A jet column reactor apparatus for moving molten metal in a bath of such metal is formed with a monolithic refractory body.

Transferring liquids such as chemicals, effluents, or molten metals by using multi-phase flow technology is known in the art. Practically everything and every conceivable concept, as well as all the related theories for their design, reaction, modeling, gas absorption, heat transfer, etc., has been covered with infinitesimal detail in the book by Wolf Dieter Deckwer, first published under the title Reacktiontechnik in Blasensaulen, Copyright 1985, Otto Salle Verlag GmbH & Co., Frankfurt am Main, Verlag Sauerlander AG, Aarau, Switzerland. Additional studies have been conducted by Frede Frisvold, Thorvald A. Engh, and Didrik S. Voss as early as 1985.
The earliest systematic investigation of a multi-phase (gas/liquid) pump began in 1968, by Lu Hongqi and Liang Zhongtian, Wuuhan Institute of Hydraulics and Engineering, Peoples Republic of China, who have through the years proposed the basic theoretical equations and boundary condition equations that govern two-phase flow utilizing flow models. Using the extensive knowledge available, some designs have been proposed to pump molten metals. Among them, Alphatech/Alcoa, tested bubbling gas (nitrogen) inside tubes to generate metal motion, and analyzed the mixing of nitrogen in the liquid metal for the purpose of removing hydrogen entrapped in the liquid metal as early as August of 1990.
Later, Larry D. Areaux and Brian Klenoski were issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,910, Apr. 20, 1993, in which the vertical column suggested by Wolf Dieter Deckwer was replaced by an inclined column to effect the recirculation. See FIGS. 17 and 18.
In plants where aluminum scrap is melted converting the metal to liquid aluminum and then to cast products, it is customary to prepare alloys in batches of 50 tons or more. The composition and temperature of the liquid metal must be closely controlled. Predictable metal temperature means predictable timing and it becomes possible to schedule a greater output with less capital expenditure. These furnaces are fired with natural gas or fuel oil.
The inventive equipment obtains temperature and alloy homogeneity in the furnace, and provides a method for stirring the liquid metal to equalize the temperature in the furnace, and eliminating the thermal gradients in the liquid metal to optimize the alloying elements dissolution rate. The preferred method removes undesirable gasses entrapped in the aluminum melt by impinging inert gas at high velocity during the recirculation process. A method is disclosed for manufacturing this equipment to maximize its reliability, integrity, and life to withstand the rigorous environment and treatment to which it is subjected. Further, a method is disclosed for recovering the inert gas from the equipment, in order to minimize additional expense.
As the density of aluminum decreases with increasing temperature, the application of heat over the metal pool in the furnace produces a transient thermal gradient. When the pool depth in the furnace is approximately 36" and the pool is heated from above, approximately 30 minutes elapses before that heat reaches the bottom of the furnace. Because of aluminum's high reflectivity there is very low observable liquid metal convection. The heating rate of 50 tons of metal is in the vicinity of 106.degree. F. in half an hour. Therefore the bottom temperature lags by half an hour. Gradients develop which approach 200.degree. to 250.degree. from the top to the bottom of the melt.
To overcome the temperature control problem, to reduce energy consumption and to improve the reliability of alloying, forced stirring, or metal recirculation, of the melt is necessary. Electromagnetic and mechanical means are possible.
Electromagnetic means is ruled out because of the incredible installation costs. Mechanical means require a pump well outside the furnace proper, which further cools the molten metal, and introduces additional energy loss. The mechanical pumps currently used are subject to continuous failures and very high maintenance costs because of the severe environment. The inventive pump can be introduced into such a furnace below the metal line to effectively mix large tonnages of liquid metal while firing the furnace, thus permitting good temperature control, and fuel and time economy.
If a continuous jet of liquid is injected into a body of that liquid, then Fox and Gex (A.l.C.H.E. Journal 2.4.1956. Pg. 539) have shown that the mixing time of the body is given by: ##EQU1## Y=depth of the body of liquid D.sub.t =diameter
N.sub.re =Reynolds number of the liquid PA1 U=Kinematic viscosity of the liquid PA1 G=gravitational acceleration PA1 V.sub.o =jet velocity PA1 D.sub.o =jet diameter PA1 P2=absolute outlet pressure (usually .about.18.3 PSIA); and PA1 P1=absolute inlet pressure PA1 1. The flow between the gas jet and the suction of liquid metal is relative in motion, in which the liquid metal is sucked by the gas jet boundary with a transfer of momentum from the gas to the liquid. At this stage, the liquid and the gas are considered separate mediums. PA1 2. Under the action of the boundary gas jet velocity, the gas is broken into very small bubbles that are distributed in the liquid. As the bubbles impact the liquid molecules, the gas is compressed in the convergent zone of the nozzle and dispersed in the liquid. PA1 3. The gas bubbles are surrounded by liquid drops. The liquid drops coalesce into a mixture with the bubbles trapped in it, carried forward and further compressed. In this stage the liquid is considered the continual medium and the gas is distributed in the liquid as bubbles.
When the properties of the tank and the fluid are constant, ##EQU2## where N is the number of molten metal jets used.
A single jet pump inserted into a bath of aluminum inside the furnace has, (see FIGS. 23 and 24) when providing suitable mixing, the advantage of extreme simplicity (no moving parts immersed in the liquid aluminum).
The problems with prior art devices which move molten metal in a bath using two-phase flow technology is that the designs use bubble-lifting technology, which is extremely slow, has very poor effective gas distribution, poor gas dispersion in the metal and low flow velocity. The Areaux et al. design is aggravated by the inclined tube configuration. The operating efficiency and maximum velocity of a bubble pump reactor is obtained when the tube is vertical, since the head lifting capacity of the pump is dictated by the height of the molten metal pool. The bubble has to travel a longer distance in an inclined tube, thus increasing the time to reach the surface, and, consequently, reducing the velocity of the metal flow and the efficiency of the pump. It is also obvious by examining the Fox Gex equation that the velocity of the liquid aluminum stream inserted into the aluminum melt as well as the cross-sectional area of the stream should be as large as possible, since the time required to equalize the temperatures is inversely proportional to these two factors. Obviously, bubble column pumps do not have these attributes.
Another detrimental characteristic of the Areaux et al. bubble design is that the nitrogen gas is injected in the inclined tube perpendicular to the direction of metal flow. This is necessary to avoid additional severe complications in the design and manufacture of the inclined tube pump. Because of this, the injected gas acts as a fluidic restrictor, or shut-off valve (see FIG. 18) that prevents the metal from either flowing in the direction of the tube or entering the tube since the gas injected at the bottom of the tube is trying to expand in both directions.
An additional detrimental characteristic of the inclined tube bubble pump is that it forms elongated bubbles because they are trying to expand vertically toward the surface faster than toward the inclined outlet of the tube, thus creating a large back-flow of metal that reduces the pump efficiency to ranges well below 20%, (see FIG. 17). In addition, to allow the necessary time to generate a large enough bubble to seal the inclined tube and to keep the gas from impinging against the opposite wall of the tube and creating severe material damage because of the cavitation and erosion effect created, the inlet pressures that can be applied must be maintained far below sonic ratios.
Tests conducted by the writer on a typical inclined tube bubble pump of 21/2" diameter and a 45.degree. angle show that the inlet pressure could not be below a P2/P1=0.83, where:
At P2/P1 ratios below 0.83, the gas started exiting toward the lower end of the tube, stopping all possible flow for tubes inclined to a 45.degree. angle (see FIGS. 17 and 18). In other words, the gas inlet pressure for most furnace applications could not exceed 22.0 PSIA (7.3 PSIG). To achieve gas sonic velocity in a nitrogen gas flow process (K=1.4), the ratio P2/P1 must be maintained below 0.528 which will require a gas inlet pressure of 34.65 PSIA (19.95 PSIG) minimum, almost three times the maximum of an inclined tube bubble pump. This is not improved by pulsating the gas input since the average velocity of the gas and the metal remain almost unchanged and extremely slow. In tests conducted, the maximum metal flow velocity obtained was 12 to 14 in/sec, while the minimum required for a proper recirculation/degassing unit should be no less than 40 in/sec. A standard motor-driven recirculation pump has a metal flow velocity of approximately 40 to 60 in/sec. Based on the available test data, it can be stated that the maximum gas flow velocity in an inclined tube bubble pump will be approximately 112 ft/sec. The sonic flow velocity of nitrogen under the conditions stated (aluminum temperature 1740.degree. R., P2=18.3 PSIA), ##EQU3##
This is 5 times the maximum inlet velocity achievable on an inclined tube bubble pump with radial gas injection. Obviously, Areaux et al. have been extremely optimistic in the assessment of the performance of their pump.
Therefore, the bubble pump design is not an efficient recirculator degasser or dross emulsifier because effective recirculation velocity, degassing and dross emulsifying is only obtained by injecting the gas into the molten metal at the highest possible velocity (sonic or nearly sonic), in order to obtain the maximum possible metal flow velocity and gas dispersion into the metal for optimum removal of the entrapped gasses. When a high level of gas dispersion and flow velocity is the end result of forced liquid recirculation, the utilization of gas jets oriented centrally and axially in the direction of the metal flow is absolutely mandatory. The pumping of metal by the slow formation of large bubbles does not provide any of the basic stated requirements.
The design of multiple central axial jet gas injection distribution with an elliptical cross-section in the metal-lifting conduit, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, was disclosed in my patent application Ser. No. 08/560,661, filed Nov. 20, 1995, for a jet bubble-operated recirculating pump for a metal bath.
Because of the inclined tube's configuration, the Areaux et al. multiple porting gas injection does not work because it aggravates the fluidic shut-off valve effect. In my design (see FIGS. 5 and 6), the power jets create a high energy dissipation zone in which the gas is broken up into very small primary bubbles. The bubbles then coalesce to form large bubbles. An equilibrium bubble diameter is established that remains the same throughout the remainder of the conduit.
The extent of the coalescence and size of the bubbles at the equilibrium zone depends on the number of nozzles, the inlet and outlet pressures, the head of metal above the gas injection point and the liquid metal properties. Although the design in FIGS. 5 and 6 already presents great advantages with respect to efficiency, flow velocity and gas dispersion over that of an inclined tube design, testing and analyses conducted by the applicant confirm that additional compression of the gas into the liquid metal is required to achieve true degassing and high flow velocities that are not totally dependent on the liquid metal head above the pump.
Based on these evaluations, the pump configuration shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 has been created. A convergent/divergent nozzle zone feature has been added to the pump's vertical section, since in a jet column reactor the metal flow velocity and gas dispersion are not a function of the metal head above the pump. This assures, by accelerating the metal at the throat section of the tube nozzle, that a faster intermixing and a forcing of the gas dispersion into the metal will take place, retarding the gas coalescence and tendency to aggregate too soon into larger bubbles. The metal conduit nozzle area to throat area ratio is the most important design element for jet pumps and serves as a criterion in the same manner as specific speed does for centrifugal pumps (J. J. Whitte "Efficiency and Design of Liquid Gas Ejectors", British Chemical Engineering, Vol. 9, September 1965). Theoretical studies performed by Lu Hongqi indicate that this type of pump, when properly designed, should provide a higher velocity at a given flow than any centrifugal pump. With an output head 50% higher than that of a centrifugal pump, this translates into a proportional increase in outlet velocity. ##EQU4## This steep head capacity characteristic was corroborated in water testing by R. G. Cunningham, (Gas Compression with a Liquid Jet Pump, Journal of Fluids Engineering Transactions, A.S.M.E., Serial 1,96,3, September 1974). As there is a true two-phase flow, a unit weight of the liquid (molten metal+gas) is very different from that of the gas and that of the molten metal. The evaluation of the flow pattern is highly complex. The performance of what I call the "jet column degassing and dross diluting reactor" is related to the type of the conduit structure ("S", "C", "L", "T" and "U" shapes in this patent application, see FIGS. 2-5 and 19-21), number of gas injecting nozzles, inlet/outlet pressure ratio and physical orientation.
Another great difference exists between my inventive design and standard bubble column pumps because my pump will operate in any position (from horizontal to vertical) and generate flow upwards or downwards without a loss of efficiency, (see FIGS. 19-21), since it utilizes the energy transfer from the gas to the liquid, acting as a flow transfer machine and mixing reactor. Bubble pumps only flow upwards (inclined or vertically), and their efficiency is a function of the angle of inclination. Bubble pump designs only utilize the energy provided by the head of metal above the point of gas injection. If the column in a bubble pump, instead of being inclined, is in a horizontal position, the output and efficiency of the bubble pump would be zero (.DELTA.H=0). The transfer of energy in my pump, from the gas and its momentum to the liquid metal, is effected by the convergent/divergent nozzle provided on the straight portion of the "S" or "C" shapes, or the horizontal section shown in the "T" and "U" configuration (see FIGS. 2, 3, 5, 8, 19 and 21).
The general description of the operation of my inventive pump, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, can be broken into the following stages:
There has been a stage of semi-experiment and semi-theory in the study of liquid/gas jet pumps, mostly where the element injected at sonic velocity is the liquid, and the gas is provided for the purpose of dispersion because of its flammable, explosive or radiation condition. In my inventive pump, the liquid is in a metal pool, and the gas media is injected at near sonic or sonic velocity through the use of multiple nozzles centrally and coaxially aligned with the straight section of the "S" or "C" shaped conduit. Some of the formulations obtained by Lu Hongqui (the equations and critical flow conditions) have been used to size the experimental pumps. Verification of liquid metal flow and degassing efficiency were performed in both water and molten metal (aluminum), starting in November of 1994. For additional views of the "S" shaped and "C" shaped configurations, refer to FIGS. 3-8, 25 and 26.
My inventive pump also addresses the breakage and erosion problems encountered with pumps moving molten metals for recirculation or degassing purposes. A pump made of a relatively thin-walled ceramic material has been disclosed in my U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/560,661, filed Nov. 20, 1995, for a bubble-operated recirculation pump for a metal bath. The problem with a thin-walled ceramic device is that, although it is extremely resistant to erosion and corrosion from either the liquid metal or the dross in the metallic bath, the device is brittle and generally breaks when mistreated by the furnace operators. For example, when the furnace metal pool is loaded with solid metal ingots, the impact from one of these ingots can permanently damage a relatively fragile pump.
My improved pump encases the basic pumping conduit in a refractory body (see FIGS. 9 and 10). A ceramic conduit is placed in a box or mold and encased in a refractory mix after which it is fired dry in a kiln. Both the nitrogen feeding conduits and the thin-walled lifting conduits are then firmly encased in refractory material, thereby eliminating the possibility of breakage of the ceramic material. Tests conducted with this configuration show excellent life and impact resistance.
The preferred embodiment of my invention can also be made with a refractory body, without the use of a liner, by the well-known lost-wax method or other similar methods, where the pattern core is dissolved or melted. A device having no liner is especially useful in a zinc bath. The refractory material is basically a combination of alumina and silica and extremely resistant to molten zinc or zinc/aluminum alloys where the percentage of aluminum is below 25%. On the other hand, in an aluminum bath, aluminum is known to attack the silica material by alloying itself with the silicon in it and releasing the oxygen, forming dross that clogs the lifting conduit. For these particularly high aluminum alloys or aluminum applications, the refractory should be silica-free alumina.
A monolithic casting with a ceramic liner is not only extremely inert to aluminum attack up to temperatures in the order of 2000.degree. F.; but, in addition, it is very durable, hard and abrasion resistant to impurities carried by the molten metal. It can withstand severe cavitation problems that could be created by an improper lifting conduit configuration (inclined tubes with sharp turning corners as depicted in the Areaux et al. bubble pump patent (see FIG. 17), where a sharp transition from the inclined to the horizontal is prone to create severe cavitation damage in the tube, be it ceramic or any other material).
An additional advantage of my inventive reactor pump is that by utilizing my monolithic jet column degassing and dross diluting reactor, the conventional outside pumping well of recycling furnaces can be eliminated by recirculating the metal inside the furnace bath by installing a "C" shaped configuration jet column reactor in each corner of the furnace (see FIG. 15). The scrap can be loaded in the recycling furnace directly through a funnel conduit, minimizing heat loss and maximizing energy efficiency. The outside well needed for installation of the recirculation and degassing pump is eliminated (see FIG. 16).
Another application and advantage of the "C" shaped jet column reactor is that in the zinc and aluminum baths in the galvanizing industry, the dross comprising iron, aluminum and zinc/aluminum sinks to the bottom of the pot. This dross accumulates to the point where it touches the sink roll, around which the strip being galvanized is passing, thereby contaminating the strip and, on some occasions, completely stopping the rotation of the roll.
The advantage of my monolithic pump configuration is that, when placed at the bottom of the pot, it can be used to continuously recirculate the bottom dross. The jet gas disperses it into the liquid metal to prevent build-up. Preferably the bottom of the galvanizing pot is formed with a low spot, so the bottom dross will tend to concentrate at a location where it can be easily sucked in through the bottom inlet of my jet column reactor.
Yet another advantage of the jet column reactor is that the metal, gas flow velocity and gas dispersion capacity is not a function of the metal head above the pump. By increasing the pressure ratio between inlet and outlet to sonic (P2/P1<0.528), dross that has already been crystallized will become emulsified and its density reduced, generating a tendency for it to float. The floating dross can then be easily skimmed off the bath (see FIG. 19 and 26).
The preferred device, as shown in the drawings, uses a multi-orifice/nozzle (nitrogen, argon or helium feed) arrangement. Several small orifices are necessary and advantageous over a single large orifice because a very small high velocity jet generates bubbles which expand very fast past the nozzle throat, due to surface tension and the differential pressure between the gas and the metal. As the bubbles increase in diameter, they expand slower, reducing the total area exposed to contact with the metal and reducing the degassing ability of the pump (Sigworth G. K., 1982, "Hydrogen Removal from Aluminum", Meeting Trans. B, vol. 13B, pp 447-460).


A door bar system is provided. The door bar system is adapted to mount to the periphery of the opening of a secured door to prevent break ins therethrough. The door bar system provides at least one systemic hinged bracket providing a mounting plate to connect to the periphery of the door opening, therethrough, and into the supporting wall of the door opening. Each hinged bracket has a door bar engager pivotally connected to the mounting plate for moving between a collapsed condition, further lowering its profile, and an operable condition for engaging a door bar for locking the door in a secured configuration.

The present invention relates to devices for securing doors and, more particularly, to a door bar system adapted to mount to the periphery of the opening of a secured door to prevent break ins therethrough.
The conventional front door chain lock and deadbolt do not provide forcible entry protection. Current forcible-entry door security devices mount through the front of the door molding and through the wall to reach the wall studs, or they are unattractively and obstructively connected directly to the wall to reach the wall studs. Either way, although these current door security devices provide forcible entry protection, they require you to damage the wall or door molding.
As can be seen, there is a need for a door bar system adapted to mount to the inside of the secured door opening to prevent break ins, while preserving the aesthetics and structural integrity of the surrounding wall. The present invention system embodies at least one door bar hinge bracket mounted to the wall stud through the inner wall periphery/jamb. The door bar rests on hinge brackets, which are pivotal between an operable condition and a collapsed condition out of the way. The door bar is resistant to forcible entry break-ins engaging the hinge brackets in the secured configuration, while the door bar may be disengaged from the hinge brackets in the unsecured configuration.


The invention relates to a method for testing connections of metal workpieces to plastic compounds for cavities by means of ultrasound, wherein the plastic compound is arranged between the workpiece as an intermediate layer or is connected to the workpiece on one side and the cavity is located within the plastic compound, wherein the cavity is connected to the workpiece by means of a remaining plastic layer or plastic skin and wherein the plastic compound is exposed to ultrasonic signals of a certain test frequency and pulse length from the metal side of the workpiece by means of at least one ultrasonic probe, and in particular the ultrasonic signals reflected by flaws in the plastic compound are detected by the same or another ultrasonic probe and converted into electrical signals that can be evaluated and subjected to a threshold observation. The test frequency of the ultrasonic signals is set in a range of 1 to 10 MHz so that the attenuation of the sound is minimal after passing through the plastic skin.

The invention relates to a method for testing connections of metallic workpieces with plastic compounds for cavities using ultrasound.
Plastic compounds are to be understood in the following as relating to any type of plastics which may find application e.g. as adhesive for bonding metallic workpieces, as seal, or as coating materials for metallic workpieces. For example, these materials are used for realizing adhesive bonds when metal sheets or tubes are involved or coating thereof.
When workpieces, such as for example metal sheets or tubes, are coated with a plastic, the application may cause defects in the form of e.g. cavities (air bubbles) in the coating or as a non-adherent connection at the contact point between coating and workpiece. Such defects can cause filiform corrosion of the workpiece and thus lead to a premature breakdown as a result of pitting corrosion.
When producing adhesive bonds, e.g. when tubes are involved, it is known to connect the tube ends with one another by means of a sleeve through introduction of adhesive into a joint gap between sleeve and tube.
Typical flaws of such bonds are for example air bubbles and non-adherent connection zones (so-called kissing bonds).
Strength tests of bonded tube connections have shown that these flaws for this application become critical only when exceeding a size of about 20 mm. It has been further shown that even though air bubbles in particular of this size normally fill the entire height of the joint gap, they are enveloped by a thin adhesive skin (100 μm-200 μm thickness) which adheres to the tube wall.
In order to ensure a sufficiently firm and flawless connection of the tubes, adhesive bonds are typically inspected by means of ultrasound using normal sound incidence. The sound is coupled into the first joint partner (sleeve) and travels there through. At the interface to the adhesive layer, part of the sound is reflected whereas another part penetrates the adhesive. The part that penetrates causes a further echo when reflected at the backside of the adhesive layer. In contrast thereto, the part that is reflected at the top surface of the adhesive layer causes in contrast thereto a long echo train through repeated reflections in the sleeve wall.
In the simplest solution of ultrasonic inspection of adhesive bonds of tubes, as known from JP 57037257 A, amplitudes of the echo from the backside of the adhesive layer are used for analysis. Sound is hereby sent through the adhesive and the absence of the echo indicates a flaw.
In the evaluation of the reflected ultrasonic signals, the latter are converted into electric signals and selected, amplified, and evaluated via time windows and orifices. The evaluations relate to amplitudes of the signals and the running times between the signals.
The examined information, i.e. the amplitudes, limit value exceedance, running time, etc., is detected, analyzed, logged by an electronic data processor and displayed on a monitor.
Other solutions, known e.g. from JP 2000221173 A analyze echoes from the top surface of the adhesive layer. Evaluated are hereby in particular the shape of the echo signals to draw conclusions about the quality of the adhesive bond.
As the ultrasonic signals get substantially weaker also after the adhesive layer or the coating material has cured, all solutions based on through transmission have the drawback that the echoes from the bottom side of the adhesive layer or the coating material can become very small especially when greater layer thicknesses are involved.
Experiences have shown that echoes from the bottom side of the layer can no longer be detected when layer thicknesses of above few millimeters are involved. In addition, in the case of adhesive sleeve bonds, the small back side echo superimposes the echo train from the sleeve which echo train produces in turn great amplitudes.
The methods based on the detection of the phase of the echo from the top surface of the adhesive layer suffer several shortcomings. On one hand, the reliable automated detection of the phase position is very difficult. On the other hand, there is no change in the phase position at the transition steel/plastic to steel/cavity especially for metallic workpieces as a result of the great acoustic density.
Further complicating the situation is the fact that formed cavities are always located inside the plastic compound and a thin layer of the plastic compound also always exists at the interface to the metallic workpiece in the form of a skin in surrounding relationship to the cavity so that the transition steel/cavity does not occur. The ultrasonic signals thus always impact the material combination steel/plastic/cavity in the presence of such flaws so that a meaningful ultrasonic inspection is complicated.
This is also a problem in the presence of air pockets in plastic coatings which may also be enveloped by a thin skin of plastic.
A change in the bonding or coating parameters (thickness of the adhesive layer or coating, condition of the workpiece surface, etc.) causes fluctuations of the ultrasonic signals which can easily lead to misinterpretations when undertaking only localized analysis.
In summary, ultrasonic inspection faces the following problem when detecting flaws in connections of plastics with metallic workpieces:    1. Air bubbles developing during coating of a workpiece or during filling of a joint gap with adhesive are encountered within the plastic compound and have therefore at the interface to the workpiece always a plastic skin which seals off the cavity.    2. Even in the presence of such a cavity, there exists therefore always the transition steel/plastic but not the transition steel/air (cavity). The detection of air bubbles beneath the plastic compound is therefore complicated especially for methods which use the reflection from the interface in the metallic workpiece.    3. Changes of the thickness and surface condition of the metallic workpiece as well as interference effects cause variations of the echo amplitudes. The localized analysis of these amplitudes and their relationships in the absence of accounting for proximal criteria becomes therefore unreliable.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a reliable and cost-efficient method for testing connections of metallic workpieces with plastic compounds by means of ultrasound to obviate the drawbacks of the known methods so that cavities in the plastic layer can be unambiguously detected and evaluated.

Method for testing connections of metal workpieces to plastic compounds for cavities by means of ultrasound


A photographic element and process useful therewith comprises at least two light sensitive silver halide layers sensitized to green light and having differing degrees of light sensitivity, comprising in association with a higher sensitivity layer a yellow dye forming DIR coupler which releases a development inhibitor containing a weak inhibitor fragment, and further comprising in association with the lower sensitivity layer a cyan dye forming DIR coupler with a timing group containing a strong inhibitor fragment which releases a precursor of the development inhibitor fragment.

It has been desirable to improve the color rendition of photographic elements. More specifically, it is desirable to have the ability to inhibit the red- and the blue- sensitive layers to the desired degree as a function of green layer development.
One method for improved color reproduction is through the use of colored couplers as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,670; 2,428,054; and 3,148,062. However, with this method of color correction, the nonexposed areas are highly colored which can lead to long printing times. Furthermore, in a multilayer structure where the layer arrangement is blue-sensitive, green-sensitive, and red-sensitive, with respect to the exposing light only a yellow colored coupler could be used in the green-sensitive layers or there would be a loss in red layer sensitivity.
The use of "DIR couplers" or "development inhibitor releasing" couplers as defined in C. R. Barr, J. R. Thirtle, and P. W. Vittum, Photographic Science and Engineering, Vol. 13, 74N, 80 214-217 (1969),are generally known to provide interlayer effects and improve color reproduction through the imagewise release of inhibitor fragments. There are generally two types of inhibitor fragments: inhibitor fragments which strongly adsorb to silver and greatly suppress development (strong inhibitors) and inhibitor fragments which weakly adsorb to silver and suppress development to a lesser degree (weak inhibitors). Both types of inhibitor fragments can be linked to the coupler through a timing group which allows the inhibitor precursor to diffuse. However, DIRs linked through a timing group to a pyrazolone nucleus are unstable and costly to manufacture. Therefore, there is a need to have DIR compounds in the green sensitive layers which overcome the existing deficiencies.
There have been numerous attempts to define layer arrangements incorporating DIRs of various types. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,619 discloses the use of diffusible DIRs in a highest green-sensitive layer of a specified layer thickness. The inhibitor fragment released from the DIR may be diffusible because of its weak inhibiting ability or may be linked through a timing group to permit it to diffuse. However, no particular combination of DIRs to be used in the fast and in the slower layers is disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,308 teaches the inclusion of a DIR with a timing group in the fast, the slow and/or an intermediate nonsensitive layer of a multilayer pack. No particular arrangement of layers nor combination of DIRs is suggested.
Other U.S. patents that deal with the use of DIRs in multilayer applications are the following: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,963,465; 4,145,219; 4,273,861; 4,670,375; and 4,564,587. None of the disclosed arrangements provide the desired effect of green light on the red and blue records so as to improve the color rendition sufficiently.
It is therefore a problem to be solved to provide a photographic element and process which provide improved color rendition through the ability to inhibit the red- and blue-sensitive layers to the desired degree as a function of the development of the green-sensitive layers through the incorporation of a specified combination of DIRs.

Photographic element and process providing improved color rendition


A micro surgical lighting instrument includes a hollow needle and a light guide received coaxially within the hollow needle and connected to a light source for transmitting light to a surgical site of a patient. The light guide has a distal end formed with an end face of circular segment shape and defined by a plane oriented orthogonal to the axis of the hollow needle, and a slanted surface adjacent the end face and extending rearwardly at an acute angle, with the slanted surface being lined by a coating for reflection of incident light rays.

The present invention generally relates to a lighting instrument for use in microsurgical procedures, in particular for use in ophthamologic microsurgery in the hyaloid or vitreous humor of the eye, and more particularly relates to a lighting instrument of a type including an optic light guide traversing a cannula or hollow needle and connected to a light source for insertion in a vessel or chamber of the vitreous humor of the eye.
In vitreous surgery, the use of ophthalmologic illuminating probes in form of optic light guides is proposed which are so designed at their tip as to enlarge the radiating light cone. Such light guides, or light guides that are further enhanced by being outfitted at their tip with a microscopic device or lens, provide oftentimes insufficient illumination of the chamber in the vitreous humor to allow a clear diagnosis or to perform a surgical procedure. Moreover, conventional light guides are incapable to provide sufficient illumination in the vitreous humor of the eye near the point of entry of the light probe into the eye. Conventional light probes provide also insufficient lighting of the retina especially in cases where the lighting has to be sufficiently extensive to provide lighting behind some bumps which can occur on the retina and which sometimes obstruct the light path. This situation occurs most frequently when the point of entry of the light guide is situated in the same quadrant of the vitreous humor as the region to be illuminated. Also, conventional light guides encounter the drawback that light rays are reflected in such a way that the surgeon or diagnostician is blinded by improperly reflected light rays, thus leading to imprecision and complications of the surgical procedures.
European Pat. No. EP-A 0 651 981 discloses a lighting probe for vitreous surgery, which is particularly adapted to enlarge the spatial angle of light radiating from the light guide, by constructing the tip of the light guide of frustoconical shape and with tapering exit area. Alternatively, the light guide is formed as a truncated cylinder which has one end face provided with a micro-optical element or lens.
Other conventional microsurgical instruments for illuminating a surgical site in a vessel or vitreous humor are disclosed e.g. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,733,937 and 4,551,129, which describe light guides that are formed at their ends where light exits with additional optical devices in the form of lenses or the like.

Lighting instrument, in particular for use in ophthalmologic microsurgery


An optically amplified wavelength division multiplexing network has the functionality to add/drop channels at the optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM) nodes. The OADM node includes a receiver amplifier, an OADM module, and a transmitter amplifier. Once the OADM node detects a loss of signal (LOS) due to a fiber cut or network element failure upstream, the receiver amplifier is kept in operation as a noise source. The output of the receiver amplifier is immediately raised by increasing pump power to compensate for the LOS. The noise power received at the transmitter amplifier from the receiver amplifier is substantially equal to the signal power expected before LOS. The transient effect of downstream optical amplifiers is therefore completely suppressed and the inter-channel stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) induced spectrum tilt does not change. After the noise power is raised, the receiver amplifier may be shut down at a speed much slower than the speed of downstream amplifier control circuitry.

In optical telecommunication networks that use wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), multiple optical channels are carried on a single optical fiber. The single optical fiber is included in an optical fiber link, which includes the optical fiber and optical amplifiers and any other optical components between two connecting points or nodes along an optical transmission line. Each channel operates at a different wavelength in the optical fiber. New channels may be added and existing channels dropped in a node using an optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM) module.
Optical amplifiers are used to amplify WDM signals which are transmitted in a long (up to a few thousands of kilometers) optical fiber link. These amplifiers are used both in-line and at the transmitting and receiving end of an optical fiber link. In particular, erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) have become a well-accepted key enabler of WDM optical communication networks. The gain dynamics of EDFAs are generally considered to be slow in comparison to other gain media, and are a result of the long spontaneous lifetime of excited erbium ions (about 10 ms). For transmission of high-speed data, the gain of an EDFA is advantageously undisturbed by the signal modulation. The slow gain dynamics, however, also result in a slow response time. In the presence of a large instantaneous change in input power to the EDFA, the slow response time can cause adverse effects downstream.
For example, in optical networks with an optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM) module associated with each optical fiber link, the total input power to the optical amplifiers in the optical fiber link downstream of the OADM may fluctuate considerably due to changes in the number of channels in the network. This change in total input power induces gain fluctuations in the downstream optical amplifiers. Therefore, some kind of gain stabilization method is commonly used to keep gain constant in the optical amplifier while the input optical power fluctuates. During the gain stabilization process, the channels amplified by the optical amplifier may experience a much different gain from that before the input power change. This process is referred to as a transient effect.
In an extreme case, a fiber cut or equipment failure upstream from the OADM may occur, causing a transient effect on the transmission of surviving channels in the downstream link, i.e., in those channels added at the OADM. Due to the transient effect, the surviving channels may also experience transmission errors and, if severe enough, these errors may cause unwanted protection switching in optical networks. Protection switching is an automatic recovery feature for fiber or node failure, which functions by wrapping data traffic onto an alternate fiber link or switching the data in a failed channel to another channel.
One common solution to achieve stabilization of gain in the optical amplifiers is to integrate an automatic gain control (AGC) loop in the amplifier circuitry. Typically, gain is monitored by detecting optical power in and optical power out of an optical amplifier using optical taps before and after a gain stage. The actual gain is then calculated as the ratio of power out to power in. Adjustments to the actual gain by adjusting amplifier parameters to maintain a preferred operating gain of the optical amplifier can then be made in a feedback loop.
As an example of an optical amplifier, an EDFA is an optical fiber with a fiber core material doped with Erbium rare earth ions. Optical gain in an EDFA is created when the optical fiber core is pumped by a laser diode, for example, to a level at which amplification occurs. The gain level of the EDFA depends on an inversion level of erbium ions excited by the laser diode, also referred to as the optical pump.
To compensate for a loss of signal caused by an upstream fiber cut or equipment failure, the AGC loop in each optical amplifier downstream of the OADM is typically used with an optical pump control method. In the pump control method, the inversion level in the EDFA is typically adjusted to maintain constant gain using control electronics. An operating current of the laser diode pump is typically adjusted, thus changing the optical pump power. Alternatively, the laser diode current is constant and the optical pump power is adjusted with the use of a variable optical attenuator in an optical feedback loop.
Though the pump control method may be adequate to correct slow or small fluctuations in amplifier gain over time, it is inadequate to handle transient effects on surviving channels resulting from fiber cuts or equipment failure upstream from the amplifier. The response time of the AGC loop depends on the response time of the gain dynamics of the EDFA, which is unacceptably slow. In other words, the slow dynamics of EDFA, though advantageous in that the gain is subsequently undisturbed by the modulation of the transmission signal, pose a problem in the event of a fiber cut or equipment failure.
The pump control method is particularly inadequate in the case of the large channel count drop that occurs when there is a fiber cut or equipment failure in an optically amplified WDM network. Two problems arise in this case. In a WDM network, each channel of communication operates at a particular wavelength. A spectral power distribution as well as the optical power at the input to the downstream optical amplifier changes, therefore, when fiber cuts or equipment failures occur. First, the sudden large drop in optical input power to an amplifier downstream of the OADM cannot be accommodated by the pump control method due to the slow gain dynamics of the EDFA. The surviving channels will, therefore, experience much different gain during the transient duration from that before the optical input power change. Second, the large change in the spectral power distribution results in a large change of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) induced spectrum tilt in the downstream transmission fiber not compensated for by the pump control method. This is especially true for dense WDM transmissions.
SRS is a scattering phenomena, which occurs as a result of an incident wave scattering in a medium so that the incident wave is partially deflected to a higher wavelength. In an optical fiber supporting multiple wavelength-specific channels, energy from the channel with the lowest wavelength scatters into a next higher wavelength channel and so on. The result of this scattering phenomena is inter-channel signal mixing and a progressive increase in perceived gain in higher wavelength channels, which contributes to a spectrum tilt in the transmitted WDM signal. The spectrum tilt is further amplified as the WDM signal is transmitted through additional amplifiers and fiber in the network.
The SRS induced spectrum tilt changes as a result of both the abrupt change in the spectral power distribution of the input signal and the total optical input power change. SRS is an extremely fast (on the order of sub-picosecond) process. Consequently, both the transient gain and SRS spectrum tilt change could cause transmission errors for the channels transmitted to a downstream optical fiber link and undesired protection switching in the optical network.
Inserting a fast variable optical attenuator (VOA) into a multi-stage optical amplifier has been proposed to compensate the SRS induced spectrum tilt change. The control speed of VOA, however, cannot match the spectrum tilt change and the algorithm to simultaneously control both the pump power and VOA is very complicated and inadequately slow.
A second conventional method that has been proposed for transient control is the filler laser control method. The filler laser control method is to inject one or several high-power single frequency laser signals into the WDM transmission band at an OADM node. The output power of each filler laser is then adjusted to compensate the input power change due to fiber cut or network node failure upstream. Each filler laser occupies one WDM wavelength slot that could have been occupied by a transmission channel. Using multiple filler lasers occupying several WDM wavelength slots, therefore, reduces transmission capacity. Further, any filler lasers used must be inserted and spectrally filtered out at every OADM node.
In addition, a filler laser needs special modulation to avoid the stimulated Brillouin scattering that typically occurs when injecting high-power laser signals into a fiber. Brillouin scattering is caused by the interaction of light with acoustic waves in a media, resulting in some backscattered optical radiation. In a fiber, the backscattered radiation is guided and can result in efficient energy conversion of the input laser signal to the backscattered wave. The phenomenon ultimately limits the maximum optical power that can be launched into the fiber. Moreover, inhomogeneous broadening of optical amplifiers and the resulting spectral hole burning can cause gain variations at the optical wavelength of the filler laser, additionally limiting the capability of the filler laser control technique. As a result, the filler laser control method is complicated, costly, inefficient, and requires a reduction of the total transmission capacity of the optical network.
In summary, these and other conventional methods which have been employed in an attempt to mitigate the transient effect are complex, costly, and largely incapable of error free performance.
There is a need, therefore, for simple, low-cost, and high-performance transient control in dynamic optical networks. Specifically, a method and apparatus are needed for suppressing the transient effect and the related inter-channel SRS induced spectrum tilt change in the surviving optical channels, caused by upstream fiber cut or equipment failure.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Transient control solution for optical networks


The Internet facsimile apparatus is provided with a format converting section which converts image data to e-mail, and a mail transmission section which transmits the e-mail via a network. The format converting section converts the received facsimile data to an e-mail page by page. A destination address management section issues a management number for each piece of facsimile data, and at the same time issues a page number for each of page. The management number and page number are registered in a management table. The format converting section provides the management number and page number to the subject of an e-mail. Thereby, since the data capacity of the e-mail is reduced when transmitting and receiving the facsimile data via a network, it is possible to prevent receiving errors from occurring and to improve the transmission quality. Simultaneously, the e-mail is managed or supervised by the management number and page number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an e-mail converting apparatus which converts image data outputted by, for example, a facsimile apparatus or scanned by a scanner to electronic mail (hereinafter called xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d), and receives and transmits the same via the internet.
The present invention also relates to an internet facsimile apparatus in which the corresponding e-mail converting apparatus is incorporated, and the invention further relates to an e-mail transmission method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A facsimile apparatus has been developed, which transmits image data via the Internet by operations similar to those of general facsimile apparatuses. Since the Internet is used for the entirety or a part of a transmission channel, this type of facsimile is called an Internet facsimile (hereinafter called IFAX) or an e-mail type facsimile apparatus.
The IFAX is equipped with an e-mail converting apparatus which mutually converts a format of facsimile data to that of e-mail data or vice versa and performs receiving and transmission thereof. Therefore, the IFAX operates as described below. The transmission side converts the format of facsimile data to that of the e-mail and transmits the data. The receiving side converts the format of received e-mail to that of image data and prints out the data like facsimile data received by a typical facsimile apparatus.
However, if the transmission side converts facsimile data exceeding the capacity of a receiving memory of the receiving side and transmits the data, the receiving side produces a receiving error. Since the IFAX ordinarily can not perform any negotiation with the transmission side, the transmission side can not predict this receiving error.
Furthermore, in transmission over LAN and the Internet, data is divided packet by packet, and these packets are transmitted to complete the entire transmission. The original data is restored by reassembling these packets. Therefore, the more the volume of the transmitted data is increased, the higher the possibility of losing a part of the packets becomes. Therefore, incorrect data is lost may be formed, in which a part of the data. As a result, a higher quality in transmission can not be obtained.
Furthermore, sheets of recording paper vary in standard by country. For example, in European or North American countries, letter size sheets of recording papers are generally used while in Japan A4 and B5 size sheets of recording paper are usually used, and there are cases where a larger size of sheets such as B4 size sheets of recording paper are used. Therefore, there are differences in the performance of facsimile apparatuses by country. For example, generally, a facsimile apparatus used in Japan has a greater memory than in European countries. Since it is considered that the IFAX is used for international transmissions, it is desired that such differences between countries or regions are resolved.
It is therefore the first object of the invention to provide an e-mail converting apparatus which prevents receiving errors from occurring, improves the transmission quality, and is able to handle international transmissions.
It is the second object of the invention to provide an e-mail converting apparatus which prevents receiving errors from occurring, improves the transmission quality, and is able to handle international transmissions.
It is the third object of the invention to provide an e-mail transmission method which prevents receiving errors from occurring, improves the transmission quality, and is able to handle international transmissions.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, by an apparatus for converting image data to an e-mail, comprising: a format converting section for converting a plurality of image data to an e-mail per each divisional unit; and an e-mail transmitting section for transmitting said e-mail via a network.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, by a method of converting image data to an e-mail, comprising the steps of: converting each divisional unit of a plurality of image data to an e-mail; and transmitting said e-mail via a network.

E-mail converting apparatus, internet facsimile apparatus, and e-mail transmission method

Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc.


An event aware video system (EAVS) is to capture video frames during a first time period and process events in the video frames before transferring the processed data to a central computing system. The EAVS may establish a present no-event frame from the video frames by marking the last frame as the present no-event frame if the difference between adjacent pair of video frames is less than a threshold value. The EAVS may establish an event frame, wherein a present frame captured after establishing the no-event frame is marked as the event frame if the difference between the present frame and a previous frame is greater than the threshold value. The EAVS may provide event information including motion vectors to a central computing system by performing one-dimensional search on a moving object of the event frame, wherein the motion vectors may represent displacement of objects moving within the moving object.

Video surveillance systems generally comprise a plurality of video cameras and each video camera may capture the image of a specific area within the view of the video camera. The video cameras may capture the data and compress the video data before sending the compressed data to a central computing system. The video data may be processed to estimate the motion of moving objects. However, using two-dimensional approach to estimate the motion may be computationally intensive.

Estimating motion of an event captured using a digital video camera


An ion beam scanning assembly includes a set of scanning electrodes defining a gap to accept an ion beam and scan the ion beam in a first plane, and a multipole electrostatic lens system comprising a plurality of electrodes arranged along a portion of a path of travel of the ion beam bounded by the pair of scanning electrodes, the multipole electrostatic lens system configured to shape the ion beam in a direction perpendicular to the first plane.

Present day manufacturing for semiconductor electronics, solar cells, and other technology relies on ion implanter systems for doping or otherwise modifying silicon and other types of substrates. A typical ion implanter system performs the doping by generating an ion beam and steering it into a substrate so that the ions come to rest beneath the surface. Different types of ion implantation systems have been developed for different applications. High-current ion implanter systems are one type of implanter system that is widely used in semiconductor manufacturing. Such implanter systems typically produce currents up to 25 milliamperes (mA) and may be employed to efficiently introduce high doses of implanted species into a substrate.
Medium-current ion implanter systems have been developed to produce an ion beam having an intensity in the range of one microampere to about five mA, at energies between 2 kilo electron volts (keV) and 900 keV. These types of ion implantation systems may be especially useful to introduce dopant into a substrate in concentration ranges of about 1E13 to 5E14 or so. Generally, medium current implanter systems have been developed to operate by scanning a spot beam across a wafer In particular, for many applications, during ion implantation, it is desirable to achieve a uniform ion dose or beam current profile along the scan path. One approach to achieve this is to scan a spot beam in one plane while moving a target wafer in a direction orthogonal the plane to treat an entire surface of the target wafer. Scanning of an ion beam may be accomplished by the use of electrostatic scanners that are employed to controllably deflect the ion beam from its normal trajectory to span a larger area by changing the electric fields in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the ion beam. The strength of the scanner field determines the total deflection from the normal path of the ion beam, hence the ion beam may be scanned by changing the electric field strength of the scanner elements.
FIG. 1a depicts an ion implantation system 100 that is arranged according to the prior art. As illustrated, the ion implantation system 100 includes an ion source 102, which typically is used to generate positive ions for implantation. The positive ions are provided as an ion beam that is deflected, accelerated, decelerated, shaped, and/or scanned between its emergence from the ion source and a substrate to be processed. An ion beam 120 is illustrated in FIG. 1 by a central ray trajectory (CRT). However, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, that an ion beam has a finite width, height, and shape, which may vary along the beam path between the ion source 102 and substrate 112. FIG. 1a further depicts a mass analyzer 104 that deflects the ion beam, an electrostatic scanner 106, corrector magnet 108, and end station 110 that may manipulate the substrate 112. In known systems, the electrostatic scanner 106 generates an electric field that is generally perpendicular to the direction of travel of ion beam 120 as it passes through the electrostatic scanner 106.
FIG. 1b illustrates a known scenario in which a spot beam is used to implant a substrate. In the example shown, the substrate 112 is a circular wafer, such as a silicon wafer. FIG. 1b depicts a cross-section of the ion beam 120 projected onto the substrate 112. In known systems, it is typical for a scanner, such as the electrostatic scanner 106, to scan an ion beam along a direction, such as a direction 122 (shown as parallel to the X-axis of the Cartesian coordinate system illustrated), while the substrate 112 is independently translated along a second direction 124 (shown as parallel to the Y-axis), which may be perpendicular to the first direction. The action of translating the substrate along direction 124 together with the scanning of ion beam 120 along the direction 122 may allow the ion beam 120 to expose the entire substrate 112 to ions. In the example illustrated, the ion beam 120 is a spot beam having a height H1 and width W1.
As shown in FIG. 1b, when the ion beam 120 is scanned along the direction 122 the ion beam 120 covers a scanned area 126. Because of the size and shape of the ion beam 120 and shape of the substrate 112, in order to ensure that all desired regions of the substrate 112 are exposed to the ion beam 120, the ion beam 120 is typically scanned beyond the edge 128 of the substrate 112 as illustrated. For example, it may be necessary to scan the ion beam 120 past the edge 128 a distance comparable to or even larger than width W1, as suggested in FIG. 1b. The scanned area 126 may thus include a substantial region 130 (shown only along one side of the substrate 112 for clarity) that lies outside of the substrate 112 and represents a dose of ions that is "wasted," that is, the ions in region 130 are not used to implant or otherwise treat the substrate 112.
In addition, if the height H1 of the ion beam 120 is not sufficiently large, implantation dose non-uniformities may result. It may be desirable to ensure that the height H1 is not so large that ions strike beamline components such as pole pieces of corrector magnets that may be arranged to surround the ion beam 120. However, if the value of H1 is too small, the substrate 112 may be non-uniformly implanted when the substrate 112 is translated along the direction 124. For example, an ion beam 120 may oscillate in the direction 122 when the substrate is located at position P1, leading to implantation in an area on the substrate 112 that corresponds to the portion of the scanned area 126 that impinges on the substrate 112. The substrate 112 may then be stepped or scanned along the direction 124, leading to successive areas of comparable size to scanned area 126 being exposed on the substrate 112 due to the action of the electrostatic scanner 106. However, due to the finite dimension for the ion beam 120 along the direction 124, that is height H1, there may be underlap or overlap of the successive areas exposed by the scanning of ion beam 120 along the direction 122.
In order to improve uniformity in such ion implantation systems, it may be desirable to alter the beam size and or shape of an ion beam in cross-section. For example, extra lens elements may be added to the beamline to alter the beam shape, such as a lens to increase the beam spot size. However, the introduction of extra lens elements serves to increase the ion beam path length and to change the footprint of an ion implantation system, both of which are generally not desirable. In addition, the introduction of electrostatic scanners in series with components such as lens elements to shape the ion beam may create an increased region in which electrons are stripped from the ion beam. As is known, whenever electron are stripped or removed from a (positive) ion beam, the ion beam has a tendency to expand. This takes place due to the mutual repulsion of positive ions within the ion beam. The ion beam may be stripped of electrons anytime low energy electrons are attracted and accelerated out of the ion beam by a high positive potential applied to any of various beamline components. A result of beam expansion may include a reduction in beam current that can effectively be applied to a substrate.
What is needed is an improved method and apparatus to form more uniform beams in ion implantation systems, such as medium current ion implantation systems.

VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES, INC.


Systems and methods for mounting motors include a housing configured to secure motor supported by a motor support framework coupled to and housed within the housing. The motor support framework is suspended from the housing by one or more pluralities of vibration isolation devices. The housing is provided with a mounting surface configured couple the housing a quick-connect bracket disposed on a bulkhead or other structural element.

Small engines, such as motors for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are frequently secured within a fuselage or other structure. In order to improve ease of maintenance, a motor may be secured in such a way that it may be removed for servicing or replacement in the event of a failure. In order to secure a motor while still allowing it to be easily removed, conventional approaches secure the motor directly to a bulkhead or other structure at several points or to a cradle. In such approaches, the mounting arrangement frequently includes vibration isolation devices to prevent mechanical damage to the motor and surrounding structures during operation. Excess vibration is also undesirable in combustion engines, which may deviate from their intended operational parameters (e.g., fuel-air ratio) when exposed to strong vibrations.


A coating material includes silicon and/or aluminum, hydrogen and any two or more of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and fluorine. The coating material exhibits a hardness of about 17 GPa or greater and an optical band gap of about 3.5 eV or greater. The coating material includes, in atomic %, silicon and/or aluminum in an amount of about 40 or greater, hydrogen in an amount in the range from about 1 to about 25, nitrogen in an amount of about 30 or greater, oxygen in an amount in the range from about 0 to about 7.5, carbon in an amount in the range from about 0 to about 10, and optionally, fluorine and/or boron. Articles including the coating material may exhibit an average transmittance of about 85% or greater over an optical wavelength regime in the range from about 380 nm to about 720 nm and colorlessness.

The disclosure relates to durable and/or scratch-resistant coating materials and articles including the same, and more particularly to coating materials exhibiting high hardness and a wide optical band gap, and articles including the same.
Transparent substrates are often used in displays in consumer electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets. Other applications are also possible, such as architectural, automotive, appliances and the like. For such uses, the substrate should be abrasion resistant, scratch resistant, and should provide acceptable optical transparency and color point (in transmittance and/or reflectance). In addition, when used in displays, the substrate should minimize light absorption to minimize energy use, thus prolonging the battery life in portable device. The substrate should also exhibit minimum light reflectance so the display is readable in bright, ambient light. Moreover, the transmittance and reflectance should also be optimized so that colors in the display are accurately rendered over a range of viewing angles.
The application of hard coating(s) onto the surface of substrate has been attempted to enhance at least one or more of these desirable properties. Such coatings may be formed using physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes and can include aluminum-based materials such as aluminum nitride, aluminum oxynitride, and silicon aluminum oxynitride. Such materials exhibit high hardness, and optical transparency and colorlessness; however there may be processing limitations associated with such materials.
Known sputtered or PVD-formed silicon-based materials include a hydrogen-free SiNx, which may exhibit a hardness of about 22 gigaPascals (GPa) at stoichiometric N/Si=1.33. Known RF sputtered SiNx films have shown about 93% density and a hardness of about 25 GPa. It should be noted that such sputtered silicon-based materials require long deposition times. Moreover, such materials include less than about 1 atomic % hydrogen and exhibit inferior optical properties.
A recognized alternative is forming durable and/or scratch resistant materials by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which includes plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Accordingly, there is a need for providing durable and/or scratch resistant coating materials that may be formed by a variety of methods including CVD and PECVD methods, and which exhibit high hardness, optical transparency and colorlessness.

Scratch-resistant materials and articles including the same


A media communications system enabling mobile and desktop devices to communicate with websites relevant to a query that is shallow parsed, associated to predetermined categories, and regenerated as a conflated query array that includes extracted entities, associated categories, a location, and a geo-limit parameter. The media communications system further enables real-time messaging between the mobile and desktop devices and the websites, as well as generation of well-formed websites, media, and multimedia, with pre-rendered embedded content, and enables to concurrently and automatically demographically and geographically distributed push notifications to the websites and devices, and embeds relevancy-amplified, geotargeted media and multimedia communications, which media are selected by real-time machine-learned, high-probability consumer interest weighting and relevancy functions that are continuously updated in response to monitored consumer actions. The system further enables geographically regional and inter-regional systems management to enable automated replication and regional and demographic testing of the geotargeted and relevant communications.

Despite much progress in recent decades, problems persist in the mobile device field of technology with respect to enabling efficient, predictable, and responsive communications of various types of media to unmoving or static devices and moving and dynamic mobile devices. Challenges presently exist with current systems and methods available for managing large mobile device communications networks, for enabling updated media to be created and disseminated, for preventing dissemination of undesired media communications, and for enabling more predictable and desirable communication of preferred media communications.
Such preferred media communications have long been sought by both those creating new and interesting media, and by those seeking notification of the availability of such new media. However, present day systems and methods fall short in enabling these capabilities, and instead often rely upon seemingly and apparently random dissemination of ineffective, unwanted, and irrelevant media communications. In fact, most mobile and static devices are often crammed and inundated with media communications that are not relevant to any particular subject matter or category of data, or any particular geographic area or region. Further, such unwanted media communications are often sourced from suspicious and shadowy online predators who are seeking only to surreptitiously capture personal information from unprotected mobile or static devices.
Many existing mobile device communication methods and systems purport to enable sophisticated and targeted media communications to specifically identified demographic and geographic mobile and static devices or entities. However, most such systems and methods fail to achieve their advertised capabilities, and are instead limited to generating revenue streams as a function of mass cramming of untargeted, repetitive media communications to unsuspecting mobile and static devices. Whether such mass cramming is sourced from putatively reputable entities, or less savory purveyors, recipient mobile and static devices and their users rarely benefit.
Despite decades of progress in the mobile communications management field, vast numbers of legitimate businesses remain often unwilling to try to use them, and are therefore unable to communicate with mobile and static devices in any effective way. This is primarily because so many have found the existing systems to be entirely ineffective, extraordinarily expensive, and far too unreliable, unprofitable, and time consuming to employ. Moreover, anecdotal experiences demonstrate that past attempts have been eclipsed by large, online entities that unfairly control and consume nearly all available bandwidth for such media communications.
Other technical problems that persist in the management of mobile communications systems have arisen from the need for mobile devices to use new tools to block unwanted, unpredictable, and sometimes malicious media content from being communicated to mobile devices from otherwise legitimate sources. As an example, many mobile devices have been inundated with seemingly random media content when such devices are being used to communicate with other devices and resources across the internet and World Wide Web.
As a result of the deluge of such undesirable media, mobile devices as well as static devices have adopted new technology that prevents such undesirable media from being communicated to the mobile devices. Unfortunately, however, this new blocking technology cannot distinguish important or otherwise desirable media from the unwanted or malicious media. In turn, the mobile devices are then impaired in that they cannot receive possibly needed media and programming code bundled with that media in bundled data or data streams, and thus the mobile or static devices lose or suffer from degradation of needed functionality.
What continues to be needed but otherwise unavailable is a system that enables more precise media communications with mobile and static communications devices and electronics. The mobile, internet, and world wide web communications industry would be favorably disrupted and benefit tremendously from new systems and methods that enable mobile system communications with targeted media that can be directed as a function of geographic location as well as a measure of media relevancy to the targeted mobile devices.
The field of mobile communications would very likely be receptive to new capabilities that enable mobile communication of media having amplified relevancy measures that take advantage of predetermined preferences, which might ideally include categories of interest, and even favorite items of interest to individually configured mobile devices and electronics. Such technical improvements would enable mobile, static, and other electronic devices to avoid impaired or degraded operational capabilities.
Enabling unimpaired and optimized media communications to such devices would also ensure that needed programming code and related information could reach these devices in an efficient and timely way because the mobile devices could avoid having to use the media blocking technologies. More preferably, even if such blocking technologies remain, the long sought improvements should create new capabilities and technologies that enable important, targeted, and more precise media communications and code and related information bundled into the media communication data streams, to bypass or avoid the blocking technologies and reach the mobile and other electronic devices.
A need also continues to persist to enable information requests, messages, and/or queries to be communicated, parsed, and associated with subject matter categories of interest that have a high probability of being relevant to the original request, query, and/or message. This capability should enable the mobile and static devices to identify and retrieve needed information, and to receive desired, important, and related media communications that can be obtained despite media blocking technologies. It is further desired to enable the capability for website and network site operators to be notified when such queries may relate to the subject matter relevant to them, and to generate and receive communications and media in reply and relevant to the queries. The previously described geotargeting and amplified relevancy capabilities should also be compatible for use in generating and receiving such communications and media.


An electronic component cooling system for printed circuit board enclosures includes a plurality of fans, each coupled to an air deflection unit which selectively forces air from the fans through the printed circuit boards. The system includes at least one thermal diffuser and at least one air concentrator. The thermal diffuser is placed between a stack of two or more shelving units to avoid the development of hot spots or dead zones. The air concentrator provides the ability for certain components which have a high heat output to receive a greater amount of air flow than other components which have lower heat outputs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally pertains to a system for cooling electronic components mounted on an electronic component rack. More particularly, the invention pertains to a forced air electronic component cooling system which utilizes several fans and selectively configured air deflectors to provide uniform cooling of electronic components within a multilevel electronic component rack.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic equipment, such as communication or computing hardware, typically comprises a plurality of printed circuit boards which are mounted within a shelving unit. Typically, a plurality of shelving units are stacked one upon the other in an enclosure. Enclosures are required in an outdoor environment to prevent environmental hazards such as rain, snow, sleet and flying debris from damaging the electronic components. For indoor environments, enclosures are used to prevent inadvertent damage to electronic components by people working in the vicinity of the enclosures.
One of the critical factors in maintaining a proper ambient environment for electronic components, whether outdoor or indoor, is to maintain the temperature of the enclosure within a desired operating range. The printed circuit boards must be cooled to ensure proper operation of the electronic circuits and to prevent premature electronic component degradation and failure. Since the number of electronic circuits on each printed circuit board has increased exponentially with the advance of VLSI circuit design, the thermal density of the printed circuit boards has also greatly increased. Providing adequate cooling for all printed circuit boards within an enclosure has become problematic.
To maintain cooling for a shelving unit which accommodates a plurality of printed circuit boards exhibiting a high thermal density, forced air cooling structures having fans are typically used. In this type of cooling structure, an important factor for realizing effective heat removal is not only the temperature of the cooling air which removes the heat from the circuit board, but also the velocity of the air flow.
There have been attempts in the prior art to address the cooling problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,874 discloses a printed circuit board mounting assembly which provides uniform cooling for an array of printed circuit boards. A fan is provided for each card cage, with each cage having a plurality of printed circuit boards mounted therein. A high velocity centrifugal fan blows air into in a plenum having a perforated screen. The screen is configured to include a series of crests and troughs which cause air turbulence. This uniformly directs the air flow through the screen and past the printed circuit boards. Although this assembly ensures adequate cooling by providing a separate fan for each printed circuit board cage, loss of the fan may result in severe damage of the printed circuit boards in that cage due to thermal overloading.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,485 discloses an air baffle assembly for mounting in a printed circuit board cage. The baffle maintains a constant uniform impedance to the flow of cooling air across a vacant space on a partially populated electronic mounting frame for printed circuit boards. The baffle assembly includes end boards mounted on opposite sides of the vacant space and a web member which extends between the boards. The web member has a plurality of small apertures to approximate the impedance presented by populated portions of the frame. This assembly utilizes a single fan to cool the printed circuit boards. Accordingly, failure of the fan would result in eventual failure or damage to the electronic components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,631 discloses a cooling structure having a plurality of fans for cooling an electronic equipment rack. The structure comprises a plurality of shelving units stacked one upon the other. Each shelving unit has upper and lower venting apertures and accommodates a plurality of printed circuit boards. Each shelving unit is divided into a plurality of separate cooling blocks. The fan for each cooling block generates a flow of air through a portion of the shelving unit from bottom to top. Use of separate cooling blocks increases the risk that failure of the fan will result in degradation to components within that cooling block.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a forced air cooling system which provides adequate flow to each of the electronic components in an enclosure while providing redundancy in the case of fan failure.


A ball valve can include a housing that contains a flow path and a ball positioned in the flow path. The ball can be configured to seal a first portion of the flow path from a second portion of the flow path in a closed position, and at least a portion of the ball can be dissolvable and the ball can include a bore formed therethrough.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the presently described embodiments. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the described embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light and not as admissions of prior art.
Wellbores are sometimes drilled into subterranean formations containing hydrocarbons to allow recovery of the hydrocarbons. During the drilling and production of a hydrocarbon bearing formation, various procedures may be performed that involve temporarily isolating fluid flowing between the surface of a wellbore and the formation through a wellbore tubular. Such procedures can include flow control operations, completion operations, and/or interventions. Various valves, including ball valves, may be used during these procedures to control the flow of fluid through the wellbore tubular. Ball valves generally include a ball seat for receiving a sealing ball. In some situations, ball valves may fail during use, which may reduce the ability to establish fluid communication between the surface of the wellbore and the formation through the wellbore tubular. In some instances, should the ball become stuck in a closed position, the only way to gain access to the reservoir below the ball is to mill the ball, which is often a time and resource consuming operation.


Packet-level multicasting may be used to avoid the cell header and the memory size problems. One or more multicast control cells may be appended before one or more data cells of a multicast packet to carry multicast bitmap information. The control cell may be stored at the cell memory. This approach is suitable for a multi-plane, multi-stage packet switch.

§1.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns communications. In particular, the present invention concerns large scale switches used in communications networks.
§1.2 Background Information
To keep pace with Internet traffic growth, researchers continually explore transmission and switching technologies. For instance, it has been demonstrated that hundreds of signals can be multiplexed onto a single fiber with a total transmission capacity of over 3 Tbps and an optical cross-connect system (OXC) can have a total switching capacity of over 2 Pbps. However, today's core Internet Protocol (IP) routers' capacity remains at a few hundred Gbps, or a couple Tbps in the near future.
It still remains a challenge to build a very large IP router with a capacity of tens Tbps or more. The complexity and cost of building such a large-capacity router is much higher than building an OXC. This is because packet switching may require processing (e.g., classification and table lookup), storing, and scheduling packets, and performing buffer management. As the line rate increases, the processing and scheduling time available for each packet is proportionally reduced. Also, as the router capacity increases, the time for resolving output contention becomes more constrained.
Demands on memory and interconnection technologies are especially high when building a large-capacity packet switch. Memory technology very often becomes a bottleneck of a packet switch system. Interconnection technology significantly affects a system's power consumption and cost. As a result, designing a good switch architecture that is both scalable, to handle a very large capacity, and cost-effective remains a challenge.
The numbers of switch elements and interconnections are often critical to the scalability and cost of a switch fabric. Since the number of switch elements of single-stage switch fabrics is proportional to the square of the number of switch ports, single-stage switch fabric architectures are not attractive for large switches. On the other hand, multi-stage switch architectures, such as a Clos network for example, are more scalable and require fewer switch elements and interconnections, and are therefore more cost-effective.
FIG. 1 shows a core router (CR) architecture 100 which includes line cards 110,120 a switch fabric 130, and a route controller (not shown) for executing routing protocols, maintenance, etc. The router 100 has up to N ports and each port has one line card. (Note though that some switches have ports that multiplex traffic from multiple input line cards at the ingress and de-multiplex the traffic from the switch fabric to multiple line cards at the egress.) A switch fabric 130 usually includes multiple switch planes 140 (e.g., up to p) to accommodate high-speed ports.
A line card 110,120 usually includes ingress and/or egress functions and may include one or more of a transponder (TP) 112,122, a framer (FR) 114,124, a network processor (NP) 116,126, and a traffic manager (TM) 118,128. A TP 112,122 may be used, for, example, to perform optical-to-electrical signal conversion and serial-to-parallel conversion at the ingress side. At the egress side, it 112,122 may be used, for example, to perform parallel-to-serial conversion and electrical-to-optical signal conversion. An FR 114,124 may be used, for example, to perform synchronization, frame overhead processing, and cell or packet delineation. An NP 116,126 may be used, for example, to perform forwarding table lookup and packet classification. Finally, a TM 118,128 may be used, for example, to store packets and perform buffer management, packet scheduling, and any other functions performed by the router architecture (e.g., distribution of cells or packets in a switching fabric with multiple planes).
Switch fabric 130 may be used to deliver packets from an input port to a single output port for unicast traffic, and to multiple output ports for multicast traffic.
When a packet arrives at CR 100, it 100 determines an outgoing line to which the packet is to be transmitted. Variable length packets may be segmented into fixed-length data units, called "cells" without loss of generality, when entering CR 100. The cells may be reassembled into packets before they leave CR 100. Packet segmentation and reassembly is usually performed by NP 116,126 and/or TM 118,128.
FIG. 2 illustrates a multi-plane multi-stage packet switch architecture 200. The switch fabric 230 may include p switch planes 240. In this exemplary architecture 200, each plane 240 is a three-stage Benes network. Modules in the first, second, and third stages are denoted as Input Module (IM) 242, Center Module (CM) 244, and Output Module (OM) 246. IM 242, CM 244, and OM 246 often have many common features and may be referred to generally as a Switch Module (SM).
Traffic enters the switch 200 via an ingress traffic manager (TMI) 210 and leaves the switch 200 via an egress traffic manager (TME) 220. The TMI 210 and TME 220 can be integrated on a single chip. Therefore, the number of TM chips may be the same as the number of ports (denoted as N) in the system 200. Cells passing through the switch 200 via different paths may experience different queuing delays. However, if packets belonging to the same flow traverse the switch via the same path (i.e., the same switch plane and the same CM) until they have all left the switch fabric, there should be no cell out-of-sequence problem. FIG. 2 illustrates multiple paths between TMI(0) 210a and TME(0) 220a. The TMI 210 may determine the path ID (PID) of each flow using its flow ID (FID). The PID may correspond to a switch fabric plane 240 number and a CM 244 number in the plane 240.
In the embodiment 200 illustrated in FIG. 2, the first stage of a switch plane 240 includes k IMs 242, each of which has n inputs and m outputs. The second stage includes m CMs 244, each of which has k inputs and k outputs. The third stage includes k OMs 246, each of which has m inputs and n outputs. If n, m, and k are equal to each other, the three modules 242,244,246 may have identical structures.
From the TMI 210 to the TME 220, a cell traverses four internal links: (i) a first link from a TMI 210 to an IM 242; (ii) a second link from the IM 242 to a CM 244; (iii) a third link from the CM 244 to an OM 246; and (iv) a fourth link from the OM 246 to a TME 220.
In such a switch 200, as well as other switches, a number of issues may need to be considered. Such issues may include supporting multicast. Section 1.2.1 introduces the need for multicasting.
§1.2.1 Cell and Flow Level Multicasting
Multicasting may involve sending a packet from one point (or multiple points) to multiple points. In the context of a switch or router, multicasting may involve sending a packet or cell from one input port to multiple output ports.
Traditionally a multicast function has been implemented using a multicast bitmap in the cell header (i.e., at the cell level) or using a multicast table in the switch fabric (i.e., at the flow level). However, these two approaches do not work well in some large systems as explained below.
Implementing multicasting at the cell level doesn't work well in some large systems because the required bitmap size may be too big to carry in the cell header. For example, if the number of ports is 4096 and multicasting is performed in two stages, the bitmap size should be 128 bits (64 bits in each stage). For example, in a 40-Tb/s system such as that described in the '733 provisional, the required bitmap size would be 128 bits in the cell header (64 bits for the CM and 64 bits for the OM), which is larger than the 96-bit cell header.
The flow level approach doesn't work well with some large systems because the required multicast table size is too large to implement using (year 2003) state-of-the-art VLSI technology because the number of flows the multicast table should maintain requires too much memory space to be practical. For example, if the number of ports is 4096 and each port maintains up to 100 multicast flows, and the number of CMs is 64, the number of flows going through an OM can be 26,214,400 (=64×4096×100) and the required memory size for the multicast table is 1.6 Gbit. More generally, since each OM receives a packet from any TMI through any CM in the same plane, the number of flows is 4096*64*X, where X is the number of multicast flows from one TMI to the OM through the CM. Even if it is assumed that X is equal to 1, each OM should support 256 k multicast flows, leading to 16-Mbit memory size, which is too challenging with current (year 2003) technology.
In view of the foregoing, a new multicasting approach suitable for the multi-plane multi-stage switch architecture would be useful.


An ozone delivery system for delivering and manufacturing a measured amount of an ozone/oxygen admixture, which is able to measure, control, report and differentiate between delivered-ozone and absorbed-dose of ozone. Improved gas-fluid contacting devices that maximize gas-fluid mass transfer may be included. All gas contacting surfaces of the system, including one or more gas-fluid contacting devices are made from ozone-inert construction materials that generally do not absorb ozone or introduce amounts of contaminants or deleterious byproducts of oxidation into a fluid or non-fluid target from ozone oxidation.

Historically, ozone has been used as a disinfectant or sterilizing agent in a variety of applications. These include fluid-based technologies such as: purification of potable water, sterilization of fluids in the semi-conductor industry, disinfection of wastewater and sewage, and inactivation of pathogens in biological fluids. Ozone has also been used in the past as a topical medicinal treatment, as a systemic therapeutic and as a treatment of various fluids that were subsequently used to treat a variety of diseases.
Previous technologies were incapable of measuring and differentiating between the amount of ozone that was delivered and the amount of ozone actually absorbed and utilized. This meant previous medicinal technologies for use in patients were incapable of measuring, reporting or differentiating the amount of ozone delivered from the amount that was actually absorbed and utilized. This problem made regulatory approval as a therapeutic unlikely. Previous fluid treatment technologies were also incapable of measuring, reporting or differentiating the amount of ozone delivered from the amount that was actually absorbed by a fluid.
In addition, early approaches of mixing ozone with fluids employed gas-fluid contacting devices that were engineered with poor mass transfer efficiency of gas to fluids. Later, more efficient gas-fluid contacting devices were developed, but these devices used construction materials that were not ozone inert and therefore, reacted with and absorbed ozone. This resulted in absorption of ozone by the construction materials making it impossible to determine the amount of ozone delivered to and absorbed by the fluid. Furthermore, ozone absorption by construction materials likely caused oxidation and the subsequent release of contaminants or deleterious byproducts of oxidation into the fluid.

Ozone delivery system including a variable pitch gas-fluid contact device


According to one embodiment, a content summarizing apparatus includes a selection unit, a record unit, and a storage unit. The selection unit selects at least one image from input content in accordance with at least one selection criterion and at least one parameter corresponding to the at least one selection criterion, and to produce a summary. The record unit cause the storage unit to store a summary record information item that includes the at least one selection criterion and the at least one parameter used by the selection unit. The storage unit stores the summary record information item whenever the summary of the input content is produced. The selection unit acquires past summary record information items from the storage unit, and produces the summary using the at least one selection criterion and the at least one parameter that fails to be included in the past summary record information items.

Conventional content summarizing apparatuses generate one optimal summarized slide show, and cannot provide different summarization results even if the same content is processed several times.
In the conventional apparatuses, since images selected based on one image selection criterion are summarized, more than one summary cannot be produced as mentioned above. Only one summary will soon make viewers bored.

Content summarizing apparatus and content summarizing displaying apparatus