The resin composition according to the present invention contains a polyacetal resin having a specific molecular weight distribution, a specific carbon black, and an alkaline metal wherein the contents of the carbon black and the alkaline metal are in specific ranges. The molded article according to the present invention contains the resin composition.

Polyacetal resins, since being excellent in the balance among the mechanical strength, the chemical resistance and the slidability, and being easy in their processing, are used as typical engineering plastics over a wide range centered on mechanism parts of electric devices, automobile parts and other precision machines. Polyacetal resins are resins which are often used under the frictional environment by making the best use of their high slidability.
Usually since polyacetal resins are electrically insulative, static electricity generated by friction is accumulated and charged without being removed, and adsorbs surrounding dusts, which infiltrate into the frictional surface to thereby cause trouble of bringing about an increase in the abrasion amount and the generation of backlash of parts. In order to prevent these, there is conventionally disclosed a technology of imparting the electroconductivity by blending a polyacetal resin with carbon black and other electroconductive fillers (for example, see Patent Document 1). There are also known technologies of obtaining electroconductive polyacetal resin compositions having various additional properties by blending electroconductive materials having various different properties (for example, see Patent Documents 2, 3 and 4).

Polyacetal resin composition and molded article of the same


A method and apparatus to detect the toner concentration of two component dry developer comprising toner and carrier includes the use of a toner catcher having a conductive member and which is capacitively charged. The developer is applied to the catcher, which traps the toner to determine the toner content.

The invention relates to a method of detecting the toner concentration of two component dry developer which is used in the developing of an electrostatic latent image, and an apparatus used to carry out the method.
An electrostatic latent image is converted into a visual image by using two component developer. To this end, toner and carrier are intermixed and rubbed against each other to charge the toner to a polarity which is opposite to the polarity of charge which forms an electrostatic latent image. Coulomb force acting between the toner and carrier causes the toner to be attached to the carrier, and the developer under this condition is applied to a surface to be developed. Carrier usually comprises glass beads, magnetic powder or the like while the toner comprises heat sensitive, pressure sensitive or solvent gas sensitive resin powder containing a color pigment. The purpose of using the carrier in the developer is to prevent a photographic fog in a non-image region by the Coulomb force which pulls the toner portion attaching to non-image regions back to the carrier. In addition, the application of the carrier to the surface to be developed achieves a uniform attachment of a suitable concentration of toner to the surface.
In a known electrophotographic apparatus which utilizes the aforementioned dry developer, it is readily apparent that a varying toner concentration or content of the developer results in a change in the optical density of the image formed on a copy. An electrophotographic process to obtain a plurality of copies by repeating the developing of an electrostatic latent image and the transfer of the developed image onto a transfer sheet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,951,443, as well as other patents. To enable the number of copies to be produced without noticeable degradation in the image quality, it is necessary to avoid the erasure of the latent image during the developing step. This can be achieved by increasing the toner concentration where a semi-conductive carrier such as magnetic powder is used. However, an excessively high toner concentration causes a fog to be produced in non-image regions and also causes a reduced flowability of the developer. Thus a control of the toner concentration is required. It is experimentarily established that for a developer including the iron powder carrier having a resistivity on the order of 1.times.10.sup.6 to 1.times.10.sup.8 .OMEGA. cm, a toner concentration in the range from 4 to 15% by weight is satisfactory.
To achieve a proper control of toner concentration, a variety of methods and apparatus have been proposed which detect the toner concentration of a developer contained in a developer vessel to supply toner or developer from time to time in order to maintain a proper value of toner concentration. The detection can be accomplished in two ways. A first technique utilizes the detection of a change in the physical properties of the developer such as color, specific gravity, permeability, dielectric constant, resistance or the like. However, a change in these properties is minimal as compared with a corresponding change in the toner concentration, and hence the resulting signal suffers from a poor S/N ratio. This disadvantageously necessitates a complex and expensive detection arrangement.
Another detection technique employs the optical determination of the toner quantity on a detecting surface which is developed with the developer. The detecting surface may comprise a charged insulating layer or an electrically energized conductive member. An example of the former is a detecting tape which is subjected to corona charging before the developing takes place. The required arrangement is complex and requires an extensive space to permit the deployment of the tape. As a further example, an apparatus is known which regulates the optical density of an image. With this apparatus, a developed image on a photosensitive drum is optically scanned, and a signal indicative of the maximum optical density is used to control the toner concentration. This requires a complicated instrumentation circuit, and it is believed that control parameters must be varied in accordance with an original. Hence, this approach leads to a complex control of the toner concentration. The latter approach is exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,376,854, No. 3,430,606, No. 3,526,338, No. 3,527,387, No. 3,604,939, No. 3,635,373, and No. 3,754,821. However, from experiments which will be described later, it is found that when the developing is effected with a voltage applied to the conductive member, the saturation density rises to a substantially high value independently of the toner concentration, rendering it difficult to detect and control the toner concentration with an effective accuracy.
Other examples of the latter approach are given in U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,173 and No. 3,791,744. Essentially, these patents describe a process in which a developer including a glass bead carrier is used to effect a cascade developing of a toner catcher plate, and the concentration of toner trapper by the plate is determined. No positive means is provided which applies an electrical influence upon the catcher plate to trap the toner. This approach is inapplicable to an apparatus which incorporates a magnet brush developing system since it is directed to a cascade developing of the catcher plate.

Method and apparatus of detecting toner concentration of dry developer


A check valve which has top and bottom flanges and a valve body thereinbetween. The flanges have aligned holes therethrough which serve as an inlet (bottom flange) and an outlet (top flange) for fluid flowing through the valve. A spherical ball is contained within the valve body and rests on a ball seat surrounding the inlet. A top plate is positioned adjacent to the top flange and has an opening therethrough which diverges concentrically toward the outlet opening, and a ring shaped ball stop which receives the ball when it is forced away from the ball seat by the fluid is positioned between the top plate and the top of the ball. Also, the inlet may have a restricted portion so that a diverging portion of the inlet opens into the valve body.

The present invention relates to flow valves in fluid flow lines, and in particular relates to check valves which control fluid flow in one direction.
At the present time, there are numerous ball type check valves available which will "check" the reverse flow of fluid through a flow line. The problem with many of these prior art valves is that they are not always efficient in operation; they are often times noisy; and they do not respond quickly to changes in flow conditions.
In an effort to improve the structure of the common ball-type check valve, the present invention has been developed. The effect of this type of check valve construction is that the ball, once it is lifted, will be held in the ball stop with a lower total flow and will be seated more surely and quickly than is usually possible with previous check valves of this type. Furthermore, because of this construction, extraneous movement of the ball is reduced.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a valve which has a longer useful life.
It is a further object to provide a valve in which there is less back-flow during valve closing, thus increasing the net flow through the line and conserving energy by requiring less power to move the fluid through the line.
Also, it is an object to provide a valve which has a reduced "water hammer" affect during valve closing, thereby preventing damage to the attached piping.
These objects are achieved in the present invention by providing a check valve which has top and bottom flanges and a valve body thereinbetween. Both flanges have aligned holes therethrough which serve as an inlet (bottom flange) and an outlet (top flange) for fluid flowing through the valve. A spherical ball is contained within the valve body and rests on a ball seat surrounding the inlet. A top plate is positioned adjacent to the top flange and has an opening therethrough which diverges concentrically toward the outlet opening, and a ring shaped ball stop which receives the ball when it is forced away from the ball seat by the fluid is positioned between the top plate and the top of the ball. It is also possible to have the inlet formed with a restricted portion so that a diverging portion of the inlet opens into the valve body.


A self-aligning reinforced plunger rod and a non-elastomeric plastic plunger insert assembly for use with an elastomeric plunger in a cartridge or syringe barrel, the plunger rod having a first, second, third and fourth sides, a distal end with an end disc, a proximal end with a thumb rest, a central reinforcing disc at the midpoint between the end disc and the thumb rest, and a plunger rod tip integral with the end disc and having a neck portion and a ball portion for engagement with a cavity in the non-elastomeric plastic plunger insert. Connecting the end disc and thumb rest there are: four longitudinal radially extending rectangular vanes spaced about 90.degree. from each other; on the first side of the plunger rod a first pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes, and a second pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes; on the third side opposite to the first side of the plunger rod, a first pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes, and a second pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes; each of the first pair and each of the second pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes on the first side of the plunger rod and each of the first pair and each of the second pair of the longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes on the third side of the plunger rod forms an obtuse triangle with one of the longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes; on the second side of the plunger rod, a first pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes forms a two-dimensional hourglass-shape surface, and on the fourth side of the plunger rod, a second pair of longitudinal radially extending reinforcing vanes forms a two-dimensional hourglass-shape surface. The non-elastomeric plastic plunger insert contains a cavity defined by its inside surface to receive the plunger rod tip. The combination directs the force exerted on the plunger rod in an axial direction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a self-aligning plunger rod for use in a syringe or cartridge barrel having a plunger and containing a parenteral solution therein, or in a syringe or cartridge which are empty and are to be filled with a parenteral solution by the user at the time of administration.
The present invention also relates to a plunger rod for use in a syringe or cartridge containing a parenteral solution therein intended to be dispensed from a power injector.
2. Reported Developments
Syringes and cartridges made of glass or polymeric materials for dispensing parenteral solutions or withdrawing biological fluids from a patient are well known in the prior art. They comprise a cylindrical barrel with a tapered portion at one end to which a needle or luer connector can be attached, and an open end which is stoppered by a plunger of a resilient thermoplastic or elastomeric material. The plunger serves the function of a stopper, when the barrel is filled with a fluid, or as a slidable member to expel the fluid from the barrel or withdraw a biological fluid from a patient or another source.
In order to expel fluid from the barrel or withdraw fluid into the barrel, the plunger is moved toward the distal end or the proximal end of the barrel by a plunger rod which is attachable to the plunger typically by screw threads. The user exerts a force, manually or by the use of a power injector, on the plunger rod to push or pull the plunger in the barrel. While the plunger rod does not contact the fluid in the barrel, it serves a very important function: it causes the plunger to move in an axial direction back and forth in the barrel when an external force is applied thereon.
The force applied to the plunger by the plunger rod should be perpendicular to the plunger so that the force exerted on the wall of the barrel by the plunger is uniform around the 360.degree. of its cylindrical configuration. When the plunger rod flexes in the barrel, the direction of force on the plunger will not be uniform resulting in pressure points at certain areas of contact between the plunger and the inside wall of the barrel and, conversely, inadequate pressure points at other parts of the interface between the plunger and the inside wall of the barrel. Such pressure differences tend to allow leakage and difficulty in moving the plunger at an even rate in the barrel.
Typical prior art devices have fixed connections between plunger rods and plungers; they are either one-piece combinations of plunger rods and plungers or two-piece combinations wherein the plunger rods are threaded into the plungers. Some plungers are equipped with rigid plastic inserts having internal threads therein in order to support the elastomeric plunger heads and to engage the plunger rods and hold them in an axial orientation. Both approaches allow some movement of the plunger rods in a lateral direction which may result in leakage of the medical fluid from the syringe barrel.
Recognizing the importance of dimensional stability, the prior art has incorporated various stability enhancing means into plunger rods which include the following.
The assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,093 has a plunger rod, the central portion of which is almost as large as the inside diameter of the syringe barrel so that it will assist in keeping the plunger rod assembly concentrically aligned within the syringe barrel.
WO 93/09827 discloses a shank having a plurality of longitudinal and radially extending vanes. In one preferred embodiment the shank is provided with four vanes in an "X" pattern, while in another preferred embodiment, the shank is provided with three vanes forming a "Y" pattern.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,700,247 and 5,860,961 disclose plunger rods having a plurality of vanes or support ribs.
A common feature of these plunger rods is a shank extending between the distal and proximal ends of the plunger rods having vanes or support ribs thereon. The vanes or support ribs are identical with one another running longitudinally on the shank and extending radially therefrom. This feature is an improvement over typical plunger rods in that the plunger rods have limited flexibility in the lateral direction, thereby exerting pressure on the plunger surface in an axial direction. However, we have found that even limited flexibility of the plunger rods allow lateral movement of the plungers in syringe barrels. This lateral movement of the plunger rods attached to plungers can cause leakage of fluid from the syringe barrels.
An object of the present invention is to provide a plunger rod and plastic plunger insert combination which directs the force exerted on the plunger rod in an axial direction. The elastomeric plunger placed on the plastic plunger insert will exert a uniform force on the inside wall of the syringe barrel thereby preventing leakage of the fluid content from the syringe barrel.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a reinforced plunger rod in combination with a plastic plunger insert which may be used either manually or in a power injector. Reinforced plunger rods without plastic plunger inserts are disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/408,242 filed on Sep. 29, 1999 which is incorporated herein by reference.


An abuse-tolerant microwave food packaging material includes repeated sets of metallic foil or high optical density evaporated material segments disposed on a substrate. Each set of metallic segments is arranged to define a perimeter having a length equal to a predetermined ratio of the operating, or effective wavelength of a microwave oven. The repeated sets of segments act both as a shield to microwave energy and as focusing elements for microwave energy when used in conjunction with food products yet remaining electrically safe in the absence of the food products.

The present invention relates to an improved microwave-interactive cooking package. In particular, the present invention relates to high efficiency, safe and abuse-tolerant susceptor and foil materials for packaging and cooking microwavable food.
Although microwave ovens have become extremely popular, they are still seen as having less than ideal cooking characteristics. For example, food cooked in a microwave oven generally does not exhibit the texture, browning, or crispness which are acquired when food is cooked in a conventional oven.
A good deal of work has been done in creating materials or utensils that permit food to be cooked in a microwave oven to obtain cooking results similar to that of conventional ovens. The most popular device being used at present is a plain susceptor material, which is an extremely thin (generally 60 to 100 .ANG.) metallized film that heats under the influence of a microwave field. Various plain susceptors (typically aluminum, but many variants exist) and various patterned susceptors (including square matrix, "shower flower", hexagonal, slot matrix and "fuse" structures) are generally safe for microwave cooking. However, susceptors do not have a strong ability to modify a non-uniform microwave heating pattern in food through shielding and redistributing microwave power. The quasi-continuous electrical nature of these materials prevents large induced currents (so limiting their power reflection capabilities) or high electromagnetic (E-field) strengths along their boundaries or edges. Therefore their ability to obtain uniform cooking results in a microwave oven is quite limited.
Electrically "thick" metallic materials (e.g., foil materials) have also been used for enhancing the shielding and heating of food cooked in a microwave oven. Foil materials are much thicker layers of metal than the thin metallized films of susceptors. Foil materials, also often aluminum, are quite effective in the prevention of local overheating or hot spots in food cooked in a microwave by redistributing the heating effect and creating surface browning and crisping in the food cooked with microwave energy. However, many designs fail to meet the normal consumer safety requirements by either causing fires, or creating arcing as a result of improper design or misuse of the material.
The reason for such safety problems is that any bulk metallic substance can carry very high induced electric currents in opposition to an applied high electromagnetic field under microwave oven cooking. This results in the potential for very high induced electromagnetic field strengths across any current discontinuity (e.g., across open circuit joints or between the package and the wall of the oven). The larger the size of the bulk metallic materials used in the package, the higher the potential induced current and induced voltage generated along the periphery of the metallic substance metal. The applied E-field strength in a domestic microwave oven might be as high as 15 kV/m under no load or light load operation. The threat of voltage breakdown in the substrates of food packages as well as the threat of overheating due to localized high current density may cause various safety failures. These concerns limit the commercialization of bulk foil materials in food packaging.
Commonly owned Canadian Patent No. 2196154 offers a means of avoiding abuse risks with aluminum foil patterns. The structure disclosed addresses the problems associated with bulk foil materials by reducing the physical size of each metallic element in the material. Neither voltage breakdown, nor current overheat will occur with this structure in most microwave ovens, even under abuse cooking conditions. Abuse cooking conditions can include any use of a material contrary to its intended purpose including cooking with cut or folded material, or cooking without the intended food load on the material. In addition, the heating effectiveness of these metallic materials is maximized through dielectric loading of the gaps between each small element which causes the foil pattern to act as a resonant loop (albeit at a much lower Q-factor (quality factor than the solid loop). These foil patterns were effective for surface heating. However, it was not recognized that a properly designed metallic strip pattern could also act to effectively shield microwave energy to further promote uniform cooking.
Commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/037,909 approaches the problem differently by creating low Q-factor resonant circuits by patterning a susceptor substrate. The low Q-factor operation described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/037,909 provides only a limited degree of power balancing.

Abuse-tolerant metallic packaging materials for microwave cooking


In a thin-film formation process and system, a target and a substrate are placed in a sputtering space and a film-forming space, respectively, the pressure in the film-forming space is maintained at a pressure lower than the pressure in the sputtering space and a pressure sufficient for sputtered particles to move in the film-forming space with their mean free path which is longer than the distance between the grid plate and the substrate, and the target is sputtered to form a thin film on the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a thin-film formation system and a thin-film formation process. More particularly, this invention relates to a thin-film formation system having a chamber consisting basically of a sputtering space and a film-forming space and a grid plate disposed between the sputtering space and the film-forming space, and a thin-film formation process making use of this system.
2. Related Background Art
Sputtering, which is one of thin-film formation processes, is a thin-film formation process in which positive ion particles generated by glow discharge are made incident on a film material to which a negative potential is kept applied, called a target, and a film material which have been released to the vacuum, called sputtered particles, are deposited on a substrate by the phenomenon of sputtering.
The sputtering, compared with vapor deposition, can form films having superior characteristics because the sputtered particles have a higher kinetic energy. It also has a characteristic feature that the system can be of simple construction and has a superior process reproducibility even in comparison with other processes in which a high energy is used to make material particles incident on substrates, such as ion plating. For these reasons, it is one of film formation processes most frequently used at present in the industrial production of thin films, e.g., in film coating of glass and film formation processes for semiconductor devices.
Conventional sputtering, however, utilizes glow discharge generated between the cathode target and the anode chamber, and hence the inside of a vacuum chamber has had to be filled with a rare gas of hundreds of mPa in pressure, called sputtering gas.
FIG. 1 illustrates the construction of a conventional thin-film formation system which carries out common sputtering. A vacuum chamber 2 shown here is provided therein with a target 3 and a substrate 8 on which a film is to be formed which are so disposed as to face each other substantially in parallel. The target 3 is fastened to a cathode member for magnetron sputtering. This cathode member has a backing plate 4 to which the target is fastened and a negative voltage is applied from a DC power source, a plurality of magnets which generate a magnetic field in the plane substantially parallel to the target 3, a shield plate 5 which protects members other than the target 3 from the phenomenon of sputtering, and a cooling-water circulator 10 for cooling the target 3.
A vacuum pump 1 is attached to the vacuum chamber 2. To the vacuum chamber 2, argon gas is introduced through a flow controller 9. Reference numeral 11 denotes argon molecules and 12, sputtered particles.
As can be seen from this drawing, the substrate 8 and target 3 which are disposed in the vacuum chamber 2 are always exposed to sputtering gas in the course of film formation.
Meanwhile, J. Vac. Sci, Technol., Vol. 11, No. 4, July/August 1974, pp. 666-670 refers briefly to the relationship between film characteristics and sputtering gas in the above conventional thin-film formation system. This paper explains that, with an increase in the pressure of sputtering gas, films come to have many pores (voids) and have columnar structure. The films having many voids and having columnar structure are physically weak and also chemically unstable, and hence are unfit for industrial use in many cases.
Electrochimica Acta 44 (1999), pp. 3945-3952, also reports the relationship between the pressure of sputtering gas, the incident angle xcex8 of sputtered particles on substrate and the kinetic energy of sputtered particles. This paper explains that, when the sputtering gas is at a high pressure, the sputtered particles have a low kinetic energy and falls on the substrate at a large incident angle xcex8.
In general, film material particles having a low kinetic energy move on the substrate surface at a short distance after their collision against it, and have a low possibility of becoming stable at optimum positions of the film surface. Also, with an increase in particles falling at a large incident angle xcex8 and incident obliquely on the substrate, films come to have many voids or pores because of the shadowing effect ascribable to the unevenness of substrate surface.
As stated above, when the sputtering gas is at a high pressure, the sputtered particles released from the target are scattered by the sputtering gas before they reach the substrate, and fall on the substrate at a large incident angle xcex8, so that the film material particles lose their kinetic energy correspondingly to cause deterioration of film quality inevitably.
To solve such problems, it has been considered necessary to develop a method of lowering the pressure of sputtering gas in the course of film formation or removing the scattering effect of sputtered particles that is caused by sputtering gas.
Sputtering which can be carried out at a low pressure includes, e.g., a low-voltage sputtering process disclosed in Shinku, Vol. 35, No. 2 (1992), pp. 70-75, and a self-sputtering process disclosed in J. Vac., Sci. Technol. A11(6), November/December (1993), pp. 2980-2984.
The low-voltage sputtering is a process in which the potential applied to the target and the magnetic-field intensity at the target surface are made higher to make the density of plasma higher so that the glow discharge can be continued even at a low pressure. The self-sputtering is a process in which the plasma is formed using film material particles in place of sputtering gas, and is a process by which the plasma can be formed without feeding any sputtering gas into the vacuum chamber.
These two processes, however, involve problems in practical use such that the both can make glow discharge stable with difficulty, have a low film formation rate, and, compared with conventional sputtering, afford no free selection of film materials.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-192829 also discloses a process in which a sputtering chamber and a film-forming chamber are separately set up and the sputtered particles are drawn into the film-forming chamber through holes which connect the sputtering chamber and the film-forming chamber. This process enables the pressure in the film-forming chamber to be set lower than the sputtering chamber, and hence can keep the film material particles from scattering in the film-forming chamber. However, the inside of the sputtering chamber is filled with sputtering gas kept at substantially the same pressure as in the case of conventional sputtering, and film material particles scattered in the sputtering chamber reach the substrate with no rectification. Thus, this is not a process by which the sputtered particles can be kept from scattering so that their incident angles on the substrate can be made perfectly uniform.
Collimation is available as a sputtering process taking note only of the rectification of sputtered particles, which is carried out without lowering the pressure of sputtering gas. The collimation is a process in which a collimator is provided between a substrate and a target to control the incident angles of sputtered particles on the substrate. This process, however, has a possibility that the particles having passed the collimator are unwantedly scattered by the sputtering gas before they reach the substrate.
As discussed above, any conventional sputtering can not completely remove the influence of the scattering of sputtered particles that is caused by sputtering gas, and it has been difficult to produce dense and high-quality thin films having a good bottom coverage.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems the prior art has had, and provide a process and a system which are able to form dense and high-quality thin films having a good bottom coverage.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a process for forming a thin film by means of a sputtering apparatus having a chamber comprising a sputtering space and a film-forming space and a grid plate disposed between the sputtering space and the film-forming space, comprising the steps of:
placing a target and a substrate in the sputtering space and the film-forming space, respectively;
maintaining the pressure in the film-forming space at a pressure lower than the pressure in the sputtering space and a pressure sufficient for sputtered particles to move in the film-forming space with their mean free path which is longer than the distance between the grid plate and the substrate; and
sputtering the target to form a thin film on the substrate.
The present invention also provides a thin-film formation system comprising:
a chamber comprising a sputtering space for placing a target therein and a film-forming space for placing therein a substrate on which a thin film is to be formed;
a grid plate disposed between the sputtering space and the film-forming space; and
a pressure control means for maintaining the pressure in the film-forming space at a pressure lower than the pressure in the sputtering space and a pressure sufficient for sputtered particles to move in the film-forming space with their mean free path which is longer than the distance between the grid plate and the substrate.

Thin-film formation system and thin-film formation process


A packet parallel interconnection network for routing packets in parallel form comprises a three-dimensional space domain switch which interconnects a plurality of time domain switches in the form of multiple two level bus systems with separate data and control paths. The space domain switch comprises one control plane and a plurality of data switching planes such that the i.sup.th data switching plane routes the i.sup.th data slice of a packet. The control plane and the data switching planes comprise output buffered crosspoint switches. The control plane processes address information in the packets to be routed and broadcasts routing information to the data switching planes to control the routing of data slices by the data switching planes. It is a significant advantage of the time and space domain switches that decoupled control and data paths provide for overlapped control processing and data routing. The inventive interconnection network is especially useful for implementing a parallel processing system for processing database queries.

Databases are one of the most complex and widely used applications of modern computer systems. Databases allow efficient sharing of large amounts of data among users and applications. Because the data are shared by many users, providing efficient access to the database requires concurrent processing of user queries. Depending on the type of application of the database, the spectrum of operations required to execute user queries may include statistical calculations on raw data, inferencing on rules, full text searches, and relational operations on tabulated records. As the size of a database is usually very large (gigabytes to hundred of gigabytes) concurrent query processing requires significant CPU and I/O time.
Presently many databases are resident in parallel processing computer systems and therefore queries executed on such databases are executed in parallel processing systems. A parallel processing system, typically comprises a plurality of processing nodes or processing sites interconnected by a interconnection network (see, e.g., C. L. Wu et al, "Tutorial: Interconnection Networks For Parallel and Distributed Processing", IEEE Computer Society Press, 1984).
A parallel processing system for dynamic query processing supports concurrent query processing through dynamic creation and coordination of tasks that operate on the shared data in a database. Tasks may comprise multiple smaller tasks accessing shared data concurrently. Tasks communicate with each other in a parallel processing system via message passing or shared memory referencing according to particular data dependency relationships.
The space and time complexity for each query is non-deterministic and the arrival rate of the queries is also unpredictable. A complex join operation may involve a large amount of data and take a long time to process; however, a simple selection operation may only involve a small amount of data and take little time to process. Because multiple queries from multiple users need to be processed concurrently, dynamic allocation of processing elements in a parallel processing system and scheduling of tasks and placement of data for each query make parallel query processing a complex problem.
An important characteristic of database applications is that queries are often data intensive rather than computation intensive. This means that the communication of data to appropriate processing nodes in a parallel processing system requires more resources than the actual processing of the data at the processing nodes. Accordingly, many frequently occurring data intensive operations such as file transfer, aggregation, projection, and process migration, require large bandwidth and low control overhead in the interconnection network of the parallel processing system to reduce communication costs. For this reason, the bandwidth of the interconnection network has a significant effect on the execution speed of more complex queries that require the sorting or joining of large relations.
In a dynamic environment, it is not possible to have a priori knowledge of data distributions and task execution times. Tasks are scheduled to run on dynamically allocated processing nodes and data also must be dynamically distributed among the processing nodes. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the data associated with specific tasks are always uniformly distributed over the processors where the specific tasks are scheduled to run. Accordingly, data must be moved to the scheduled processors dynamically. These data movement operations are often bursty and occur in only some of the links in the network. Additionally, since data are often distributed non-uniformly over the domain of the attributes, non-uniform communication patterns can also occur during the data collection and load balancing phase of operations. Thus, in order to obtain a high speed-up factor for parallel execution, interconnection networks of parallel system not only need to have low average communication costs but also need to be robust to non-uniform traffic.
A qualitative analysis of the speed-up factor of parallel join algorithms achieved by a parallel processing system indicates that if a network cannot reduce communication costs for non-uniform traffic, the speed-up factor will be limited to only logn, where n is the number of data items in the largest relation involved. The main reason for this limitation is that non-uniform communication traffic could be as large as n, when the data are to be distributed to or from one hot spot node. As a result, a typical data intensive operation which has nlogn time complexity on a single processor, can only be improved by a factor of logn on arbitrary large number of processors if the communication time for load distribution reaches n. Therefore, the robustness to non-uniform traffic is a significant feature of an interconnection network that is designed for dynamic processing.
In view of the foregoing, an efficient interconnection network for a parallel processing system for processing database queries has the following characteristics:
1. The interconnection network should have a scalable architecture with high bandwidth, low latency and low blocking probability. In particular, a large system comprises thousands of nodes and requires terabits/sec switching capacity. PA0 2. The interconnection network should offer sharing of bandwidth among tasks to reduce the communication delays and performance degradation resulting from bursty or other non-uniform traffic patterns. An interconnection network which dynamically shares bandwidth will exhibit smaller communication delays than a network with fixed end-to-end bandwidths. Illustratively, the interconnection network has a bursty transfer bandwidth on the order of one or more gigabytes per second. PA0 3. The interconnection network should have a uniform topology, with equal bandwidth, latency and blocking probability between any given pair of nodes. In a large database system the software design is a significant portion of the total system cost. The uniform topology increases the portability of the software so that it ca be used in different nodes, therefor reducing software costs. PA0 4. The interconnection network should offer prioritized communication services for multi-user, multi-tasking system support. Executing high priority tasks on multiple processing nodes without giving high priority to their corresponding communication operations may result in a high priority task being blocked by a low priority task in the interconnection network.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an interconnection network with the foregoing characteristics.
Presently available interconnection networks generally do not satisfy the foregoing requirements.
In particular, presently available interconnection networks have disadvantageous scaling characteristics. Unfortunately, communication time complexity is always traded for space complexity and blocking probability. Crosspoint switches (see, e.g., E. A. Arnould et al, "The Design of Nectar: A Network Backplane for Heterogeneous Multicomputers," ASPLOS-III Proceedings, The Third International Conference on Architecture Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Boston, Mass., Apr. 3-6, 1989) provide non-blocking routing and simple control with time complexity O(logN) for selecting a crosspoint. However, the space complexity is O(N.sup.2), where N is the number of I/O nodes and O( . . . ) indicates "on the order of." Other non-blocking multistage switches such as a Batcher-Banyan switch (see, e.g., A. Huang et al, "Starlite: A Wideband Digital Switch," Proceeding of Globecome 84, pp. 121-125; and C. Day et al, "Applications of Self-Routing Switches to LATA Fiber Optic Networks," International Switching Symposium, Phoenix, Ariz., March, 1987) and 2logN-1 stage networks (see, e.g., Tse-Yun Feng et al, "An O((logN).sup.2) Control Algorithm," Proceedings of Conf. on Parallel Processing, 1985, pp. 334-340) can have less than O(N.sup. 2) space complexity, but the control of these networks takes on the order of O((logN).sup.2) time steps with O(N(logN).sup.2) switching nodes and O((logN).sup.2) time steps with N fully connected processors, respectfully (see, e.g., D. Nassimi et al, "A Self-Routing Bene Network and Parallel Permutation Algorithms," IEEE Transaction on Computers Vol. C-30, No. 5, May, 1981, pp. 332-340). The logN stage interconnection networks (see, e.g., W. Crowther et al, "Performance Measurements on a 128-node Butterfly Parallel Processor," in Proc. 1985 Int. Conf. Parallel Processing, August, 1985, pp. 531-540; G. F. Pfister et al, "The IBM Research Parallel Processor Prototype (RP3): Introduction and Architecture, In Proceedings of Int'l Conf. on Parallel Processing," pp. 764-771, 1985; A. G. Ranade, "How to Emulate Shared Memory," IEEE Symposium on Foundation of Computer Science, pp. 185-195, 1987) only require O(logN) time steps with O(NlogN) switching nodes, but these networks are blocking, and to reduce the blocking probability and prevent starvation from blocked requests, buffers and arbitration circuits must be added to each switching node. This extra circuitry will increase the control complexity and the delay in the network when the size of the network is large.
As can be seen from the foregoing, available prior art interconnection networks do not have desirable scaling characteristics along with low latencies and low blocking probabilities. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an interconnection network with desirable scaling characteristics, a low latency and a low blocking probability.
In addition, the available interconnection networks do not offer dynamic bandwidth sharing in a satisfactory manner. Space domain interconnection networks include the tree (see, e.g., DBC/1012 Data Base Computer "Concepts and Facilities", C02-0001-05 Release 3.2; and B. K. Hillyer et al, "Non-Von's Performance on Certain Data Base Benchmarks", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 12, No. 4, April, 1986, 577-582) the mesh, the hypercube (see, e.g., W. C. Athas et al, "Multicomputers: Message-Passing Concurrent Computers," IEEE Computer August, pp. 9-24, 1988) and the above-described multistage interconnection networks. These space domain interconnection networks are not capable of allocating aggregate bandwidth dynamically to non-uniform and bursty traffic patterns. It is possible to have low utilization for some communication links and excessive queuing delays for others.
In contrast, time domain interconnection networks such as bus and local area networks can fully share the communications bandwidth among all the nodes. However, they are not scalable because of the limited bandwidth and increased latency for access control. In particular, parallel systems using time domain switches such as hierarchical buses and local area networks (see, e.g., D. R. Cheriton et al, "Multi-Level Shared Caching Techniques for Scalability in VMP-MC", ACM Symposium on Computer Architecture, 1989; E. Gehringer et al, "Parallel Processing The Cm* Experience," Digital Press, 1987; D. DeWitt et al, "GAMMA--A High Performance Dataflow Database Machine," Proc. of the VLDB Conf. Japan, August, 1986; J. Goodman et al, "The Wisconsin Multicube: A New Large-Scale Cache-Coherent Multiprocessor", IEEE International Symposium on Computer Architecture Conference, pp 422-431, 1988) can satisfy the bandwidth sharing and uniformity requirements. However, due to the bandwidth limitation and propagation delay caused by capacitive loads, the number of loads connected to these time domain switches is limited. To build larger systems, multiple buses need to be connected via different topologies such as a mesh, hyperbus, hierarchical bus, or multiple bus. However, the resulting interconnection networks are not sufficient for data intensive applications where large amounts of data are frequently moved between nodes for load balancing and data reorganization.
Thus, time domain switching is efficient for bandwidth sharing but is not scalable. To alleviate the scalability problem, in particular for data intensive applications, it is a further object of the present invention to provide a high bandwidth interconnection network capable of providing high bandwidth interconnections between multiple time domain switches.
In addition, presently available interconnection networks do not offer a uniform topology. For a parallel processing system with a non-uniform interconnection network, topology information such as distance of communication, channel bandwidth, and blocking probability is exposed to the software to allow efficient execution of tasks. The topology dependency will increase the complexity of the software algorithms and will further complicate portability problems.
For example, in a distributed network such as a mesh or hypercube, to support efficient processing of topology information for dynamic routing, a complex VLSI routing chip is required for each node. Since packets can be delivered via different routes, extra buffers and control logic are required for maintaining the order of delivery at the higher protocol layer. Furthermore, algorithms developed on these systems are often mapped directly to the network topology to improve efficiency; thus, portability, dynamic partition and assignment, and fault tolerance problems become very complex.
A simpler solution would be to utilize a centralized switch that has uniform bandwidth, latency, and blocking probability between any given pair of nodes such that the topology of the machine is transparent to the compilers, operating systems, and user programs. Furthermore, if the nodes that connect to the switch are grouped into bus connected clusters, then, in the case of a fault, only a simple renaming procedure is required to either replace or mask-off the faulty nodes within the cluster.
In short, it is an object of the invention to provide an interconnection network which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art networks described above. More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide an interconnection network which has advantageous scaling characteristics, bandwidth sharing, and uniformity. It is a further object to provide an interconnection network based on a time-space-time structure which has a terabit per sec total transport bandwidth, a gigabyte per second bursty access bandwidth, robustness to non-uniform traffic, and which supports multiple priority services.


A display device is disclosed, which comprises: a first substrate comprising: a switch unit; and a pixel electrode electrically connecting to the switch unit and comprising: a first finger portion with a first inner edge; a second finger portion with a second inner edge and a first outer edge; a contacting portion electrically connecting to the switch unit; a first bending portion connecting the first finger portion and the contacting portion and having a third inner edge; and a second bending portion connecting the second finger portion and the contacting portion and having a fourth inner edge and a second outer edge, wherein a first angle included between a first extension line of the first inner edge and the third inner edge is smaller than a second angle included between a second extension line of the first outer edge and the second outer edge.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments relate to a display panel and, more particularly, to a display panel that the pixel electrode near to the contact via has a specific pattern to improve the liquid-crystal efficiency.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, all the display devices are developed toward having small volume, thin thickness and light weight as the display techniques progresses. A liquid crystal display (LCD) device is a flat panel display device with a thin thickness, so a conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) display is gradually replaced by the LCD device. Especially, the LCD device can be applied to various fields. For example, the daily used devices such as cell phones, notebooks, video cameras, cameras, music players, navigation devices, and televisions are equipped with liquid crystal display (LCD) panels.
For the conventional LCD device, a liquid crystal layer is disposed on a pixel electrode, and voltage is applied onto the pixel electrode to control the tilt of liquid crystal molecules. Thus, it is possible to control light from a backlight module disposed below the LCD panel to pass or not pass through the liquid crystal layer, and the purpose of displaying can be achieved. In addition, the purpose of displaying different colors can be achieved through the pixel units.
Even though the techniques of the LCD device are getting matured, many manufacturers are desired to develop LCD panels having improved display quality thereof to meet the consumers' requirements. Hence, it is desirable to provide a display panel with improved display quality to satisfy the requirement for high display quality.


A urinal includes a urinal body, a urine receiving reservoir and a spout extending therefrom for receiving urine. A supplemental urinal spout is provided and comprises both an inlet portion and a retention portion, the supplemental urinal spout being attachable to the spout of the urinal to form a leak prevention seal. Opposing tabs are provided to aid in attaching the spout to the urinal. The supplemental urinal spout comprises a funnel-shaped element that is integrally formed with a cylindrical sidewall. The urinal body is preferably made of a plastic material and the supplemental urinal spout is made from a low durometer elastomeric material. The urinal and the supplemental urinal spout may be disposable.

The present invention relates in general to urinary devices and more particularly to an improved personal urinal for collecting and storing the urine of a non-ambulatory or otherwise immobile patient. More specifically, the present invention relates to a supplemental urinal spout that combines an inlet portion with a retention portion, such retention portion not being part of the urinal reservoir but being complementary to it.
Portable male urinals for use by bed-ridden patients or people who otherwise have a need for a urinal are well known in the art. One such commonly used style of urinal includes a urine receiving reservoir for holding and/or storing urine and a spout extending from or located a distance away from the reservoir. The spout includes an inlet through which the urine is received. A cap may or may not be provided with the urinal.
A long recognized problem associated with portable male urinals is undesirable spillage of the urine following use of the urinal due to, for example, mishandling of the urinal. Backflow or spillage can result in the urine coming into contact with the patient or the bed, which in turn can cause unsanitary health conditions and result in the increased risk for further medical problems, such as infections. In addition, the workload of caretakers is increased due to the need for cleaning the patient and changing the bedding following any such spillage of urine. Bedridden patients have also been known to leave the urinal on the bed following use and then inadvertently contact it and cause it to spill.
Accordingly, numerous attempts have been made at improving portable male urinals to overcome such problems. The below-referenced U.S. patents disclose embodiments of various such urinals. The disclosures of these United States patents are hereby incorporated by reference into the present application for purposes including, but not limited to, indicating the background of the present invention and illustrating the state of the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,358,850 discloses a male urinal having a tubular trap inserted therein and connected to the urinal container by screw threads so as to minimize leakage of liquid from the container. The tubular trap must be removed before use and then reinserted following each use. Both U.S. Pat. Nos. 703,131 and 4,164,795 disclose a rotating nozzle arrangement for an inlet tube which is inserted into a urine container or collector. In both patents, rotation of the nozzle elements aids in resisting the undesired discharge of the contents of the container or collector. Backflow or spillage can still occur when attempting to place the urinal into its closed position. Spillage can also occur if the urinal is not dosed after use.
In a different type of arrangement, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,592,699 and 6,021,529 disclose devices for use in association with a urinal. These devices include a non-return valve to insure that urine can only pass in one direction, i.e. from the funnel (female urinal) or spout (male urinal) area of the device into a urine reservoir, but not out of the reservoir. The addition of a one-way valve to a urinal may appear to be a solution to the problem. However, such valves have been known to fail which, in a worst case scenario, would cause the entire reservoir contents to spill on or near the unsuspecting caregiver and/or patient. Further, the addition of a one-way valve increases the cost of the urinal, which may directly affect the decision to purchase the urinals.
Other potentially relevant patents include U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,278, which discloses a simple disposable plastic urinal formed by a blow molding operation for use by bed-ridden patients in a hospital or the like, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,529 which discloses a disposable plastic urinal with a flexible extender spout and integral urine-receiving reservoir formed of blow molded plastic.

Flexible spout improvement for a disposable urinal


The present invention relates to a magnet-integrated-type torque angle sensor module and, more particularly, to a torque angle sensor module that integrates magnets used for detecting steering direction, steering angle, torque, and steering speed and simplifies component configuration, capable of minimizing the rate of defects during assembly, improving disassembling ability, and inducing performance stabilization.

Generally, an auxiliary steering device is used as a device configured to ensure steering stability of a vehicle and assist with separate power. In such an auxiliary steering device, a device using a hydraulic pressure has been typically used, but recently, an electric steering device having a low power loss and superior accuracy is used.
The electric steering device drives a motor by an electronic control device according to a driving condition and manipulation information of a driver, which are detected by a vehicle speed sensor, a torque sensor, an angle sensor, and the like, to ensure turning stability and promptly provide a restoring force, thereby allowing the driver to safely drive.
The vehicle speed sensor is a device configured to sense a running speed of a vehicle that is driving, the torque sensor is a device configured to sense a torque applied to a steering shaft and output an electric signal proportional to the sensed torque, and the angle sensor is a device configured to output an electric signal proportional to a rotational angle of the steering shaft.
Recently, a torque angle sensor is proposed as a device configured with a single sensor in which the torque sensor and the angle sensor among these sensors are integrated to sense steering handle manipulation information of a user, and the use thereof is increasing.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating such a conventional torque angle sensor.
The torque angle sensor is configured with an upper case 100, a rotor 500, a stator 600, a printed circuit board (PCB) 400, a main gear 410, a sub-gear 420, and a lower case from a top to a bottom of the torque angle sensor module.
The rotor 500 and the stator 600, which serve a sensing function of the torque sensor, are disposed at an upper side based on the PCB 400, and the gears 410 and 420 serving as the angle sensor are disposed at a lower side based on the PCB 400.
In the case of the torque sensor, magnets are disposed along an outer circumferential surface of the rotor 500, and the stator 600 having protruding pieces corresponding to polarities of the magnets is disposed at an outer circumferential surface of the magnets such that the torque sensor detects a torque of each of a input shaft and an output shaft by detecting a magnetic amount according to a difference in rotation amount between the rotor 500 and the stator 600 and transmits the detected torque to an electronic control device.
In the case of the angle sensor, as a driver rotates a steering handle, the main gear 410 attached to a steering shaft rotates in synchronization with the rotation of the steering handle and thus a difference in rotational angle is generated, and, at this point, Hall integrated circuits (ICs) 401 and 402 recognize magnetic field and rotational direction of the magnets attached to sub-gears 420 that are attached to the main gear 410 such that the angle sensor transmits a signal to the electronic control device.
However, since a backlash (a gap between a pair of gears) is generated due to an engagement structure between the main gear and the sub-gears, there is a problem for the angle sensor in that an accurate measurement of a steering angle is very difficult.
In addition, there causes a problem in that an assembling man-hour and a defect rate are increased during assembly due to a large number of components, and there is a problem of increasing cost due to the large number of components, and specifically, since two or more Hall ICs with relatively high prices should be configured, an increase of manufacturing costs is caused.


A HVOF process is used for applying brazing materials to repair surfaces of a substrate such as a turbine blade. The brazing material is applied in powdered form and is free of binders and adhesives. The brazing materials may be any one or more of a nickel based, cobalt based or ferrous based high temperature brazing material. Alloys of these elements may be used together with a temperature depressing melting point element such as boron or silicon.

This invention relates to a method of applying braze material to a substrate. More particularly, this invention relates to a repair deposit on a substrate.
As is known, various types of turbomachinery components, such as steam and gas turbine blades and vanes that are used in environments which are detrimental to the components. For example, the environments in which these components operate cause dimensional reduction of the wall thicknesses of the components by erosion, high temperature, oxidation and hot corrosion or a combination of these factors. In addition, cracks may occur from time-to-time due to thermal fatigue. Over time, these cracks may grow to significant length and width.
Because of the high cost of producing these turbomachinery components, expensive repair methods have been economically justified. Typically, high temperature brazing is used extensively for the repair of these components. For example, compressors may be subject to a high temperature brazing such as described in ASME 97-GT-372.
High temperature brazing materials based on nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co) or a ferrous material (Fe) together with melting point depressing elements, such as silicon (Si) and boron (B) have been used for some time for brazing honeycomb seals and repairing small cracks. For wide cracks and wall thickness restoration, wide gap brazes have been developed, for example as described in Turbomachinery, September 1986. These brazes consist partly of a braze material as described above combined with a super alloy metal powder that does not melt during a brazing run. This allows the brazing of a wide gap and the restoration of a wall thickness to be accomplished.
Wide gap brazes also improve the properties, such as ductility and oxidation resistance, of the high temperature brazing material as compared to a conventional braze product.
The newer repair technologies employ an increasing use of a base material by partly alloying a super alloy with a melting point depressing element, such as silicon or boron, for example, as described in ASME 00-GT-500.
Generally, before a high temperature brazing material may be applied to a substrate, the substrate must be carefully cleaned. Cleaning may be accomplished mechanically, by grit cleaning or by blending with a belt abrasive combined with various degreasing methods. The substrate may also be cleaned in a chemical bath at ambient and at elevated temperatures such as described in Turbomachinery, January 1996. Special cleaning processes have also been developed at high temperatures in vacuum, hydrogen and a fluoride/hydrogen environment.
In the past, high temperature brazing materials have been applied with a binder, in a so-called xe2x80x9cslurryxe2x80x9d. However, such a binder usually consists of elements, such as oxygen or carbon, which may adversely influence the quality of the brazing.
Plasticized powdered metal alloy tapes have also been used in order to make the application of the brazing material easier. However, the use of such tapes has not improved the quality of the brazing.
In other techniques, a pre-sintered alloy tape has been used in order to reduce the need for a binder and/or an adhesive and thereby produce a better braze. If applied with a resistance welding technique, a pre-sintered alloy needs no binder or adhesive. This allows an improvement in the quality of the final braze significantly but commercial preforms are only available in plate form and need to be cut by laser or high-pressure water. Also, for some applications, a three dimensional preform is required. This makes the application of this technique, if possible at all, extremely expensive.
Except for sintering, air plasma sprays and even vacuum plasma brazes have been used to make preforms. Although no binder or adhesive needs to be used with either method, air plasma introduces porosity and oxidation products into the repair deposit. Spraying high temperature brazing materials by vacuum and air plasma also create another problem called xe2x80x9celement migrationxe2x80x9d. Migration is caused when certain elements, such as boron and carbon, are vaporized out of the mixture. Migration may be compensated by adding more of those elements in the initial high temperature brazing material. However, migration prediction is unreliable thereby making the content of the critical elements inconsistent.
Generally, a heat treatment step is used to complete a brazing operation. Normally, the heat treatment step is performed under vacuum or other protective atmosphere. During a typical braze heat treatment, the binder/adhesive which is used with the brazing materials is degraded and become gaseous. After this, the temperature of the component being repaired is stabilized just below the solidus temperature of the braze. The furnace in which the heat treatment is being performed is then quickly brought to the actual brazing temperature for a short time and then slowly lowered. A diffusion heat treatment may also be included after the braze heat treatment.
After heat treatment, inspection of the braze quality takes place and the process repeated if required.
As is known, while a coating is applied to a base material in order to improve the resistance of the base material to the environment, braze material is applied for the purpose of restoring the shape and material properties, including the mechanical properties of the base material. It is important to restore the resistance to stresses and/or restore critical dimensions lost by a reduction in wall thickness or other defects.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,453 describes a thermal barrier coating system for applying a bond coat to a substrate. As described, the bond coat may be disposed on a substrate employing thermal spray processes, such as vacuum plasma spray (VPS or LPPS), air plasma spray (APS) and hyper-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spray processes. As further described, the structure and roughness of the bond coat surface are dependent on the spray process. Bond coats deposited by HVOF are sensitive to particle size distributions. Dense and oxide-free bond coats can be deposited by HVOF using very lean conditions and finer particles. Rough bond coats deposited by HVOF using coarser powders require a low temperature which results in unmelted powders. Therefore, the coating is porous and less dense.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,448 describes a method of repairing surface and near surface defects in super alloy articles such as gas turbine engine components. As stated therein, brazing techniques have been employed to repair defective areas. However, difficulties encountered with this technique and variations thereof include the inability to completely remove contamination in the cracks and inability to completely fill narrow cracks with braze material. In order to overcome the problem, the use of a specific repair coating is described.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,308 describes a high density spray coating. In particular, use is made of accessory apparatus attachable to the nozzle of a supersonic velocity thermal spray gun which uses oxy fuel (propylene) products of combustion. The use of an inert gas shield confined within a metal shroud attachment which extends coaxially from the outer end of a thermal spray gun nozzle is said to reduce total volume fractions of porosity and oxide from a normal range of 3% to 50% to a level of less than 2%.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,743 describes a metal spray tool repair system which employs a mask in a thermal spraying process.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to reduce the need for brazing material or melting point depressing elements and thereby improve the properties of a high temperature braze material significantly.
It is another object of the invention to eliminate the use of binders or adhesives in a high temperature brazing material.
It is another object of the invention to reduce oxidation products from a repair deposit of high temperature brazing material.
It is another object of the invention to eliminate carbon deposits from a repair made using high temperature brazing material.
It is another object of the invention to eliminate or reduce to a minimum the migration of critical elements, such as boron and carbon, in applying a high temperature braze material to a substrate.
It is another object of the invention to reduce oxidation products and porosity during application of high temperature brazing materials when applied with air plasma spray techniques.
It is another object of the invention to very accurately apply a high temperature brazing material to a desired thickness using a robot.
It is another object of the invention to eliminate shrinkage and river forming in applying a high temperature brazing material.
It is another object of the invention to eliminate the need of a preform in applying repair deposited on a high temperature brazing material.
It is another object of the invention to reduce the adverse effect on quality of the finished brazed product caused by the environment during a brazing heat treatment.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method of applying braze materials at reduced production costs and lead time.
Briefly, the invention is directed to a method of applying braze materials to a substrate employing a high velocity combustion gas stream and in particular a HVOF technique.
In particular, the method is directed to the repairing of various types of substrates which require repair, for example surface cracks and corroded areas. In accordance with the method, a high velocity combustion gas stream is generated and a binder-free high temperature brazing material is passed into the gas stream in order to entrain and melt the brazing material therein. The brazing material entrained gas stream is then directed against and along at least one portion of the substrate requiring repair in order to form a deposit of brazing material thereon. Thereafter, the substrate is heat treated.
Typically, the high velocity combustion gas stream is generated by employing a Diamond Jet Hybrid 2600 spray gun for a hydrogen fuel and a Diameter Jet Hybrid 2700 spray gun for a natural gas fuel. These guns are manufactured and sold by Sulzer Metco (US) Inc. of Westbury, N.Y.
The binder-free high temperature brazing material is selected from the group consisting of at least one of a nickel-based, cobalt-based and ferrous-based brazing material. The brazing material may also be selected from the group consisting of these brazing materials and at least one of a nickel alloy, cobalt alloy and ferrous alloy. Further, where the high temperature brazing material is one of these alloys, there may also be at least one temperature depressing melting point element, such as boron and/or silicon. Also, the brazing material may be made of any combination of these components.
The brazing material in powdered form is passed into the gun using a conventional powder feeder such as a 9MP DJ (a Diamond Jet powder feeder) sold by Sulzer Metco (US) Inc. of Westbury, N.Y.
The carrier gas used in such a powder feeder is typically nitrogen supplied at a pressure of 150 psi. The flow rate for the brazing material which is in powder form is typically 28 or 30 SCFH with a spray rate of from 5 grams per minute to 50 grams per minute and typically 30 grams per minute (g/min).
The spray gun is typically spaced from the substrate a distance of 10 inches and the spray rate is adjusted to give an application rate of less than 0.2 to 0.4 mil per pass.
The thickness of the applied deposit of brazing material may range from 0.030 to 0.040 inches and even to thicknesses in excess of 0.100 inches.
The heat treatment which is performed on the substrate after depositing of the brazing material is conventional. Typically, the heat treatment is performed within a vacuum furnace. In some cases, the brazing or diffusion step can be eliminated.
The repair deposit(s) laid down in accordance with the method is characterized in being binder free and carbon free. In particular, the repair deposit(s) is characterized in having a porosity of less than 2% and in particular, less than 1%.
The invention also provides a repair deposit of unique characteristics as noted above. That is to say, the invention provides a repair deposit comprised of a high temperature brazing material which is characterized in being binder-free and having a porosity of less than 2%.

Method of applying braze materials to a substrate


A shelving crossbar retainer, assembly, and method for retaining a crossbar having an edge surface extending lengthwise thereof, the crossbar having a hook portion on an end thereof for insertion into a vertical slot in a post for supporting shelving and the crossbar, the post being hollow and having a horizontal slot disposed therein for alignment with the crossbar edge surface, the crossbar retainer including a body portion for disposition on the crossbar edge surface proximate the end of the crossbar, attachment structure extending from the body portion for locking engagement with the crossbar edge surface for securing the body portion to the crossbar, and a tab extending from the body portion and adapted to extend beyond the crossbar end for disposition in the horizontal slot, to secure the crossbar hook portion substantially immovably in the vertical slot.

In the field of shelving assemblies, it is known to attach shelves and reinforcing crossbars to hollow posts by inserting hook portions on the shelves and crossbars into vertical slots in the posts. The slots are of a length sufficient to accept the entire hook portion, but once the hook portion is inside the post, only a limited part of the hook portion is actually disposed in the slot, leaving a large portion of the slot unoccupied, contributing to a looseness or abundance of "play" in the structure of assembled units. Once the shelves are loaded with books, equipment, or the like, the weight stabilizes the shelf hook portions in the post slots. However, the crossbars, which are intended to add to the structural stability of the assembled unit, are only loosely connected to the posts.
Thus, there is a need for an arrangement similar to the known arrangement described above, and therefore easy to assemble, but including means for stabilizing the interconnection of the crossbars and the posts.

Shelving crossbar retainer and assembly and method for fixing a crossbar to a post


A web conference client device determines that it is configured to generate a higher-quality rendered output than a quality of a web conference presentation slide received from a server. A slide presentation file associated with the web conference presentation slide is received from the server. Rendered output of the slide presentation file is generated. The rendered output of the slide presentation file is sent to the server.

The present invention relates to web conference presentations. More particularly, the present invention relates to automated web conference presentation quality improvement.
Web conferencing is used to create web-based meetings. A presentation to be presented during a web conference may be stored on a server prior to the web conference. The presentation may then be distributed to computing devices used by web conference participants during the web conference.

Automated web conference system for generating higher quality of presentation slide by client and submitting to server

International Business Machines Corporation


In a method of cutting a workpiece of brittle material with a wire by using a machining solution containing abrasive grains, the workpiece is pushed against the wire from above, and a machining solution pooling vessel is disposed below the workpiece, to immerse the cut portion of the workpiece in the machining solution in the vessel, and an ultrasonic oscillator is provided for the machining solution pooling vessel to apply ultrasonic waves to the machining solution during machining, whereby difficulties that the machined surface is scratched or cracked by the abrasive grains, and the machining solution is deteriorated in cutting capacity are eliminated, and the machining accuracy and efficiency are improved.

This invention relates to a wire saw device for cutting a brittle material, and more particularly to a method of preventing a machining solution from staying and sticking at the machined part of a workpiece, and a method of preventing a machining solution from being deteriorated in machining capacity.
One example of a conventional method of cutting a brittle material such as semiconductor materials, magnetic materials, ceramics and glass is as follows: A wire and a brittle material to be machined (hereinafter referred to as "a workpiece", when applicable) are abutted against each other with a machining solution interposed therebetween, and, under this condition, while they are reciprocated relative to each other, the brittle material is lapped with abrasive grains in the machining solution.
In the conventional method, the wire is pushed by the workpiece from below. As shown in FIG. 1, a wire 1 is wound over a plurality of grooved rollers 2 (for instance three rollers) several turns with a predetermined pitch, and the wire 1 thus laid is reciprocated straightly while the workpiece 3 is pushed against the wire 1. In this operation, a plurality of nozzles 4 held above the workpiece 3 jet a machining solution 5 to the workpiece 3, so that the latter 3 is cut by the abrasive grains in the machining solution 5.
In the method, as shown in FIG. 2, a wedge-shaped space 10 is formed between the wire 1 and the workpiece 3 downstream of the wire 1 as viewed in the direction of movement of the wire 1. The wedge-shaped space 10 is located below the wire 1, and therefore it is rather difficult for the machining solution 5 to go into the space 10. On the other hand, the abrasive grains may stay in and stick to the gaps between the machined parts of the workpiece 3, and the thin plates formed may incline. As a result, when the workpiece 3 is disengaged from the wire 1 after machined, the machined surface may be scratched or cracked by the wire 1. In order to overcome this difficulty, the workpiece 3 machined is washed with cleaning oil for a long period of time; however, it is impossible to completely remove the abrasive grains from the gaps, and therefore it is impossible to completely prevent the machined surfaces from being scratched or cracked. In the washing operation, the cleaning solution is mixed with the machining solution 5, thus reducing the service life of the latter 5.
In view of the foregoing, in order to positively supply the machining solution 5 to a cutting part of the workpiece, a method of machining a workpiece in a machining-solution supplying vessel 6 as shown in FIG. 3 has been proposed in the art. In the method, the machining solution 5 is sufficiently supplied to the cutting part of the workpiece, thus preventing the abrasive grains from staying in and sticking to the gaps between the machined parts of the workpiece. However, the method is still disadvantageous in that it is rather troublesome to lay the wire 1 over the rollers and to set the workpiece 3 at the machining position, and the thin plates formed by cutting are liable to incline, and the inclination of the thin plates cannot be positively prevented.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,191 to Wells et al has disclosed a method of cutting a workpiece with a wire from below. In the method, the machining solution will flows sufficiently into the wedge-shaped space. However, the method is also disadvantageous in the following point: The gaps formed in the workpiece by machining provide passages for the machining solution; that is, the gaps are not positively immersed in the machining solution pooled. Therefore, the abrasive grains are liable to stay in and stick to the gaps. Accordingly, in removing the wire from the workpiece, it may scratch or crack the machined surface.


Device selects lines from each I/O device are brought into a PCI host bridge individually so that the device number of a failing device may be logged in an error register when an error is seen on the PCI bus. Until the error register is reset, subsequent load and store operations are delayed until the device number of the subject device may be checked against the error register. If the subject device is a previously failing device, the load/store operation to that device is prevented from completing, either by forcing bad parity or zeroing all byte enables. By forcing bad parity of zero byte enables, the I/O device will respond to the load or store request by activating its device select line, but will not accept store data. Operations to devices which are not logged in the error register are permitted to proceed normally, as are all load store operations when the error register is clear. Normal system operations are thus not impacted, and operations during error recovery are permitted to proceed if no further damage will be caused by such operations.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to bus error handling and in particular to handling bus errors during load and store operations. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to preventing damage from bus errors during load and store operations through forced bad data parity or zero byte enables thereby enhancing the capability of recovering from such errors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many data processing systems support a standard input/output (I/O) systems conforming to the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) Local Bus architecture, an architecture supporting many complex features including I/O expansion through PCI-to-PCI bridges, peer-to-peer (device-to-device) data transfers, multi-function devices, and both integrated and plug-in devices. In setting up I/O operations to I/O devices on a PCI bus, the device driver must perform a series of load and/or store operations to the I/O device. If any of these operations gets a parity error on the I/O bus, it is necessary to get this information back to the device driver so that the device driver can stop before the operation is initiated.
As an example, a first store operation may be employed to set up an address in the I/O device, followed by a second store operation signalling the I/O device to begin the data transfer. If the first store operation gets an error and the second store operation is then received, the I/O device might start the operation to the incorrect location. The PCI architecture includes no provision for designing adapters to prevent load and/or store operations from continuing after an error. Most contemporary systems allow device driver execution to continue after a store operation rather than wait for a "successful" response to the store operation to determine if it completely correctly. This is preferable since the processor stall required to wait for a response to store operations would vastly degrade system performance.
One technique allowing the device driver to prevent subsequent load and/or store operations from completing after an error without waiting for the response to every load or store operation is for the device driver to read back all of the setup information before issuing the "go" store operation (the store operation signalling the device driver to begin) and then compare the read back data with the stored data to determine if the two are the same prior to issuing the "go" store operation. However, this requires a lot of processor time for the load operations out to the device, a long path, in many cases, relative to processor instruction times. Another possible solution is to examine bits within the interface or status registers within the I/O device to determine whether an error has occurred after a store operation. This, however, is unsupported by current architectures and also requires a lot of processor time.
Yet another solution is for an I/O device to generate an external interrupt when there is an error after a store operation, but waiting for an interrupt before continuing takes a lot of time. Other conceivable possibilities will generally be adapter dependent, and thus incapable of working with any I/O device not designed for that solution, or will require a lot of processor time.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a method and apparatus for preventing load and/or store operations from completing after an error without waiting for a response to every load or store operation. It would also be advantageous for the mechanism to avoid requiring changes to PCI adapter or I/O device hardware, so that the mechanism may be employed with any I/O device, even if not designed specifically for that mechanism.

Enhanced error handling for I/O load/store operations to a PCI device via bad parity or zero byte enables

International Business Machines Corporation


A protection system minimizing utilization equipment's exposure to, and power interruption resulting from, an under voltage condition in an electric power generating system includes generator current sensors, generator speed information, an exciter current sensor, voltage sensors, and a controller. The controller utilizes a voltage level detector which calculates an average voltage magnitude and generates a control signal when the average voltage magnitude drops below a threshold, and which monitors the peak value of each phase voltage and generates a lock out signal when any one of the phase voltages exceeds a threshold; a current detector which generates an enable signal when the magnitude of the highest phase of the generator current is less than a threshold; an exciter current detector which generates a second enable signal when the exciter current is outside an acceptable operating range; a generator speed monitor which generates a control signal when the generator speed is above a minimum regulation speed; protection logic which generates a protective trip signal; and breaker drivers which control the position of system breakers to isolate the fault and re-energize the system loads. The protection logic discriminates between an under voltage condition caused by an overload or a through fault on a main load bus, and one caused by a failure in the controller or associated wiring.

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art electric power generating system (EPGS) 7 of the type manufactured by the assignee of the present invention for use in airframes. The EPGS 7 is comprised of a plurality of generating channels 37. Each channel comprises a generator unit such as an integrated drive generator 9 coupled to an input shaft (not illustrated) from an airframe propulsion engine. The output of the IDG 9 is connectable by a generator control breaker (GCB) 31 to a load distribution bus 23 which is connectable by a bus tie breaker (BTB) 29 to a tie bus 35. Position control for each breaker is transmitted via control line 33 to the GCB 31, and via control line 27 to the BTB 29. Each IDG 9 is conventional and is comprised of a constant speed transmission and a permanent magnet generator which generates alternating current which is rectified and applied, through a series connected generator control relay (GCR) (not illustrated), to a wound field exciter on line 19 which produces alternating current which is rectified and applied to the rotor of a three phase alternator. The number of IDGs 9 included in the EPGS 7 varies directly with the number of engines on the airframe and typically is between 2 and 4. The rotor of the three phase alternator is driven by the constant speed transmission (included within the IDG 9) which converts a variable speed shaft from the airframe propulsion engine into a constant speed drive which rotates the rotor of the three phase alternator at a velocity for producing three phase 400 Hz electrical power. Each IDG 9 has an associated generator control unit (GCU) 11 which may contain a programmed microprocessor or other means for implementing various conventional control and protection functions as well as functions which are described below which are pan of the present invention.
In addition to the main engine driven IDGs 9, an auxiliary power unit driven generator unit (AGEN) 13 is often included as an integral pan of the EPGS 7. The AGEN 13 is connectable by an auxiliary power breaker (APB) 39 to the tie bus 35 to allow the AGEN 13 to power the main channel load busses 23 via the BTBs 29 during IDG fault or loss of engine conditions, or while on the ground without main engines running. As with the IDGs 9, the AGEN 13 has an associated generator control unit (AGCU) 15 which also may contain a programmed microprocessor or other means for implementing various conventional control and protection functions. Often, the GCU 11 and the AGCU 15 are identical units, differing only in the control algorithms executed by the microprocessor. Also included is a connection 17 to allow external power (EXT PWR) to be connected to the tie bus 35 to supply the main channel's load distribution busses 23 through the BTBs 29 while on the ground.
To protect the utilization equipment from a low voltage operating condition, the GCU 11 utilizes generator speed information, and voltage sense line 41 to monitor system voltage at the point of regulation (POR) 43. The GCU 11 processes the information collected by these sensors via a voltage level detector 47 (see FIG. 2), which calculates an average voltage magnitude and generates an under voltage control signal when the average voltage magnitude drops below a threshold, and via a generator speed monitoring means 49 which generates a ready speed control signal when the generator speed is above a minimum regulation speed.
The under voltage protection logic 45 as shown in FIG. 2 monitors these control signals and the position status of the GCR (not illustrated) via a GCR monitor 51 to determine if an under voltage fault condition exists. Specifically, logic gate 53 generates an under voltage protection signal on line 55 when a logic "1" is produced by the GCR monitor 51 on line 57 indicating that the GCR is closed allowing excitation power to be connected to the wound exciter field of the IDG (not shown), and a logic "1" is produced by the speed monitoring means 49 on line 59 indicating that the IDG is being driven above its minimum regulation speed, and a logic "1" is produced by the voltage level detector 47 on line 61 indicating that the average voltage on the POR 43 (FIG. 1) is less than a predetermined threshold ( this threshold is set to 104.5.+-.1.5 volts for a 115 volt aircraft EPGS). Once the under voltage protection signal on line 55 is generated, time delay 63 begins to operate. The duration of the time delay 63 is predetermined to coordinate with the trip characteristics of aircraft distribution protective devices (not shown), and is typically set to 9.75 seconds. A time delay duration of 9.75 seconds allows faults downstream of the distribution protection devices which overload the IDG and result in an under voltage condition to be cleared by these devices prior to generating an output protection signal on line 65.
If the undervoltage fault persists beyond the time by which the distribution protective device should have tripped to clear the fault, indicating a non-distribution type fault, the time delay 63 expires and the output under voltage protection signal on line 65 is generated. In response to this protection signal, the GCU 11 (see FIG. 1) trips the GCR (not shown) and GCB 31 which de-energizes the IDG 9 and disconnects it from the load distribution bus 23. The GCU 11 then may close the BTB 29 to allow an alternate source to re-power the loads via the tie bus 35.
One problem associated with this protection system is that for many non-distribution type faults resulting in an under voltage condition, such as failures within the IDG 9 or the GCU 11 or on the exciter drive line 19 itself, the utilization equipment is subjected to a low voltage for the duration of the time delay 63 (see FIG. 2) which is set to coordinate with distribution protection devices which would never operate to clear these types of faults. If, for example, the exciter drive line 19 were to break open, disconnecting the excitation power from the wound exciter (not shown), the output voltage would drop to zero for 9.75 seconds. All of the utilization equipment connected to the affected load distribution bus 23 would be lost during this period until the GCU 11 operates to disconnect the de-energized IDG 9 from, and connect the tie bus 35 to, the load distribution bus 23. If this fault were to occur during a critical phase of the flight, such as on take-off or landing, the loss of essential flight instruments and controls for this long period of time could result in serious consequences.
Another problem associated with this protection system for under voltage faults resulting from a controller or control wiring failure is that much of the utilization equipment utilize volatile memory for much of their data storage, the contents of which are lost as a result of a 9.75 seconds loss of power. This loss of data can be prevented by increasing the size of storage elements in the utilization equipment's power supplies or other techniques such as the use of non-volatile memory. Both of these solutions, however, increase the cost and the complexity of each piece of utilization equipment.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems by discriminating the cause of the under voltage condition between that which is the result of an overload or a through fault on a main load bus, requiring coordination with aircraft distribution protective devices and thus a long time delay, and that which is the result of a controller or control wiring failure, requiring no coordination with the aircraft distribution protective devices and thus a very short time delay.

Protection system for controller and control wiring induced under voltage faults in an electric power generating system


An image sensing apparatus has a plurality of image sensing modes each of which performs image sensing operation using different pixel shifting method. One of these image sensing modes is selected through a selection unit in accordance with an object to be sensed, and a plurality of images of the object are sensed in image sensing position arrays on the basis of the selected image sensing mode. A combining unit combines the plurality of sensed images to obtain a single still image of high resolution.

The present invention relates to an image sensing apparatus and method using a solid-state image sensing device, such as CCD, and more particularly, to an image sensing apparatus and method realizing high-resolution image sensing by using "pixel shifting technique" and a method of dealing with obtained data of the plurality of images sensed by using the pixel shifting technique.
Conventionally, there are the following methods for increasing image sensing resolution adopted by an image sensing apparatus using a solid-state image sensing device.
(a). Increase the density of pixels in the image sensing device. PA1 (b). Use a plurality of image sensing devices. PA1 (c). Use pixel shifting technique.
Regarding method (a), the method greatly depends upon semiconductor manufacturing technique, thus it does not improve quickly. Further, although the semiconductor manufacturing technique improves, the price of the image sensing device will increase. Regarding method (b), it can be realized relatively easily by using an optical prism, or the like. However, three image sensing devices as well as a large optical member, such as the optical prism, for separating incoming light into three color components which travel different paths from each other are necessary. As a result, the cost for manufacturing an image sensing apparatus increases.
Because of the problems of using methods (a) and (b), method (c), namely pixel shifting technique, has been used for realizing high-resolution image sensing. The pixel shifting technique is that a plurality of images of an object are sensed as shifting image formation positions on the image sensing device, and combined to produce a single high-resolution still image. This technique is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-17134, for example.
As for pixel shifting technique using a single image sensing device, the one disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-863 is known. This discloses a technique to obtain a plurality of images sensed by moving an optical system, image sensing device or an object by a predetermined amount, then combine the obtained plurality of images to produce a single image of high resolution.
However, in the aforementioned conventional pixel shifting techniques, only basic techniques are suggested. Especially, when the pixel shifting is performed by using a single image sensing device, since a color filter is attached, no concrete way of shifting pixels has been described. Furthermore, there were no description on data handling, such as how color processes are performed on obtained image data and whether the high resolution still image sensing is performed while sensing a moving image or not, which have been problems upon developing an image sensing apparatus in practice.
Further, it is possible to obtain images of different resolution depending upon how the pixels are shifted, however, there was no suggestion to change the ways of shifting pixels in accordance with characteristics of the object.
Furthermore, the image sensing apparatus using a solid-state image sensing device focuses on the object, measures light exposure, and adjusts white balance for each sensed image. However, focusing on the object, measurement of light exposure, and correction of white balance have not been exclusively considered for the pixel shifting technique in which a plurality of images are sensed by shifting the relative positions between the image sensing device and the object in the horizontal direction, vertical direction and oblique direction, and combined into a single image of high quality.
In a case of sensing a plurality of images needed for producing a combined high resolution image by using the pixel shifting technique, still life, a stationary object, is generally sensed in most of the cases, and conditions for sensing the images seldom change. Thus, if the focusing on the object, measurement of light exposure, and white balance correction are performed each time when sensing an image of the object to be used for generating a single image of high resolution, errors in measurement and in operation of each detection device may result in changing conditions for sensing the images, thereby making it difficult to combine the plurality of obtained images into a single image of high resolution.
Further, for performing the focusing on the object, measurement of light exposure and white balance correction for each image sensing operation, it is necessary to operate driving circuits. Therefore, time as well as energy of a battery are wasted.

Pixel shifting image sensor with a different number of images sensed in each mode