A cooling system for cooling a structure. There is a refrigeration cooling unit; a duct system of the refrigeration cooling unit; an evaporative cooling unit in fluid communication with the attic, and in thermal communication with the duct system; and an exhaust fan providing fluid communication between the attic and an exterior of the structure. The cooling system includes a smoke detector, such that activation of the smoke detector deactivates the evaporative cooling unit. The exhaust fan and the evaporative cooling unit are in logical communication such that activation of the evaporative cooling unit activates the exhaust fan. The exhaust fan is adjacent the duct system. The evaporative cooling unit includes a thermostat in thermal communication with the attic and in control of the evaporative cooling unit according to a threshold temperature of the attic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for cooling air within a building structure and, more particularly, to combined cooling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, it has been known to use devices to evaporatively cool air within building structures whether they be residential or commercial. It is known that heat from the sun may cause structures which house people to heat up resulting in uncomfortable temperatures within such structures. It is often desired by people for systems to be employed to reduce the temperatures within these naturally overheated structures. Various cooling systems exist for such purposes. Often such cooling systems focus on circulating air within the structures and cooling the air by means of evaporative cooling and/or refrigeration cycles. Often there are spaces such as attics or overhead crawlspaces which are not cooled. Since heat flows from a high to a low, any duct work present in such spaces is heated by the hotter air within such space thereby minimizing the effect of the air conditioning. Therefore there is a need for a cooling system which effectively and efficiently cools overhead spaces thereby maximizing the operation of the entire cooling system which maintains comfortable temperatures in the human occupied space of structures. Some improvements have been made in the field. Examples include but are not limited to the references described below, which references are incorporated by reference herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,601, entitled Structural Cooling Systems And Methods, discloses an evaporative cooling system. Specifically, there is a structural cooling system which includes an evaporative cooler suitable for cooling a body of air in an upper, enclosed chamber of a structure, such as an attic, and a series of vents or ducts, particularly around the perimeter of the building, for applying the cooled air selectively to high heat-gain portions of the exterior of the structure. An interior cooling system, which may include an air-conditioning unit, is suitable for cooling the interior of the building, but will require only reduced capacity, because of the cooling effect on the structure's exterior.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,075, entitled Evaporative Air Cooling Apparatus, discloses an evaporative cooling system. Specifically, there is an evaporative cooler apparatus and method of operation that was conceived and developed to humidify and cool the attic space between the roof and the ceiling of man-made buildings or other structures. The apparatus is comprised of an induced draft fan assembly which blows air through an evaporation bundle comprised of one or more concentric cylinders of fibrous evaporation pads. The most advantageous embodiments of the invention and optimum parameters of operation result in reduced costs for installation, for evaporation water, for electrical power, and for service and maintenance as compared with devices of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,965, entitled Evaporative Roof Cooling System, discloses an evaporative cooling system. Specifically, there is an evaporative roof cooling system for placement upon a roof surface exposed to relatively high levels of solar radiation. The system includes water distribution piping and a plurality of mist/spray nozzles positioned on the roof surface for supplying a uniform spray of water thereover to lay down a substantially uniform thin film of water on the roof surface. A solenoid-controlled valve controls the supply of water to the system over periods during which the temperature of the roof surface is measured to be within a predetermined temperature range. A thermistor, encapsulated in an epoxy block, is affixed to the roof surface and monitors and measures the actual roof temperature. Cooling systems control circuitry, in electric communication with the thermistor and the solenoid-controlled valve, compares the electric resistance value developed by the thermistor and a range of current values related to the predetermined temperature range and directs the opening of such valve when the termister senses the high point temperature of such range and the closing of such valve when the thermister senses the low point temperature of such range whereby the mist/sprays of water discharged from the nozzles evaporatively cool the roof surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,480, entitled Evaporative Cooling Device and Process, discloses an evaporative cooling system. Specifically, there is an evaporative cooling unit which fits within a building wall. The evaporative cooling unit includes a remote fan which pulls air through the unit into a space to be cooled and also exhausts warm air from the space.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,696, entitled Method And Apparatus For Cooling Air And Water, discloses an evaporative cooling system. Specifically, there is an invention that provides a method and apparatus for efficiently using various components as a system for cooling air. The apparatus uses the combination of an evaporative cooler, a refrigerated air system with a water-cooled condenser, a swimming pool pump, and a swimming pool or other bulk water storage container. A pump or series of pumps are used to supply water to the evaporative cooler and to the water-cooled condenser from the swimming pool. After the swimming pool water has been supplied to the other components in the system, it is returned to the swimming pool. During cooler weather, the output air from the evaporative cooler is supplied to a series of ducts and is used to cool the interior of a structure such as a home. When the outside ambient temperature and/or humidity levels exceeds the capabilities of the evaporative cooler for cooling the interior of the structure to the desired temperature, the output air from the evaporative cooler is re-directed to the attic space of the structure and the refrigerated air from the refrigerated air system is used to cool the interior of the structure. By using the output air from the evaporative cooler to cool the attic space, the overall cooling load on the refrigerated air system is reduced. In addition, the use of the water from the swimming pool to condense the refrigerant vapors will enable the system to achieve even greater efficiency and will provide an added benefit of lowering the temperature of the water stored in the swimming pool.
U.S. Pat. Des. 244,294, entitled Evaporative Cooler, discloses an ornamental design for an evaporative cooler.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which include unduly complex, limited application, difficult to operate, difficult to install, unduly large, unreliable, and/or fail to independently and/or exclusively cool the attic space effectively, efficiently and/or conveniently.
What is needed is an attic evaporative cooling system that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.


A transformer saturation compensation circuit for loudspeakers in embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the following features: (a) a transformer with a primary winding and a secondary winding electrically coupled to an output, (b) a high pass filter, (c) a current dependent resistive load electrically coupled in parallel with the capacitor and electrically coupled to an input, (d) a switch located at the primary winding electrically coupled to the capacitor and the resistive load, the switch being rotatable to each of the taps, where the current dependent resistive load provides saturation compensation for different loudspeaker configurations without requiring changes to a highpass filter cutoff frequency, and (e) a resistive load electrically coupled in parallel with the current dependent resistive load and the capacitor.

The use of transformers in electrical systems is well known in the art. Transformers are commonly used to provide galvanic isolation for wires carrying signals over substantial lengths, such as wires delivering audio input to loudspeakers. The frequency range over which a conventional transformer is capable of providing linear, distortionless, and un-attenuated signal transfer, however, is limited by the magnetic saturation of the transformer's core. Saturation occurs when a transformer is driven to induce a net flux density higher than its core can support. It is known from transformer theory that flux density is proportional to the ratio of winding current to frequency. Thus a transformer will tend to saturate at higher currents and lower frequencies.
As a high voltage distributed line audio transformer approaches saturation at low frequencies, its impedance decreases rapidly causing an abrupt increase in current draw which can cause the driving amplifier to go into a self-protection mode or fail. A small number of transformers nearing saturation may not pose a problem to a large, well designed amplifier, but as the number of transformers on a given line increases, their combined impedance drop near saturation may appear as a dead short to the amplifier, causing said amplifier to interrupt the program in an effort to prevent its own destruction. Good system design dictates that a high pass filter be inserted into the signal chain at the amplifier input for the purpose of filtering out those low frequencies likely to cause a problem. Presently, the accepted practice when increasing the number of transformer equipped loudspeakers on a high voltage distributed line is to raise the high pass filter frequency to a point that will not allow any frequencies capable of causing transformer saturation to be passed down the line. (E.g., instead of a 50 Hz hi-pass that may be suitable for one or two speakers, a large number of the same speakers may require a hi-pass frequency of 100 Hz or higher to protect the amplifier from the combined effects of transformer saturation.) This increase in hi-pass filter frequency greatly reduces low frequency response and causes music to sound "thin" or "tinny," which may not be a problem in voice-only applications but is unacceptable in systems designed primarily for music.
In audio applications, for instance, the limitations attributable to core saturation are particularly apparent in the performance of commercially available small transformers at lower frequencies. One known alternative for improved low frequency performance is to use a larger transformer. In applications where space is at a premium, such an alternative is often not a viable one. Moreover, larger transformers are heavier and costlier.
Another alternative is to avoid transformer coupling altogether. Transformerless systems, however, lack the advantages of transformers in large distributed systems such as independent level adjustment of each loudspeaker and the ability to operate at high voltages and proportionally lower line currents thereby reducing line losses and wire size requirements. They are also limited in the number of loudspeakers that may be driven on a single line due to the combined impedance of the loudspeaker load quickly dropping below what a commercially available amplifier is capable of driving. For this reason alone, driving more than four loudspeakers on the same line without transformers is impractical at best.

Automatic transformer saturation compensation circuit


A fitting system (5) for a vehicle seat, in particular for a motor vehicle seat, for adjusting the inclination of a backrest relative to a seat part of the vehicle seat, having a first fitting (10) and a second fitting (20) arranged above and attached to the adjustment fitting (10), wherein after the first fitting (10) has been unlocked, the backrest is adjustable between various upright use positions and/or between at least one upright use position and a rearward inclined recline position, and wherein after unlocking the second fitting (20), the backrest can be adjusted between at least one upright use position and a forward-tilted table position, the first fitting (10) and the second fitting (20) being separately formed as entirely functional adjustment fittings.

The present invention relates to a fitting system for a vehicle seat, in particular for a motor vehicle seat, wherein the fitting system is for adjusting the inclination of a backrest relative to a seat part of the vehicle seat; the fitting system has a first fitting and a second fitting arranged above and attached to the first fitting; after the first fitting has been unlocked, the backrest is adjustable between various upright use positions and/or between at least one upright use position and a rearward-inclined reclining position; and after the second fitting is unlocked, the backrest is adjustable between at least one upright use position and a forward-tilted table position.
DE 38 28 659 A1 discloses a fitting system of the type described immediately above. The fitting system of DE 38 28 659 A1 includes an adjustment fitting that is attached to the seat part of a vehicle seat. The adjustment fitting is an entirely functional first fitting, and is lockable in several steps by means of a ratchet. The fitting system of DE 38 28 659 A1 also includes a tilt fitting that is attached to the backrest of the vehicle seat. The tilt fitting is a simple second fitting that is mounted on the adjustment fitting and lockable in one position by means of a locking lever. Various use positions and one reclining position can be set by operating the adjustment fitting. When the adjustment fitting is unlocked and the backrest is pivoted forward until the frontmost use position is reached, and if no obstacle is in the way, the tilt fitting is automatically unlocked and the backrest can be tilted around a higher-situated axis of rotation into a table position. The adjustment fitting must be locked in order to avoid undefined movements.


Space for an optical pickup at a position set aside from a disk accommodating section is to be compressed, thereby to reduce an overall size of an optical pickup device. For such a purpose, the optical pickup unit is held by a screw shaft and a guide shaft parallel to each other, and the screw shaft, the guide shaft, a first connecting plate and a second connecting plate constitute a quadrilateral parallel link. The screw shaft and a chassis holding a turntable are oscillated by a driving motor pivoting on the first connecting plate. In an escape position in which the optical pickup device is away from the disk accommodating section, a gap between the screw shaft and the guide shaft is narrowed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical pickup device and an optical disk record/playback device for recording or reproducing data onto or from an optical disk such as a compact disc(CD) or a digital versatile disc (DVD).
2. Description of the Prior Art
A changer-type optical disk record/playback device, which is an optical disk record/playback device according to the prior art, is provided with a disk accommodating section 100 having a plurality of trays arranged to be slidable in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the drawing as shown in FIG. 1, and a disk mounted on one or another of the trays is selected by driving the tray in the axial direction and positioned in its record/playback position. Outside the disk accommodating section 100, an optical pickup device 101 is selectively placed around a spindle 102 in an escape position P1 or a working position P2. The optical pickup device 101 is provided with a chassis 103 fixed to the spindle 102, a screw shaft 104 rotatably fixed to the chassis 103, a guide shaft 105 arranged on the chassis 103 in parallel to the screw shaft 104, an optical pickup 106 disposed slidably on the screw shaft 104 and the guide shaft 105, and a turntable 107 for holding and turning a disk. The screw shaft 104 is turned by a feed motor (not shown). The optical pickup 106 is provided with a photo-unit 106a such as an objective lens or an optical detector, directed upward.
When the user gives the reference number of the desired disk tray, the pertinent tray in the disk accommodating section 100 is selected, and the disk on the tray is placed in a prescribed record/playback position. Then, as the user presses the record/playback button, a driving motor 108 turns the spindle 102, and the optical pickup device 101 shifts from the escape position P1 to the working position P2. The disk on the tray is held on the turntable 107, and turned by a spindle motor. Rotational driving of the screw shaft 104 by the feed motor (not shown) causes the optical pickup 106 to shift from the central part to the periphery of the disk to read signals recorded on, or to record signals onto, the disk. Upon completion of recording onto or playback of the disk, the optical pickup 106 returns to its initial position, and the optical pickup device 101 also returns to its escape position P1.
It is a trend prevalent in recent years to require such optical disk record/playback devices to be reduced in size, and attempts are being made to reduce the size and weight of the above-described configuration. The usual arrangement previously was to shift a disk stored in a disk accommodating section to the record/playback position and to accomplish recording or playing back with an optical pickup device fixed in position. The above-described configuration in which, conversely, the position of the disk accommodating section is fixed and the optical pickup device is shifted, the overall size of the optical disk record/playback device can be reduced, and attempts are continued for further reduction in size (see, for instance, the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-109810).
However, the product of any such prior attempt at size reduction requires, when the optical pickup device escapes from the disk accommodating section, much of the movable range of the optical pickup device for its escape space, resulting in a problem of restricting any further reduction in device size.

Optical pickup device and optical disk record/playback device for reducing the size of the record/playback device

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A photoresist drainage system for conducting the excess photoresist and solvents from a spin coating machine in a semiconductor fabrication unit is disclosed. The excess photoresist liquid and solvents are channeled directly to an exhaust manifold instead of being collected in a temporary storage tank. From the exhaust manifold the photoresist and solvents flow directly into a factory chemical reclaim system. This substantially reduces the amount of solvent vapors that are drawn into the factory exhaust system.

In the semiconductor processing industry, photoresist is normally applied to semiconductor wafers by means of a spin coating machine. The wafer is placed on a flat vacuum chuck and spun slowly while the photoresist is applied through a nozzle near the center of the wafer. When the wafer is spun at high speed, centrifugal force causes the photoresist to flow towards the circumference of the wafer, thereby covering the surface of the wafer with a smooth, even coat of photoresist.
This process creates two disposal problems. First, an excess of photoresist flows off the edge of the wafer and must be collected and disposed of. Second, the photoresist contains a solvent which vaporizes as the process takes place. These vapors normally flow into the factory exhaust system and must be removed before the exhaust is released to the atmosphere.
FIG. 1 illustrates the photoresist drainage system which has been in use by the industry for a number of years. A coating machine 100 is illustrated schematically as containing a spin motor 101 connected to a flat vacuum chuck 102 upon which a wafer 103 is placed. Spin motor 101 is positioned below a catch basin 104.
A liquid drain line 105, an air purge line 106 and a safety line 107 lead from coating machine 100. As shown in FIG. 2, which is a cross-sectional view of coating machine 100, lines 105 and 106 connect to a coating chamber 100A and line 107 connects to a motor chamber 100B of coating machine 100. Lines 105 and 106 have inlets which are positioned near the spinning wafer so as to purge the vapor in the coat chamber with air and collect the excess liquid photoresist. Safety line 107 has an inlet 108 which is located near spin motor 101. Line 107 does not collect liquid photoresist but functions as a safety line for removing solvent vapors from motor chamber 100B. These vapors are highly volatile and could ignite if they reach excessive concentrations around spin motor
Also shown in FIG. 2 are a cup rinse ring 104A and a splash guard 104B. Cup rinse ring 104A contains a number of small holes through which solvent is sprayed to rinse the interior walls of coating chamber 100A Cup rinse ring 104A also contains an edge bead removal nozzle 104C which removes the photoresist built up on the edge of the wafer during coating, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,678. Cup rinse ring 104A and edge bead removal nozzle 104C are major sources of the solvent which must be disposed of.
Referring to FIG. 1, lines 105 and 106 lead to a drain tank 109, which is used to collect the liquid photoresist. When the liquid photoresist in drain tank 109 reaches a certain level, drain tank 109 is removed and the liquid photoresist is emptied into the factory chemical reclaim system, or the tank can be drained in place through an attached drain pipe.
Line 107 leads to an exhaust manifold 110, which is connected to the factory exhaust system. A connecting line 111 connects drain tank 109 directly to exhaust manifold 110, so that vapors evaporating from the liquid photoresist in drain tank 109 can be removed via exhaust manifold 110 and the factory exhaust system. Exhaust manifold 110 slopes slightly towards a drain line 110A which connects with the factory drainage system. Any vapors which condense in exhaust manifold 110 run into drain line 110A.
When the system is operating, the factory exhaust system provides a suction on exhaust manifold 110 which tends to pull vapors from motor chamber 100B through line 107 and from drain tank 109 by means of connecting line 111. Since lines 105 and 106 are connected to drain tank 109, this suction also tends to pull vapors and air from coating chamber 100A. As each wafer is processed, in order to prevent the photoresist from drying too quickly, a selected concentration of solvent vapor is maintained in the atmosphere in coating chamber 100A. To accomplish this, as illustrated in FIG. 3, a butterfly valve 111A is positioned in conduit 111, under the control of a programmable exhaust unit 112. During the spin coating process, if the programmable exhaust is used, programmable exhaust unit 112 closes the butterfly valve 111A so as to restrict the flow of air and vapor from drain tank 109 to exhaust manifold 110. This in turn limits the flow of vapor and air in lines 105 and 106 and maintains the vapor concentration in coating chamber 100A at an increased level. When the coating process is completed, programmable exhaust unit 112 opens butterfly valve 111A and the normal flow of the solvent vapors and air through lines 105 and 106 into the factory exhaust system is reestablished. For safety reasons, the flow from motor chamber 100B through line 107 is not totally restricted.
The arrangement illustrated in FIG. 1 introduces a considerable amount of solvent vapor into the factory exhaust system. A large proportion of this vapor results from evaporation at the surface of the liquid photoresist and solvents in drain tank 109. Between coating cycles, when butterfly valve 111A is open, a gaseous vapor mixture is sucked through lines 105 and 106. This gaseous mixture flows into drain tank 109 where it creates turbulent flow patterns which increase the rate of solvent evaporation at the liquid surface. This evaporation rate increases as the liquid level in tank 109 gets higher.
With the increasingly stringent air pollution requirements, a substantial portion of the solvent vapors must be removed from the factory exhaust system before they reach the atmosphere. Reducing the amount of vapors that enter the exhaust system in the first place would help solve this problem and reduce the costs of environmental compliance. This invention accomplishes both of these purposes.

Drain arrangement for photoresist coating apparatus


A device cleans a core engine of a jet engine. The device has: a nozzle installation which is configured for introducing a cleaning medium into the core engine; a connector configured to connect the device in a rotationally fixed manner to a shaft of a fan of the jet engine; and a line connection configured to supply the cleaning medium, which is connected to the nozzle installation by a rotary coupling. The nozzle installation comprises nozzles, comprising at least one flat jet nozzle, and at least one full cone nozzle or hollow cone nozzle.

Jet engines of commercial sub-sonic airliners nowadays are largely turbofan jet engines. Such a turbofan jet engine possesses a core engine in which the actual combustion process of the kerosene takes place. The core engine, in the manner known, possesses one or more compressor stages, a combustion chamber, as well as one or more turbine stages in which the hot combustion gases discharge part of their mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is required for driving the compressor stages, on the one hand, and a turbofan which is disposed upstream of the core engine and typically has a significantly larger diameter than the core engine and allows a significant part of the overall air flowing through the engine to flow past the engine as a bypass airflow or a secondary airflow, on the other hand. By way of this bypass air flow, the turbofan generates a significant part of the thrust output of the engine; the high proportion of bypass airflow furthermore ensures a better environmental compatibility of the engine, in particular a better rate of efficiency at sub-sonic speeds, as well as an improved noise abatement of the hot exhaust flow of the core engine.
Jet engines, when in operation, are contaminated by combustion residue of the core engine as well as by air contamination that has been suctioned by the combustion or bypass air, respectively, such as, for example, dust, insects, salt spray, or other environmental contaminations. These contaminations form a layer, in particular also on the rotor blades and/or stator blades of the compressor of the core engine that impedes the surface quality and thus ultimately the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine.
Jet engines are cleaned in order for the contaminations to be removed. For this purpose, it is known from WO 2005/077554 A1 to dispose a plurality of cleaning nozzles upstream of the fan of a turbofan engine so as to clean the fan and the core engine.
WO 2008/113501 discloses a device of the type mentioned at the outset which is placed onto the fan and conjointly rotates during the cleaning operation.

Device, method and assembly for cleaning the core engine of a jet engine


An automotive generator/motor is driven by a battery via an inverter. Resistance 2Ra0 is expressed by 2Ra0=Vmax/√{square root over (3)} Iamax, where Vmax is a maximum voltage applicable across any two terminals from the inverter and Iamax is a maximum current which must be fed from the inverter into each of the terminals when the maximum voltage Vmax is applied for maximizing torque produced by the automotive generator/motor at a power factor of 1 under voltage saturation conditions, and the armature winding is configured such that resistance 2Ra across any two terminals satisfies a relationship expressed by 0.8Ra0≦2Ra≦3.8Ra0.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotating electric machine for use onboard a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Background Art
Batteries equipped onboard a motor vehicle typically supply a terminal voltage of 14 V or less. During power running of the vehicle performed with the assistance of an automotive rotating electric machine (i.e., an automotive motor), such as at engine restart from idle stop or during engine-assist operation of the vehicle, this type of battery is not able to provide a sufficient output torque due to low output voltage. Particularly at engine restart from idle stop, in which the engine once shut off at a vehicle stop is restarted by running the vehicle by only the onboard motor which works as a starter motor, the motor should preferably produce a greater starting torque. A greater motor torque is also needed for performing the engine-assist operation to give extra power in high-speed ranges. Generally, it is necessary for a low-voltage driving system to flow a larger electric current for producing greater output power. However, the amount of electric current that can be flowed through the driving system is more or less limited due to heat generation and reliability of components used in an inverter.
Additionally, in an electric driving system, a voltage drop equivalent to the product of electric current and resistance causes an energy loss in the form of Joule heat, and a torque-generating voltage expressed by the product of effective magnetic flux and motor speed decreases by an amount corresponding to this voltage drop. This means that if the terminal-to-terminal resistance of each armature coil of the automotive motor increases, the effective magnetic flux decreases by a corresponding amount, making it necessary to perform field-weakening control. A low-voltage driving system is already in a voltage saturation range (field-weakening range) from a certain point in a low-speed range and, thus, a sufficient torque is not obtained in a high-speed range in which the motor speed is relatively high (typically 300 rpm or above). Here, the voltage saturation range is a range in which the motor is controlled by field-weakening control operation by flowing a negative d-axis current Id as a voltage induced by a combination of field flux and armature flux exceeds a terminal voltage in this range. Although it is possible to increase the starting torque produced by the motor by increasing the number of turns of armature coils, electric resistance of each armature coil increases with an increase in the number of turns thereof, resulting in a reduction in the torque obtained in the high-speed range (hereinafter referred to as the high-speed torque). Conversely, if the resistance of each armature coil is reduced by decreasing the number of turns thereof, a desired level of starting torque would not be obtained.
As the conventional automotive motor is thus configured, it is difficult to obtain both a starting torque characteristic required at engine restart and a high-speed torque characteristic required in the voltage saturation range.

Rotating electric machine for automotive application


An exercise machine is provided. The exercise machine may include a frame, an adjustment assembly coupled to the frame and selectively movable relative thereto, a foot linkage arranged to reciprocally move in a closed loop path, and a handle linkage arranged to reciprocally move in a defined path. The adjustment assembly may include a pivot axis. The foot linkage may be pivotably coupled to the adjustment assembly at the pivot axis such that selective movement of the pivot axis relative to the frame alters the closed loop path of the foot linkage in use. Movement of one of the foot linkage and the handle linkage may cause corresponding movement of the other of the foot linkage and the handle linkage Actuation of the adjustment assembly may selectively move the pivot axis in more than one direction.

Various devices and systems exist to perform a variety of fitness training exercises. As an example, elliptical machines exist to work the cardiovascular system and/or strength endurance of a user as part of a strength or fitness program. These elliptical machines, however, can be bulky and may not be easily adjustable to a particular user.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved exercise machine that addresses at least in part the above described problems and/or which more generally offers improvements or an alternative to existing arrangements.


An ink jet head is provided with a main body, a wired sheet, and a connecting sheet. The main body is provided with a plurality of sets and each set includes an input terminal, an actuator, a pressure chamber and a nozzle. The wired sheet is provided with a plurality of sets and each set includes a signal line and an output terminal. The connecting sheet is provided with an insulating sheet and a plurality of sets and each set includes first terminal formed on a first face of the insulating sheet and a second terminal formed on a second face of the insulating sheet. In each set, the signal line, output terminal, second terminal, first terminal, input terminal and actuator are electrically connected. When a voltage is applied to the actuator in a selected set via the signal line, output terminal, second terminal, first terminal and input terminal, pressure is applied to ink within the pressure chamber in the selected set, and this ink jets from the nozzle in the selected set.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet head to be mounted on an ink jet printer. Further, the present invention relates to a connecting sheet and a composite sheet to be used in the ink jet head. Moreover, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing the ink jet head and the composite sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet printers are well known. An ink jet printer is provided with an ink jet head that discharges ink. The ink jet head is provided with a plurality of nozzles, a plurality of pressure chambers, and a plurality of actuators. Each nozzle is communicated with a corresponding pressure chamber. Each pressure chamber is coupled with a corresponding actuator. When one of the actuators is activated, pressure is increased of ink housed in the corresponding pressure chamber coupled with the activated actuator, and the ink is discharged from the nozzle communicated with this pressure chamber.
The plurality of actuators is provided with, for example, one piezoelectric sheet. This piezoelectric sheet faces the plurality of pressure chambers. One common electrode is formed on a first face of the piezoelectric sheet, and extends over the plurality of pressure chambers. A plurality of individual electrodes is formed on a second face of the piezoelectric sheet. Each individual electrode corresponds to one of the pressure chambers in their positional relationship. When a driving voltage (a driving signal) is applied to one of the individual electrodes, an electric field is generated between that individual electrode and the common electrode, and the portion of the piezoelectric sheet disposed between the individual electrode and the common electrode contracts. When the piezoelectric sheet contracts, there is a change in the volume of the pressure chamber coupled with the individual electrode. As a result, pressure (discharging energy) is applied to the ink within the pressure chamber. A conventional ink jet head is taught in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. H11-334061.
One of a plurality of signal lines is connected to a corresponding individual electrode in order to apply the driving voltage thereto. Each of the individual electrodes has an input terminal connected therewith in order to connect the signal line to the individual electrode. The ink jet head taught in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. H11-334061 uses a wired sheet on which are formed a plurality of output terminals and a plurality of signal lines that transmit driving voltage. Each output terminal is connected to a corresponding signal line. In this ink jet head, each output terminal formed on the wired sheet is connected directly to a corresponding input terminal.
A surface face of the wired sheet is covered by an insulating film. The insulating film can be formed with a solder resist film, for example. The insulating film covers the plurality of signal lines. A plurality of holes is formed in the insulating film at locations corresponding to the output terminals of the wired sheet. Each output terminal is exposed in a different corresponding hole. Since the output terminals formed on the wired sheet are not covered by the insulating film, these output terminals can make contact with the input terminals.
Since the plurality of signal lines of the wired sheet is covered by the insulating film, there is no short circuiting between these signal lines even if ink splashes or dust adhere to the wired sheet. A technique pertaining to this is taught in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. H10-256688.

Ink jet head, connecting sheet, composite sheet, and method of manufacturing ink jet head and composite sheet


Embodiments of the present disclosure include cleaning processes, cleaning machines, and methods of preventing acidification of a cleaning composition in a cleaning process. The cleaning process includes contacting an article having contaminants with a cleaning composition to remove the contaminants from the article, where the cleaning composition comes to have acidic components as a result of contacting the article with the cleaning composition, and where at least 85 percent by weight, based on a total weight of the cleaning composition, of the cleaning composition is an organic solvent, collecting the cleaning composition with the contaminants and the acidic components, separating the contaminants from the cleaning composition (114), and passing the cleaning composition with the acidic components over an ion exchange resin (125) to remove the acidic components from the cleaning composition.

Examples of cleaning and degreasing methods that have been applied to metals, ceramics, plastics, and other materials in the past can include alkali cleaning, cleaning with a surface active agent, cleaning with chloro-solvent, and/or cleaning with a fluoro-solvent. Alkali cleaning is cleaning achieved by dipping the material into a warm aqueous solution or alcohol solution of sodium hydroxide or other alkali agent, or by spraying such a solution. Cleaning with a surface active agent is achieved by dipping the material into a warm aqueous solution of a surface active agent, or by spraying such a solution. Cleaning with chloro-solvent involves dipping or vapor cleaning by using a chloro-solvent, such as, for example, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, and perchloroethylene. Finally, cleaning with a fluoro-solvent involves dipping or vapor cleaning, such as, for example, by using Freon 113.
Currently, organic solvents used in cleaning processes for various materials include hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons, propylene and ethylene glycol ethers, esters, or mixtures thereof. These solvents are useful since they can be recycled within the process by distillation. However, during the cleaning process, since closed-loop cleaning machines internally recycle the organic solvents by distillation, volatile acids which are brought in and/or generated in the cleaning process are often not removed from the cleaning fluid and therefore can enrich over time. These acids can be harmful to the machine and/or the cleaned parts.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method and system for setting a downward force adjustment exerted by a barrier is disclosed. As is known, the barrier operator initiates corrective action if a detected obstruction force is deemed excessive. The inventive method and system comprises pre-setting a force threshold value used by the barrier operator. While in a programming mode, the barrier is moved from one limit position to another limit position. A recorded value is determined during the moving of the barrier and the threshold value is adjusted until equal the recorded value. A feedback device such as a light or a speaker is used to indicate when the threshold value is at least equal the recorded value.

For convenience purposes, it is well known to provide garage doors which utilize a motor to provide opening and closing movements of the door. Motors may also be coupled with other types of movable barriers such as gates, windows, retractable overhangs and the like. An operator is employed to control the motor and related functions with respect to the door. The operator receives command signals for the purpose of opening and closing the door from a wireless remote, from a wired or wireless wall station or other similar device. It is also known to provide safety devices that are connected to the operator for the purpose of detecting an obstruction so that the operator may then take corrective action with the motor to avoid entrapment of the obstruction.
How safety devices are used with a door operator system have evolved from the days of no uniform standard to the currently applied government regulations as embodied in Underwriters Laboratories Standard 325. UL Standard 325 encompasses safety standards for a variety of movable barriers such as gates, draperies, louvers, windows and doors. The standard specifically covers vehicular gate or door operators intended for use with garages and/or parking areas. Such devices require a primary safety system and a secondary safety system which are independent of each other. Primary entrapment systems sense the operator motor's current draw, or motor speed and take the appropriate corrective action if the monitored value is exceeded. Primary systems must be internal within the operator head. Secondary entrapment systems are typically external from the operator head and may include a non-contact or contact type sensor. But, secondary systems may also be internal to the operator head as long as they are independent of the primary system.
One of the more widely used non-contact devices is a photo-electric eye which projects a light beam across the door's travel path. If the light beam is interrupted during closure of the door, the operator stops and reverses the travel of the door. Contact type safety devices such as an edge-sensitive pressure switch, which is attached to the bottom edge of the door and runs the complete width of the door, may also be used. Other contact safety devices directly monitor the operating characteristics of the driving motor to determine whether an obstruction is present. Typically, shaft speed of the motor is monitored by projecting an infrared light through an interrupter wheel. Alternatively, Hall effect switches or tachometers can be used to monitor shaft speed. Or, the motor current could be monitored such that when an excessive amount of current is drawn by the motor—which indicates that the motor is working harder than normal—it is presumed that an obstruction has been encountered. It is also known to monitor door speed with a sliding potentiometer, wherein a rate of change is equated to the speed of the door and wherein unexpected slowing of the door triggers corrective action by the operator. The secondary entrapment requirement may also be met by providing an operator that is capable of receiving continuous pressure on an actuating device that is in the line of sight of the door and maintains the opening or closing motion until the respective limit position is reached. Regardless of how the safety devices work, their purpose is to ensure that individuals, especially children, are not entrapped by a closing door. Opening forces of the door are also monitored to preclude damage to the operating system for instances where an object or individual is caught upon a door panel as the door moves upwardly.
Prior art devices have either user access adjustment settings or internal automatic predetermined settings to set the force the operator-driven motor can exert on the barrier or door. User access settings can be set by cycling the door and testing the amount of force the door is exerting before it reverses. This repeated cycling may take some time and effort to adjust the setting properly for each weight and size door a particular type of operator is associated with. Without having an indicator to indicate when the door force setting is properly adjusted, many times the force is adjusted too high, for a number of reasons. For example, the settings may be adjusted too high to overcome environmental changes; or because of wear and changes to components such as the door, hinges between the door panels, the spring, the door track and so on. The setting may also be adjusted by untrained personnel and if no warranty maintenance is ever performed, the setting will likely be left at an exceedingly high and dangerous value. In any event, the door operates without a problem until something becomes entrapped under the door. As a result, when the unnecessarily high force is used, the entrapped object or the door, or both, are damaged. The automatic internal force adjustment solves these problems, but the units that incorporate this type of technology may not work with all weights and sizes of doors. Some attempts at solving the aforementioned problem are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,428 to Iha discloses aworm drive with a cable and twin drums and helical gears which provide positive drive in either direction and ensures positive cable take-up and supply spool synchronization. Positive position relationship is ensured between the trolley and the operator head, and the ends of the cable are pre-assembled and anchored to the drive reels which allows easy assembly and disassembly. The cable is oriented in the vertical plane which allows the point of the cable latch to be in the same load/force plane and effectively minimizes the rail bowing under severe load conditions. The tubular rail can be broken into disassembled parts and can be easily and quickly reassembled for installation and a novel tension adjustment for the cables assures that the tension of the cable can be quickly and easily adjusted during installation. The up and down limits can be easily adjusted and the up and down force adjustments can be accurately and easily adjusted and merely require the setting of potentiometers which provides a positive and accurate way of adjusting the up and down force limits. But this configuration does not provide any type of user feedback. As such, the user is never quite sure if just the minimum force required to close the barrier is being used.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,929,580 and 6,326,751 to Mullet, et al. disclose an internal entrapment system for a garage door operator, comprising a motor for transferring a garage door between first and second positions, a pulse counter for detecting a speed of the garage door during transfer between first and second positions, a potentiometer for determining a plurality of positional locations of the garage door during transfer between first and second positions separate from the pulse counter, and a control circuit for calculating a motor torque value from the speed for each of the plurality of positional locations to compare with a plurality of door profile data points. The control circuit takes corrective action if the difference between the motor torque value for each of the plurality of positional locations and the plurality of door profile data points exceeds a predetermined threshold. And the control circuit updates the plurality of door profile data points to the motor torque values for each respective plurality of positional locations if the predetermined threshold is not exceeded. In another embodiment both speed and position are detected by a slider element which is connected to the control circuit. A closed loop lift cable system may be employed for use with the internal entrapment system. The system utilizes a lift cable connected between a bottom section of the door and a drum mechanism and an upper cable connected between a top section of the door and the drum mechanism. A tension device ensures that the door and cables act as one and thus allow closed loop control of the door. One of the objects of this embodiment is to provide an internal entrapment system to monitor door speed and applied force as the door travels in the opening and closing directions, wherein if the door encounters an obstacle during opening and closing, the door speed and applied force will change. Another object of the present invention is to stop and reverse or just stop travel of the door if predetermined thresholds in door speed and applied force are not met. Still another object of the present invention is to generate door profile data during an initial door open and close cycle and whereupon the door profile data and predetermined thresholds are updated after each cycle. The unit monitors the operational characteristics of the operator and determines the proper force adjustment in both the up and down directions compared to predetermine thresholds and will not allow user adjustment. The system requires many sensors and an extensive software program to function. But, this system is deficient in that it does not provide for any user feedback when setting the down force value used by the controller.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,480 to Murray discloses a garage door operator with a micro-computer based control which is programmed to measure door position from a full open position by counting motor revolutions and which determines motor speed and deceleration for each revolution. The program learns the open and close position limits and force sensitivity limits for up and down operation with supposedly minimal user input. The patent discloses that during normal door operation the closed limit and sensitivity limits are adaptively adjusted to accommodate changes and conditions. The lowest up and down motor speeds in each operation are stored for comparison with motor speeds in the next like operation for obstruction detection. For a more sensitive obstruction detection during closing, the motor speed is mapped for each revolution for the last several inches of closing. Although effective in its stated purpose, it is believed that an excessive amount of force may still be applied to an obstruction inasmuch as the force applied may still be more than required to actually close the door. Moreover, no user feedback mechanism is provided such that the user can determine what the minimum force setting is during a programming mode.

Motorized barrier operator system for setting a down force adjustment to a minimum value and method for programming the same


Storing parity information in an external storage with multiple disk drives by determining the number of the storage blocks used as data blocks and the number of the storage blocks used as parity blocks; forming a three-dimensional block matrix of virtual data blocks corresponding to the determined number of the storage blocks; allocating virtual parity blocks to the virtual data block planes; allocating the virtual data blocks and the virtual parity blocks to the storage blocks; calculating parity information based upon data bits respectively stored in the storage blocks corresponding to the virtual data blocks of every virtual data block plane; and storing the calculated parity information in the storage blocks corresponding to the virtual parity blocks. The stored parity information allows any number of error blocks to be recovered, and more particularly allow three or more error blocks per one parity group to be recovered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parity storing method and an error block recovering method in an external storage subsystem, and more particularly to a parity storing method and an error block recovering method in an external storage subsystem, which improve recovering multiple error blocks.
2. Description of the Related Art
RAID (redundant array of independent disks) combines multiple disk drives having a plurality of storage blocks into a single logical disk drive, thereby providing large storage capacity, improving accessing speed, etc.
There are various types of RAID, for example, RAID level-0 through RAID level-5, which are classified according to an array structure and an array characteristic. In the RAID level-4 and the RAID level-5, several storage blocks are grouped into a striping block according to predetermined rule, and a parity block is provided for storing therein parity information based on a data group stored in each striping block, thereby allowing an error block to be recovered.
Recently, as the amount of data to be processed has increased, a plurality of error blocks can occur due to a disk failure, a reading error, etc. However, in the case of the RAID level-4 and the RAID level-5, the number of recoverable error blocks is limited to only one per one parity group in the same striping block.
To overcome the above shortcoming of the RAID level-4 and RAID level-5, various parity storing methods have been proposed, such as RAID level-6 using a Reed-Solomon code, an EVENODD method using a row parity group and a diagonal parity group, etc. However, in these proposed parity storing methods, it is impossible to recover three or more error blocks per one parity group.

Parity storing method and error block recovering method in external storage subsystem


The invention deals with a method for operating an internal combustion engine with engine oil as the lubricant and a fuel supply by means of direct injection, wherein an air number (lambda) of a fuel-air mixture supplied to the internal combustion engine is determined. Provision is made in the method according to the invention for the internal combustion engine to be transferred to an operating state with higher fuel consumption, when a low air number (lambda) is detected in driving conditions with a high percentage of fuel ingress from a crankcase ventilation system into the fuel-air mixture. By means of this increase in the fuel requirement, the fuel, which exited the engine oil into the intake air of the internal combustion engine, can be combusted; and an increase in the exhaust gas emissions by means of incompletely combusted fuel, in which typically hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide arise, can be avoided. In a warm-up phase of the internal combustion engine, the fuel, which ingressed into the engine oil, can thus likewise be combusted, even if under certain temperature-time conditions, particularly in the partial load operating mode and during idling, more fuel is present in the fuel-air mixture than is actually required for operating the internal combustion engine.

Internal combustion engines on the basis of gasoline engines are generally operated with fuel from hydrocarbons produced from fossil fuels based on refined crude oil. Ethanol produced from renewable resources (plants) or another kind of alcohol is increasingly being added in various mixing ratios to the fuel. In the USA and Europe a mixture of 75-85% ethanol and 15-25% gasoline is often distributed under the trade name E85. The internal combustion engines are designed in such a way that they can be operated with pure gasoline as well as with mixtures up to E85 or even pure ethanol (E100). This is denoted as a "flex-fuel operation". The operating parameters in the flex-fuel operation have to be adapted in each case to the existing fuel mixture for an efficient operation with only a small discharge of toxic emissions; while at the same time high engine performance is guaranteed. A stoichiometric fuel-air mixture ratio is, for example, present at 14.7 mass parts of air per part of gasoline; however, when using pure ethanol, a proportion of air of 9 mass parts must be set.
The taking into account of the fuel, which has ingressed into the engine oil during cold starting, and the fuel evaporating out of the engine oil at high temperatures has to fundamentally take place with all internal combustion engines; however, is mainly employed with gasoline engines with a flex-fuel-mode of operation.
Ethanol and gasoline have different evaporation properties. Ethanol evaporates at a lower temperature to a lesser degree than gasoline, so that more ethanol has to be injected during cold starting than is the case for gasoline. When low ambient temperatures prevail in the winter months, this effect is again increased. This leads to the fact that when cold starting with ethanol and during the subsequent warm-up phase, considerably more fuel is wiped from the cylinder walls into the engine oil by the piston rings. When the temperature of the engine oil increases, this fuel evaporates and is added via the crankcase ventilation system to the fresh air supply provided to the engine by way of the intake manifold. The total amount of fuel situated in the engine oil is only expelled during extended warm-up phases. The additional richening of the mixture caused by the evaporated fuel has to be taken into account. Especially during low load-rotational speed-conditions, this richening can be significant. During idling with the engine operating with gasoline, the richening of the mixture from the outgassing of fuel can definitely reach 30%. At a low temperature, ethanol evaporates out of the oil to a greater extent than gasoline. For this reason, the richening of the fuel mixture by the outgassing of fuel can even be higher in this instance during a flex-fuel mode of operation. The richening of the fuel mixture can be taken into account by the closed-loop lambda control at certain percentages. This can, however, be insufficient in certain cases and lead to a degradation of the exhaust gas emission values with undesirably high values of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide on account of the overall mixture being too rich.
It is the task of the invention to provide a method, which allows for an improved way of taking into account the outgassing of fuel from the engine oil of an internal combustion engine and which also brings about the combustion of the fuel-air mixture with lower exhaust gas emissions when the outgassing of fuel from the engine oil is high.

Method for taking into account the outgassing of fuel from the engine oil of an internal combustion engine


There is provided an image capturing apparatus including a movable unit. An acceleration detection unit detects an acceleration of the image capturing apparatus. A geomagnetic detection unit detects geomagnetism. A determining unit determines a direction of the image capturing apparatus by using the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit and the geomagnetism detected by the geomagnetic detection unit. When determining the direction of the image capturing apparatus at a predetermined timing during an operation period of the movable unit, the determining unit determines the direction of the image capturing apparatus by using the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit before start of the operation period of the movable unit and the geomagnetism detected by the geomagnetic detection unit during the operation period of the movable unit.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus, and a control method therefor.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are increasing needs for the users of digital cameras to know the image capturing position and image capturing direction of photographs. And, a digital camera including an electronic compass that uses a geomagnetic sensor and an acceleration sensor, and having a function of saving the image capturing direction in association with a captured image, has come into practical use. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-32379 discloses a technique in which image information is associated with image capturing orientation information and image capturing field angle information, and a composite image having a wide field angle is generated from a plurality of images based on the associated information.
The electronic compass calculates orientation based on the outputs of the geomagnetic sensor and the acceleration sensor. Accordingly, if there is an obstacle that affects the magnetic field and the acceleration within the digital camera or in the digital camera system, in principle, the accuracy of the calculated orientation is reduced. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-57601 proposes a method for avoiding this problem that arises in the geomagnetic sensor. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-57601 discloses an electronic device including a geomagnetic detection unit, a change amount calculation unit that calculates the amount of change in magnetic orientation data, and an integration unit that integrates angular velocity so as to calculate angle data. With this electronic device, if the amount of change in magnetic orientation data and the angular velocity are within a threshold value range, the orientation is calculated using the geomagnetism. Otherwise, the orientation is calculated using the angular velocity in addition to the geomagnetism.
A digital camera, in particular, a single-lens reflex digital camera includes movable units such as a mirror and a shutter, and as a result of these units being moved at the time of image capturing, the acceleration sensor is affected, and the accuracy of the calculated orientation is reduced. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-57601 merely discloses measures to reduce the influence on the geomagnetism, and does not disclose measures to reduce the influence on the acceleration.

Image capturing apparatus, and control method therefor


A control circuit for switching AC or DC loads and for automatically discerning the presence of an AC or a DC power supply via a switch has been provided. The control circuit is coupled to alternately render a switch operative and non-operative wherein the switch is coupled across a load which is powered up by either an AC or a DC power supply. The control circuit includes an AC/DC discernment circuit for ascertaining whether the load is powered up by an AC or a DC power supply. The control circuit also includes circuitry for comparing signals sensed by the switch with predetermined thresholds (which are a function of whether an AC or DC determination has been made) for providing logic signals to control the operation of the switch.

When controlling a load that may be coupled to either an AC or DC power supply, different thresholds are typically desired to measure overcurrent conditions to enhance status reporting and self protection capability. For example, if the power supply is AC, a higher peak current can be tolerated through the load before switching the load off than if the power supply is DC. Thus, it is desirable to have two different thresholds which would be dependent on whether the load was coupled to an AC power supply or DC power supply. This creates a need to have an accurate AC/DC discernment circuit that adequately ascertains whether the load is coupled to an AC or a DC power supply.
A typical method of AC/DC discernment is to simply count the number of zero crossings on the power supply line. If a sufficient number of crossing occur, then an AC discernment is made. However, this may give false discernments especially in a noisy environment.
Hence, there exists a need for an improved load control circuit which includes automatic AC/DC discernment.

Load control circuit including automatic AC/DC discernment


Selective deposition of metal over dielectric layers in a manner that minimizes or eliminates keyhole formation is provided. According to one embodiment, a dielectric target layer is formed over a substrate layer, wherein the target layer may be configured to allow conformal metal deposition, and a dielectric second layer is formed over the target layer, wherein the second layer may be configured to allow bottom-up metal deposition. An opening may then be formed in the second layer and metal may be selectively deposited over substrate layer.

The present invention relates generally to selectively depositing metal in semiconductor assemblies, and in particular to selectively depositing metal over dielectric layers within semiconductor assemblies.
Selectively depositing metal over semiconductor assemblies is known. Primary applications include selective capping of bond pads or selective fill of a plug, trench and/or a via formed in the assembly. In addition, many processes for selectively filling semiconductor assemblies can be utilized. For example, one method, electroless plating, is a chemical plating technique utilized to deposit thin films of conductive material such as metal or metal alloy over a semiconductor substrate during the fabrication or packaging of semiconductor devices. Another method, chemical vapor deposition, is a technique whereby a solid conductive material is deposited on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as the result of a chemical reaction between gaseous reactants at elevated temperature in the vicinity of the substrate.
Issues arise during selective metal deposition in that the metal fill may mushroom, or form void spaces (also termed keyholes) in a trench or via as a result of the conformal/bottom-up characteristics of dielectric layers within the semiconductor assembly. More particularly, as metal is deposited in convention semiconductor assemblies, the metal simultaneously bonds with the contact and the opening walls and forms a keyhole within the metal fill. Subsequent metal layers bond to the previous metal layers thereby forming a mushroom having lateral gaps which lead to an incomplete fill of the assembly. These mushrooms and keyholes are undesired characteristics that affect electrical performance of the semiconductor. Accordingly, there is a need for semiconductor assemblies wherein these undesired characteristics are minimized or eliminated.

Selective metal deposition over dielectric layers


A method for applying a sealant to the surface of an object includes forming an annular dose of synthetic plasticised material supplied from an extruder, depositing the dose on the surface of object and compression forming the dose to form a seal. The extruder includes an annular outlet which is opened and closed to deposit successive doses. Each dose that exits the annular outlet is separated from a supply of plasticized material in the extruder.

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for forming annular doses, in particular for forming an annular dose made of plasticised material supplied by an extruder and applying the dose that has just been formed to a surface.
Specifically, but not exclusively, the invention can be used to apply a seal to a surface, for example to form seals inside capsules (made of metal or plastics) to close containers. The invention can be further used to apply an annular dose to a flat element (for example a disc), made in particular of metal or plastics that can then be inserted, as a sealant, into a more complex device. It is possible, in other uses of the invention, to apply the annular dose (acting as a sealant) to a cardboard element intended, for example, to form a container or a portion of a container, or directly to a container, for example made of plastics or metal. The annular dose could also be inserted, according to another use of the invention, directly into a mould to obtain an object therefrom (for example a cap consisting of a wall of plastics and a central metal disc provided with a seal obtained from the annular dose) or also with different functions from the closing function.
The prior art comprises the patent publication US 2012/0171381 A1, which shows an apparatus made in accordance with the preamble to claim one, for forming an annular dose of plasticised material to be deposited on the surface of a cap for containers to give rise to the sealing washer. In such an apparatus the dose is separated and expelled by virtue of the great closing velocity of the mould that makes the material squeeze out.
This known apparatus nevertheless has numerous limits and drawbacks.
Firstly, the material that forms the annular dose is pressed out at high pressure, with a possible localised increase of the temperature and consequent deterioration of the material and/or adhesion of the material to the conduit surfaces.
Secondly, in order to press out the material, low viscosity has to be maintained and it is thus necessary to work at relatively high temperatures.
Further, whilst on the one hand using high-viscosity materials causes very high working pressure, on the other hand using low-viscosity materials causes problems of leakage of the material from the seals.
Another drawback is that the annular dose, by squeezing out at high speed from the mould, can get deformed in a manner that is not easily controllable.

Method for applying an extruded seal to a surface


A device (10) for conditioning a stringed musical instrument (20), comprising a vibrator (30) mounted on a transverse supporting member (14) which attaches removably to one or more strings (26) of the instrument and makes no other contact with the instrument. The vibrations produced by the device are transmitted via the normal mechanical chain from the strings (26) to the bridge (24) to the sounding board (22) of the instrument.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to musical instrument accessories, specifically to musical instrument accessories that condition, break-in, or artificially age stringed musical instruments for the purposes of improving the sound of such instruments.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
It is widely and commonly known that stringed musical instruments with wooden sounding boards, and often wooden bodies; such as instruments in the guitar, mandolin, and violin families; require extended periods of playing before they acquire their best sound. The process by which the sound improves with playing is known variously as breaking-in, aging, or conditioning. New or little-used instruments are characterized by tones that lack the sustain, depth, volume and clarity of well-used instruments. The sound improves as the instrument is played due to the sustained transmission of vibrations from the instrument's strings to the wooden sounding board of the instrument and the effects of these vibrations on the structure and mechanical characteristics of the wood and the instrument finish.
The problem posed by slow conditioning is that an instrument buyer cannot know how an instrument will sound in the long term if the instrument is purchased new and unplayed. This uncertainty makes it difficult to compare instruments critically, and the buyer must wait for an extended period of time until the instrument achieves its optimum sound. A performer may also need to defer playing a newly purchased instrument on stage until after the conditioning period is complete and the instrument's sound has stabilized. Likewise, an instrument manufacturer cannot fully evaluate the quality of their product, and a retailer cannot present new instruments to their best advantage.
The only method currently available for accelerating the conditioning process is to place the instrument near a loudspeaker and to allow the sounding board and body of the instrument to be vibrated by the sound pressure waves emanating from the loudspeaker. This process is being applied on a manufacturing scale by the Boucher Guitar Company (Rock Forest, Quebec, Canada) to treat unfinished guitar tops prior to final assembly and finishing. The guitar tops are exposed to music played within an acoustic chamber 24 hours a day (for an unspecified period) prior to construction of the guitar. These air-coupled vibrations, however, are weak, inefficient, and have unknown effectiveness.
There are no commercially-available devices that directly and efficiently apply vibrations to the sounding board or body of stringed instruments. Several patents have been issued, however, for devices claiming to accelerate instrument conditioning, again for the purpose of achieving optimum tone in relatively little time.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,911,872 to Carl 1959, U.S. Pat. No. 1,467,576 to Flydal 1923, and U.S. Pat. No. 579,605 to Pierce 1897, are similar in that all describe large, motor-driven, mechanical devices that automatically play one or more intact violins by drawing a bow or a belt across the strings in a reciprocating motion. The devices are intended to mimic the mechanics of actual playing and do apply vibrations to intact instruments via the normal sound-transduction mechanical chain from strings to bridge to sounding board, but are only appropriate for instrument manufacturers. The large, expensive, stationary devices are not accessible to the instrument consumer or retailer.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,352,442 to Floresco 1920, also addresses violin conditioning, but the invention treats only the top of the instrument removed from the body. The Floresco invention uses exaggerated static stresses applied to the instrument bridge by heavy-duty metal strings stretched across a frame external to the treated portion of the instrument. The invention exposes the violin top to stresses never encountered during normal use and is only suitable for use by violin manufacturers, and also.
The inventions described in patents U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,908 to Rabe 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,081 to Simjian 1995 are intended to improve the tone of wooden instruments, but again by subject the instrument to an industrial treatment suitable only for manufacturing environments. The Rabe invention attaches the instrument or parts of an instrument to a vibrating surface or table and subjects the attached components to a range of vibration frequencies. Since the whole instrument or instrument parts are shaken, the applied vibrations bypass the normal mechanical chain from the strings to the bridge to the soundboard. Consequently, the treatment risks damage to components not intended to sustain vibrations and may or may not treat all the components that are intended to vibrate in normal use. The Simjian invention suffers the same shortcomings and risks since it submerges wood panels destined for use as instrument parts in an ultrasonic bath.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,501 to Ashworth, 1991 Jul. 16, is the most relevant to the present application and describes the only device that is portable, that attaches to a complete instrument, and that could be used by an instrument consumer. The Ashworth invention comprises an audio transducer attached to a guitar in which the tension of the strings presses down on an arm of the device which, in turn, presses a foot extending from the transducer directly against the sounding board. The strings are used only to hold the invention in place while the audio transducer applies vibrations directly to the sounding board via a rigid mechanical coupling.
Although the multiple patents described above emphasize the importance of and attempt to address the need for conditioning new or little-used string instruments with wood sounding boards or bodies, all of the inventions suffer from one or more disadvantages.    (a) Most of the inventions constitute industrial or manufacturing treatments that are not suitable for use by the instrument consumer. In particular, the inventions            are large, bulky, and stationary        are expensive        are not easily applied        are not designed to be attached and removed easily or frequently        are not suitable for unattended use        do not apply vibrations through the normal mechanical chain or do not apply vibrations or stresses normally encountered during play            (b) Most of the inventions are designed for instruments in the violin family only and are not applicable to instruments that are plucked rather than bowed, such as those in the guitar and mandolin families.    (c) The only invention that is suitable for use by the instrument consumer            is relatively difficult to remove and attach        has multiple moving parts necessary for attachment and adjustment        makes mechanical contact with the sounding board and thus exposes the sounding board to physical damage        makes mechanical contact with the sounding board and thus bypasses the normal sound transduction mechanical chain from strings to bridge to sounding board        makes mechanical contact with the sounding board and thus may not vibrate all components of the instrument that normally experience vibration, or may vibrate components of the instrument that do not normally experience vibration        tends by its design to lift strings off of the instrument bridge, which may lead to movement of the bridge for instruments with bridges not fixed to the body such as violins, mandolins, and arch-top guitars        requires an unspecified source of amplified audio signals to drive the audio transducer
The disadvantages and deficiencies of these previous inventions may be responsible for the complete absence of any commercially-available stringed instrument conditioner.

String-mounted conditioner for stringed musical instruments


A card connector includes a required number of contacts adapted to contact connection portions of the plurality of the memory cards, and a case arranging and holding the contacts therein and having a plurality of inserting holes for the memory cards. The connector includes at least one locking member movable or pivotally movable when a memory card is inserted, and at least one spring member displaceable when the memory card is inserted. In one aspect, a card connector includes at least one slider for forming parts of the plurality of inserting holes, and at least one holder for movably holding the slider. Consequently, the card connector is able to prevent the insertion of more than one memory card with a simple construction, to provide a miniaturized and high-density connector without any limitation of circuit board design, and easy to design its case and easy to remove the inserted card.

This invention relates to a card connector for use in a various kinds of electric and electronic appliances such as printers, card readers and the like and capable of inputting and outputting signals into and from a plurality of memory cards inserted into the card connector, and more particularly to a card connector capable of preventing more than one memory card from being inserted at a time.
In recent years, with the widespread use of digital cameras and the like, memory cards of compact and large memory capacity have been used. Depending upon characteristics of appliances with which the memory cards are utilized, memory cards of variety of kinds have become popular such as, for example, SD (Secure Digital) memory card (registered trademark) (simply referred to hereinafter as "SD card"), Memory-Stick card (registered trademark) (simply referred to hereinafter as "MS card"), SmartMedia card (registered trademark) (simply referred to hereinafter as "SM card"), CompactFlash card (registered trademark) (simply referred to hereinafter as "CF card"), xD card (registered trademark), multimedia card (registered trademark) (simply referred to hereinafter as "MM card") and the like. With these circumstances, memory card readers and writers as devices for reading and writing information from and onto these various memory cards have been used in computers or as external or peripheral devices.
It is naturally preferable that such memory card readers and writers can also accommodate these various memory cards. In the hitherto used memory card readers and writers, therefore, there is arranged a card connector in their main body to make it possible to insert various memory cards into the connector, thereby enabling writing and reading information onto and from these memory cards.
There are many kinds of memory cards such as SD, MS, SM, CF, xD, MM cards and the like described above. The memory card readers and writers could accommodate all or some of these memory cards. In fact, card connectors are provided with inserting holes into which corresponding memory cards can be inserted. Now, a card connector adapted to accommodate three kinds of the SD, xD and MS cards will be explained by way of example with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.
A card connector 60 of the prior art shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 includes a plurality of contacts 63 arranged and held in a housing or a case 62 such that the contacts 63 are able to be connected to terminals of memory cards inserted into respective inserting holes. In this case, the card connector is constructed such that when a memory card is inserted into the inserting hole through its opening, it becomes possible to write and read information onto and from the memory card. As shown in FIG. 7, the card connector 60 includes an inserting hole 27 in the upper portion for an SD card 49, an inserting hole 26 on the left side in the lower portion for an MS card 48, and an inserting hole 25 on the right side in the upper portion for an xD card 47.
With such a card connector, a desired memory card, for example, the CF card is inserted into the inserting hole for the CF card to carry out writing and reading information onto and from the CF card. In a card connector into which a plurality of memory cards can be inserted, integrated circuits for controlling the respective memory cards are common to all the memory cards. When two or more memory cards are inserted into the card connector at a time, errors would frequently occur. Two methods are envisioned in order to avoid these errors. One method is to provide integrated circuits exclusive to the respective memory cards for controlling these cards. The other method is to prevent the insertion of more than one memory card at a time. The former method would be difficult to be realized because of extremely packed substrate layouts and occupied areas of substrates with the current progressed miniaturization of appliances and would result in increase of manufacturing cost.
As an example of the latter method, consequently, disclosed in the art is a card connector having a plurality of inserting holes and planned to prevent a further insertion of a memory card when once a memory card has been inserted, such as Japanese Patent Application Opened No. 2003-297,489 (Patent Literature 1).
The invention of the Japanese Patent Application Opened No. 2003-297,489 (Patent Literature 1) has an object to provide a memory card connector having a plurality of inserting holes into which a plurality of memory card can be inserted, but being capable of preventing a second memory card from being inserted by an earlier insertion of a first memory card. This memory card connector includes a connector main body having a plurality of inserting holes opening into shapes corresponding to those of memory cards to be inserted and contacts provided in spaces of the inserting holes to be electrically connected to respective electrodes of the cards to be inserted, and a slide cover provided outside the inserting holes in a movable manner along the opening surface of the inserting holes and having card inserting holes of shapes corresponding to the memory cards, the card inserting holes opening in a manner forming pairs with and shifting relative to the inserting holes of the connector main body. With this construction, accordingly, when the space of one inserting hole of the connector main body and the card inserting hole of the slider cover are concentrically coincident with each other, the spaces of the other inserting holes of the main body and the other card inserting holes of the slide cover are not coincident with each other, thereby preventing the insertion of more than one memory card at a time. The claim in the Patent Literature 1 recites a memory card connector into which a plurality of memory cards can be inserted, characterized in comprising a connector main body consisting of a plastic housing or case having a plurality of inserting holes opening into shapes corresponding to those of memory cards to be inserted and contacts provided in spaces of the inserting holes to be electrically connected to electrodes of the cards to be inserted, and a slide cover provided outside the inserting holes of the connector main body in a movable manner along the opening surface of the inserting holes of the connector main body and having card inserting holes of shapes corresponding to the memory cards to be inserted and opening in a manner forming pairs with the inserting holes of the connector main body, whereby when the space in one inserting hole of the connector main body and the card inserting hole of the slide cover in pair are concentrically coincident with each other, other spaces of the other inserting holes and the opposite card inserting holes are not coincident with each other.
In the card connector of the Patent Literature 1, the slide cover as a separate part is attached to the surface of the case and is laterally slid such that only one card inserting hole of the slide cover is brought into coincidence with the one inserting hole of the case and the other card inserting holes are not coincident with the other inserting holes of the case, thereby preventing the insertion of more than one memory card at a time.
In recent years, the requirement for even more miniaturization has been more strongly imposed on appliances and hence the same requirement has also been strongly imposed on connectors. Under such circumstances, the arrangement of the slide cover on the front surface of the connector in the Patent Literature 1 would go against the miniaturization of connector, and would limit circuit substrate design (making it impossible to arrange connection portions of the connector to a substrate on the side of fitting with a mating connector) and inhibit the high-density arrangement for accommodating a plurality of memory cards.
In order to cause the slide cover to slide on the surface of the case, moreover, the front surface of the case must extend onto the side inserting the memory cards, which makes it structurally difficult to design the connector case and results in deteriorated shielding effect.
With the construction of the card connector of the Patent Literature 1, moreover, the slide cover as a separate part is arranged on the surface of the case so that when removing a memory card from the card connector, the part of the card to be grasped or seized by an operator would be reduced, making it difficult to remove the card from the connector.


The metal shell of an acetabular cup has holes that allow a surgeon to screw the shell to pelvic bone. To prevent the debris of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene ("UHMWPE") or other plastic liner in the shell from migrating through the holes, the present invention seals each screw-receiving hole with a thin UHMWPE disc. The disc snaps into an annular groove in the hole. With the disc in place, debris from the liner does not pass through the screw holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a medical device. In particular it is a device for sealing the screw holes in an acetabular cup.
2. State of the Art
Total hip replacement often requires replacement of a patient's acetabulum with an acetabular cup prosthesis. Acetabular reamers remove pelvic bone to create a properly sized region on the pelvis to receive the acetabular cup and liner. Typically, a surgeon uses hemispherical reamers until a chosen acetabular cup-receiving shell can seat. One such shell is part of the ATH System of Kinamed, Inc. of Newbury Park, Calif., assignee of this application. In some patients, the shell can be cemented to the pelvic bone, in others it may be press fit, however, many patients have insufficient bone to secure the shell. For those latter patients, the shell is screwed into the pelvis through screw holes in the shell.
Orthopedic surgeons have become concerned about the impact of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) wear debris that may cause osteolytic changes within the patient's bone. It is thought that the screw holes may allow the potentially destructive particles to come into contact with bone and cause damage by virtue of the cellular reaction to the wear debris material.


A deployable system for assisting flight control under certain flight conditions, such as at high angles of attack, whereby two inflatable membranes are located on the forebody portion of an aircraft on opposite sides thereof. The members form control surfaces for effecting lateral control forces if one is inflated and longitudinal control forces if both are inflated.

The present invention relates generally to the field of aerodynamics and, more specifically, to an aerodynamic surface distension system for high angle of attack forebody vortex control. Basically, a fluid-filled flexible member alters the shape of a forebody portion of an aircraft or similar vehicle to effect aerodynamic forces and moments, thus providing control forces at high angle of attack.

Aerodynamic surface distension system for high angle of attack forebody vortex control

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration


A multichip integrated circuit package system is provided attaching a first integrated circuit die on a substrate top surface, mounting a second integrated circuit die over the first integrated circuit die, connecting an external interconnect on a substrate bottom surface, and forming a first encapsulation having a recess to expose a portion of the substrate bottom surface and the external interconnect.

Every new generation of integrated circuits with increased operating frequency, performance and the higher level of large scale integration have underscored the need for the integrated circuit packaging to meet the high speed signaling requirements of the integrated circuits. Modern consumer electronics, such as smart phones, personal digital assistants, and location based services devices, as well as enterprise electronics, such as servers and storage arrays, are packing more integrated circuits into an ever shrinking physical space with expectations for decreasing cost. Contemporary consumer electronics expose integrated circuits and packages to more demanding and sometimes new environmental conditions, such as cold, heat, and humidity requiring integrated circuit packages to provide robust thermal management structures.
As more functions are packed into the integrated circuits and more integrated circuits into the package, the packaged integrated circuits reliably provide the high performance across specified environmental conditions. The integrated circuits bare a portion of performance assurance over various conditions. The integrated circuit package also bares a portion of the performance assurance and in some case more than the integrated circuits.
Numerous technologies have been developed to meet these requirements. Some of the research and development strategies focus on new package technologies while others focus on improving the existing and mature package technologies. Research and development in the existing package technologies may take a myriad of different directions.
One proven way to reduce cost is to use package technologies with existing manufacturing methods and equipments. Paradoxically, the reuse of existing manufacturing processes does not typically result in the reduction of package dimensions. Existing packaging technologies struggle to cost effectively meet the ever demanding integration of today's integrated circuits and packages.
In response to the demands for improved packaging, many innovative package designs have been conceived and brought to market. The multi-chip package has achieved a prominent role in reducing the board space. Numerous package approaches stack multiple integrated circuits, package level stacking, or package-on-package (POP). Known-good-die KGD and assembly process yields are not an issue since each package can be tested prior to assembly, allowing KGD to be used in assembling the stack. But stacking integrated devices, package-on-package, or a combination thereof have system level difficulties, such as increased package height composed of two ordinary packages or package structures not optimal for high performance integrated circuits.
Thus, a need still remains for a multichip package system providing low cost manufacturing, improved yields, increased electrical performance, reduced integrated circuit package dimensions, and integration configurations. In view of the ever-increasing need to save costs and improve efficiencies, it is more and more critical that answers be found to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.


A method of transmitting a frame by a device in a wireless communication network is provided. The device generates a first symbol having a first subcarrier spacing where a symbol duration of the first symbol, excluding a guard interval, has a first length. The device generates a second symbol having a second subcarrier spacing narrower than the first subcarrier spacing wherein a symbol duration of the second symbol, excluding a guard interval, has a second length that is twice the first length. The device transmits a frame including the first symbol and the second symbol.

(a) Field
The described technology relates generally to a frame transmitting method and a frame receiving method. More particularly, the described technology generally relates to a frame transmitting method and a frame receiving method in a wireless local area network (WLAN).
(b) Description of the Related Art
A WLAN is being standardized by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Part 11 under the name of "Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications."
After an original standard was published in 1999, new version standards are continuously published by amendments. The IEEE standard 802.11a (IEEE Std 802.11a-1999) supporting 2.4 GHz band was published in 1999, and the IEEE standard 802.11g (IEEE Std 802.11g-2003) supporting 5 GHz band was published in 2003. These standards are called legacy. Subsequently, the IEEE standard 802.11n (IEEE Std 802.11n-2009) for enhancements for higher throughput (HT) was published in 2009, and the IEEE standard 802.11ac (IEEE 802.11ac-2013) for enhancements for very high throughput (VHT) was published in 2013.
Recently, the WLAN has been considered for use as a network for covering a wide area in an outdoor environment. Accordingly, a high efficiency (HE) WLAN suitable for the outdoor environment is being developed by the IEEE 802.11ax task group. In order to be suitable for the outdoor environment, a length of a guard interval provided by a cyclic prefix may be lengthened, so a length of a symbol may be lengthened. Accordingly, the length of the symbol in the HE WLAN or a subsequent WLAN may be lengthened.

Frame transmitting method and frame receiving method