A method for replacing a spool mount or other noise reducing device which located in a confined area. The tool for practicing the method includes both extraction elements and installation elements. The extraction elements include an extraction guide, an extraction stud, and an extraction rider. The installation elements include an extension guide, a compression guide, and an installation rider. The tool drastically reduces the time required for replacement of a spool mount and does not require any cutting or welding.

Spool mounts are frequently used to isolate noise or reduce vibrations in audio equipment, computers, and seafaring vessels. These mounts are spool-shaped devices made from rubber or any other material which can be used to absorb vibrational energy. Spool mounts deteriorate over time and must be replaced. However, they are frequently difficult to reach since they are embedded into the equipment. Spool mounts are commonly located on threaded support rods. These threaded support rods are used to isolate equipment from vibrations, such as the vibrations which occur in the hull of a seafaring vessel. The conventional method for replacing spool mounts requires cutting the threaded support rod, replacing the spool mount, and then welding the threaded support rod back together again. The subject invention dramatically reduces the time required for replacement of the spool mount and does not require any welding.

Method of mounting a spool mount in an opening in the hull of a vessel

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A conveyor belt tracking and drive mechanism for use with a short, wide conveyor belt system. The mechanism has a stationary frame with first and second roller journaled for rotation at a first and second end of the stationary frame. A first moveable frame is pivotally suspended from the stationary frame. A second moveable frame is pivotally suspended from the first moveable frame. The second moveable frame has a drive roller and motor operatively connected to the drive roller. A micro-tracking adjustment screw, disposed between the first moveable frame and stationary frame, is used to adjust the tracking of the conveyor belt by laterally moving the first and second moveable frame. A belt adjustment screw located between the first moveable frame and second moveable frame allows one as to adjust the tension of the short, wide conveyor belt by movement of the power roller against or away from the short, wide conveyor belt.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conveyor, more particularly to an apparatus for adjusting conveyor belt tracking and tension with the drive mechanism.
Discussion of the Prior Art
Conveyor belts have a tendency during operation to move sideways on the rollers which support them. This is especially pronounced in the case of short, wide belts but present in all belts, short or long, wide or narrow. This cross-tracking can cause uneven wear and excess tension on the belt. Additionally, the belt can rub against supporting structure and become damaged. Furthermore, items carried on the crosstracking conveyor belt may not follow a desired path. This, of course, is disruptive if the conveyor is feeding products into a wrapping machine or the like where the items must line up properly at the end of the conveyor belt path.
There have been various methods related to sensing and adjusting the tracking of conveyor systems particularly in reprographic apparatus. These methods often have servo control arrangements such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,417 to Joseph et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,372 to Rajagopal. Adjusting of belt tracking is generally limited to adjusting the drive roller or a special tracking roller. The tracking roller is often located on the exterior of the belt path along with an additional drive or take-up roller. It is also common to reverse bend the belt around a second drive roller to increase belt tension. The additional roller reverse bending increases the tension and wear on the belt. This exterior position and reverse bending makes changing belts difficult and may require the use of tools to remove the belt.
Therefore, what is needed is a conveyor belt tracking and drive mechanism for conveyor belt systems which has the drive and tracking mechanism all in one unit.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a conveyor belt tracking and drive mechanism for belt conveyor systems which uses the main drive as the tracking element.
It is another object of the invention to provide a self contained belt tension control on the interior of the belt path.
Yet another object of the invention is to allow highly precise manual adjustment of the belt tracking
Still another object of the invention is to provide a conveyor belt tracking and drive mechanism which allows easy removal and replacement of the conveyor belt.
Another object is to increase belt life by having minimal necessary tension to drive the belt.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide for self adjusting of the belt tension due to the load conveyed
Still another object of the invention is to provide proper tension adjustment of a light duty belt so it can handle a heavy load without breaking.

Conveyor belt tracking and drive mechanism


A slip ring assembly includes a stationary element, a rotatable element rotatable relative to the stationary element, and a liquid metal contact electrically coupling the rotatable element to the stationary element. The liquid metal contact includes a metallic material having a melting temperature that is less than zero degrees Celsius and a boiling temperature that is greater than four-hundred degrees Celsius to electrically couple an electrical device fixed relative to the rotatable element to an electrical device fixed relative to the stationary element through the liquid metal contact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to rotor systems, and more particularly to slip ring assemblies for rotor systems in rotorcraft.
2. Description of Related Art
Rotorcraft commonly employ rotor systems to generate lift and provide control for the aircraft during flight. Some rotor systems employ rotor assemblies with electrical devices fixed to rotary portions of the rotor assembly, such as to the rotor assembly hub and/or rotor blades. Examples of such electrical devices include sensors, heater mats for ice protection systems, and actuators for active vibration control systems. Such devices generally communicate with electrical components in the rotorcraft airframe, typically using electrical signals or electrical power conveyed between across an interface between a stationary component and a rotating component. Slip ring assemblies, for example, communicate electrical signals or power across such interfaces using a graphite brush and metal plate arrangement. As one rotates relative to the other, electrical current crosses the interface by flowing between the graphite brush and metal plate. Because the graphite brush typically touch the rotating metal plate, slip ring assemblies employing brushes typically employ a springs or similar devices to force the brush against the plate and can require periodic cleaning to remove particulate from the interface.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there is still a need in the art for improved systems and methods for communicating electrical signals and/or power between stationary and rotating components. The present disclosure provides a solution for this need.

Slip ring having a liquid metal contact between a stationary element and a rotatable element


The vehicle safety seat supports an occupant and includes structure interconnecting the seat and the vehicle. The interconnecting structure is adapted to constrain the seat, upon vehicle deceleration, to follow a trajectory with respect to the vehicle which substantially minimizes a cost function associated with occupant injury. In a preferred embodiment, the structure constrains the mass center and seat angle to follow trajectories which substantially minimize primarily forward motion of the occupant in the vehicle frame of reference.

This invention relates to vehicle safety seats for reducing injury to an occupant during a vehicle crash.
Automobile and other vehicle crashes account for numerous deaths and injuries throughout the world. Many approaches to protecting occupants during a vehicle crash have been proposed and studied. Among such approaches are active lap and shoulder belts, passive shoulder belts and air bags which inflate upon impact. Air bags, passive shoulder harnesses and active shoulder and lap belts offer some protection but often in the event of a crash an occupant "submarines" beneath the belts or air bag, thereby sustaining an injury upon impact with the vehicle's instrument panel. In "submarining" injury may additionally be caused by the lap belt sliding upwards past the occupant's hip and compressing the softer abdominal region. Lap and shoulder belt loading can also be sufficiently high during a crash to cause significant internal injuries.
There is also considerable prior art directed to seats that move with respect to the vehicle under the influence of the inertial loads resulting from the rapid deceleration of the vehicle in a crash. These prior art devices typically tilt the seat cushion upwardly while simultaneously moving the seat forward in an effort to reduce an occupant's impact with the instrument panel structure. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,707 describes a tilting seat in which the front and rear portions of the seat move upwardly with the front moving upwardly a greater amount than the rear.


Disclosed is an apparatus for face verification. The apparatus may comprise a feature extraction unit and a verification unit. In one embodiment, the feature extraction unit comprises a plurality of convolutional feature extraction systems trained with different face training set, wherein each of systems comprises: a plurality of cascaded convolutional, pooling, locally-connected, and fully-connected feature extraction units configured to extract facial features for face verification from face regions of face images; wherein an output unit of the unit cascade, which could be a fully-connected unit in one embodiment of the present application, is connected to at least one of previous convolutional, pooling, locally-connected, or fully-connected units, and is configured to extract facial features (referred to as deep identification-verification features or DeepID2) for face verification from the facial features in the connected units. The verification unit may be configured to compare the obtained DeepID2 extracted from two face images to be compared to determine if the two face images are from the same identity or not.

Early subspace face recognition methods such as LDA and Bayesian face reduce the intra-personal variations due to poses, illuminations, expressions, ages, and occlusions while the inter-personal variations are enlarged. For example, LDA approximates inter- and intra-personal face variations by using two linear subspaces and finds the projection directions to maximize the ratio between them.
More recent studies have also targeted the same goal, either explicitly or implicitly. For example, metric learning is proposed to map face images to some feature representation such that face images of the same identity are close to each other while those of different identities stay apart. However, these models are much limited by their linear nature or shallow structures, while inter- and intra-personal variations are complex, highly nonlinear, and observed in high-dimensional image space.
In recent years, a great deal of efforts has been made to learn effective features for face recognition with deep models using either the identification or verification supervisory signals. The learned features with identification signal have achieved accuracies of around 97.45% on LFW.
The idea of jointly solving the classification and verification tasks was applied to general object recognition, with the focus on improving classification accuracy on fixed object classes instead of hidden feature representations.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and a system for face verification

Beijing SenseTime Technology Development Co., Ltd


A system with a shock absorbing device shaped to fit onto straps of any size, introducing low amplitude shock absorption into the strap fixation system without compromising the fixation. The present device essentially takes up a small amount of slack in the strap and stores it within a serpentine course through a body made of a deformable material. In the event that increased and potentially damaging loads are experienced, the Strap Shock-Absorber deforms, but the fixation never exceeds the length of the strap itself. With potential applications ranging from chin straps to industrial straps, working in one or two dimensions, this device can reduce damaging force transmission to protect valuable but vulnerable structures. The deformation of the device may be either elastic or plastic, or may be a combination of both.

This disclosure pertains to sports, transportation, or any other commercial or industrial activity in which inelastic straps of various widths are tightened to sustain fixed loads, that predictably increase during the activity, causing brief intermittent periods of increased and potentially damaging force to be transmitted to that which the straps affix. The straps necessarily must continue to connect the two ends to which they are attached after the force has normalized, although in many applications, if the strap were to lengthen slightly during the period of maximal force, then return to its previous length, the purpose would not be compromised.
This disclosure was first conceived to provide a shock-absorbing function for the chin straps of American football players, to minimize the concussive forces transmitted through the helmet to the player's brain. Improvements to the conventional approaches to provide secure fastening helmets while allowing attenuation of shock transmitted through the helmets are desirable.
The concept extends, however, to any strap that affixes damageable entities or property to solid structures (e.g. property carried on car tops or trailers) that, because of vibration or variable force, could damage those entities unless protected by a strap that has limited amount of elasticity without compromising fixation.


In an inner shoe (10) for ski-boots comprising a sole (18) and an upper (16) which includes a padding (24) enclosed in an inner (26) and outer (28) lining, the shoe (10) is of the rear-entry type whereby it has a rear opening (20) extending from the top end (22) of the upper (16) up to the sole area and the shoe has not the usual front opening which can be covered by a tongue.

The shoe type of the present invention must meet two requirements which are partially opposite each other and also related to the features and type of the outer casing (shell and boot leg) of the ski-boot. The shoe must allow an easy entry of the foot.
The shoe must wrap the foot as tightly as possible so as to transmit with the greatest possible accuracy the movements which start from the skier's leg and foot and which through the shoe and casing reach the ski.
The shoe must maintain the comfort degree necessary to make the sports activity more pleasant.
The shoes made until now are of two types, namely of the front and rear-entry type. In the first case, the front-entry shoe has a front opening with flaps which can be opened wide apart and this opening can be closed by a tongue provided underneath.
In this well-known embodiment, although elastic and/or padded insertng members have been utilized, the shoe with a front-entry shell may be put on with difficulty.
In the second case, the rear-entry shoe has an opening, for the entry of the foot, extending from the heel portion up to the top of the shin and closed on the rear part by a padded spoiler extending from the heel area up to the front part below the calf. In this way it is easy to put on the shoe but it is impossible to change the volume of the shoe at the front part during the tightening of the boot by the fastening mechanisms.
Another problem of the rear-entry shoe lies in the fact that the shoe tends to come out from the shell when the foot is removed.
The aim of the present invention is then to prtovide an inner shoe for ski-boots which solves the above-mentioned problems and provide advantages, and in particular, allows an easy entry of the foot and has an high degree of flexibility so as to overcome the drawbacks explained with reference to the cited prior art and to prevent the removal of the shoe when the foot is removed from the ski-boot.


In accordance with disclosed embodiments, there are provided systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementing concurrent dataflow execution with write conflict protection within a cloud based computing environment. For instance, an exemplary system having at least a processor and a memory therein includes means for: creating a dataflow definition for a first dataflow type, wherein the dataflow definition includes at least one or more datasets to be accessed by the dataflow and a plurality of functional operations to be performed on the one or more datasets when the dataflow is executed; generating and storing a dataflow version identifying all datasets accessed by the dataflow based on the dataflow definition created; receiving multiple requests for the first dataflow type; enqueuing the multiple requests into a message queue pending execution; selecting, from the message queue, a first runnable dataflow having been earliest enqueued of the first dataflow type for execution based on (i) the first dataflow type being allowable within system limits and based further on (ii) verification that the selected first runnable dataflow is not already executing and based further on (iii) verification there is no write conflict for any dataset accessed by the selected first runnable dataflow. Other related embodiments are disclosed.

The subject matter discussed in the background section is not to be assumed as prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section is not assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also correspond to claimed embodiments.
Within large scale computing systems, such as the on-demand cloud based computing system, which is discussed below in greater detail, there is a need to ensure that executing dataflows do not interfere with one another. This is especially problematic when there are multiple dataflows needing to execute which are of the same type, and consequently, exhibit a distinct risk of triggering a write conflict, in which two or more disparate flows of a same type write to the same underlying data store, without either of the processes detecting such a conflicting write event. Such write conflicts must be avoided as they can lead to record corruption and inaccurate query results as well as other problems, such as unexpected application behavior.
Such dataflows are also referred to as work flows or Business Process Management "BPM" flows.
One way of eliminating the potential for write conflicts is to either serialize or queue and release dataflows having a same data type, such that no two dataflows of a same type are permitted to execute at the same time. In such a way, any write to an underlying data store will be completed and committed prior to or upon the completion of a first dataflow and upon the release or serialized execution of a second dataflow of the same type, the recently written data will be retrieved, processed, and any subsequent re-writes to that same location will therefore be based on accurate and up to date data, thus negating any such write conflict.
While such a solution is fully functional and valid, the serialization of such dataflow executions by type or the queue and release of such dataflows creates a bottleneck in the system which because increasingly restrictive as the size of the system grows and as the number of users, organizations, and concurrent processing demands tends to increase over time.
While the serializing and queue then release approach works well for small scale systems, an on-demand cloud base computing architecture serving literally millions of simultaneous users and tens of thousands of businesses, partners, clients, and other organizations, becomes crippled by such an approach, as there is an artificial introduction of latency into the system, which in turn inhibits overall system performance and leads to customer dissatisfaction due to unnecessarily lengthy processing times.
The present state of the art may therefore benefit from the systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementing concurrent dataflow execution with write conflict protection within a cloud based computing environment as is described herein.

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementing concurrent dataflow execution with write conflict protection within a cloud based computing environment


A method for dynamic event detection based on content from a set of social networking systems including receiving content from the set of social networking systems, identifying a plurality of content associated with a geofence, the content that was generated within a predetermined time period, determining feature values from the plurality of content for each of a set of features, determining an event probability for the geofence based on the feature values, and detecting an event within the geofence in response to the event probability exceeding a threshold event probability.

Social networking services provide a rich source of data for real-time event detection, particularly with the increased popularity of posting geotagged content from mobile devices in real time. However, there are several problems posed by using social networking service content to detect events in real-time. First, the sheer volume and frequency of content generated across each social networking service is immense-attempting to analyze all the content generated across multiple social networking services in real time poses considerable processing and modeling challenges. Second, the social networking service content is typically a mix of content with different focuses, ranging from content that is relevant to an event (e.g., an image of the event focus) to content that is irrelevant to an event (e.g., content that is only relevant to the user or the personal connections of the user), distributed across time and space. The volume of secondary content (e.g., content that is not about the event) tends to eclipse the primary content (e.g., content that is about the event), rendering detection of the beginning of an event difficult. Third, curation of the content relevant to the event poses an issue as well, as the event-associated content can range from content about the event focus to content about spectators of the event. For example, content about the event focus can be relevant to users interested about the event, while content about the event spectators tends to be irrelevant to the users and dilutes the value of an event feed that is generated from the event-associated content. Conversely, some entities can be interested in only the content generated by spectators of the event (e.g., a sporting event or music event), while content about the event itself is irrelevant to the entity and dilutes the value of the content feed generated from the event- or geographic region-associated content. The substantially real-time event detection can subsequently be used to notify users, used as a trigger event for trading models or trading triggers in financial market applications, or used in any other suitable manner.
Thus, there is a need in the social networking services field to create a new and useful system and method for automatic, real-time event detection based on content generated on social networking systems.

Dynamic event detection system and method


In a method for addressing rows and columns in a liquid crystal display, each phase for addressing rows and columns in the display includes precharging pixels of the display before a row write, to apply a precharge voltage to all pixels. Depending on the selected black or white precharge level, the light box is either switched on permanently, or is switched on during each addressing phase immediately after the precharge or immediately after the row write. The display brightness is thus improved. The display may be of sequential color type.

The invention is particularly applicable to the direct viewing screens market: from cell phone screens to large television screens. It is more particularly applicable to displays for which pixels are controlled analogically. In a corresponding addressing method, the video to be displayed on a pixel is controlled by an analogue voltage level output by a digital analogue converter using the received digital video signal. To display a given grey level, the active element of a pixel is activated for one row period to transfer a corresponding analogue voltage level onto the pixel capacitance. The liquid crystal is then oriented in a direction that depends on the applied analogue value. Input light bias passing through this liquid crystal is then modified and analysed by a polariser.
The display performance depends particularly on the brightness that depends on the pixel illumination time. This illumination time depends on the addressing time necessary to transfer analogue voltage levels onto each pixel in a row of the matrix, and the liquid crystal stabilization time that depends on the previous analogue voltage level and the current analogue voltage level.
These constraints are accentuated in the case of a display addressed in sequential colour mode. Remember that in a display, the pixels are organised in rows and columns of a matrix, each pixel being arranged at the intersection of a row and a column. The rows of cells are addressed sequentially. The cells in a row are addressed simultaneously and receive new analogue data through columns during the row time (in other words the time during which the associated row is selected). An addressing phase of a display normally includes a write step during which rows are selected sequentially, and the active elements of each selected row are activated to receive and transfer the analogue voltage level onto the associated pixel capacitance, with a stabilization time corresponding to the changeover time necessary so that all pixels are switched; and an illumination time during which the panel is illuminated, the light is modulated by the display and the corresponding image is recovered. In the case of a sequential colour mode, these steps are performed once for each primary colour within a particular video frame. There are generally three coloured sub-frames per frame. Thus, within the time of one frame, all pixels in the matrix have to be addressed at least three times to display the video information corresponding to each primary colour. It may be necessary to have two or more coloured sub-frames per primary colour in a video frame, to avoid perceiving the different coloured frames.
There are still some problems that arise with these displays, particularly due to the liquid crystal response time that depends on the analogue voltage level memorized during the previous sub-frame and the analogue voltage level to be charged during the new sub-frame. Taking the example of a TN (Twisted Nematic) type liquid crystal display, the changeover time for the liquid crystal to change from one grey level to another is much greater than the changeover time to change from the black level to the white level, or from the white level to a grey level. The black level is the liquid crystal mode in which the potential difference between the pixel and the counter electrode is maximum. The white level is the liquid crystal mode in which the potential difference between the pixel and the counter electrode is minimum. A grey level is an intermediate level: light greys correspond to an applied potential difference similar to the value applied to obtain white, while dark greys correspond to a potential difference similar to that applied to obtain black. The changeover time to change from the white level to a light grey level may be one and a half times longer than the changeover time to change from the black level to this same light grey level. The changeover time from a light grey level to the black level is very short. In one example with TN type liquid crystals, the following changeover times were measured: 0.2 milliseconds to change from white to black; 1 millisecond to change from black to white; 3.25 milliseconds in the worst case measured between two grey levels.

Video system including a liquid crystal matrix display having a precharge phase with improved addressing method


To obtain a vaporizer in which thin film-forming raw material solutions are stably and reliably carried by a carrier gas while being reliably separated within the dispersion unit body and the plurality of thin film-forming raw material solutions are stably vaporized in the subsequent vaporization unit, a center rod used in the vaporizer, and a method for vaporizing raw materials entrained by a carrier gas. A carrier gas introduction bore is formed in the center axis direction of the dispersion unit body. A center rod is inserted in the carrier gas introduction bore. The interspace between the inner wall of the bore and the outer wall of the rod forms a gas passage. Multiple thin film-forming material supply units are situated midway of the gas passage of the dispersion unit body, supplying thin film-forming materials. The center rod has sealing members in the longitudinal direction of the center rod.

In the prior art film-forming apparatus forming a film on the surface of a semiconductor wafer using a CVD device including a MOCVD device or the like, the technique of supplying a carrier gas containing film-forming liquid materials into a vaporizer and vaporizing the raw materials in the vaporizer is known.
Furthermore, with the above vaporizer, a heater is provided around the vaporizer or around the pipe through which the carrier gas is supplied into the vaporizer so as to vaporize the raw material with heat from the heater (for example, Patent Literature 1 to 3).
Furthermore, Patent Literature 4 discloses a technique of introducing liquid raw material into a carrier gas, dispersing the liquid raw material atomized to the order of a micron or smaller (1 micron or smaller) in size in the carrier gas (hereafter, a carrier gas in which liquid raw materials are dispersed is referred to as raw material gas), introducing the raw material gas into a vaporizer to vaporize the raw material, and then forming a film in the film-forming chamber. In doing so, a means for cooling the exit is provided to prevent clogging at the exit as a result of only the solvent evaporating. Furthermore, the liquid raw material is dispersed in a carrier gas as finer particles; therefore, the flow rate of the carrier gas is preferably 50 to 340 msec.
However, when a film is formed by the above technique, the film sometimes has a ripple on the surface. Furthermore, the presence of particles in the film or on its surface is observed. Furthermore, the film sometimes has a composition deviated from the target composition. Furthermore, the presence of particles in the film or on its surface is observed. Furthermore, the film sometimes has a composition deviated from the target composition. Furthermore, an increased content of carbon is sometimes observed.
FIG. 6 is an illustration of a prior art vaporizer disclosed in FIG. 15 of Patent Literature 4. The vaporizer is formed by sequentially connecting the body of a dispersion unit 8, a connection unit 23, and a vaporization unit 22.

Vaporizer, center rod used therein, and method for vaporizing material carried by carrier gas


A sealing assembly for a hinged door is pivotable over a door threshold when the door is opened or closed. The sealing assembly includes an actuator responsive to closing of the door, the actuator having at least one connector rod extending along a channel and being movable longitudinally within the channel in response to the door closing. The rod is connected to a first end of at least one pivotable arm having rigid sections separated by flexible joints, with a second end of the arm being connected to a sealing member. The arm is flexible such that as the connector rod moves along the channel, part of the arm flexes vertically thereby imparting and maintaining vertical pressure on the sealing member.

An automatic drop-down door seal developed by the Applicant is disclosed in WO2012/032295. The present invention relates to improvements to the door seal disclosed therein and specifically to provide an improved mechanism to impart a continual vertical pressure on the seal housing during use to retain the seal firmly against the adjacent surface in use.


A catalytic mixture of discrete solid materials and a mercaptan oxidation process for using the catalytic mixture have been developed. The catalytic mixture comprises a metal chelate dispersed on a non-basic solid support and a solid base. The process involves contacting a sour middle distillate hydrocarbon fraction which contains mercaptans with the supported metal chelate and the solid base mixture in the presence of an oxidizing agent and a polar compound. The process is unique in that both the catalyst and the base are discrete solid materials.

Processes for the treatment of a sour hydrocarbon fraction where the fraction is treated by contacting it with an oxidation catalyst and an alkaline agent in the presence of an oxidizing agent at reaction conditions have become well known and widely practiced in the petroleum refining industry. These processes are typically designed to effect the oxidation of offensive mercaptans contained in a sour hydrocarbon fraction to innocuous disulfides, a process commonly referred to as sweetening. The oxidizing agent is most often air. Gasoline, including natural, straight run and cracked gasolines, is the most frequently treated sour hydrocarbon fraction. Other sour hydrocarbon fractions which can be treated include the normally gaseous petroleum fractions as well as naphtha, kerosene, jet fuel, fuel oil, and the like.
A commonly used continuous process for treating sour hydrocarbon fractions entails contacting the fraction with a metal phthalocyanine catalyst dispersed in an aqueous caustic solution to yield a doctor sweet product. Doctor sweet means a mercaptan content in the product low enough to test "sweet" (as opposed to "sour") by the well-known doctor test. The sour fraction and the catalyst containing aqueous caustic solution provide a liquid-liquid system wherein mercaptans are converted to disulfides at the interface of the immiscible solutions in the presence of an oxidizing agent usually air. Alternatively, the sour hydrocarbon fraction may be effectively treated by contacting it with a metal chelate catalyst dispersed on a high surface area adsorptive support-usually a metal phthalocyanine on an activated charcoal at oxidation conditions in the presence of a soluble alkaline agent. One such process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,988,500. The oxidizing agent is most often air admixed with the fraction to be treated, and the alkaline agent is most often an aqueous caustic solution charged continuously to the process or intermittently as required to maintain the catalyst in the caustic-wetted state.
The prior art shows that alkaline agents are necessary in order to catalytically oxidize mercaptans to disulfides. Thus, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,108,081 and 4,156,641 disclose the use of alkali hydroxides, especially sodium hydroxide, for oxidizing mercaptans. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,802 discloses the use of ammonium hydroxide as the basic agent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,887 discloses the use of solid base materials which are used both as the support for the metal catalyst and as the alkaline agent. The activity of the metal chelate systems can be improved by the use of quaternary ammonium compound as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,290,913 and 4,337,147.
We have developed a catalytic mixture of solid materials and a process using the catalytic mixture which is significantly different from all the sweetening processes previously disclosed in the art. The prior art describes numerous types of oxidation catalysts used in combination with an alkaline agent which are usually liquid alkaline agents, and in one case a solid base which is the support for a metal chelate catalyst. In contrast, our invention involves the use of a physical mixture of a solid base and a metal chelate dispersed on a non-basic solid support. Moreover, the demonstrated high conversion of mercaptans to disulfides of our invention was contrary to expectations set by the generally accepted working hypothesis of how the alkaline agent functions and by mercaptan oxidation of kerosine studies using the oxidation catalyst alone and the solid base alone.

Process for sweetening a sour hydrocarbon fraction using a mixture of a supported metal chelate and a solid base


According to one embodiment, a memory device includes a first electrode, a second electrode and an insulating portion. The first electrode includes an ionizable metal. The second electrode includes a conductive material. The conductive material is more difficult to ionize than the metal. The insulating portion is provided between the first electrode and the second electrode. The insulating portion is made of an insulating material. A space is adjacent to a side surface of the insulating portion between the first electrode and the second electrode.

Resistive random access memory (ReRAM) is nonvolatile memory in which a memory element unit has a two-terminal structure including a variable resistance layer interposed between two electrodes. Scaling is considered to be easy because the cell structure is simpler than those of other memory. Therefore, resistive random access memory is drawing attention as a strong candidate for a next-generation large-capacity memory device to replace NAND flash memory which is used widely as large-capacity semiconductor memory devices in products.
Various materials such as transition metal oxides, sulfides, perovskite oxides, semiconductor materials, etc., are being studied as the material of the variable resistance layer of resistive random access memory. Among these, a memory device in which a semiconductor material such as amorphous silicon, etc., is included in the material of the variable resistance layer is expected to be employed due to a high affinity with CMOS processes. However, such a memory device is problematic in that the retention characteristics of the program state are insufficient, etc.; and stable operations cannot be realized.


The invention prevents a fuel cell from going into a high-voltage state upon activation. In a fuel cell system having a fuel cell, a control unit comprises: a high-voltage-prevention unit that prevents, under a condition permitting high-voltage prevention, a high-voltage state by reducing the output voltage of the fuel cell to less than or equal to a predetermined high-voltage-prevention voltage; an output-limitation unit that limits the fuel cell output by reducing the amount of power generation by the fuel cell to less than or equal to a predetermined power generation limit, so that the oxidizing gas stoichiometric ratio is maintained within a predetermined allowable range; and a prohibition unit that prohibits the limitation by the output limitation unit for a predetermined period of time immediately after the fuel cell is activated and where the condition permitting high-voltage prevention is satisfied.

In recent years, a fuel cell system that utilizes as its energy source a fuel cell that generates power from the electrochemical reaction between reactant gases of fuel gas and oxidizing gas has been developed. In order to improve fuel efficiency, during low-load operations, such as idling, low-speed running, braking, etc., this type of fuel cell system performs an intermittent operation where power generation by the fuel cell is temporarily stopped and power is supplied to a load (e.g., vehicle motor) from a power storage means such as a secondary battery. When the reactant gases stop being supplied to stop the fuel cell operation during the above intermittent operation, the fuel cell goes into a high-voltage state. As the fuel cell deteriorates if it is left in a high-voltage state, it is necessary to prevent the fuel cell from going into a high-voltage state, for example, by decreasing its voltage, when stopping the fuel cell operation. In the fuel cell system disclosed in Patent Document 1 indicated below, a high-voltage state is prevented by only supplying a fuel cell with fuel gas after the stoppage of the fuel cell operation, so as to consume the oxidizing gas that remains in the fuel cell and output an electric current from the fuel cell.
Patent Document 1: Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2005-100820


A computing system comprises a connection system for coupling wireless technologies to a computer. The connection system comprises a card connector and a matting internal connector cage/frame. The card connector provides an RF connector positioned above a 68 pin connector, which provides a connection to radio frequency (RF) signals. A card has devices which support RF operations for the computing system. The card connector is attached to the card and interfaces with the devices on the card. The housing of the computing system defines a card slot which receives the card and guides connection of the card with the computing system by mating the card connector with the internal connector.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computers that accept external plug-in modules to provide additional functionality such as more memory, additional disk space, a networking capability or a wireless communication capability. In particular, the present invention relates to a plug-in module having a connector adapted for connection to a wireless communication system and a connector adapted to mate with the plug-in module as well as conventional plug-in modules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern technological advancements have increased the number of features available to a portable computer. Features include facsimile (fax) modems, additional communication interfaces, extra random access memories (RAM), or flash memories, and additional hard disk drives. These additional features if all incorporated into the portable computer will substantially increase the weight and size of the portable computer reducing the portability of the computer. Besides, any one user is not likely to need all the available features or be willing to pay the increased costs associated with having all the additional features.
A standard interface has been developed that allows computer designers and manufacturers to build modules that can be plugged into the standard interface. An application-specific module called a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) card can be removed and substituted for other PCMCIA cards depending on the configuration and functionality desired by the user. Thus, users are able to customize their portable computers to their particular needs at any given instant.
FIG. 1 shows a computer system 10 having a PCMCIA slot 12 for receiving a PCMCIA card 14. The computer system 10 can be a portable computer. The portable Computer 10 has a hinged display which permits the display to fold closed against the keyboard. The keyboard has keys that are arranged and large enough to enable an average person to type and input data comfortably. With the display facing the front side, the left side of the portable computer 10 defines a PCMCIA slot 12 for receiving and interfacing with PCMCIA cards. The PCMCIA card outline and shape are specified so that designers and manufacturers can provide cards that can be interchangably inserted into the PCMCIA slot. A user can slide the PCMCIA card 14 into the PCMCIA slot 12 leading to a keyed 68 pin connect&. The keyed 68 pin connector ensures proper mating between the PCMCIA card 14 and the PCMCIA interface of the portable computer.
The PCMCIA specification also specifies hot insertion and removal of any PCMCIA card. In other words, the portable computer does not have to be powered down before the user can swap PCMCIA cards. When the user is finished with a PCMCIA card, the PCMCIA card is simply removed and replaced with another PCMCIA card without having to power down the computer. Hot insertion and removal of PCMCIA cards provide ease of use and considerable time and power savings by not having to power down the computer. Power is saved by not having to use the disk drive to reload the data back into the memory of the portable computer. Some of the functions that are available from PCMCIA cards include high speed fax or data modems, Ethernet interfaces, additional RAM, flash memories, additional hard disk drives, multimedia applications, and wireless operations.
The prior art includes three types of PCMCIA cards: a Type I card, a Type II card, and a Type III card. FIG. 2A shows a Type I PCMCIA card 25. The length of the Type I card 25 is approximately 85.6 mm, the width is approximately 54.0 mm, and the height is approximately 3.3 mm. The connector area 27 of Type I card 25 includes a dual row 68 pin in-line connector. The dual row 68 pin in-line connector is keyed to aid proper connection to a PCMCIA mating connector within a computer system 10 such as the portable computer shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 2B shows a Type II card 30. Type II cards are essentially the same as Type I cards except that the Type II cards are allowed to have raised sections which increase the thickness of the Type II card over the Type I card. A raised section 32 is shown on the top side of Type II card 30. A similar raised section corresponding to raised section 32 is on the bottom side of the Type II card 30. In adopting Type II cards 30, the distance from the center line of the 68 pin connector to either the top side of the card or to the bottom side of the card of connector area 34 is limited to a maximum of 2.5 mm which includes the raised sections of the Type II card. The raised sections permit designers and manufacturers to incorporate more circuitry and devices into the PCMCIA cards.
The prior art also includes Type I and Type II Extended PCMCIA cards. The Type I Extended and Type II Extended cards are the same as the Type I and Type II cards except for an extended portion. The extended portion extends 10 mm past the standard card length of 85.6 mm before the height can be increased to a bubble area. The bubble area provides additional space for extra circuitry that is included in the Type I and Type II Extended PCMCIA cards. The lower substrate of the extended bubble area measured from the centerline of the 68 pin connector to the bottom of the card is the same thickness for the entire length. In other words, the Type I Extended card and Type II Extended card retain the 2.5 mm distance from the centerline of the 68 pin connector to the bottom side of the card. The extended bubble area measured from the centerline of the 68 pin connector to the top of the bubble is approximately 8.0 mm. The thicker bubble area of the Type I Extended card and Type II Extended card permits designers and manufacturers to incorporate the thicker conventional RJ-11 and RJ-45 standard connectors.
FIG. 2C shows a Type III card 36. Connector area 34 of Type III card 36 includes a dual row 68 pin in-line connector that is keyed to aid insertions. The Type III PCMCIA card is thicker so that additional devices can be accommodated. Type III cards are often found to include small form factor hard drives. Type III cards have the same outline as Type II cards except that the Type III cards are twice the thickness. However, the centerline of the 68 pin connector of the Type III card to the bottom of the card maintains the PCMCIA standard of approximately 2.5 mm. The centerline of the 68 pin connector of the Type III card to the top of the card is approximately 8.0 mm.
One of the newest technologies to utilize the PCMCIA interface of portable computers is wireless technology. A wireless PCMCIA link provides portable computer users with the ability to send and receive data and fax transmissions using cellular technology. A major problem associated with designing radio communication solutions for portable computers is coupling the intended data/signal to the wireless medium and retrieving that same data/signal from the wireless medium at the other end. Antennae are used to send and retrieve data from wireless mediums. Thus, in order for a portable computer to access a wireless medium, the portable computer has to have an interface capable of coupling to an antenna for transmitting and receiving wireless transmissions.
FIG. 3 shows an example of a wireless PCMCIA link utilizing cellular technology for fax/data transmissions. A portable computer 50 is coupled to a cellular phone 55 to obtain access to wireless service via a PCMCIA Type II card 58. A PCMCIA Type II card 58 provides an interface between the portable computer 50 and the cellular phone 55. The PCMCIA Type 11 card 58 is coupled to a connecting cable 52 which is coupled to a phone cradle 54. The phone cradle 54 provides a connection to the cellular phone 55. The cellular phone 55 provides the external antenna and the necessary circuitry to establish a wireless link to the cellular technology. The PCMCIA Type II card 58 includes circuitry to permit the portable computer 50 to exchange data with the cellular phone 55. However, the additional cabling 52 and connectors introduce associated problems that often lead to loose, misaligned, or open connections. The additional cabling 52 attached to the PCMCIA Type 11 card 58 is prone to being sheared or broken with use. Moreover, the external components, the connecting cable 52, the phone cradle 54 and the cellular phone 55 take away from the portability of the computer. The existing PCMCIA interface does not provide an internal antenna interface. Therefore, it is desirable to design an improved way to implement an interface that provides users of portable computers access to wireless technology which improves and overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art. The improved interface should be low cost, blind mateable, capable of repeated insertions, utilize the existing PCMCIA standard interface, and be capable of operating over a wide range of frequencies.

Computer plug-in module and interconnection system for wireless applications


An attachment device particularly designed to support cabinets, mirrors, shelves and similar elements which are removably mounted on at least two strips arranged horizontally on the wall in parallel and opposite relationship. Means on the strips cooperate with matching means on the element or on members which may be connected to the element. A tongue on the element or the connecting members may be inserted in a groove in one, of the strips or vice versa. The other strip is provided with a groove and the element or connecting members, for cooperation with the latter strip, is provided with grooves or controllable snap means, said grooves or snap means assuming a position opposite the groove and close to the latter when the element is applied against the wall. A number of elements can be mounted along the strips and be secured in the desired position by allowing the snap means to slide into the groove in the other strip.

The subject invention concerns an attachment device to support wall cabinets, mirrors, shelves and similar elements to walls.
The attachment to walls of wall cabinets, mirrors, shelves and similar fittings and elements which are intended to be installed in e.g. bathrooms, is a very difficult and complicated task. Very often, the walls are made of hard concrete, making drilling operations very difficult and time-consuming. This is of course particularly true, when several elements are to be secured to the wall, in which case it is necessary to drill and plug a large number of holes.
When the walls are not made of concrete, conventional gypsum slabs are nowadays used instead. Although drilling is easily performed in such gypsum slabs elements of the kind referred to cannot be safely secured directly to gypsum slabs. In such cases, a special type of attachment screw together with an associated plug therefore must be used which, when inserted through a pre-drilled hole in the slab are secured by parts of the plug and of the screw being pressed against an area around the hole edges on either side of the slab. Obviously, it is a laborious task to attach and arrange a number of such screws and their associated plugs for each element one wants to attach to the wall. Another considerable and important drawback is that the gypsum slabs are in themselves able to support only comparatively light elements. When cabinets, shelves, and similar fittings which must take considerable loads, are to be attached to the wall, such elements must be secured to and supported by the wall cross bars which are placed comparatively large distances apart and thus only in certain places in the walls. This reduces the choice of cabinet sizes, designs and above all, the position of such elements in the room. In addition, the number of heavy elements that can be secured to the cross bars also is reduced, since the number of attachment points in these cross bars is comparatively limited.
A further disadvantage in hitherto known methods of securing wall cabinets, mirrors, and similar elements to walls is that it was often necessary to make a large number of holes in the walls, with the result that considerable damage was done to them, and consequently the walls were quite unsightly when the elements were removed.
The subject invention has for its object to eliminate the problems outlined above by providing means for easy and convenient mounting and attachment to walls of fittings and elements of the kind referred to.

Attachment for wall cabinets, mirrors, shelves and similar articles


A method for treating wood sheets in which individual sheets coming out of a dryer are sent to a continuous press to have them pass from a first temperature to a second temperature lower than the first while holding them under pressure in the passage. In accordance with this method the wood sheet treatment plant comprises a dryer (12,112) at the outlet of which there is a continuous press (13,113) with pressing tables (17,116,117) with controlled temperature to have the individual wood sheets pass from the first temperature to the second temperature while being kept under pressure during the passage.

The present invention relates to a method and plant for treatment of wood blanks and rotary cut veneer.
In the known plants, blanks and rotary cut veneer are passed through a dryer at whose outlet the sheets are stacked and sent in packs to the subsequent operations.
From normal dryers the product emerges severely undulated. There have therefore been proposed separate flattening treatments.
These treatments are performed before using the blanks and rotary cut veneer by placing the packs in purposeful presses. These presses are made up of two pressing tables in sequence, one heated and one cooled, usually served by a single conveyor belt which takes the packs from one table to the other.
Each pack is subjected to a first pressing under the hot table. The hot press flattens the material and the heat makes the wood malleable. The stay time under the hot press depends on the type of material and the thickness of the pack. Indeed, time is necessary waiting for the heart of the pack to reach the preset temperature also.
When the hot pressing operation is completed the press opens and the hot pack is conveyed under the cooled pressing table. The cold press closes on the pack, pressing it again but also removing heat from the wood by means of the refrigerating liquid running in the press table. Once the cold press is closed, it is again necessary to wait for the entire pack to cool to the preset temperature. This way the flat form of the sheets reached in the hot press stabilizes and the cold press can be opened and the pack is unloaded.
The pack treatment described above generates a considerable loss of time and can cause deformities among the outermost sheets and the more inward sheets in the various packs.
To remedy this there have been proposed dryers termed `stretching dryers` in which during drying the sheet are subjected to a simultaneous stretching operation in order to avoid the subsequent pressing operation with hot-cold cycle. Although the sheets come out of these dryers flatter there can still remain residual undulations not always tolerable. In addition the stretching dryers are more costly and cumbersome and suffer from greater operating costs.
The general purpose of the present invention is to remedy the above mentioned shortcomings by making available a method and a drying plant delivering sheets with optimal planarity, rapidly and with relatively reduced costs and space occupied.

Wood sheet heat treatment method and plant


A cooling system for cooling of the flow path surface region of an engine component used in a gas turbine engine and a method for making a system for cooling of the flow path surface region of an engine component used in a gas turbine engine. The method comprises the steps of channeling apertures in a substrate to a diameter of about 0.0005xe2x80x3 to about 0.02xe2x80x3 to allow passage of cooling fluid from a cooling fluid source; applying a bond coat of about 0.0005xe2x80x3 to about 0.005xe2x80x3 in thickness to the substrate such that the bond coat partially fills the channels; applying a porous inner TBC layer of at least about 0.01xe2x80x3 in thickness to the bond coat, such that the TBC fills the channels; applying an intermediate ceramic layer that is more dense than the inner TBC layer on top of the porous TBC; applying an outer TBC layer over the intermediate layer; and, passing cooling fluid from a cooling fluid source through the channel into the porous TBC. The density of thc outer TBC layer can be varied as needed to achieve desired cooling objectives. Because the channel exit is filled with porous TBC material, cooling fluid flows through the porous passageways into the inner TBC layer. Although the passageways provide a plurality of tortuous routes, the increased density of the TBC in the intermediate layer provides a resistance to flow of the cooling fluid and effectively causes the cooling fluid to more efficiently spread through the TBC in the inner layer before exiting at the outer surface.

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines, and in particular, to a cooled flow path surface region.
In gas turbine engines, for example, aircraft engines, air is drawn into the front of the engine, compressed by a shaft-mounted rotary-type compressor, and mixed with fuel. The mixture is burned, and the hot exhaust gases are passed through a turbine mounted on a shaft. The flow of gas turns the turbine, which turns the shaft and drives the compressor and fan. The hot exhaust gases flow from the back of the engine, driving it and the aircraft forward.
During operation of gas turbine engines, the temperatures of combustion gases may exceed 3,000xc2x0 F., considerably higher than the melting temperatures of the metal parts of the engine, which are in contact with these gases. Operation of these engines at gas temperatures that are above the metal part melting temperatures is a well established art, and depends in part on supplying a cooling air to the outer surfaces of the metal parts through various methods. The metal parts of these engines that are particularly subject to high temperatures, and thus require particular attention with respect to cooling, are metal parts forming combustors and parts located aft of the combustor including turbine blades, turbine vanes and exhaust nozzles.
The hotter the turbine inlet gases, the more efficient is the operation of the jet engine. There is thus an incentive to raise the turbine inlet gas temperature. However, the maximum temperature of the turbine inlet gases is normally limited by the materials used to fabricate the turbine vanes and turbine blades of the turbine. In current engines, the turbine vanes and blades are made of nickel-based superalloys, and can operate at metal surface temperatures of up to 2100xc2x0-2200xc2x0 F.
The metal temperatures can be maintained below melting levels with current cooling techniques by using a combination of improved cooling designs and insulating thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). For example, with regard to the metal blades and vanes employed in aircraft engines, some cooling is achieved through convection by providing passages for flow of cooling air internally within the blades so that heat may be removed from the metal structure of the blade by the cooling air. Such blades essentially have intricate serpentine passageways within structural metal forming the cooling circuits of the blade.
Small internal orifices have also been devised to direct this circulating cooling air directly against certain inner surfaces of the airfoil to obtain cooling of the inner surface by impingement of the cooling air against the surface, a process known as impingement cooling. In addition, an array of small holes extending from the hollow core through the blade shell can provide for bleeding cooling air through the blade shell to the outer surface where a film of such air can protect the blade from direct contact with the hot gases passing through the engines, a process known as film cooling.
In another approach, a TBC is applied to the turbine blade component, which forms an interface between the metallic component and the hot gases of combustion. The TBC includes a ceramic coating that is applied to the external surface of metal parts within engines to impede the transfer of heat from hot combustion gases to the metal parts, thus insulating the component from the hot combustion gas. This permits the combustion gas to be hotter than would otherwise be possible with the particular material and fabrication process of the component. TBCs have also been used in combination with film cooling techniques wherein an array of fine holes extends from the hollow core through the TBC to provide cooling air onto the outer surface of the TBC.
TBCs are well-known ceramic coatings, for example, yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). Ceramic TBCs usually do not adhere well directly to the superalloys used in the substrates. Therefore, an additional metallic layer called a bond coat is placed between the substrate and the thermal barrier coating. The bond coat may be made of a nickel-containing overlay alloy, such as a NiCrAIY or a NiCoCrAIY, or other composition more resistant to environmental damage than the substrate, or alternatively, the bond coat may be a diffusion nickel aluminide or platinum aluminide, whose surface oxidizes to a protective aluminum oxide scale that provides improved adherence to the ceramic top coatings. The bond coat and the overlying TBC are frequently referred to as a thermal barrier coating system.
Multi layer coatings are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,605 to Rickerby, et al., is directed to a coating having a plurality of alternate layers having different structures that produce a plurality of interfaces. The interfaces provide paths of increased resistance to heat transfer to reduce thermal conductivity. A bond coat overlying a metallic substrate is bonded to a TBC. The TBC comprises a plurality of layers, each layer having columnar grains, the columnar grains in each layer extending substantially perpendicular to the interface between the bond coating and metallic substrate. The structure is columnar to ensure that the strain tolerance of the ceramic TBC is not impaired. The difference in structure of the layers is the result of variations in the microstructure and/or density/coarseness of the columnar grains of the ceramic.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,231 to Nissley et al. is directed to a segmented abradable ceramic coating system having enhanced abradability and erosion resistance. A segmented abradable ceramic coating is applied to a bond coat comprising three ceramic layers that are individually applied. There is a base coat foundation layer, a graded interlayer, and an abradable top layer. The coating is characterized by a plurality of vertical microcracks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,130 to Bosshart et al. is directed to coatings having a low stress to strength ratio across the depth of the coating. Graded layers of metal/ceramic material having increasing ceramic composition are sequentially applied to the metal substrate under conditions of varied substrate temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,928 to Tsantrizos et al. is directed to a TBC comprising an MCrAlY bond coat and a dual constituent ceramic topcoat. The topcoat comprises a monolithic zirconia layer adjacent to the bond coat, a monolithic layer of calcia-silica representing the outer surface of the TBC and a graded interface between the two to achieve good adhesion between the two constituents to achieve an increased thickness of the topcoat, thereby, providing for a greater temperature drop across the TBC system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,874 to Spengler et al. is directed to a coating to increase resistance to spalling and corrosion. The coating is not intended to be a thermal barrier coating. A porous ceramic is applied over a MCrAlY bond coat and a dense ceramic is then applied over the porous ceramic. The porous portion is a transition zone to allow for differences in thermal expansion and provides little thermal insulation.
Improved environmental resistance to destructive oxidation and hot corrosion is desirable. In some instances, the alloying elements of the bond coat can interdiffuse with the substrate alloy and consume walls of the turbine airfoils, i.e., reduce load carrying capability. This interdiffusion also reduces environmental resistance of the coating. Even with the use of advanced cooling designs and thermal barrier coatings, it is also desirable to decrease the requirement for cooling; because reducing the demand for cooling is also well known to improve overall engine operating efficiency.
While superalloys coated with thermal barrier coating systems do provide substantially improved performance over uncoated materials, there remains room for improvement. Film cooling is achieved by passing cooling air through discrete film cooling holes, typically ranging from 0.015xe2x80x3 to about 0.030xe2x80x3 in hole diameters. The film cooling holes are typically drilled with laser or EDM or ES machining. Due to mechanical limitations, each film hole has an angle ranging from 20xc2x0 to 90xc2x0 relative to the external surface. Therefore, each film jet exits from the hole with a velocity component perpendicular to the surface. Because of this vertical velocity component and a flow circulation around each jet due to the jet mixing, each film jet will have a tendency to lift or blow off from the external surface and mix with the hot exhaust gases, resulting in poor film cooling effectiveness.
Thus, there is an ongoing need for an improved thermal barrier coating system, wherein the environmental resistance and long-term stability of the thermal barrier coating system is improved so that higher engine efficiencies can be achieved. The bond coat temperature limit is critical to the TBC""s life and has had an upper limit of about 2100xc2x0 F. Once the bond coat exceeds this temperature, the coating system will quickly deteriorate, due to high temperature mechanical deformation and oxidation, as well as interdiffusion of elements with the substrate alloy. The coating system can separate from the substrate exposing the underlying superalloy component to damage from the hot gasses.
What is needed are improved designs that will allow turbine engine components to run at higher operating temperatures, thus improving engine performance without additional cooling air. It is desirable to have a system that can take advantage of the thermal insulation provided by TBC. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.
The present invention provides a method for cooling the flow path surface region of an engine component used in a gas turbine engine comprising the steps of channeling apertures in a substrate to a diameter of about 0.0005xe2x80x3 to about 0.02xe2x80x3 to allow passage of cooling fluid from a cooling fluid source; applying a bond coat of about 0.0005xe2x80x3 to about 0.005xe2x80x3 in thickness to the substrate such that the bond coat partially fills the channels; applying a porous inner TBC layer of at least about 0.003xe2x80x3 in thickness to the bond coat, such that the TBC fills the channels; applying an intermediate ceramic layer that is more dense than the inner TBC layer on top of the porous TBC; applying an outer TBC layer that is more dense than the inner TBC layer over the intermediate layer; and, passing cooling fluid from a cooling fluid source through the channel into the porous TBC. Because the channel exit is filled with porous TBC material, cooling fluid flows through the porous passageways into the inner TBC layer. Although the passageways are interconnected and provide a plurality of tortuous routes, the increased density of the TBC in the intermediate layer provides a resistance to flow of the cooling fluid and effectively causes the cooling fluid to more efficiently spread through the TBC in the inner layer before exiting at the outer surface
The present invention further comprises both the cooled flow path surface regions formed by the foregoing methods and the turbine component with the ceramic layers for cooling the component.
In a different embodiment, the present invention comprises a cooling channel having a first and second end, the first end terminating in an exit orifice located on the surface of a substrate, the second end connecting to a cooling circuit contained within a turbine engine component. The cooling channel preferably has a substantially circular diameter of about 0.002xe2x80x3 to about 0.008xe2x80x3. Applied to the substrate is a bond coat of about 0.0005xe2x80x3 to about 0.005xe2x80x3 in thickness that partially fills the exit orifice and first channel end. Applied to the bond coat is a porous inner TBC layer of at least about 0.003xe2x80x3 in thickness such that the porous TBC fills the remainder of the exit orifice. An intermediate ceramic layer that is more dense than the porous inner TBC is applied on top of the porous inner TBC, and an outer TBC layer that is less porous than the inner TBC layer is then applied on top of the intermediate layer.
An advantage of the present invention is that the multi-layered TBC system forms cooling paths adjacent to the substrate surface to provide efficient cooling for both the substrate and the bond coat by allowing heat to be removed from the article.
Still another advantage of the present invention is that the outer flow path surface region of the coated gas turbine component is actively cooled through transpiration cooling inside the TBC. Transpiration cooling inside the TBC will lower the TBC temperature, and allow a greater thermal gradient between the hot exhaust gas stream and the bond coat. By removing heat from this region by transpiration, the integrity of the bond coat can be maintained at higher engine firing temperatures, resulting in a more efficient usage of cooling fluid to achieve a higher turbine engine efficiency and performance.
Another advantage of the present invention is that because the TBC is processed to have a varying density, and hence variable porosity, cooling fluid is able to flow through the inner TBC passageways and further spread through the outer TBC layer providing transpiration cooling before exiting to the outer TBC surface or flow through discrete holes providing film cooling, or both.
Still another advantage of the present invention is that the cooling channel exit orifices or holes, being filled, have more flow resistance than open holes and, therefore, provide a more effective cross-sectional hole area compared to unfilled larger holes for flowing the same amount of cooling fluid, resulting in more efficient heat transfer.
Yet another advantage is that the characteristics of many smaller passageways through the TBC will result in a much larger heat transfer area for cooling the bond coat and the substrate than that provided by fewer larger holes having the same total flow cross-section area.
Still another advantage is that improved cooling reduces or eliminates sintering of the ceramic top coat so that low thermal conductivity is maintained in the TBC.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.

Method for cooling engine components using multi-layer barrier coating


A folding rollover protection system includes an upper ROPS hinged to a lower ROPS and movable between an upright position and a folded down position. An isolation member may be urged between the upper and lower ROPS to separate them from each other. The isolation member may be a resilient wedge-shaped member positioned between a first wedge and a second wedge. The first wedge is movable toward the second wedge to urge the isolation member against one of the ROPS, isolating the upper ROPS from the lower ROPS.

For safety reasons, tractors, lawn and garden vehicles, and riding mowers may be provided with some form of rollover protection system, or ROPS, to prevent the vehicle from crushing the operator if it accidentally rolls over. The ROPS should be capable of supporting the forces generated by the weight of the vehicle in the event of a rollover, maintaining free space for the operator to reduce the danger of injury.
If a cab is provided, the ROPS may be built into the cab. If a cab is not provided, the ROPS may consist of a generally U-shaped crossbar located above the head of the operator, and legs connected to the vehicle frame.
The ROPS may be straight tubing, and brackets may be welded to the legs or lower section to connect the ROPS to the vehicle frame. The legs or lower section of the ROPS may be welded in a position perpendicular to the vehicle frame. A ROPS is designed to absorb energy from the weight of the vehicle, and the brackets transfer energy from the ROPS to the vehicle frame.
Some ROPS may be adjustable to change the height of the ROPS in certain situations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,265 relates to a ROPS that is easily adjustable between different heights, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,949,991; 5,503,430; 5,779,272; 5,839,758; and 7,568,732 relate to ROPS that can be folded from a raised or upright position to a lowered or folded down position.
Some folding ROPS are designed so that an operator can easily move the ROPS from the upright position to the folded down position, and lock it in place without the use of tools. For example, a folding ROPS may use retention pins (e.g., rods, clips or bolts) that are inserted through holes or slots in the upper and lower ROPS, and/or through holes in hinge plates joining the upper and lower ROPS. However, the retention pins may fit too snugly or too loosely in the holes. As a result, if the retention pins are too tight, the operator must use a hammer and punch to loosen and remove the pins. If the retention pins become too loose, especially due to wear of the ROPS system, the gap between the pin and hole allows the ROPS to rattle during use.
A folding ROPS is needed that may be easily folded and locked in a raised or lowered position without tools. A folding ROPS is needed that can isolate the upper ROPS from the lower ROPS without rattling during use. A folding ROPS is needed that uses retention pins that do not become stuck, and that do not become loose.


A method and system for measuring a customer impacting failure rate in a communication network are disclosed. For example, the method collects a plurality of customer impacting network failure events, where the plurality of customer impacting network failure events comprises both hardware failure events and software failure events associated with a particular type of router or switch, or a particular type of component of the router or the switch. The method computes a Mean Time Between Outage (MTBO) metric from the plurality of customer impacting network failure events and compares the MTBO metric with a MTBO goal metric, wherein the MTBO goal metric is calculated in accordance with a predicted Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) metric.

Routers and switches deployed in packet networks consist of many hardware components. Reliability of each hardware component is characterized by predicted Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) provided by vendor. In large networks the frequency of replacements for a given component can be used to calculate the field MTBF for some time period T (e.g., one month). The service provider can compare the field MTBF (actual MTBF of the component as observed in the field) and the predicted MTBF and request corrective actions from the vendor if the field MTBF is below the predicted MTBF. Repeated component failures with automatic recovery and software failure are not counted in the field MTBF although these failures are impacting customers. Therefore, the field MTBF metric does not accurately reflect the reliability of network service supported by the underlying network equipment.

Method and apparatus for measuring customer impacting failure rate in communication networks


A control device for actuating the weft carriers attached to opposed flexible tapes in a shuttleless loom. One end of each tape is attached to a driving arm with the opposite ends of the latter being fixed on oscillatably driven hub members. One side of each hub member has a disc element mounted thereon for movement therewith. The periphery of the disc members are disposed in operative association with the ends of the driving arms to which the tapes are attached and define platforms onto which the tapes are wrapped and unwrapped during their withdrawal from and insertion into a shed of warp threads by the driving arm.

Shuttleless looms of the type to which the instant invention is applicable have opposed carrier elements which are attached to the free ends of flexible tapes. Prior to the present invention the opposite ends of these tapes have been fixedly attached to a point on the outer peripheral surface of oscillatably driven tape wheels disposed at the sides of a loom.
A number of U.S. patents describe and clearly illustrate the looms and mechanism for actuating flexible tapes and carriers by means of oscillating tape wheels and it is considered unnecessary at this point to insert herein a detailed description of these mechanisms. Attention is hereby drawn to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,604,123 and 2,810,403.
The well known and conventional form of tape wheel is that fabricated from an aluminum casting which includes a rim section that is connected to the hub thereof by means of a plurality of equally spaced spoke elements. Although such tape wheels have satisfactorily performed their intended function the high inertia which they possess has been a limiting factor in achieving higher loom speeds without introducing excessively high loads on the driving mechanisms which actuate said tape wheels.
For looms of the type to which the present invention is applicable, U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,822 discloses a form of tape or so-called band wheel for effecting insertion and withdrawal of flexible tapes, with their respective carriers, from sheds of warp threads. The teachings of this patent pertain to an oscillatable driving wheel that is fabricated from a light weight material and which produces a small moment of inertia.
The present invention provides a tape control device which, by comparison with the conventional means for actuating the tapes, produces considerably less load on the tape driving mechanism and permits a loom to be satisfactorily operated at substantially greater speeds than has been heretofore possible.

Tape control device for shuttleless looms


A portable type receiving apparatus with a strap antenna (106) has a case (100) on the lateral side of which at least one through hole for inserting the strap antenna (106) along its circumference is provided. Further, the strap antenna (106) has a portion exposed outside the case (100) in the form of a loop via the through hole, and a received signal processing circuit for processing a received signal from the strap antenna (106) as well as a connector (105) for connecting the strap antenna (106) to the received signal processing circuit. Moreover, a strap antenna length adjusting device (109) for adjusting a length of the exposed portion of the strap antenna (106) is provided. This enables the loop length of strap antenna (106) to be adjusted by a simple structure and operation.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a portable type receiving apparatus provided with a strap antenna in the form of a hanging strap, and particularly to an apparatus which is effectively applied to a palm top portable type television receiver.
2. Background Art
As a portable television (TV) receiving set which is formed into a palm top type and has a strap antenna, those having such an appearance as shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B have heretofore been provided.
This TV receiving set has a set case 10 which is formed in such a size as can be gripped by the palm of a human hand. As shown in FIG. 16A, a TV screen 12 made of a liquid crystal device (LCD) and a speaker unit 14 are arranged in the front of the set case 10. As shown in FIG. 16B, a connecting fastener 18 which fastens both ends of a strap antenna 16 is provided in the back lower part of the set case 10.
Specifically, the strap antenna 16 is connected to an internal circuit through the connecting fastener 18 fastening its both ends and, as a whole, hangs down beneath the set case 10 in the form of a closed loop.
Unfortunately, because the strap antenna 16 is provided hanging down beneath the set case 10 in the above conventional TV receiving set, when a user tries to hang the TV receiving set somewhere using the strap antenna 16 and view the TV, the TV screen 12 will be turned upside down.
Moreover, the strap antenna 16 has a fixed loop length and so, even if a user tries to use it as a neck or shoulder hanging strap when carrying the same, it can not cope with the physical difference among individuals, which has raised a problem. Furthermore, because the strap antenna has an exposed portion of a given length to the case, it has been also difficult for a user to cope with the receiving sensitivity.


In a method for optimizing a cutting process in milling machines which are used to machine road coverings, which comprise a milling device fitted with milling tools which is sprayed with liquid in order to cool the milling tools, in addition to a drive motor, the following steps are provided: detection of the at least one parameter which is representative of the instantaneous power output of the milling device and controlling the amount of cooling liquid supplied according to the at least one parameter which is representative of the instantaneous power output of the milling device.

The invention relates to a method for optimizing a cutting process in road milling machines as well as such a road milling machine.
For increasing the tool life of a milling device fitted with milling tools, it is known with road milling machines to spray the milling tools with water by means of a spraying means, e.g., several spray nozzles arranged next to each other. They are supplied via a tank carried along and a pump. For the duration of the work, the machine operator switches on the pump. In technically further advanced machines, it is already possible today that the machine operator sets the flow rate of the pump. A drawback of this solution is a relatively high water consumption resulting from that the machine operator:                has to start up the pump already before the actual milling process begins since the machine operator is given a plurality of other controlling and setting tasks in the initial phase until a continuous milling process has been achieved,        lets the water flow during short sudden interruptions,        The water flows on after the end of the milling process until the pump is switched off,        On principle, the flow rate is set too high for reasons of uncertainty,        The flow rate is set according to the greatest need on the distance to be milled.
In the spraying means, the spray nozzles are oriented in parallel to the axis of the milling device into the milling space.
It is also known to spray the cooling liquid in such a manner that a spray is created to increase the cooling effect of the water. In case of atomizing the cooling liquid, however, the cooling effect is good, on the one hand, but, on the other hand, the flushing performance is bad.
With existing road milling machines, it is only possible to switch the water supply on and off or, if necessary, to adapt it to the different working width of the milling device by switching off some of the spray nozzles.
This has the disadvantage that a metering of the cooling liquid corresponding to the need is not possible and that much space is required for the water tank for the water supply to prevent that work has to be interrupted because a refill with water has become necessary.
Therefore, it is the object of the invention to reduce the space requirement for the water supply on a road milling machine and to reduce the water consumption to the actually required water quantity.

Method and device for optimizing a cutting process in road milling machines


The powder mixture consisting of 0.5 to 5 percent by weight of TiN and 99.5 to 95 percent by weight of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 is first presintered and is subsequently subjected to a hot isostatic pressing so as to produce a sintered product which has the maximum grain size of 2 .mu.m and the hardness of more than H.sub.R A 94.. Such sintered product is used as a cutting tool for a high-speed continuous cutting operation.

Recently as ceramic material for high-speed cutting tools, a material having Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 as a major constituent or material which includes less than 1 percent by weight of a grain growth inhibitor replacing a corresponding percentage of the above Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 has been commonly used.
The present invention relates to a material produced by adding TiN to such Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 which has improved wear resistance and thermal shock resistance in high-speed cutting and a method for producing the material.
Based on the result of the study that TiN has low affinity with metal and has favorable heat conductivity, the inventors have found that a material to which TiN is added increases the wear resistance and thermal shock resistance when the material is used as a cutting tool.
However, when the material is produced by a conventional hot pressing sintering method, unfavorable phenomena such as the reaction between a carbon mold and TiN occur. Furthermore, such method requires an extremely high sintering temperature so that the grain size of the sintered body inevitably becomes excessively large. Still furthermore, the sintered body has different physical and mechanical properties between those on a plane perpendicular to the pressing direction and on a plane parallel to the pressing direction. Namely, anisotropy occurs among constituent grains so that such conventional method has hardly succeeded in obtaining material having favorable properties such as high strength, high wear resistance or high thermal shock resistance.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide cutting tool material of improved strength, wear resistance and thermal shock resistance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cutting tool material which is most suitable for a high-speed continuous cutting operation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for producing such material by determining the optimal composition of raw material or powder mixture and the optimal producing conditions such as temperature or pressure.

Cutting tool material and method for producing cutting tool material


Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for processing sensor data are presented. An example method comprises accessing, by a computing device at a premises, sensor information associated with a plurality of sensors located at the premises, receiving, by the computing device, first sensor data from a first security sensor of the plurality of sensors, receiving, by the computing device, second sensor data from a second security sensor of the plurality of sensors, and in response to determining, by the computing device and based on the sensor information, that the first sensor data is associated with a higher priority than the second sensor data processing, by the computing device, the first sensor data, and transmitting, by the computing device, the second sensor data to a remote computing device for processing, wherein the remote computing device is at a location different from the premises.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods and systems that may be used with or implemented in automation and security systems, such as home automation and/or home security systems. In particular, various aspects of the disclosure relate to methods and systems for processing sensor data.
Increasingly, network gateway devices, which may be deployed at various premises in order to provide connectivity to various networks, are providing more and more types of functionalities. For example, in addition to receiving and/or decoding multimedia content, such as television programming, network gateway devices also may provide internet connectivity and wireless local area networking (WLAN) functionalities, as well as home automation and home security functionalities.
In some instances, such a gateway device might include and incorporate a home security server, which may enable the gateway device to provide home automation and/or home security services at a particular premises. This might include monitoring various sensors (including security sensors and other types of sensors), controlling various lighting systems and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and performing other functions.
As these gateway devices perform an increasingly large number of functions, however, the processing resources of each individual gateway may be in greater demand. In some instances, because a particular gateway device may have limited processing resources, it might not be possible for the gateway device to reliably provide all of the functionalities and services that it might otherwise be capable of delivering with increased resources.


A multilayer circuit board obtained by laminating and bonding a plurality of ceramic substrates, each substrate having holes therein and a conductive circuit pattern on at least one surface thereof, and bonding layers between each ceramic substrate, said bonding layers containing an organic or inorganic adhesive and an inorganic filler and having good electrical insulating properties, good thermal conductivity and a larger coefficient of thermal expansion than that of the ceramic substrate shows good thermal conductivity, wiring accuracy and productivity.

This invention relates to a multilayer fired ceramic circuit board and a process for producing the same.
As multilayer circuit boards, there have been known those using glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin as substrates and those using ceramics such as alumina ceramics as substrates.
The former multilayer circuit boards are generally produced by laminating a plurality of alternate layers of glass-epoxy substrates and prepregs, said glass-epoxy substrates having conductive circuit patterns on the surfaces thereof and said prepregs made from a fibrous material impregnated with a thermosetting resin, bonding each other under pressure with heating, drilling holes, and conducting through hole plating. In such multilayer circuit boards, since thermal conductivity of the glass-epoxy substrate is small (about 7.times.10.sup.-4 cal/cm.sec..degree.C.), heat resistance of it is large and thus it has poor heat dissipation. Therefore, there is a disadvantage in that when integrated circuits, large scale integrated circuits, etc., having a large heat release value, are directly mounted on such a glass-epoxy substrate in a high density, there takes place an excessive temperature rise, which results in making driving impossible.
On the other hand, in the case of the ceramic substrates, since alumina having thermal conductivity of (5-8).times.10.sup.-2 cal/cm.sec..degree.C. is used as a substrate, the substrate has good heat dissipation and can mount large scale integrated circuits, etc., in a high density. Such multilayer circuit boards having ceramic substrates as a main constituent can be produced by the following ways:
(1) A process for producing a multilayer ceramic circuit board comprising laminating a plurality of green ceramic sheets (unfired ceramic sheets) having printed conductive pastes thereon, making them into a laminated unit with a hot pressing operation, and sintering at a temperature of 1500.degree. C. or higher (British Pat. No. 1,538,818: IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 21, No. 5, 1860-1861 (1978): ibid. Vol. 21, No. 5, 1862-1863 (1978), etc.).
(2) A process for producing a multilayer ceramic circuit board comprising printing alternatively a plurality of alternate layers of conductive paste of heat resistant metal such as tungsten, molybdenum, or the like and insulating paste of alumina series material on a green sheet and sintering these alternate layers (Denshi Zairyo No. 7, p. 59-63 (1974); Semiconductor/IC Conference Proceeding p. 71-77 (1972)).
(3) A process for producing a multilayer ceramic circuit board comprising printing alternatively a plurality of conductive layers and glass paste for forming insulating layers on a ceramic substrate and firing these alternate layers (Solid State Technology, No. 9, p. 63-66 (1978)).
According to the processes (1) and (2) mentioned above, since the procedure of sintering is conducted at 1500.degree. C. or higher after the printing procedure, there takes place dimensional shrinkage of 15 to 20%, which results in forming warp of the substrates and producing deviations of dimensional accuracy and lowering the yield remarkably. According to the process (3) mentioned above, since the procedure of firing a conductive layer and the procedure of firing an insulating layer on the fired conductive layer and the procedure of firing a conductive layer on the fired insulating layer are repeated, there is a limitation in the number of layers to be laminated and about 4 layers can be laminated at most together with a disadvantage in workability.
In addition, Japanese patent appln. Kokoku (Post-Exam Publn) No. 5374/75 discloses a process for producing a multilayer ceramic plate comprising disposing a fired ceramic thin plate having a glass ceramic paste layer on the underside thereof on a fired ceramic thin plate having wiring patterns and welding them, filling holes formed on the disposed fired ceramic thin layer with a conductive paste and at the same time forming wiring patterns on the surface thereof, and repeating the procedure of lamination mentioned above. According to this process, since the lamination of one ceramic plate and filling of holes with a conductive paste and forming wiring patterns should be conducted one after another, this process is very disadvantageous from the viewpoint of productivity, particularly in the case of producing a multilayer ceramic plate having 10 to 20 or more layers of substrates.
Still further, Japanese patent appln. Kokai (Laid-Open) No. 79268/77 discloses a process for producing a multilayer printed wiring board using inorganic insulating plates comprising sandwitching an intermediate layer plate of an inorganic insulating plate having adhesive layers on the both sides thereof and having through conductors made of a low-melting metal between two printed wiring boards made of inorganic insulating plates having wiring patterns thereon, and forming a laminated unit from said two printed wiring boards sandwitching the intermediate layer plate by applying heat and pressure thereto. According to this process, only two layers of printed wiring boards can be laminated via an intermediate insulating plate having holes filled with conductive material for connecting the circuits. It is clear that this process cannot be applied to a process for producing a multilayer circuit board having 10 to 20 or more layers of substrates from the viewpoint of structure and workability.