A formed exfoliated graphite article which comprises an oxidation-resistant coating layer formed at least in the surface layer portion thereof, preferably wherein the oxidation-resistant coating layer contains a boron element and a phosphorus element, the content of a boron element in the oxidation-resistant coating layer is 1 mass % or more, the content of a phosphorus in the oxidation-resistant coating layer is 0.1 mass % or more, and the oxidation-resistant coating layer is formed in a thickness of 0.5 μm or more.

A shaped expanded graphite article is produced through the steps of: treating a graphite material such as natural graphite, kish graphite, pyrolytic graphite, etc., with a strong oxidant or the like such as concentrated sulfuric acid, concentrated nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, etc., to thereby form a graphite interlayer compound; rapidly heating the graphite material (i.e., oxidized graphite material), which includes therein the graphite interlayer compound, at a high temperature of, e.g., 950 degrees C. or higher for 1-10 seconds, so as to generate pyrolysis gas whose gas pressure is used to expand a space between graphite layers and to form expanded graphite particles; and compression-forming or roll-forming the expanded graphite particles with or without using a binder. The shaped expanded graphite article produced in the above-described manner has various excellent properties, and is used as heat insulating materials, cushioning materials, and the like. An expanded graphite sheet obtained by forming the expanded graphite into a sheet shape using a roll, etc., is also widely used as gaskets, packings, sealings, and the like.
Recent years see a rapidly increasing need for general industrial equipment used at a high temperature such as gaskets used in automobiles or industrial packings used in oil plants and the like. The packings for general industries and the gaskets for automobiles are used in the air (i.e., in an oxygen-containing atmosphere) and at the same time used at a high temperature of 600 degrees C. or higher. Accordingly, it is required that a shaped expanded graphite article used for such packings and gaskets has a sheet form and suffers little oxidation loss.
According to a technique proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-15046 possessed by the present applicant, an expanded graphite sheet contains a boron component derived from a borate ester in order to obtain improved oxidation resistance. However, when this expanded graphite sheet was tried out as a gasket and a packing, there arose a problem that the boron component decomposed and scattered at a high temperature.
The present applicant has also proposed producing an oxidation-resistant expanded graphite sheet that contains phosphorus pentoxide and phosphate (in International Publication WO01/05703A1). The expanded graphite sheet proposed therein incurs no problem when used in the air at 600 degrees C. However, in a higher temperature range, e.g., at 650 degrees C. or higher, a rate of its oxidation loss is rapidly increased because a larger amount of carbon combines with oxygen contained in the air. Thus, there has been a problem that such an expanded graphite sheet can never be used at 750 degrees C. or higher.
An object of the present invention is to provide a shaped expanded graphite article that suffers little oxidation loss even at a high temperature in an oxygen-containing atmosphere, and also to provide a method for producing such a shaped expanded graphite article.

Shaped expanded graphite article and method for producing the same


A boot for a hydraulic, hydropneumatic or pneumatic piston-cylinder unit, in particular for vibration dampers or spring struts for vehicles, covers a portion of a piston rod that projects from the cylinder of the piston-cylinder unit. To protect against dirt and/or damage, the boot is arranged between the end of the piston rod and the cylinder. The interior space of the boot undergoes a change in volume due to the relative movement of the piston rod and cylinder with respect to one another. At least one flow connection is provided which leads to the interior space of the boot and allows for air flow in and/or out of the interior space. The at least one flow connection is at least partly covered by an area of the boot.

The present invention is directed to a bellows or boot for hydraulic, hydropneumatic or pneumatic piston-cylinder units, and particularly for vibration dampers or spring struts for vehicles, wherein the boot covers the portion of the piston rod that projects from the cylinder to protect against dirt and/or damage and is arranged between the end of the piston rod and the cylinder, the interior space of the boot undergoes a change in volume due to the relative movement of the parts with respect to one another, and at least one flow connection is provided which leads to the interior space of the boot and allows air to flow in and/or out.
Boots for piston-cylinder units in which a vibration damper or a spring strut is provided with a boot for protecting against dirt and/or damage are already known from German patent document DE 102 00 608 A1. Due to the relative movement between the piston rod and the cylinder, the interior space of the boot undergoes a change in volume, for which purpose an opening leading to the interior space of the boot is provided so that air can flow in and out. The air inlet and air outlet generate an air flow by which water or dirt particles that have penetrated via an outlet valve are conveyed back into the atmosphere.
Austrian patent document OE 324 144 further discloses a boot with openings for venting the interior space, the openings on the piston rod side are covered by a packing to protect against water and dirt particles. The packing is a component part of the boot and, if necessary, a ring-shaped filter adapted to the space can be introduced between the openings and the packing. This construction has the disadvantage that water and dirt particles, even in small amounts, can enter the interior of the boot and remain there owing to the lack of an outlet opening. As a result, the piston rod and the guide component are highly susceptible to corrosion, which can ultimately lead to failure of the piston-cylinder unit.

Boot for hydraulic, hydropneumatic or pneumatic piston-cylinder units


A liquid crystal display may have a layer of liquid crystal material. The display may have an array of display pixel circuits. The display pixel circuits may each include a display pixel electrode that applies electric fields to a corresponding portion of the liquid crystal material. Thin-film transistor circuitry and other structures in the display pixels may control operation of the display pixels circuits. The thin-film transistor circuitry may be configured to handle operation of the display at multiple refresh rates. To accommodate multiple refresh rates, each pixel circuit may include a pair of transistors. A first transistor is used to apply data signals from a data line to the display pixel electrode. A storage capacitor is used to maintain the data signal on the electrode. The second transistor may be used to adjust the capacitance of the storage capacitor depending on the refresh rate of the display.

This relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to electronic devices with displays.
Electronic devices often include displays. For example, cellular telephones and portable computers often include displays for presenting information to a user.
Liquid crystal displays contain a layer of liquid crystal material. Display pixels in a liquid crystal display contain thin-film transistors and electrodes for applying electric fields to the liquid crystal material. The strength of the electric field in a display pixel controls the polarization state of the liquid crystal material and thereby adjusts the brightness of the display pixel.
Substrate layers such as color filter layers and thin-film transistor layers are used in liquid crystal displays. In an assembled display, the layer of liquid crystal material is sandwiched between the thin-film transistor layer and the color filter layer.
The color filter layer contains an array of color filter elements such as red, blue, and green elements. The color filter layer provides the display with the ability to display color images.
The thin-film transistor layer contains an array of thin-film transistors that are used in controlling electric fields in the liquid crystal layer. An array of pixels is used to display images on the display. Each pixel contains a display pixel electrode and thin-film transistor circuitry for controlling the electric field that is produced in the liquid crystal layer by the electrode. The circuitry of each pixel contains a capacitor that is used to store data between successive image frames.
The array of pixels is loaded with data using vertical data lines. Horizontal control lines called gate lines are used in controlling the circuitry of the pixels in the array, so that pixels display the data provided on the data lines. With a typical arrangement, each gate line is associated with a respective row of pixels. A frame of image data may be displayed by asserting each of the gate lines in the display in sequence, so that rows of data can be loaded into the display pixels from the data lines.
Displays may be operated with a fixed refresh rate or a variable refresh rate. In a fixed refresh rate scheme, image frames are displayed at a fixed rate. The capacitors in the display pixels are used to store data on the pixels between frames. Leakage currents in the pixel circuits such as transistor leakage currents cause the data voltages on the pixel electrodes to decay. By sizing the capacitors in the display pixels appropriately for the known fixed refresh rate of the display, data voltage decay can be limited to a suitably small amount.
In variable refresh rate displays, the rate at which frames of data may be displayed on the display can be reduced when a rapid refresh rate is temporarily not needed. For example, when the only content that is being displayed on the display is static content, the refresh rate of the display can be reduced without changing the visual appearance of the display. Less power is consumed by a display when its refresh rate is lowered, so the use of variable refresh rate schemes allows an electronic device to reduce the display refresh rate whenever possible to conserve power.
Care must be taken, however, when sizing the capacitors in the display pixels of a variable refresh rate display. The slow refresh times that are required to support operation of a variable refresh rate display at low refresh rates may require the use of relatively large storage capacitances in the display pixels. If storage capacitances are too large, however, it may be difficult to load data into the display pixels effectively when the display is operated at a high refresh rate.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved pixel circuits for variable refresh rate displays.

Display having pixel circuits with adjustable storage capacitors


Batteries and battery monitoring and charging systems. The preferred battery has a plurality of rechargeable cells connected in series, first and second power terminals, each connected to a respective end of the series connection of rechargeable cells, a first connector for connecting to a battery charger, the first connector having connector contacts connected to each of the plurality of rechargeable cells, the first connector also having connector contacts coupled to a serial communication link, and a processor coupled to sense the voltage of each rechargeable cell and control the serial communication link for communication of rechargeable cell voltages when a charger is connected to the first connector. The charger communicates with the battery over the serial communication link to monitor cell temperature, and to charge each cell individually in a controlled manner. Various features and capabilities are disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of battery powered vehicles.
2. Prior Art
Battery powered vehicles of various sizes and designs are well known in the prior art. Of particular interest to the present invention are the smaller vehicles wherein the battery may be recharged in the vehicle or removed for recharging while another battery is placed in the vehicle so that the vehicle may be used while recharging occurs. One such vehicle is the three-wheeled vehicle shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b. This vehicle is manufactured by T3 Motion, Inc., assignee of the present invention.
In small electric powered vehicles using a removable rechargeable battery, the battery typically is recharged through its power output terminals, whether in the vehicle or removed from the vehicle for recharging. This provides a simple and low cost way of recharging such batteries, though has certain disadvantages. First, the power output terminals of the battery must be readily accessible, creating a possible safety hazard on the inadvertent shorting of those power terminals. Also batteries typically are comprised of multiple cells connected in series, so that individual cells cannot be monitored through its power output terminals. Accordingly, the general health of the battery, its rate of self discharge, etc. can only be monitored on an overall battery basis.


MOS imaging pixels are described. The MOS imaging pixels may comprise bootstrapped source followers, having their bodies connected to their sources. The source followers of the MOS imaging pixels may be used to buffer a signal indicative of an amount of radiation incident on the pixel. MOS imagers are also described, which may comprise one or more MOS imaging pixels of the type described.

1. Field
The technology described herein relates to image detection apparatus and methods, such as metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) imagers and pixels.
2. Related Art
Conventional MOS imagers are known, and have a structure like that shown in FIG. 1. The imager 100 includes a focal plane array 101 formed by multiple pixels 102 arranged in rows and columns. The focal plane array 101 includes N rows and M columns of pixels 102. Each pixel 102 includes a photodetector which detects incident radiation in the visible spectrum and produces an output signal representative of the amount of incident radiation. The output signals of the pixels are provided to an image signal processor 104, which processes them to produce an image. The output signals of pixels 102 are provided serially to the image signal processor 104 under control of row multiplexer circuitry 106 and column multiplexer circuitry 108.
In a MOS imager, the pixels 102 are implemented using MOS technology. FIG. 2 illustrates a circuit schematic of one such pixel. The pixel 102 includes a photodetector 202, and additional circuitry to condition and control readout of the photodetector output to column line 204 as the output of pixel 102. The photodetector 202 is a photodiode, and is operated in a reverse-biased mode, having one terminal grounded and the other terminal connected to a positive rail Vdd by a precharge transistor 206. The precharge transistor 206 is an n-channel MOS field effect transistor (MOSFET), having its body grounded. The drain of precharge transistor 206 is connected to the positive rail Vdd and the source is connected to the photodetector 202.
As mentioned, the output of the pixel 102 is provided to the column line 204. Pixel 102 is one of multiple pixels in the focal plane array 101, with each pixel 102 in a column sharing a single column line 204 for providing their output signals. The output signal of photodetector 202 is not provided directly to column line 204, but rather it is buffered by a source follower 208, which is an n-channel MOSFET having its body grounded, and its gate connected to the photodetector 202.
The pixels of the focal plane array are read out by row, with each pixel providing its output to its respective column line. A row select signal is applied to all the pixels of the row when the output signals of the pixels of that row are to be read out. A row select transistor 210 in the pixel 102 is turned on by the row select signal, connecting source follower 208 to column line 204. A load (not shown) on the column line 204 causes the source follower 208 to operate as a source follower, with the voltage at its source roughly tracking the voltage at its gate.


In an environment which produces images as a function of the combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black color components on an output print, there is provided a method that 1) increases area coverage of a color that is below the threshold of development stability and 2) removes the very low area coverage color and replace it with black.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a method for improving the effective total area coverage in a marking process, such as printing, photocopying or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
It is obviously desired to reproduce color images such that the colors in the copy exactly, or at least closely, match the corresponding colors in the original image. Since image input and output devices are often quite different, reproducing an accurate color image often requires some form of color conversion to be applied to the image data before it is output. Systems and methods for converting original input device dependent image signals to output device dependent image signals are known to those skilled in the art. U.S. patents which address such techniques include U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,604 to Kivolowitz et al., issued Dec. 31, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,126 to Pochieh, issued Feb. 11, 1992; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,386 to Rolleston et al., issued Jun. 8, 1996, each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. To one extent or another, each of these prior art systems and methods generally involve applying the input device dependent signals (e.g., RGB) to one or another systems of look-up tables by which they are converted to printer or other output device dependent signals (e.g., CMY or CMYK).
Full color revision in digital images is an image processing operation which typically takes place in two steps. First, each pixel in the image is corrected from 3-D input device dependent (e.g., RGB) or device independent (e.g., YCrCb, R′G′B′, XYZ, or L*a*b*) color space to a 3-D output device dependent color space (e.g., R″G″B″ or CMY). Next, a conversion to CMYK takes place, which may include under-color removal (UCR), gray-component replacement (GCR) and linearization processes. Typically, the two color revision steps are accomplished in a single operation using a three-dimensional look-up table carrying out three-dimensional interpolation such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,376 to Harrington, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The color revision portion of the process may also be represented as the combination of two phases: a 3-3 color space revision (e.g., RGB to R′G′B′) followed by a device-dependent color space transformation operation (i.e., R′G′B′ to CMYK for four color devices).
GCR is used in the printing industry to reduce the amount of ink or other marking material deposition in a particular area, which enables faster drying times and lower ink usage and cost. In addition, some level of GCR is used to make shadow details more crisp by taking away some of the cyan, magenta, and yellow in equal amounts and replacing it with black.
In a xerographic technology based printing environment, one component that drives development stability is throughput (i.e., the system or individual component output per unit of time). At high area coverage, the marking system becomes unstable due to inadequate admix time of the developer components. At very low area coverage, large residence times of the toner or other marking material in the housing impact additives present in toner or other marking material, causing the toner or other marking material to lose its ability to hold a charge. Neither is desirable.
Typical strategies for high area coverage include dead cycles where toner is added together with developer and mixed. Then printing is resumed. This solution results in reduced print speed, which is typically undesirable.
At low area coverage, the typical solution is to produce test patches which are developed on a photoreceptor, typically at inter-document zones, and taken away at a cleaner. This maintains a minimum throughput of a particular color to maintain stability. However, since these patches do not form part of the image, this solution typically results in higher costs because of unused toner that is thrown away to keep the marking system stable.

Gray component replacement as part of marking process control algorithm


There are provided a center pillar, a roof side rail connected to an upper end portion of the center pillar and having a closed cross section extending in a vehicle longitudinal direction, and a synthetic resin-made reinforcing member provided inside the roof side rail at a position near an upper end portion of the center pillar. The roof side rail comprises a roof rail inner having a protrusion portion and a roof rail outer forming the closed cross section together with the roof rail inner. The reinforcing member is provided to have a gap from the roof rail outer and integrally joined to an outward face, in a vehicle width direction, of the roof rail inner which is roughened by an anchor effect.

The present invention relates to an upper vehicle-body structure of a vehicle, and particularly relates to the upper vehicle-body structure of the vehicle comprising a synthetic resin-made reinforcing member provided inside a roof side rail.
A structure of the vehicle in which the reinforcing member for improving the vehicle-body rigidity is provided in a closed cross section of a frame is known because the vehicle requires the collision safety, the maneuverability and stability, and the silence.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-191947 discloses an upper vehicle-body structure which comprises a hard synthetic resin-made first reinforcing member which is provided inside a center pillar and a hard synthetic resin-made second reinforcing member which is provided inside a roof side portion for the purpose of increasing the strength against a vehicle side collision.
In the upper vehicle-body structure of the above-described patent document, the first and second reinforcing members are fixed to specified positions inside the respective frames by filling foamable resin. However, this structure has the following problems. First, it cannot be confirmed in manufacturing whether or not the reinforcing members and respective inside faces of the frames are joined together by the foamable resin without any gap formed therebetween. Secondly, when the frames are deformed by an external force, adhesion portions with the foamable resin are destroyed in an early stage and thereby separate moves of the frames and the reinforcing members are allowed, so that the performance of the reinforcing members for suppressing deformation of frame sections cannot be obtained as expected. Thirdly, the foaming agent blocks smooth flowing of electrodeposition liquid inside the frames, so that rusting is induced on an inner face of the frames.


A rack for housing dosimeters includes a plurality of blocks having a rectangular shape. Each block is provided with a housing space for housing the dosimeter and an entrance opened in a front surface of the block for inserting the dosimeter therethrough. Each block also has at least one of a projection and a concavity formed on at least one of top, bottom, left, and right surfaces to be fitted to each other. Accordingly, it is possible to assemble the plurality of the blocks in at least one of vertical and horizontal directions by fitting the projection and the concavity on the blocks.

The present invention relates to a rack and a block for housing and storing dosimeters. The dosimeter is a portable device carried by a worker entering into a restricted radiation area in a nuclear power plant and the like.
A rack for housing dosimeters is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-167055. As shown in FIG. 10, a rack 11 has a rectangular shape, and a large number of entries 15 are arranged in horizontal and vertical directions for inserting the dosimeters. A dosimeter 13 is inserted through the entry and housed in a housing space. Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-332830 has disclosed a rack 19 as shown in FIG. 11, in which a large number of entries 17 are arranged for receiving the dosimeters (not shown).
The conventional racks for housing the dosimeters as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publications (Kokai) No. 2003-167055 and No. 10-332830 have a problem as follows. The number of the dosimeters to be housed in the rack may vary, for example, from 10 to 200 corresponding to the number of the dosimeters for service. Accordingly, the rack needs to have various shapes, for example, horizontally or vertically prolonged shapes, corresponding to a location of installation. As a result, it is necessary to design and manufacture a new rack every time to store the desired number of the dosimeters and the installation location, thereby increasing cost for design and manufacture.
In view of the problem described above, the present invention has been made, and an object of the invention is to provide a block and a rack for housing dosimeters that is suited to the number of dosimeters for service and an installation location of the rack, and that can be manufactured at low cost.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.


A blend that includes (a) a continuous phase comprising isotactic polypropylene and (b) a dispersed phase comprising a poly-(ethylene-alt-propylene)-b-poly(ethylene-ran-ethyl ethylene) diblock copolymer. The amount of diblock copolymer is less than 20 wt % based on the total weight of the blend.

Isotactic polypropylene ("iPP") finds application in a wide variety of products due to its excellent processability and low cost. Examples range from packaging and textile products to components in automobiles and aircraft. However, brittleness at high strain rates and low temperatures hinders is use as a high-performance engineering plastic in some applications. To improve the toughness of iPP, efforts have been made to blend iPP with additives including rigid particles, rubbers, and hybrid core-shell structures, with rubbers being the most effective. High rubber contents on the order of 20 wt % or more are generally required to obtain adequate toughness. However, such high rubber contents reduce both the modulus and strength of the iPP material.

Block copolymer-toughened isotactic polypropylene


A stirring apparatus for solidifying earthen foundations. The apparatus comprises a tubular earth auger stirring rod driven by an earth auger drive shaft. A mixture of earth and hardening agents is shaped into a rectangular cross-sectional mass by an open-ended, four-sided rectangular casing. A plurality of resulting substantially hexahedral-shaped hardened masses comprise the foundation for a building structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention is the art of solidifying earth prior to the erection of a structure thereon.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to adapt an earth auger to stir or to churn in place, rather than to excavate, a cylindrical column of earth. While the earth is being stirred in place, an earth solidifying agent, such as soil cement or cement milk, is mixed with the earth during the stirring process. The mixture of solidifying agent and earth hardens into a cylindrical shaft suitable to serve, together with a multiplicity of similar such cylindrical shafts, as a foundation for a building structure.
Since the cross section of each foundation shaft is circular and most building structures are basically rectangular, the total cross-sectional area of subjacent foundation shafts within the confines of a rectangular building structure base will be less than the cross-sectional area of the base. It has been noted that, on an average, the total cross-sectional area of cylindrical foundation shafts is approximately eighty percent of the cross-sectional area of the building structure base. As a consequence, twenty percent of the building structure is not directly supported by, or in load-bearing contact with, the foundation shafts. To compensate for this foundation bearing support differential, some builders have resorted to sinking additional foundation shafts to extend over an area wider than the building structure to be supported. This is an inefficient method of preparing a foundation.


A double-seat valve has a seat-cleaning function and ensures that the seat-cleaning flow is conducted into and out of the leakage hollow space with as little turbulence as possible. The valve reliably prevents a pressure-increasing direct action upon the seat regions, even in the event that the cross-sectional area of the drain bore is smaller than that of the largest pipeline that can be connected to the valve. This is achieved in that a region of extension of the deflection surface that faces away from the radially outer end of the deflection surface delimits the remaining region of the opening in its entirety and opens out from the second closing element at an end-face and radially inner end of the second closing element, facing the first closing element.

A double-seat valve with a seat-cleaning function is known from WO 2007/054131 A1 or WO 2007/054134 A1 and US 2009/0008594 A1 or respectively US 2009/0044874 A1 belonging to respective patent families.
In the double-seat valve of the initially named patent family, the independently driven—in relation to a perpendicular normal position—lower closing element, called the first closing element below, comes to rest in a sealing manner in the course of its opening movement on the dependently driven, upper closing element, called the second closing element below, via a middle seal acting between the two closing elements and also transfers the latter to an open position during the further opening movement.
In the double-seat valve of the secondly named patent family, the second closing element has on its end facing the first closing element an opening with a cylindrical circumferential wall, which is flush with a first cylindrical seating assigned to the first closing element, wherein the opening is dimensioned to receive, in a sealing manner during the opening movement, a first end section and a radial first seal of the first closing element before the second closing element opens.
In the double-seat valve of these respective patent families, the first closing element is always designed as a pusher piston with a radially acting first seal. The second closing element is designed either as a pusher piston with a radially acting second seal or as a conical seat plate with an axially/radially acting seal or as an axial seat plate with an axially acting second seal.
The known double-seat valves limit, among other things, the cleaning agent quantity during the respective seat cleaning. Their leakage outlet, which must also divert these cleaning agent quantities into the surroundings of the double-seat valve, is generally measured such that it meets the requirements or respectively regulations of the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in the "3-A Sanitary Standards for Double-Seat Mixproof Valves, Number 85-02" (hereinafter document [1]), which require among other things that the most minimal passage cross-section of the leakage outlet is to be measured such that it corresponds at least with the passage cross-section of the largest pipeline which can be connected to the double-seat valve (see document [1], requirement D14.2). Furthermore, in connection with the seat cleaning, additional requirements according to document [1] are met, which indicate that the respectively closed seat region is not directly flowed against by the respectively generated seat-cleaning flow or supplied with increasing pressure (document [1], requirement D22.214.171.124) and that the pressure in the closed seat region facing the leakage hollow space must be equal to or less than the atmospheric pressure (document [1], requirement D188.8.131.52).
The known double-seat valves thus also meet further implicit requirements of the aforementioned standards according to document [1], namely those that no cleaning agent may pass through in the case of larger seal defects or even the loss of one of the two seat seals in the course of the seat cleaning of the other closing element via the respective seal defect or respectively the seat region without seat seal. Under these conditions, the known double-seat valves not only meet the requirements for a delimitation of the cleaning agent quantity and avoidance of direct action upon the seat regions in the course of the seat cleaning, but also the requirement for the most turbulence-free possible removal of the seat cleaning flow first into the leakage hollow space and from there into the surroundings, without the respectively closed seat region being flowed against directly or supplied with increasing pressure.
Direct action is understood as any velocity component from the respective seat-cleaning flow directed perpendicularly at the walls delimiting the seat region. It has been shown that any related direct action leads to a conversion of kinetic flow energy into static pressure. Depending on the angle of impact of the flow towards the flowed against wall or body surface, a branching flow with a so-called "branching flow line" results, wherein the later divides the flow into two halves. The branching flow line itself accumulates at the so-called "stagnation point" so that the velocity is equal to zero at this point. The pressure increase as a result of this slowing of the velocity is also called "stagnation pressure." The pressure-increasing mechanisms shown above generate, if effective, a leakage flow over the respective restriction gap and the defective or the no longer present seat seal.
While the double-seat valves according to the above publications meet the requirements of document [1] solely with flow-mechanical means and modes of action on the components of the double-seat valve bordering the leakage hollow space, DE 10 2007 038 124 A1 or US 2009/0065077 A1 suggests meeting the requirements of document [1] through a separate third element arranged between both closing elements of the double-seat valve and moveable relative to both, a so-called flow barrier element. This flow barrier element shields the at least one sealing element and/or the closing element seat of the other closing element during the venting of the one closing element and during pressurization of the leakage hollow space with cleaning agent, which is located in its closed position, from a direct inflow through the cleaning agent entering the leakage hollow space. According to the description in the latter documents, "shielding" is to be understood in that the sealing element of the respective closing element located in the closed position is not pressurized directly and thus with a high flow velocity by the cleaning agent, wherein it is permitted that the cleaning agent makes its way mainly depressurized and with a low flow velocity into the area of the closing element seat or of the sealing element of the closing element located in the closed position, so that stagnation pressure cannot build up there. According to the description, the flow barrier element does not need to be completely sealed on the housing side; rather, it is preferably spaced from the housing by a small gap. Furthermore, it can be seen in FIGS. 1, 4, 7 and 12 to 15 of DE 10 2007 038 124 A1 or US 2009/0065077 A1 that the leakage hollow space meets the requirement D14.2 of document [1], namely that the most minimal passage cross-section of the leakage outlet is at least equal to the passage cross-section of the largest pipeline which can be connected to the double-seat valve.
An independent third element moveable relative to the two closing elements of a double-seat valve with a seat-cleaning function and guided in a sealing manner in the cylindrical seating for the first closing element is described in WO 98/41786 A1 (page 11, line 24 to page 12, line 9) or U.S. Pat. No. 6,178,986 B1 (column 6, line 58 to column 7, line 11). This embodiment differs from that described in the later published DE 10 2007 038 124 A1 or US 2009/0065077 A1 mainly in the interaction between the third element, the flow barrier element and the associated cylindrical seating for the first closing element. While the older solution provides a seal by means of a radially acting seal in sliding engagement, the third element in the newer solution does not need to be completely sealed on the housing side; rather, it is preferably spaced from the housing by a small radial gap.
It remains to be seen whether the flow barrier element according to DE 10 2007 038 124 A1 or respectively US 2009/0065077 A1 through its "shielding" effect in its embodiment that does not have to be sealed on the housing side or in its sealed embodiment according to WO 98/41786 A1 or respectively U.S. Pat. No. 6,178,986 B1 meets the aforementioned requirement D126.96.36.199 of document [1] and, in the case the corresponding dimensioning of the leakage outlet, also requirement D14.2. Requirement D220.127.116.11 is apparently not met as the flow barrier element now appears within the double-seat valve with a seat-cleaning function in question in a significantly modified embodiment as published in company publication Pentair Südmo Operating Instructions, BAA D 365it Complete PMO, Version 1.01, Double-seat valve type D 365it Complete PMO type D620, published November 2011 (201111) at http://www.suedmo.de/resources/images/790 (hereinafter document [2]).
A flow barrier element designed as an annular body is described in DE 10 2010 046 137 A1, which was published after document [2]. In the ventilation position of at least one of the closing elements, the annular body divides the leakage space into a first leakage space section and a second leakage space section. The annular body is designed such that cleaning agent generated in the respective seat-cleaning position can pass through the annular body from the first leakage space section into the second leakage space section. This passing takes place such that the pressure in the second leakage space section is reduced with respect to the pressure in the first leakage space section and the cleaning agent goes from the second leakage space section to the leakage outlet. Besides the function of the shielding of the seal or respectively of the cleaning member seating of the closing element located in its closed position, the annular body thus also takes on the function of the restriction of the respective seat-cleaning flow. However, this restriction is only possible and sufficient if the annular body is always sealed sufficiently on the housing side and abuts in a sealed manner against the ventilated closing element in the necessary manner.
Through this embodiment, it is possible, as illustrated for example on pages 14 and 25 of document [2] and FIG. 1 of DE 10 2010 046 137 A1 with the first closing element and the pipe shaft connected with it in mind, to reduce significantly the leakage outlet designed in the pipe shaft with respect to the subject matter of DE 10 2007 038 124 A1 or US 2009/0065077 A1 and thus differently from requirement D14.2 of document [1]. This deviating design of the double-seat valve is possible through the exemption clause at D126.96.36.199 of document [1], which states that a leakage outlet reduced with respect to requirement D14.2 is permissible if data is available proving that the maximum pressure between the valve seatings of the double-seat valve is less than or equal to the maximum pressure in a connection line provided with an unreduced leakage outlet between a shutoff valve and a shuttle valve of a comparable arrangement, which is called a "block and bleed" arrangement in document [1].
The double-seat valve according to document [2] or DE 10 2010 046 137 A1 has the noteworthy advantage that the valve housing can be designed one to two nominal widths smaller than the design with a leakage outlet that is not reduced in cross-section and thus in a considerably more cost-effective manner. This is possible because, in the open position of the double-seat valve in which the pipe shaft penetrates the connection opening between the valve housing parts, the passage cross-section of the annular gap between the pipe shaft and the connection opening, which must correspond with the passage cross-section of the largest pipeline which can be connected to the valve housing, can be realized without the above nominal width increase.
However, the double-seat valve according to document [2] or DE 10 2010 046 137 A1 has a big disadvantage in that the third member in the shape of a flow barrier element sealed on the housing side in connection with the other characteristics of its arrangement in the leakage hollow space and integration into the closing element configuration causes a complicated and thus failure-prone structural construction of the double-seat valve. This additional built-in part in the leakage hollow space with additionally necessary sealing means, corners and dead spaces is also generally difficult to clean in the flow and is thus questionable from a hygienic point of view in the proper area of application. A sufficient restriction of the respective seat-cleaning flow is also only ensured when this seat-cleaning flow passes the systematically provided restriction points in the flow barrier element and does not pass in a more or less unrestricted manner in the bypass in the form-fitting connection between the latter and the closing element located in its seat-cleaning position.

Double-seat valve with a seat-cleaning function


According to one embodiment, a coupler apparatus includes a coupling element, a ground plane, and at least one connecting element. The coupling element which is made of a tabular electrical conducting material and in which power feeding is performed to a reference point. The ground plane which is made of a tabular electrical conducting material and partially faces a part of the coupling element. The connecting element which is made of an electrical conducting material, disposed to the ground plane, contact to a metal member provided to a communication apparatus to face the ground plane, and electrically connects the ground plane to the metal member.

A coupler apparatus having a configuration in which a coupling element and a ground plane both having a tabular shape are arranged to face each other is known from Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2011-151763, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. Hei 5-183311, and Jpn. Pat. Appln KOKAI Publication No. 2011-114705.
It is often the case that, when the coupler apparatus having the above-described configuration is mounted on a communication apparatus, a metal (which will be referred to as a neighboring metal hereinafter) such as a metal surface of a housing of the communication apparatus or a metal housing of another device mounted on the communication apparatus faces the ground plane.
Further, when the neighboring metal faces the ground plane in this manner, a current is induced in the neighboring metal with an operation of the coupler apparatus, and coupling characteristics may be deteriorated.
Under the circumstances, it has been desired to suppress a deterioration in coupling characteristics of the coupler apparatus even though the apparatus is used in a situation that the neighboring metal faces the ground plane.

Coupler apparatus and communication apparatus


A drive transistor is connected, via its drain region, to a power supply line, and, via its source region, to a transparent electrode of an organic EL element. The channel region is formed bent into a substantially L shape. This arrangement is able to simplify the arrangement of a gate electrode by providing the gate electrode so as to run straight over a channel region in parallel to the power source line. Accordingly, the aperture ratio is increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescence panel where organic EL elements, each having at least an organic light emitting layer between a pair of electrodes, are arranged in matrix.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic electroluminescence (hereinafter referred to as EL) panels have been receiving attention as one of the next generation flat displays to take place the liquid crystal displays. In the display panels (hereinafter referred to as an organic EL panel), the color of light emitted by each pixel can be determined depending on the kind of light emitting material used to form an organic light emitting layer for the pixel. Thus, pixels for different color light are formed so that RGB display can be realized.
In this organic EL panel, bright display is achieved by increasing the amount of current supplied to each organic EL element. However, increase of a current amount results in reduction of the service life of an organic EL element. Therefore, instead of increasing a current amount, it is desired to ensure the largest possible area for a light emitting region, or an aperture ratio, in each pixel.
A larger aperture ratio enables brighter display while suppressing current supplied to the organic EL element to a relatively small amount (See Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-290441). Increase of an aperture ratio means increase of the proportion of the light emitting region of an organic EL element relative to the entire area of each pixel.
Here, in an organic EL panel of an active type, at least two TFTs are provided in each pixel to drive the concerned organic EL element. Specifically, a driver TFT for controlling a driving current supplied to the organic EL element is arranged between the power supply line and the organic EL element in the circuit structure. That is, the driver TFT is positioned close to the power supply line and the organic EL element in a two-dimensional arrangement. Moreover, the driver TFT, which controls a driving current to be supplied to the organic EL element according to a gate voltage, has a long gate length. With these factors, appropriate positioning of the driver TFT is difficult to achieve.
Further, the gate line of a driver TFT must be placed detouring around the contacts of the source and drain electrodes located at both ends of the driver TFT. Wiring in this manner results in a problem of reduction of an aperture ratio.


The present invention provides a method for automatically measuring a thread element at an end portion of a pipe or tube P after thread processing, on a thread processing line 100 in which thread processing is performed on the end portion of each pipe or tube P which is successively conveyed, comprising: a cleaning step of cleaning the end portion of the pipe or tube by a thread cleaning apparatus 30 after the thread processing; a drying step of drying the end portion of the pipe or tube P cleaned in the cleaning step by a thread drying apparatus 40; and a measuring step of measuring the thread element at the end portion of the pipe or tube P by an automatic thread element measurement 50 after drying, wherein the end portion of the pipe or tube is put under a clean atmosphere at least in the measuring step.

Traditionally, OCTG and the like have been used by connecting end portions of pipes thereof with threads formed at those end portions of pipes. Such threads have been subjected to various improvements such as in the thread shape in association with demands for deepening of oil wells, and higher resistance to corrosive environments (see, for example, Non Patent Literature 1). Such threads, which may possibly be formed at an end portion of a pipe having a length of several tens of meters and a weight of as large as several hundreds of kgf, have a complex and high precision thread shape. Meanwhile, regarding such threads, quality control items called thread elements are defined, and whether or not a measured value of a thread element is within a predetermined tolerance is inspected. Examples of the thread element include an outer diameter of the thread part, an outer diameter of the sealing part, an outer diameter of the parallel part, a diameter of the thread groove, a height of the thread ridge, a depth of the thread groove, a thread taper, a seal taper, and the like.
While, conventionally, thread elements, which are the quality control items as described above, have been manually measured on-line (on a thread processing line) by use of a special purpose measurement instrument, attempts have been made to develop more precise automatic measurement technique in the view point of labor saving, suppression of human errors, and enhancement of the speed and precision of measurement.
Specifically, as a technique for automatically measuring thread elements, there is known an automatic measurement apparatus which has an optical sensor, which projects parallel light from a light source onto thread grooves and detects the light that leaks out to the opposite side of the light source with respect to the pipe axis, and measures thread elements based on the detection result of the optical sensor (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2).

Method for measuring thread element at end portion of pipe or tube

NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION


This invention can more efficiently remove, at a more effective timing, a foreign substance such as dust adhering on an optical member inserted on the image capturing optical axis. An image capturing apparatus having an image sensor which photo-electrically converts an object image includes an optical element arranged on the image sensor on a side close to an object, a foreign substance removing unit which removes a foreign substance adhering to the surface of the optical element, an instruction unit which issues instructions to power on and power off the image capturing apparatus, and a control unit which controls the foreign substance removing unit to execute a foreign substance removing operation in accordance with the instruction to power off the image capturing apparatus by the instruction unit.

An image capturing apparatus such as a digital camera which captures an image by converting an image signal into an electrical signal receives an image capturing light beam using an image sensor, converts the photo-electrically converted signal output from the image sensor into image data, and records the resultant image data on a recording medium such as a memory card. A CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or C-MOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) is known as the image sensor.
In such an image capturing apparatus, an optical low-pass filter and infrared cut filter are arranged on the object side of the image sensor. It has been known that when foreign substances such as dust adhere to the surfaces of these filters or a cover glass of the image sensor, the adhesion portion is seen in a captured image as a black point to result in degradation in its quality.
Especially in a interchangeable single-lens reflex digital camera, since mechanical actuating units such as a shutter or quick return mirror are set near the image sensor, foreign substances such as dust produced from these actuating units sometimes adhere on the image sensor or low-pass filter. Also, dust or the like sometimes enters the camera main body from the opening of the lens mount and adheres on it (what is it?) during lens interchange.
As a prior art for solving the above problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-204379 discloses a technique for providing, on the object side of the image sensor, a dustproof curtain which transmits an image capturing light beam, to cause a piezoelectric element to vibrate the dustproof curtain, thereby removing the foreign substance such as dust adhering to the surface of the dustproof curtain.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-330082 discloses a technique for executing the vibration operation for removing a foreign substance such as dust after activating the system upon power ON, upon attaching/detaching the lens or accessory unit, or prior to a release (image capturing) operation.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-264580 discloses a technique for changing the vibration mode of the vibration operation for removing a foreign substance such as dust, between a timing synchronized with a release (image capturing) operation and a timing corresponding to manual operation or lens attachment/detachment.
To remove the foreign substance adhering to the surface of the dustproof curtain, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-204379 described above applies a voltage to the piezoelectric element which connects to the dustproof curtain, to vibrate the dustproof curtain by driving the piezoelectric element. In this case, removal of the foreign substance adhering to the dustproof curtain requires scattering the foreign substance from the dustproof curtain by applying a force stronger than the adhesion force of the foreign substance to it, so large energy is necessary. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-204379 does not consider any method of efficiently driving the piezoelectric element to effectively remove the foreign substance when vibrating the dustproof curtain. This leads to high power consumption.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-330082 executes the vibration operation for removing a foreign substance such as dust not only when vibrating the dustproof curtain after activating the system upon power ON and when attaching/detaching the lens or accessory unit but also for every release operation. Therefore, the influence of power supply energy consumed by vibrating the dustproof curtain on the number of photographable images is not negligible.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-264580 executes the vibration operation for removing a foreign substance such as dust in a low power consumption mode only at a slow shutter speed or only for the valve in a release operation at a timing other than that corresponding to manual operation or lens attachment/detachment. However, the vibration operation with low power consumption, i.e., the vibration operation with low foreign substance removal capability sometimes fails to sufficiently remove the dust. This may only result in wasteful power consumption.
Both of the above-described prior arts execute the vibration operation for removing a foreign substance such as dust in lens interchange. Actually, a foreign substance such as dust in the outside air can readily enter the mirror box in lens interchange because the mount opens and the interior of the mirror box is exposed to the outside air.
However, even when a foreign substance such as dust enters the mirror box at this time, it merely adheres to the wall surface or structure in the mirror box in many cases. Therefore, the foreign substance rarely enters the region beyond the shutter curtain while it is closed. That is, while the shutter curtain is closed, a foreign substance rarely adheres to the surface of the optical member such as a filter which covers the image sensor unit. It is not always good to execute the vibration operation for removing a foreign substance such as dust in lens interchange.
Various references reveal that the foreign substance such as dust adhering on the optical member such as a filter strongly produces an adhesion force using, e.g., Van der Waals force, liquid cross-linking force, and electrostatic force. As measures against the adhesion due to an electrostatic force, there have been known a variety of techniques for, e.g., making the surface of the optical member such as a filter fall to GND to drop the surface potential, thereby removing the charges of the surface and preventing charging of the surface.
Various kinds of foreign substances such as dust adhere on the optical member such as a filter. It has been clarified by experiments that when a foreign substance is left adhered for a long period of time, its adhesion force generally increases and makes it hard to remove the foreign substance. This phenomenon occurs because the adhesion force such as a liquid cross-linking force increases as the foreign substance condenses upon a change in environment, i.e., temperature/humidity, or because the foreign substance gets stronger adhesion as the dirt repeatedly swells and dries upon a change in temperature/humidity. Also, an elastic material such as rubber gets stronger adhesion because fat and oil contained in itself bleed over time.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and has as its object to more efficiently remove, at a more effective timing, a foreign substance such as dust adhering on an optical member inserted on the image capturing optical axis.

Image capturing apparatus, control method therefor, and program regarding foreign substance removal


An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of an embodiment includes filter processing circuitry, setting circuitry, an estimation circuitry, image generation circuitry, and control circuitry. The filter processing circuitry uses, as input data, a data array of reflected wave data of the same location collected by transmitting/receiving ultrasound multiple times and performs filter processing on the input data to output data, as output data, in which a clutter component is suppressed. The setting circuitry sets a correction value on the basis of a power value of the input data and a power value of the output data. The estimation circuitry acquires corrected blood flow information by using the output data and the correction value. The image generation circuitry generates ultrasound image data on the basis of the blood flow information. The control circuitry causes the ultrasound image data to be displayed in a display.

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus has been widely used to observe and diagnose a blood flow in a living body. The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus employs a Doppler method based on a Doppler effect to generate and display blood flow information from a reflected wave of ultrasound. The blood flow information generated and displayed by the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a color Doppler image and a Doppler waveform (Doppler spectrum).
The color Doppler image is an ultrasound image visualized by a color flow mapping (CFM) method. The CFM method performs transmission/reception of ultrasound multiple times on a plurality of scanning lines. The CFM method then applies an MTI (Moving Target Indicator) filter to a data array of the same location and extracts a signal derived from the blood flow while suppressing a signal (clutter signal) derived from a stationary tissue or a slow-moving tissue. The CFM method uses this blood flow signal to estimate blood flow information such as velocity, variance and power of the blood flow, thereby displaying an ultrasound image (blood flow image or color Doppler image) in which the distribution of the estimation result is displayed in color and in two dimensions, for example. The blood flow information is usually displayed superposed on a B-mode image (tissue image). The blood flow image is displayed in a region where there is a blood flow, while the B-mode image is displayed in a region where there is no blood flow, for example. Therefore, one is required to perform processing of determining whether there is a blood flow when displaying the blood flow image.
The most popular method of performing such determination processing is a method of determining a blood flow signal as noise and not displaying the image when a power value of the blood flow signal is lower than or equal to a predetermined fixed value. Suppressed by the MTI filter to have a small value, the clutter signal is not displayed by the determination processing using the power value. However, a signal from a tissue of a strong reflector such as an organ wall or a bone has a large amplitude and may remain after passing the MTI filter even though the movement of the tissue is slow. In such case, the signal from the strong reflector is displayed as though it is the blood flow.
Accordingly, there is known a method of checking the velocity of an output signal and, when the velocity is slow, determining that the output signal is not derived from the blood flow and not displaying the signal. Such method is effective to some extent for the following reason when a Butterworth IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filter having an HPF (High Pass Filter) characteristic is used as the MTI filter. That is, when the packet size has a finite length requiring a transient response measure, the signal from the strong reflector remains since the characteristic of the IIR filter is unfavorable. This causes the average velocity within the packet to slow down, the average velocity being lower than or equal to a lower threshold corresponding to a velocity of non-display.
In recent years, there has been used as the MTI filter a polynomial regression filter and an "Eigenvector Regression Filter" being an adaptive MTI filter. These filters can efficiently suppress the clutter signal with a small packet size compared to the Butterworth IIR filter. That is, these filters can suppress the signal from the strong reflector to a level corresponding to the blood flow signal. There is however a limit to the clutter suppression capability, where these filters cannot suppress the signal from the strong reflector to a level of noise. While the Butterworth filter has a linear phase characteristic, the polynomial regression filter and "Eigenvector Regression Filter" do not have the linear phase characteristic. Accordingly, when the velocity is estimated from the output signal from these filters, an estimated velocity of a slow signal such as the clutter signal tends to have a relatively high value so that there has been a case where the signal from the strong reflector remains to display an image indicating that there is a blood flow in a tissue of the strong reflector even when the slow signal is eliminated by the aforementioned method.

Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus, image processing device, and image processing method


A noise estimation unit estimates a noise signal in an input signal. A section decision unit distinguishes a target signal section from a noise signal section in the input signal. A noise suppression unit suppresses the noise signal based on a first suppression coefficient from the input signal. A noise excess suppression unit suppresses the noise signal based on a second suppression coefficient from the input signal. The second suppression coefficient is larger than the first suppression coefficient. A switching unit switches between an output signal from the noise suppression unit and an output signal from the noise excess suppression unit based on a decision result of the section decision unit.

In proportion to practical use of a speech recognition or a cellular phone in actual environment, a signal processing method for excluding a noise from an acoustic signal on which the noise is superimposed in order to emphasize a voice signal becomes important. Especially, Spectral Subtraction (SS) method is often used because it is effectively easy to be realized. The Spectral Subtraction method is disclosed in "S. Boll, "Suppression of Acoustic Noise in Speech Using Spectral Subtraction", IEEE Trans., ASSP-27, No. 2, pp. 113-120, 1979".
The Spectral Subtraction method includes a problem that it often causes a perceptually unnatural sound (called "a musical noise"). Musical noise is especially notable in a noise section. Because of statistical variance of the noise signal, removing an average value of noise signal from an input signal causes discontinuity in the remaining signal of the reduction. The musical noise is due to the remaining signal of reduction. In order to solve this problem, an excess suppression method is utilized. In the excess suppression method, by reducing a value larger than an estimation noise from the input signal, all variation elements of the noise are suppressed. In this case, if a reduction result becomes a negative value, the negative value is replaced by a minimum value. However, in the excess suppression method, suppression overflows in a voice section. As a result, a voice is distorted in the voice section. For example, the excess suppression method is disclosed in "Z. Goh, K. Tan and B. T. G. Tan, "Postprocessing Method for Suppressing Musical Noise Generated by Spectral Subtraction", IEEE Trans., SAP-6, No. 3, May 1998".
Furthermore, a method for executing some processing on a section generating musical noise in order not to perceive the musical noise is utilized. For example, a small gain is multiplied with each input signal and the multiplication result is superimposed to the output signal. However, in this method, if a sufficient signal is superimposed so as not to perceive the musical noise, a noise level raises by the superimposed signal. As a result, effect of noise suppression is lost.
As mentioned-above, excess suppression using a large suppression coefficient reduces musical noise. However, distortion often occurs in the voice section. Furthermore, in the post processing method for superimposing the input signal on the musical noise, by superimposing the sufficient signal so as not to perceive the musical noise, effect of noise suppression is lost.


A single external power supply variable speed induction motor and a control method thereof are disclosed. An induction motor includes: a stator in which coils directly connected to a single-phase or 3-phase or more systematic power supply are wound; a rotor that is supported to be rotatable in the stator; a power conversion device that is attached to the rotor and controls a rotor current without connection of a separate external power supply; and a control circuit that is connected to the power conversion device and controls the power conversion device.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an induction motor and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a single external power supply variable speed induction motor and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general induction motor is an alternating current motor which is directly connected to a 3-phase power supply to be started by direct online. However, when an inducer is directly operated, an inrush current is large. Accordingly, in a case of a large capacity induction motor, the direct online is difficult, and a speed control is also difficult. For the speed control and the initial start, an inverter has to be used in the induction motor. However, when the inverter is used, there is a defect of causing harmonics of a systematic power supply on characteristics of the inverter. To supplementing this, it is general to connect the inverter to a converter. FIG. 1 shows a direct online start driving system of a general squirrel cage induction motor. Since a power conversion device is not used between a 3-phase systematic power supply and an induction motor, it is possible to drive the motor with the lowest cost. However, there is a defect that it is difficult to control a speed of the motor, and overcurrent flows at the time of initial start of the motor.
To control the speed of the induction motor, generally, an inverter is used. An alternating current voltage source necessary for the inverter may be configured by using a low-cost diode rectifier. FIG. 2 shows a driving system using such a diode rectifier. In such a case, although an induction motor is driven at a variable speed, there a defect that harmonics drastically occurs in a systematic power supply due to the diode rectifier.
To satisfy harmonic standard of the 3-phase power supply while driving the induction motor at the variable speed, a structure of attaching a PWM converter between the inverter and the systematic power supply may be used. This is shown in FIG. 3. In such a configuration, it is possible to lower a harmonic ratio of the systematic power supply while driving the induction motor at the variable speed. However, the system with such a structure requires a high cost.
A doubly feed driving system with a structure similar to the structure shown in FIG. 3 may be used as shown in FIG. 4. In the structure, a stator is directly connected to a 3-phase power supply, and rotor coils are connected to the systematic power supply through a separate power conversion device. In this case, the power conversion device connected to the rotor has to enable the power to flow in two ways, and thus the converter has to be used with the inverter. To connect the wires of the rotor to the power conversion device, an additional connection structure such as a slip-ring is necessary for the motor. Korean Patent Publication No. 1998-087820 discloses a multi-slip-ring device and a control method thereof in which it is possible to drive loads only by several slip-rings with no limit to the number of loads provided in a rotation device according to a control by a communication method using an electronic control device. The multi-slip-ring device includes first to third power supply slip-rings and first and second communication slip-rings, which are fixed to a rotation shaft to rotate in cooperation with the rotation shaft and are disposed at a predetermined distance, and first to fifth brushes that come in contact with outer circumferential edges of the slip-rings and transmit 3-phase power and control signals to the slip-rings. As described above, to transmit the power to the rotor, it is essential to directly connect the external 3-phase systematic power supply.

Variable speed induction motor with single external power supply and control method thereof


A flow cell with a temperature-control chamber for holding a fluid, the temperature of which is to be controlled, whose boundary wall is formed at least partially by a thin foil for transferring heat between a temperature-control element and the fluid. The foil has several layers joined with one another, such that the layer that faces the fluid is a plastic layer, and at least one other layer is of a metal.

The invention concerns a flow cell with a temperature-control chamber for holding a fluid, the temperature of which is to be controlled, whose boundary wall is formed at least partially by a thin foil for transferring heat between a temperature-control element and the fluid.
Microfluidic flow cells are being used to a greater and greater extent, especially as disposable products, for analytical and diagnostic purposes or in medicine for conditioning liquids before they are applied in the human body as well as for synthetic purposes. While the function of a flow cell can be limited to controlling the temperature of a fluid, temperature control devices are often only components of flow cells that have a much more extensive functionality. Especially for carrying out molecular genetic analyses, including PCR processes or other processes for nucleic acid amplification, the temperature-control function is extremely important because the amplification reaction requires constant or variable reaction temperatures above ambient temperature, typically between 30° C. and 95° C. The manufacture of temperature resistant flow cells with reproducible temperature-control characteristics that allow an especially rapid and homogeneous temperature transition between an active temperature-control element and the fluid whose temperature is to be controlled, especially the manufacture of such flow cells as inexpensive disposable products, presents significant problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,613,560 B1 discloses a flow cell with a temperature-control device of the aforementioned type. The flow cell is used for carrying out PCR processes. A reaction chamber for the PCR process simultaneously serves as the temperature-control chamber. The temperature-control chamber is bounded by a recess in a substrate and by a thin, heat-transmitting foil of the type mentioned above, which covers the recess. A disadvantage for the temperature-control process is the low thermal conductivity of plastics, for which reason foils with a low film thickness in the range of 50-200 μm are preferred. The fabrication, handling, and assembly of such thin foils is very complicated. It is a disadvantage that the cover foil does not form an exactly planar surface due to its low mechanical stiffness. Likewise, thermal and mechanical effects occurring during the assembly of the foil by adhesive or welding processes can easily lead to deformations of the foil and thus to deviations from the plane on the order of a few 10-100 μm. This makes it more difficult to introduce heat by pressing a temperature-control element against it; above all, air gaps left in the foil impair heat transmission and prevent rapid equalization between the temperature of the temperature-control element and the temperature of the fluid in the temperature-control chamber, especially its even heating or cooling. It is not possible to realize reproducible temperature-control characteristics, especially under the conditions of inexpensive mass production of this flow cell.

Flow cell with a temperature-control chamber


A light source device (411) has a lamp body (411A) including a light source lamp, a reflector (417) and an anti-explosion glass (418), and a lamp housing (411B) for accommodating the lamp body (411A). A plurality of projections (411B8) protruding along an optical axis of a light beam irradiated by the light source lamp are formed on the lamp housing (411B). Further, the reflector (417) has an approximately concave cross section and a positioning surface (417C) that touches the projections (411B8) of the lamp housing (411B) to locate the lamp body (411A) relative to the lamp housing (411B) is provided on a distal side of the concave section. The positioning surface (417C) is continuously flush.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source device having a light source lamp, a reflector that holds the light source lamp and has a reflection surface for reflecting the light beam irradiated by the light source lamp, and a lamp housing on which the light source lamp and the reflector are attached, and a projector having the light source device.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a light source unit having a light source lamp and a reflector that holds the light source lamp and reflects the light beam irradiated by the light source lamp has been known (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,717).
In the light source unit, the reflector is a glass-made molding, which is shaped in an approximately rectangular pyramid having a curved concave surface therein. The reflector holds the light source lamp at the top of the rectangular pyramid and highly reflective material such as SiO2 and TiO2 are deposited on the inner curved concave surface, which works as a reflection surface. The light beam radially emitted by the light source lamp is reflected by the reflection surface of the reflector to be irradiated in a predetermined direction. Further, four projections projecting in the light-irradiating direction are formed on the four corners of the light-irradiation side (bottom side of the rectangular pyramid) of the reflector.
When the light source unit is housed in a casing such as a lamp housing, the projections of the reflector are brought into contact with a side of the casing to fix the light source unit on the casing after determining the position of the light source unit in the optical axis direction relative to the casing.
However, since the above-described reflector is an approximately rectangular pyramid having a curved concave surface therein and the projections are formed on the corners of the bottom side of the rectangular pyramid, a molding die having complicated shape is required for molding the reflector, so that the manufacture of the reflector becomes difficult.


A method for joining together at least two sheets with a tool controlled by an industrial robot and including a first arm and a second arm that are mutually movable in relation to each other. An actual position of the sheets is detected by bringing one of the arms to sense the actual position of the sheets. The distance between an ideal position and the actual position is calculated and the actual position of the tool is moved the calculated distance, whereafter the sheets are joined together.

A robot system comprises an industrial robot comprising a manipulator and a control system. The manipulator comprises a robot arm with a wrist housing comprising a turn disc which is rotatably arranged relative to the wrist housing. The turn disc comprises a toolholder which is adapted for attachment of, for example, a tool for joining together at least two sheets by the influence of force and at one point. Examples of such methods of joining are spot welding, riveting and clinching. The control system comprises at least one program module and a plurality of processors which are adapted to attend to the movements of the manipulator based on instructions in a computer program. The turn disc may also be adapted for attachment of a fixture intended to hold at least two sheets to be joined together.
An industrial robot is composed of interconnected robot parts such as, for example, a stand, robot arms, an arm housing, a wrist housing, and a turn disc. Two adjoining robot parts are connected to each other so as to be rotatable in relation to each other about an axis of rotation, or are linearly displaceable in relation to each other.
During spot welding of at least two sheets with the aid of an industrial robot, it is known to use a so-called welding gun as a tool. The welding gun has a first movable electrode moving towards and away from a second fixed electrode. Common fields of use for a spot welding machine are cars, white goods, cupboards and cabinets.
There are mainly two types of welding guns: so-called X-guns and C-guns. A C-gun has the approximate shape of a C comprising two branches. A first welding electrode is movably arranged in a guide at one branch of the C and moves towards and away from an opposite second welding electrode at the opposite branch. An X-gun comprises a first movable electrode arm and an opposite fixed electrode arm. One example of an X-gun is shown in FIG. 2 and described under the heading "Description of the preferred embodiments".
A welding gun is usually controlled by compressed aid or by a servo motor. For a welding gun controlled by compressed air, the movement of the first electrode towards and away from the second electrode is achieved with a compressed-air cylinder. Patent publication WO 01/89755 describes a welding gun controlled by a servo motor and how a movable welding electrode is brought into the welding position under the influence of the servo motor.
When joining together at least two sheets by the influence of force and at a definite point, a tool such as, for example, a welding gun, comprising a first movable electrode arm and a second fixed electrode arm, is used. The electrode arms are arranged on opposite sides of the at least two sheets that are to be joined together. For the joining to provide a joint that is centred in the thickness direction of the sheets, the free end of the second fixed arm, which comprises the electrode, is to lie in the same plane as the sheets. Usually, the position of the second fixed arm deviates from the plane of the sheets, which results in the welding causing a deformation of the sheets. This may lead to deteriorated surface quality on the finished product. The reasons for the electrode arms not being centred are, for example, that the sheet is not accurately positioned in the fixture that holds the sheet in place, or that the tip of the welding electrodes has been worn down during the course of the welding.
The corresponding problems arise also for other types of joining methods, such as, for example, during riveting and clinching, where the tool comprises at least two arms which are to join said sheets together, at least partly by the influence of force.
It is known to solve the above-mentioned problems by using a balancing system, also referred to as an equalizing system, which ensures that the second fixed arm is brought to a level that lies in the same plane as the sheets. During the balancing, a balancing system, also known as equalizer, is arranged between the tool and the turning plate of the robot. The equalizing system is, in principle, a disengagable clutch, which during the movement of the tool is in a fixed position and with the second fixed arm at a defined distance from the sheet. At the end phase of the closing movement of the arms and during the joining process, the clutch is disengaged such that the tool is able to move relative to the turning plate.
It is known to use equalizing systems that are controlled by compressed air or are electrically controlled. During compressed-air equalizing, compressed air must be supplied to the tool. A considerable volume of air is required, which results in increased operating costs. As far as electrically controlled equalizing is concerned, cabling must instead be pulled to the tool. Both types of systems give an increased installation cost and increased maintenance costs compared with the case where no equalizing system is needed. An additional disadvantage of the above-mentioned equalizing systems is that they behave differently depending on how the tool is oriented in space. This is due to the described equalizing systems being dependent on the force of gravity.
There is therefore a need to be able to equalize the arms in a tool for joining together at least two sheets in a joint without having to use compressed-air-controlled or electrically controlled equalizing systems. Further, there is a need of a process for joining that is simple and where the result of the joining process is a joint which is centred in the sheets and which hence imparts a good surface quality to the finished product.

Method for positioning a welding robot tool


A secondary battery may include a secondary battery, including, a case having an upper opening and an internal cavity, an electrode assembly disposed within the internal cavity of the case, a cap plate coupled to the case and sealing the upper opening, a collector plate coupled to the electrode assembly, a collector terminal coupled to the collector plate, the collector terminal including a rivet portion and terminal portion above a top surface of the cap plate, and a terminal plate positioned above the cap plate and coupled to the rivet portion of the collector terminal.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to a secondary battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unlike primary batteries, which cannot be recharged, secondary batteries can be repeatedly charged and discharged. Low capacity secondary batteries that use single battery cells may be used as power sources for various portable electronic devices, such as cellular phones and camcorders. High capacity secondary batteries that use tens of battery cells connected to each other in a battery pack may be used as power sources for driving motors, such as in electric scooters, or hybrid electric vehicles (HEV).
Secondary batteries may be classified into different types, for example, cylindrical and prismatic types. A unit battery includes an electrode assembly having positive and negative electrodes and a separator interposed between the positive and negative electrodes, a case for receiving the electrode assembly, and a cap assembly for sealing the case. Positive and negative electrode terminals are electrically connected to the electrode assembly and outwardly protrude and extend through the cap plate.


A negative pattern is formed by coating a resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units of formulae (1) and (2) and a photoacid generator of formula (3) onto a substrate, baking, exposure, PEB and developing in an organic solvent. In formulae (1) and (2), R1 is H, F, CH3 or CF3, Z is a single bond, phenylene, naphthylene, or (backbone)-C(═O)—O—Z′—, Z′ is alkylene, phenylene or naphthylene, XA is an acid labile group, YL is H or a polar group. In formula (3), R2 and R3 are a monovalent hydrocarbon group, R4 is a divalent hydrocarbon group, or R2 and R3, or R2 and R4 may form a ring with the sulfur, L is a single bond or a divalent hydrocarbon group, Xa and Xb are H, F or CF3, and k is an integer of 1 to 4.

In the lithography technology, a highlight is recently put on the organic solvent development again. It would be desirable if a very fine hole pattern, which is not achievable with the positive tone, is resolvable through negative tone exposure. To this end, a positive resist composition featuring a high resolution is subjected to organic solvent development to form a negative pattern. An attempt to double a resolution by combining two developments, alkaline development and organic solvent development is under study.
As the ArF resist composition for negative tone development with organic solvent, positive ArF resist compositions of the prior art design may be used. Such pattern forming processes are described in Patent Documents 1 to 3. These patent documents disclose resist compositions for organic solvent development comprising a copolymer of hydroxyadamantane methacrylate, a copolymer of norbornane lactone methacrylate, and a copolymer of methacrylate having acidic groups including carboxyl, sulfo, phenol and thiol groups substituted with two or more acid labile groups, and pattern forming processes using the same.
Further, Patent Document 4 discloses a process for forming a pattern through organic solvent development in which a protective film is applied onto a resist film. Patent Document 5 discloses a topcoatless process for forming a pattern through organic solvent development in which an additive is added to a resist composition so that the additive may segregate at the resist film surface after spin coating to provide the surface with improved water repellency.
When trench patterns (isolated space patterns) or hole patterns are formed by the positive tone development process using an alkaline aqueous solution, pattern formation must be done with incident light of a weak intensity as compared with formation of line or dot patterns. Then the contrast of intensity of incident light between exposed and unexposed regions becomes low. The low contrast is likely to impose limits on the pattern forming abilities like resolution, tending to bring difficulty in forming a resist pattern at a high resolution. As opposed to the positive tone development process, the organic solvent development process is believed advantageous for forming trench or hole patterns. This is one of the reasons why a highlight is recently put on the organic solvent development.
However, the organic solvent development process has some problems to be overcome. The positive development system involving deprotection reaction to generate a carboxyl group and subsequent neutralization reaction with aqueous alkaline developer to improve a dissolution rate achieves a high dissolution contrast in that the dissolution rate differs between the unexposed and exposed regions by a factor of more than 1,000. In contrast, the negative development system via organic solvent development provides a low contrast because the dissolution rate in the unexposed region due to solvation is low, and the dissolution rate thus differs between the unexposed and exposed regions by a factor of less than 100. For the negative development system via organic solvent development, it is desired to seek for a novel material which can enhance a dissolution contrast.

Patterning process and resist composition


A mail traying apparatus which trays or sweeps mail envelopes, which are positioned in a mail stacker bin, into a mail tray and to deliver the same to an outbound conveyor or cart. The apparatus includes a robot having a robot arm mounted thereon with the robot arm having a mail tray support at the tool end thereof. The robot moves the robot arm to a source of empty mail trays so that an empty mail tray may be positioned in the mail tray support. The robot then moves the empty tray to the discharge end of the mail stacker bin, sweeps the mail into the mail tray, and then moves the filled mail tray to an outbound conveyor or cart.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mail traying apparatus and more particularly to a mail traying apparatus which trays or sweeps mail envelopes, which are positioned in a mail stacker bin, into a mail tray and to deliver the same to an outbound conveyor or cart.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many prior art mail processing systems, completed envelopes are collated and delivered into a stationary mail stacker bin. It is believed that in most, if not all, prior art systems, it is necessary to manually transfer the stacked envelopes from the mail stacker bin into an empty mail tray and then manually transfer the filled mail tray to an outbound conveyor system. Such a process involving manual labor is time-consuming and costly.


According to an aspect, a method for sharing a collaborative augmented reality (AR) environment including obtaining, by a sensor system of a first computing system, visual data representing a physical space of an AR environment, where the visual data is used to create a three-dimensional (3D) map of the physical space. The 3D map includes a coordinate space having at least one virtual object added by a user of the first computing system. The method includes broadcasting, by a transducer on the first computing system, an ultrasound signal, where the ultrasound signal includes an identifier associated with the 3D map. The identifier is configured to be detected by a second computing system to join the AR environment.

In some collaborative augmented reality (AR) systems, a computing device may receive digital information about a host user's environment and create a virtual anchor based on the digital information, where the virtual anchor may represent a physical space such as a room (or a portion thereof) within a building. The host user may add a virtual object to the scene, and the virtual object is linked (or fixed to) a position in the virtual anchor. The virtual anchor may be shared with other users, which can join the space and view and interact with the virtual objects added by the host user. In some examples, in order to permit other users to join the host's environment, the host user may need to locate an identifier of the virtual anchor and provide the identifier to another user, where that user may need to manually enter the identifier to join the AR scene.

Triggering a collaborative augmented reality environment using an ultrasound signal


Spin-transfer torque memory includes a composite free magnetic element, a reference magnetic element having a magnetization orientation that is pinned in a reference direction, and an electrically insulating and non-magnetic tunneling barrier layer separating the composite free magnetic element from the magnetic reference element. The free magnetic element includes a hard magnetic layer exchanged coupled to a soft magnetic layer. The composite free magnetic element has a magnetization orientation that can change direction due to spin-torque transfer when a write current passes through the spin-transfer torque memory unit.

Fast growth of the pervasive computing and handheld/communication industry has generated exploding demand for high capacity nonvolatile solid-state data storage devices. Current technology like flash memory has several drawbacks such as slow access speed, limited endurance, and the integration difficulty. Flash memory (NAND or NOR) also faces significant scaling problems.
Resistive sense memories are promising candidates for future nonvolatile and universal memory by storing data bits as either a high or low resistance state. One such memory, MRAM, features non-volatility, fast writing/reading speed, almost unlimited programming endurance and zero standby power. The basic component of MRAM is a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ). MRAM switches the MTJ resistance by using a current induced magnetic field to switch the magnetization of MTJ. As the MTJ size shrinks, the switching magnetic field amplitude increases and the switching variation becomes more severe.
A write mechanism, which is based upon spin polarization current induced magnetization switching, has been introduced to the MRAM design. Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (STRAM), uses a (bidirectional) current through the MTJ to realize the resistance switching. Therefore, the switching mechanism of STRAM is constrained locally and STRAM is believed to have a better scaling property than the conventional MRAM.
However, a number of yield-limiting factors must be overcome before STRAM enters the production stage. One concern in traditional STRAM design is the thickness tradeoff between of the free layer of the STRAM cell. A thicker free layer improves the thermal stability and data retention but also increases the switching current requirement since it is proportional to the thickness of the free layer. Thus, the amount of current required to switch the STRAM cell between resistance data states is large.

STRAM with composite free magnetic element


A metal halide lamp with a distance of less than 3.0 mm between the electrodes, in which in the hermetically sealed portion no cracks occur, which can be produced without difficulty, and which enables advantageous operation is achieved with a halide lamp in which an arc tube made of quartz glass contains a cathode and an anode spaced from each other at a distance of less than or equal to 2.9 mm together with mercury and metal halides, and which is operated with a nominal wattage range of from 100 to 400 W using direct current, by causing the ratio D/H to be greater than or equal to 1.9 when D is the maximum inside diameter in millimeters in a direction which orthogonally intersects the axial direction of the electrodes in the discharge space and H is the length of the cathode projecting within the discharge space, also in millimeters.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a metal halide lamp. The invention especially relates to a metal halide lamp of the short arc type which is suitable for a liquid crystal projector or the like, and which is operated using a direct current.
2. Description of Related Art
Liquid crystal projectors have recently become more and more important. A metal halide lamp of the short arc type is used for their light source. This light source consists of a metal halide lamp (hereinafter called only "lamp") and a concave reflector. It is formed by embedding one of the hermetically sealed portions of this lamp in the base opening of the concave reflector using a filler material in the state in which the lamp axis and the optical axis of the concave reflector agree with one another, or by similar processes.
The light emitted from the lamp is emitted directly or by reflection from the concave reflector onto an optical system such as a focussing lens and the like. The light which has passed through this optical system irradiates a liquid crystal cell. The image formed on the liquid crystal cell is projected via a projection lens onto a screen.
The metal halide lamp has hermetically sealed ends on both sides (is the so-called "double end type"). Its discharge space contains a cathode and an anode, mercury as the starting rare gas and various metal halides.
In this metal halide lamp, as a result of vaporization of the metal halides, a sufficient vapor pressure is obtained at a lower temperature than is the case when using metal elements. The radiant efficiency is higher than in a high pressure mercury lamp. In addition, by a suitable choice of the metals to be filled, outstanding color reproduction can be obtained. Therefore, the metal halide lamp is regarded as an optimum choice for use as a light source for a liquid crystal projector.
With consideration of the continuing miniaturization of liquid crystal projectors, and thus the miniaturization of the liquid crystal cell, there is a demand for a shorter distance between the electrodes of the lamp than in conventional cases in order to sufficiently focus the radiant light from the metal halide lamp on the liquid crystal cell.
Specifically, the distance between the electrodes in a conventional metal halide lamp was 3.0 mm to 5.0 mm. However, this requirement for miniaturization dictates that the distance between the electrodes be less than 3.0 mm.
With respect to this requirement for shortening of the distance between the electrodes, however, the follow disadvantages arise when only two electrodes are allowed to project into the discharge space:
In operation of the metal halide lamp, not all of the metal halides are completely vaporized, the metal halides being present in the discharge space partially as solids and partially as liquids. The metal halides in this solid state or liquid state collect during lamp operation on the coolest site (at the point with the lowest temperature) in the discharge space.
When the electrodes project into the discharge space, the temperature of the base points of these electrodes become, accordingly, lower until it reaches the coolest point. The metal halides in the solid state or the liquid state therefore collect in these base points. In doing so, the base point of the cathode represents the coolest part, since the anode generally has a higher temperature than the cathode.
The metal halides which have collected at this base point of the cathode penetrate the hermetically sealed portion into a very narrow gap which has formed between the cathode rod and the quartz glass. In this hermetically sealed portion, cracks occur due the effect of expansion and contraction and the like when the lamp is turned on and off.
With respect to the requirement for a shortening of the distance between the electrodes, a process can furthermore be theoretically imagined in which the entire discharge space is made smaller (i.e. a process for miniaturization while maintaining similarity). From the hermetically sealed portion, however, a certain size is necessary from a production standpoint. The hermetically sealed portions, in the case of a distance between the electrodes of less than 3.0 mm, are rather small. Production thereof entails major difficulties which could not be imagined in a conventional lamp.
Furthermore, the lamp can no longer be advantageously operated when, during operation, its tube wall load is not kept within a stipulated numerical range. Therefore, miniaturization of the discharge space is regarded as disadvantageous in conjunction with the tube wall load.