Sulfate Injection, USP, (VSI), Sphingomyelin Cholesterol Liposome Injection (SCLI), and Sodium Phosphate Injection (SPI). The three component kit was selected as a way to provide a presentation with a shelf life suitable for at least 24 months. The Kit's stability may be governed by the Kit component with the shortest expiry dating at 2-8° C., e.g., vincristine sulfate injection.
It may therefore be desirable to develop a ready-to-use formulation to avoid the need for multi-step compounding at the pharmacy; this would enhance the ease of Marqibo administration, and eliminate the need to procure ancillary equipment, e.g., constitution water bath, and minimize the potential for medicament preparation errors. The product's stability is limited by the degradation of vincristine, principally the formation of N-desformylvincristine (NFV). This appears to be the largest single degradent of VSLI and also VSI, the component of the Marqibo Kit. The increase of this impurity over time leads to both the Marqibo Kit and VSI having an expiration date of 24 months.
Vincristine is a dimeric indoledihydroindole compound isolated from the leaves of the plant Vinca rosea. The alkaloid is composed of a N-desmethyl-N-formyl-vindoline moiety bridged to a velbanamine species. It seems to be most stable in its salt form. Salts are easily prepared by adding a theoretical amount of acid to a solution of the alkaloid freebase, however as noted above even vincristine salts have limited stability; 24 months at 4° C. N-deformylation of vincristine sulfate is the prominent degradation pathway of vincristine. The N-formamide is positioned on the N1 nitrogen of a strained vindoline heterocycle and likely distends the amide's carbonyl function into a position vulnerable to either nucleophilic attack or hydrolysis. Other minor degradation pathways include hydrolytic transformations of vincristine such as 4-deacetylation or loss of the methyl ester at 18′ followed by decarboxylation.
This lability of vincristine has hampered the development of stable unencapsulated vincristine formulations going back to the VSI USP innovator, Eli Lilly. Lilly sought to develop a freeze dried or lyophilized formulation of vincristine sulfate injection. Vincristine degradation appears to have led to the abandonment of these presentations in favor of a ready-to-use solution containing vincristine sulfate. Vincristine is sensitive to thermal, acid, and photo stress which leads to degradation to the N-desformylvincristine species as well as other related substance impurities. Air oxidation may be a contributor and it has been shown that heat sterilization is not compatible with VSLI or VSI, due to the formation of degradation impurities.
The structural complexity of vincristine and the dimmer's often unpredictable chemical sensitivity has been a bane for the use of common types of excipients typically for pharmaceutical formulations. Eli Lilly scientists noted in their formulation development of VSI the presence of chloride ion should be minimized since it could have "deleterious effects on oncolytic vinca dimers". Deleterious efforts of chloride ions in drug formulations are rare. Sodium chloride is extensively used in pharmaceutical formulations to provide desired isotonic properties. One report claims Doxorubicin and Vincristine both degrade rapidly in 0.45% aqueous sodium chloride and Ringers admixtures at 25° C. to 37° C. The chloride ion has also been implicated in the instability of Thimerosal, an antifungal, in ophthalmic formulations containing sodium chloride as an isotonic agent. These observations highlight the unique and extreme chemical sensitivity of vincristine.
The failure to find a ready-to-use formulation for Marqibo® capable of extended storage resulted in a search for an alternative way to administer VSLI leading to the development of the three vial kit. The three vial constitution process for administration of Marqibo® (with constitution at a pharmacy) received marketing approval from the FDA in August 2012.
Development of a ready-to-use presentation would be a significant improvement for Marqibo® administration. Studies were proposed by Inex, Marqibo innovator, to improve the stability of the VSLI formulation which used lyophilization, ionophore loading, and/or manganese or magnesium sulfate liposome loading platforms. These suggestions were based on using second generation encapsulation methods that were alleged to be milder or electroneutral toward the liposome compared to the pH gradient method. However, no stable ready-to-use formulation was ever achieved during the development of Marqibo. There continues to be a need for a ready-to-use formulation of VSLI.

Ready-to-use formulation for Vincristine Sulfate Liposome Injection


A pre-bias optical proximity correction (OPC) method allows faster convergence during OPC iterations, providing an initial set of conditions to edge fragments of a layout based on density conditions near the edge fragments.

In photolithography, a design is transferred onto a surface of a wafer by exposing and selectively etching a pattern of features onto a photo-sensitive material. Although advanced photolithography techniques routinely fit millions of circuit components onto a single chip, the wavelength of the exposing light is too long to produce undistorted layout replicas. OPC (Optical Proximity Correction, or sometimes Optical and Process Correction when effects other than proximity effects are included as well) is a technique that is used to adjust the mask features so that the transferred pattern will be a sufficiently accurate replica of the intended target.
OPC is a computationally expensive calculation that typically requires an iterative calculation of optical, resist, and etch effects. Typically, a figure of merit, such as edge placement error (EPE), is used in conjunction with a feedback factor to adjust the position of the mask edges for the next iteration. Ideally, each iteration improves the result, and the process continues until the EPE of each edge is near zero.
Since each iteration is a time consuming calculation, it is common to use a rule-based approach to provide an initial correction for edges in the layout. This improves the image quality and provides an approximation of the desired result, which normally reduces the number of model-based iterations required.
The rule-based modifications are typically expressed as tables, which characterize each feature of interest by its width and space (to the closest neighbor). While this method has proven to be sufficient for 90 nm processes and larger, it becomes very complex as feature sizes decrease and is no longer practical for advanced device fabrication. For that reason, there is a need for a technique of providing an improved initial set of conditions to a desired layout.


The present invention relates to a cosmetics case including a cover having a lock protrusion and a hinge protrusion; a base case to which the cover is pivotally connected; an intermediate case installed in the base case and in which a button and a spring are installed; a powder case receiving solid powder therein, installed in the intermediate case and supported by the spring; and a grinding member rotatably installed in a coupling groove of the intermediate case to grind the surface of the solid powder received in the powder case. The present invention provides the cosmetics case capable of rotating in both directions, in which rotation in one direction permits grinding of the solid powder and rotation in the other direction permits pressing down of the surface of the solid powder, thereby preventing the ground powder from being discharged outwards, and after use, the cover is closed to prevent impurities from being put into the solid powder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cosmetics case for grinding solid powder, and in particular, to a cosmetics case with which a user grinds and uses a desired amount of solid powder, and, after using the powder, closes a cover to prevent the ground powder from being discharged outwards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, cosmetics containers, for example a powder case, are variously developed according to their structures such as a type and opening and closing methods of a cover. Most women carrying facial powder in their handbags or bags take out and use the powder for beauty at a proper time.
Therefore, most consumers demand cosmetics containers to be compact, and to be convenient to carry and use. To meet the demands, manufacturers try to produce cosmetics containers that are convenient to use.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional cosmetics case for grinding solid powder, and FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of the cosmetics case of FIG. 1 in a coupled state.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional cosmetics case 100 for grinding solid powder and discharging the ground powder includes a lower body 103 having a lock protrusion 102 formed along an outer periphery thereof; a molded member 105 inserted into the lower body 103, being vertically movable and having a guide protrusion 104 formed along an outer periphery thereof; a reservoir 106 inserted into and fixed to the molded member 105 for receiving solid powder; a stop member 108 formed of a circular ring, having a protrusion fixing element 107 formed along an upper portion of an inner periphery thereof and having an one direction-oriented saw 101 formed along a lower portion of the inner periphery thereof; a rotatable cutting member 110 located above the solid powder and having a plurality of cutting grooves 109 formed on the bottom thereof; a rotatable member 111 rotatably fixing the rotatable cutting member 110 to the lower body 103; and a spring 112 to be fixed between the molded member 105 and the lower body 103.
The conventional cosmetics case 100 includes the above-described seven components, and the lower body 103 is formed of a double structure, thereby increasing production costs because many processes are required to produce the cosmetics case 100.
Further, when a user uses the cosmetics case 100, noise is generated due to click caused at a specified interval when rotating the cosmetics case 100.
The conventional cosmetics case 100 has the rotatable cutting member 110 that can not be rotated in the opposite direction of a direction for grinding powder after grinding the powder, and thus does not have a function of pressing down the ground powder.
The conventional cosmetics case 100 is open at its upper end, and thus the ground powder tends to be discharged outwards when a user carries the cosmetics case 100, for example in a handbag.
Further, the conventional cosmetics case 100 maintains an open state, and thus the ground powder is stained with impurities. In the case that a user uses the stained powder without knowing it, the user should remove her makeup and apply a new makeup.
The user is reluctant to use the powder stained with impurities, and thus throws away the stained powder, thereby causing an unnecessary waste.


A distributed voice recognition system (500) and method employs principles of bottom-up (i.e., raw input) and top-down (i.e., prediction based on past experience) processing to perform client-side and server-side processing by (i) at the client-side, replacing application data by a phonotactic table (504); (ii) at the server-side, tracking separate confidence scores for matches against an acoustic model and comparison to a grammar; and (iii) at the server-side using a contention resolver (514) to weight the client-side and server-side results to establish a single output which represents the collaboration between client-side processing and server-side processing.

In the field of this invention it is known that ASR can be improved by adapting the recognition engine to the specific user (speaker dependent recognition) and to the device used by the user for audio input. It is also known that for general-purpose applications, the preferred implementation involves non-user specific modelling (speaker independent recognition) and a remote server, which does not negotiate or otherwise interact with specifics of the local device.
From patent publication WO-02-103675 there is known a client-server based Distributed Speech Recognition (DSR) system which recognises speech made by a human at a client device and transmitted to a remote server over a network. The system distributes the speech recognition process between the client and the server so that a speaker-dependent language model may be utilized yielding higher accuracy as compared to other DSR systems. Accordingly, the client device is configured to generate a phonetic word graph by performing acoustic recognition using an acoustic model that is trained by the same end-user whose speech is to be recognized; the resulting phonetic word graph is transmitted to the server which handles the language processing and generates a recognized word sequence. However, these approaches have disadvantages. The speaker dependent recognition loses the general applicability of speaker independent recognition, since it will not perform as well for speakers other than the one for which it is trained. Also the speaker independent recognition, especially in a hostile environment such as noisy telephone lines, can show decreased accuracy since it fails to capitalise on the characteristics of the specific device and speaker.
A need therefore exists for distributed voice recognition system and method wherein the above-mentioned disadvantage(s) may be alleviated.

Distributed voice recognition system and method


The present invention is an automated sealant applicator held by a gantry tool and is computer directed and controlled for performing sealant operations on workpieces. The automated sealant applicator is computer directed and controlled for moving around a workpiece and for applying controlled amounts of sealants along precise paths, and with desired sealant patterns. The amount, path, and pattern of sealant are derived from engineering data. A CCD advanced vision system and/or a cutter chuck with a positioning and locating system can be used to precisely locate and apply sealant to the workpiece.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automated sealant applicators in general, and in particular to machine held, computer directed and controlled dispensers for performing sealant operations on workpieces.
2. Related Art
Sealant operations on workpieces are critical to ensure proper manufacture and stability of products to be assembled. One sealant operation typically includes the application of a sealing compound to a surface of a workpiece prior to final assembly or mating with another part. The sealant acts like a gasket and a corrosion barrier. Another type of sealing operation is filling or "taking up" mismatches between detail or mating parts.
Currently, the sealant is applied manually by an operator, for example with a manual pneumatically actuated applicator or handheld "sealant gun" comprised of a tube with liquid adhesive. The adhesive can be either pre-mixed or mixed as it is dispensed. The pneumatic actuation pushes the liquid adhesive from the tube. Yet other types of manual "guns" do not use pneumatic force, but instead use the physical force of a ram piston operated manually by a human.
During sealant operations, the operator first must resolve the predetermined location that the sealant is to be applied at. Then the operator has to manually dispense the sealant along a predetermined path, with a predetermined pattern, or in a crevice or mismatch with a predetermined amount of sealant with the manual sealant gun. The application of material is entirely operator dependent. Experienced operators are needed to estimate the amount of material to put on, but the amount is still not precisely measured. As such, since this process is subject to human manual interpretation, there is great room for error and inefficiency. This is because the operator can only "feel and guesstimate" the amount of sealant to dispense.
In addition, the pattern of sealant applied will never be a "true" pattern since it is subject to unsteady hands of human application. Also, typically, the operator errs to over dispense and not underdispense to ensure sufficient coverage of the adhesive. As a result, most workpieces have more sealant than is necessary. This creates enormous waste of the sealant, which is usually a very expensive resin. Thus, manual application of sealants to workpieces, such as for aircraft skins, is a time consuming, inaccurate, and wasteful process.
Therefore, what is needed is a device that eliminates the need for manual sealant operations. What is also needed is an automated device for dispensing a precise amount of sealant to reduce waste while still conforming to required engineering specifications. What is additionally needed is an automated device with an advanced vision system for accurately locating a workpiece and dispensing sealant at desired locations on that workpiece.
Whatever the merits of the above mentioned systems and methods, they do not achieve the benefits of the present invention.


An integrated gas strut actuator strut assembly particularly adapted for providing power actuation of a motor vehicle lift gate or other opening closure. The system integrates the function of a counterbalancing gas spring and that of a electrically powered actuator. The system incorporates a strut assembly including a gas charged cylinder, and internal plunger and a threaded rod. Rotation of the threaded rod through a cable drive system causes the internal plunger to be advanced or retracted within the cylinder. Another feature of the invention are various embodiments of couplers between the gas cylinder plunger and rod and connectors for the assembly to the vehicle.

This invention relates to an assembly for controlling the motion of a body closure panel, such as found in motor vehicles. More particularly, this invention relates to an integrated gas spring and actuator assembly, which in one embodiment, is especially adapted for rear hatch doors of motor vehicles.
Motor vehicles have closure panels to allow ingress and egress from the vehicle, to provide access to vehicle compartments for the movement of cargo and passengers, and for servicing the vehicle. Certain types of motor vehicles, for example, sport utility vehicles and mini vans frequently include a large rear hatch or lift gate. These panels can be quite large and include the backline glass. Some of these panels span the entire height and width of the rear area of the vehicle. In order to reduce effort for the opening and closing of these panels, counterbalancing springs are used. The current predominant form of counterbalancing springs are so-called gas springs or gas struts which are gas filled cylinders, typically attached to the left and right-hand sides of the panel opening, with their ends attached to the vehicle body and door. In addition to counterbalancing the weight of the door to ease opening and closing, gas spring devices further incorporate internal damping to control the rate at which the doors open and close. Gas spring struts are also found in other body closure panels, such as the hoods covering the vehicle engine compartment.
A recent innovation to improve the convenience of use of hatch doors, is a provision of remote electric powered actuators. The system allows the vehicle operator to open and close the hatch panel, simply by controlling an electrical switch. One type of electric actuator incorporates an electric motor, gear reducer and cable connected with an actuator strut. The actuator strut includes an internal threaded rod and nut, and rotation of the lead screw causes the nut to move along the length of the lead screw which is coupled to the door for controlling its motion. These power actuators perform well and are valued features in motor vehicles. An example of such a system is provided with reference to U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,567 which is owned by the assignee of this invention and is hereby incorporated by reference.
Motor vehicle components suppliers are constantly striving to improve their products. With respect to the system described by the previously noted U.S. Pat. No. 6,516,567, the motor vehicle lift gate incorporates three strut devices, including gas spring struts on both the left and right-hand side of the vehicle opening, with the actuator strut positioned on one side of the opening. This invention provides a device which combines the functions of a gas spring strut with a power actuator. This approach eliminates one component from the rear hatch opening of the vehicle. In addition to the esthetic improvements, this integration further reduces the number of components required for the vehicle.

Integrated spring actuator strut assembly