A drug elution stent includes a stent framework and a drug elution portion disposed on the stent framework. The drug elution portion includes a first sugar layer disposed on the stent framework, at least one therapeutic agent layer disposed on the first sugar layer and a second sugar layer disposed on the at least one therapeutic agent layer. A method of manufacturing a drug elution stent includes the steps of providing a stent having a stent framework and coating at least a portion of the stent framework with a drug elution portion. The drug elution portion includes a first sugar layer disposed on the stent framework, at least one therapeutic agent layer disposed on the first sugar layer and a second sugar layer disposed on the at least one therapeutic agent layer.

Drug coated stents can improve the overall effectiveness of angioplasty and stenotic procedures performed on the cardiovascular system and other vessels within the body by delivering potent therapeutic compounds to a target site. Anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombogenic drugs may be carried on the stent and released gradually after insertion and deployment of the stent. These drugs and coatings can reduce the trauma to the local tissue bed, aid in the healing process, and significantly reduce the recurrence of narrowing or constriction of the blood vessel that after stent delivery and placement.
It is desirable to have a medicated stent that can be tailored to provide a desired elution rate for one or more drugs and to provide sufficient quantities of bioactive agents without compromising the mechanics of the stent during deployment and use. It would be beneficial to have a drug-elution system that can be tailored to accommodate a variety of drugs for controlled time delivery. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to provide a drug-delivery stent with phased delivery of drugs in effective quantities.


An optoelectronic device having a hermetically sealed optoelectronic component and to a method of forming the device, which may for example be an optical transmitter or receiver device for use in a fiber optic communications network. The optoelectronic device comprises a first sub-assembly and a second sub-assembly, the first sub-assembly comprising at least one optoelectronic component. The optoelectronic component is optically aligned with the at least one optical element along an optical axis to form a housing for the optoelectronic component, the sub-assemblies being joined by at least two joins across the interface including at least one non-hermetic join and separate from the non-hermetic join(s) a hermetic join that extends fully around the optical axis to seal hermitically the optoelectronic component within the housing.

a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optoelectronic device having a hermetically sealed optoelectronic component and to a method of forming the device, for example optical transmitter or receiver device for use in a fibre optic communications network.
b. Related Art
Optoelectronic transmitter or receiver modules, referred to herein individually and in combination as an "optical transceiver module", are often formed from a number of sub-assemblies that need to be optically aligned with respect to each prior to being secured together during manufacture of the device. For example, an optical transceiver module will normally have a sub-assembly that includes a hybrid circuit on a ceramic substrate, including an optoelectronic component such as a photodetector or a laser diode connected to associated electronic circuitry for receiving or transmitting a signal from/to the optoelectronic component. The component may need to be optically aligned with optical elements such as lenses or an optical isolator in another sub-assembly. During manufacture, these sub-assemblies need to be brought together, optically aligned and then secured together. It is sometimes necessary to seal the optoelectronic components within the transceiver module in order to achieve an adequate lifetime for the component in harsh environmental conditions.
In a production environment it can be difficult to maintain alignment and form a hermitic seal at the same time. Usually a hermetic seal can be formed using a welding process, but this requires expensive equipment, which may have to be adapted for reasons of convenience and operator safety so that this can be used in proximity with optical alignment apparatus. Many welding techniques also induce shifts in alignment of the components being welded owing to induced thermal stresses. Because of this, it may be preferable to join components using an adhesive such as an epoxy glue, even though this will not ultimately provide a good hermitic seal in harsh environmental conditions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a more convenient hermetically sealed optoelectronic device and a process for forming for forming such a hermetically sealed optoelectronic device.


An analysis data collector stores data acquired with an analytical instrument in a file to which a data ID has been given, and registers the file in a database. A log information collector registers, in the database, log information which shows various operations on each analytical instrument or client terminal, state of the device or the like. After data files are selected, a command to create an audit trail is issued, whereupon an audit trail information extractor collects information corresponding to those data files. The audit trail information extractor extracts each piece of log information containing the data ID and pieces of log information which contain the device ID and user ID and were obtained within a time range from login to logout including the date and time of registration. An audit trail creator creates an audit trail by organizing the log information in time-series order, and registers it.

In recent years, most of the tasks of processing and managing various data acquired with an analytical instrument, such as a gas chromatograph (GC), liquid chromatograph (LC) or mass spectrometer, have been performed by using a computer on which dedicated software was installed. In particular, a large-scale system in which multiple analytical instruments and computers (e.g. client terminals) as well as a database server and other devices are connected to each other through a communication network has also been proposed in recent years to meet various needs, such as the sophistication of analysis, automatic and efficient analyzing tasks, as well as the necessity for a centralized management of the measuring task and data-analyzing task (see Non-Patent Literature 1 and other documents). Typically, in such a system, the measurement data obtained for a sample in an analytical instrument, or process result data obtained by analytically processing the measurement data on a client terminal or the like, such as calculated values (e.g. quantitative values), are stored in a single data file for each sample. The data file is registered in, and managed on, a database constructed on a database server or similar location.
In recent years, such information management systems for analytical instruments have been required to completely comply with various regulations concerning electronic records and electronic signatures, such as "FDA 21 CFR Part 11" by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the guidelines on electronic records and electronic signatures by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. To this end, all pieces of information concerning the login/logout operation by each user on each device (e.g. analytical instrument or computer) in the system as well as various operations related to each file are also registered as operation log information in the database, as described in Non-Patent Literature 1 or 2, Patent Literature 1, or other documents. In addition to such information concerning user operations, other kinds of information are also exhaustively registered as log information in the database, such as the beginning time and ending time of an analysis performed in an automatic analysis as well as information concerning the state of a device, such as an error, abnormality or the like which occurred in an analysis or in a data-analyzing process.
When a test result based on one or more data files needs to be submitted for a new-drug application or similar purposes, the integrity of those data files must be guaranteed. To this end, it is necessary to prepare an audit trail showing all pieces of log information related to the data files, from the login to the logout of a measurement operator or data analysis operator concerned, and submit the audit trail in a printed form or show it to an auditor on a display screen. In a conventional process of preparing such an audit trail, the measurement operator or other individuals extract necessary information from various kinds of log information stored in a database, by visually checking the date and time of the measurement or data analysis concerned, name of the data file, name of the measurement operator, name of the data analysis operator and other related information.
In a large-scale system including many devices, a huge amount of log information is stored in the database, since all pieces of log information received from the devices are stored in the database. Furthermore, a number of measurement operators may respectively perform a number of measurements, or a single measurement operator may concurrently perform analyzing operations using multiple analytical instruments during the same period of time. Therefore, the content of the log information stored in the database is extremely complex. Due to those factors, the task of extracting all pieces of log information related to specific data files is considerably burdensome and time-consuming. Additionally, in recent years, there has been the case where an audit trail related to many data files obtained by individually analyzing a large number of samples needs to be prepared. For the preparation of such an audit trail, the task of extracting log information from the database will be even more cumbersome and time-consuming.
The purpose of the audit trail is to guarantee the integrity of a data file. However, since the pieces of information in the audit trail are extracted by manual operations, an incorrect selection or omission of information may possibly occur. Therefore, the conventional method described above is not always suitable for the intended purpose, i.e. to guarantee the integrity. A searching or similar function normally included in database management software products may be used for extracting the necessary log information. However, since the conditions for such a search need to be manually entered by users, the possibility of an incorrect operation or intentional manipulation cannot be excluded. Accordingly, it is difficult to guarantee the integrity of the data file.


The present invention describes a cutting tool with improved properties for metal machining having a substrate of cemented carbide and a hard and wear resistant coating on the surface of said substrate. The coating is deposited by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). The coating is composed of metal nitrides in combination with alumina (Al2O3). The coating is composed of a laminar multilayered structure. The insert is further treated to have different outer layers on the rake face and flank face respectively.

The present invention relates to a cutting tool with improved properties for metal machining having a substrate of cemented carbide and a hard and wear resistant coating on the surface of said substrate. The coating is deposited by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). The coating is composed of metal nitrides in combination with alumina (Al2O3). The coating is composed of a laminar multilayered structure. In order to optimize performance, the insert is further treated to have different outer layers on the rake face and flank face, respectively.
Modern high productivity tools for chip forming machining of metals requires reliable tools with excellent wear properties. Since the end of 1960s it is known that tool life can be significantly improved by applying a suitable coating to the surface of the tool. The first coatings for wear applications were made by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and this coating technique is still widely used for cutting tool applications. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) was introduced in the mid 1980s and has since then been further developed from single coatings of stable metallic compounds like TiN or Ti(C,N) to include multicomponent and multilayer coatings also including metastable compounds like (Ti,Al)N or non metallic compounds like Al2O3.
RF-sputtering of alumina on cemented carbide cutting tools using deposition temperatures up to 900° C. is described in Shinzato et al., Thin Sol. Films, 97 (1982) 333-337. The use of PVD coatings of alumina for wear protection is described in Knotek et al., Surf Coat. Techn., 59 (1993) 14-20, where the alumina is deposited as an outermost layer on a wear resistant carbonitride layer. The alumina layer is said to minimize adhesion wear and acts as a barrier to chemical wear. U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,823 discloses a tool material coated with PVD alumina as one or two out of a layer stack, the non-oxide layers being e.g. TiAl containing. The tool may have an outer layer of TiN. The Al2O3 may be of alpha, kappa, theta, gamma or amorphous type. Alumina coated tools where the oxide polymorph is of gamma type with a 400 or 440 texture are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,726. U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,607 discloses PVD deposited alumina with a content of >5% Cr. A hardness of >20 GPa and a crystal structure of alpha phase is found for Cr contents above 20%. No Cr addition gives amorphous alumina with a hardness of 5 GPa.
Most coated tools today have a top layer of a goldish TiN to make it easy to differentiate by the naked eye between a used and an unused cutting edge eye. TiN is not always the preferred top layer especially not in applications where the chip may adhere to the TiN layer. Partial blasting of coatings is disclosed in EP-A-1193328 with the purpose to enable wear detection at the same time as the beneficial properties of the underlying coating are retained. Wear on the rake face is mostly chemical in nature and requires a chemically stable compound whereas wear on the flank face is mostly mechanical in nature and requires a harder and abrasive resistant compound.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An air heating apparatus such as a fan heater, a forced circulation type ware air heater, and, an air conditioner and heater, is operated while the amount of radiation is taken into consideration. Moreover, after a PMV value of the room to be heated is generated from the temperature, amount of radiation, etc. of the room to be heated, the burning amount, air flow and the like are controlled to make the PMV value 0.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air heating apparatus such as a fan heater, a warm air heater of forced circulation type, an air conditioner/heater, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional controlling device for an air heating apparatus has been generally constructed in a manner as indicated in FIG. 18, which will now be described hereinbelow. As shown in the drawing, a temperature setting part 101 is provided for a user to set the temperature inside the room (space to be heated). The temperature inside the room is detected by a room temperature detecting part 102. Outputs from the temperature setting part 101 and room temperature detecting part 102 are input to a burning controlling part 103, to thereby control the operation of a burner part 104 and a convection fan 105. The burner part 104 is constituted of an electromagnetic pump 106 which supplies fuel to a burner (not shown) and a burner fan 107 for feeding air to the burner. The convection fan 105 emits the air heated by the burner as the warm air.
The operation of the controlling device in the above-described structure will be discussed below. When the temperature detected by the room temperature detecting part 102 is considerably lower than the temperature set by the temperature setting part 101, the burning controlling part 103 instructs intensive burning to the burner part 104 and also drives the convection fan 105 with a high rotating frequency. As the room temperature becomes closer to the set temperature, the controlling part 103 weakens the burner part 104 and rotates the convection fan 105 with a lower frequency. In this manner, the room temperature is controlled to a set temperature.
The controlling device of the air heating apparatus of the prior art makes control of the burning level of the burner part 104 and the air flow of the convection fan 105 based on the room temperature alone, without taking into consideration the temperature at the wall surface or floor surface of the space to be heated or the presence/absence of radiant heat like solar heat, etc. Therefore, the room is prone to be too hot or too cold to be comfortable.
Moreover, for making control of the burning level and air flow as mentioned above, the controlling device of the conventional air heating apparatus controls the temperature detected by the room temperature detecting part 102 to be equal to a set temperature of the temperature setting part 101. Therefore, it is difficult to realize the neutral state of thermal balance, that is, a too hot nor too cold state. The conventional controlling device cannot fill the change in the environmental condition.
A great demand has recently arising from the above-described background for an air heating apparatus capable of controlling heating in the balanced state.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An optical system and method for rotating an image of an object is disclosed. The device consists of a plurality of optical surfaces for either reflecting or refracting the light along an optical path through the device. The optical surfaces divide the optical path into optical path segments which intersect at predetermined angles. These angles are selected to minimize polarization of the output light. The optical path segments lie in more than one plane.

Typically, optical imaging systems admit light from an object to create an image of the object. Often, it becomes necessary to rotate the image to facilitate viewing or analysis. Image rotation is used in aerial reconnaissance in which the imaging system is mounted in a moving aircraft for viewing ground objects. As the aircraft moves by the object the imaging system rotates to maintain the object in the field of view. If the object is not directly below the aircraft, the rotation of the imaging system causes the image to rotate with respect to the detection device receiving the image. In many cases, this image rotation is undesirable and must be corrected.
One possible means of correcting the image rotation is to rotate the detector. However, this is seldom feasible. Rotation of the object is also generally not feasible. Therefore, devices have been developed which are integrated into the imaging system for rotating the image in coordination with the rotation of the imaging system. The devices are located along the optical axis of the imaging system between the entrance aperture of the imaging system and the detector.
One such device is a K-mirror system. The K-mirror system consists of three mirrors oriented to reflect incoming light along a desired path. Light from the object enters the K-mirror system and impinges on each mirror in succession. Thus, for each point on the object, a path of light successively strikes a single point on each of the three mirrors and ends at a point in the image. A characteristic of the K-mirror system is that all five of these points, namely, the point on the object, the point on the image, and the points on each of the three mirrors, lie in a single plane.
In a stationary position, the output image of the K-mirror system is in an inverted orientation with respect to the object. As the K-mirror system is rotated, the output image rotates at twice the rotation rate of the K-mirror system. That is, for 90 degrees of K-mirror system rotation, the image rotates 180 degrees.
The K-mirror system has some fundamental limitations to its usefulness. The mirrors in the K-mirror system are oriented such that the light is reflected at obtuse angles. As a result, the output light from the K-mirror system possesses a high degree of polarization. In many applications, this polarization is undesirable. Also, as the K-mirror system rotates, it sweeps out a relatively large spatial volume, therefore consuming a large amount of space.

Non-polarizing image rotation apparatus and method


A communication device is configured to encode and/or decode low density parity check (LDPC) coded signals. Such LDPC coded signals are characterized by LDPC matrices having a particular form. An LDPC matrix may be partitioned into a left hand side matrix and the right hand side matrix. The right hand side matrix can be lower triangular such that all of the sub-matrices therein are all-zero-valued sub-matrices (e.g., all of the elements within an all-zero-valued sub-matrix have the value of “0”) except for those sub-matrices located on a main diagonal of the right hand side matrix and another diagonal that is adjacently located to the left of the main diagonal. A device may be configured to employ different LDPC codes having different LDPC matrices for different LDPC coded signals. The different LDPC matrices may be based generally on a common form (e.g., with a right hand side matrix as described above).

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, to forward error correction (FEC) and/or error correction code (ECC) coding within such communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. The primary goal within such communication systems is to transmit information successfully between devices. Unfortunately, many things can deleteriously affect signals transmitted within such systems resulting in degradation of or even complete failure of communication. Examples of such adverse effects include interference and noise that may be caused by a variety of sources including other communications, low-quality communication links, degraded or corrupted interfaces and connectors, etc.
Some communication systems use forward error correction (FEC) coding or error correction code (ECC) coding to increase the amount of information that may be transmitted between devices. When a signaling incurs one or more errors during transmission, a receiver device can employ the FEC or ECC coding to try to correct those one or more errors.
A continual and primary directive in this area of development has been to try continually to lower the SNR required to achieve a given bit error rate (BER) or symbol error rate (SER) within a communication system. The ideal goal has been to try to reach Shannon's limit in a communication channel. Shannon's limit may be viewed as being the data rate to be used in a communication channel, having a particular signal to noise ratio (SNR), which achieves error free transmission through the communication channel. The Shannon limit is the theoretical bound for channel capacity for a given modulation and code rate.
Within the context of communication systems that employ one or more types of FEC or ECC coding, there continues to be much room for improvement related to better designed codes that provide for better performance (e.g., lower BER or SER for a given signal to noise ratio (SNR)). Also, a given application may operate more effectively with FEC or ECC coding particularly tailored for that application. One FEC or ECC code may be more effective or efficient in one application as compared to another.

Very short size LDPC coding for physical and/or control channel signaling


The present invention relates generally to bending a workpiece to form a desired configuration and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for forming bends "out of sequence," i.e., in a time sequence different from the spatial sequence of the bends on the workpiece. The apparatus of the present invention include a bending system for bending a workpiece and a positioning system for positioning the workpiece relative to a bending region so that bends can be formed in various locations across the bending region. By virtue of the disclosed structures, a series of bends can be formed on a workpiece at various locations within the bending region. Bends can be formed out sequence and without advancing the workpiece relative to the bending region.

Many systems for bending workpieces to form a desired configuration have been devised. In such systems, the workpiece is typically driven past a bending station such that the workpiece is formed into the desired configuration beginning at one end and progressing at intervals along the length of the workpiece until the configuration is completed. The bends are thus formed in a time sequence corresponding to the spatial sequence of the bends on the workpiece.
A number of different types of bending tools may be employed at the bending stations of such devices including, for example, brake presses, mandrel and wiper bending tools, and roller arrays, e.g., three or more bending rollers arranged in a pyramid or triangular array. In a brake press, the workpiece is pressed between appropriately shaped dies to form the bend. In mandrel and wiper bending, the wiper is moved so as to cause the workpiece to bend about the mandrel. In roller array systems, at least one of the rollers can ordinarily be moved relative to adjacent rollers so that the curvature of the resulting bend in the workpiece pressed between the rollers can be varied.

Method and apparatus for forming bends in a selected sequence


The present invention relates to a binder composition for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery, which is characterized by containing (A) polyvinyl alcohol, (B) at least one selected from a copolymer of vinyl alcohol and ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid and a neutralized salt of the copolymer and (C) at least one selected from an amino acid, a carboxylic acid-containing polymer and a polyamine; and a binder aqueous solution for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery, a slurry composition for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery, an electrode for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery, and a non-aqueous electrolyte battery, each containing the binder composition; and others.

In recent years, prevalence of portable terminals such as a portable phone, a notebook type personal computer, and a pad type information terminal apparatus is considerable. A lithium ion secondary battery is frequently used as a secondary battery that is used as a power source for these portable terminals. Since a more comfortable portability is demanded in the portable terminals, scale reduction, thickness reduction, weight reduction, and performance enhancement of the portable terminals are rapidly developing, and the portable terminals are coming to be used in various fields. This trend is currently still continuing, and further scale reduction, thickness reduction, weight reduction, and performance enhancement of batteries used in the portable terminals are also demanded.
A non-aqueous electrolyte battery such as a lithium ion secondary battery has a structure such that a positive electrode and a negative electrode are disposed via a separator and housed in a container together with an electrolytic solution obtained by dissolving a lithium salt such as LiPF6, LiBF4, LiTFSI (lithium (bistrifluoromethylsulfonylimide)), or LiFSI (lithium (bisfluorosulfonylimide)) in an organic liquid such as ethylene carbonate.
Typically, the negative electrode and the positive electrode are formed in such a manner that a slurry for electrodes, which is obtained by dissolving or dispersing a binder and a thickening agent into water or a solvent and mixing the resulting material with an active material, an electroconductive auxiliary agent (electroconductivity imparting agent) that is added in accordance with the needs, and the like (the slurry for electrodes may hereafter simply referred to as a slurry), is applied onto a current collector, followed by drying water or the solvent to bind as a mixed layer. More specifically, for example, the negative electrode is formed in such a manner that a carbonaceous material serving as an active material capable of intercalating and deintercalating lithium ions, acetylene black serving as an electroconductive auxiliary agent added in accordance with the needs, and the like are bound with each other onto a current collector such as copper with use of a binder for secondary battery electrodes. On the other hand, the positive electrode is formed in such a manner that LiCoO2 or the like serving as an active material and an electroconductive auxiliary agent that is similar to that of the negative electrode and added in accordance with the needs are bound with each other onto a current collector such as aluminum with use of a binder for secondary battery electrodes.
In recent years, from the viewpoints of reduction in environmental burden and simplicity of manufacturing equipment, an interest from a slurry containing a solvent to a slurry using water has increased, and in particular, there has been a rapid shift above in the negative electrode.
The most industrially used binder for aqueous media is a system in which carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt (CMC-Na) is added as a thickener to a diene-based rubber such as styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) (For example, Patent Literature 1). However, the diene-based rubbers such as styrene-butadiene rubber have a low adhesion property to a metal current collector electrode such as copper, and there is a problem in that they cannot be reduced in the amount of use for the purpose of enhancing the adhesiveness between the current collector electrode and the electrode material. Also, there is a problem in that the diene-based rubbers are vulnerable to the heat generated at the time of charging/discharging and have a low capacity retention ratio. Furthermore, since such a diene-based rubber is a two-component system, it has problems such as low storage stability and complicated slurry preparation process in the production.
In order to solve the problem of the SBR/CMC-Na addition system, an acrylic binder such as polyacrylic acid (for example, Patent Literature 2), a polyamide/imide-based binder (for example, Patent Literature 3), or a polyvinyl alcohol-based binder (for example, Patent Literature 4) has been developed.
Acrylic binders are excellent in that they exhibit a high adhesion property and have a low swelling property to electrolytes. On the other hand, there is a problem that the electric resistance is high, the flexibility is poor, and the electrode is easily broken. As for flexibility, for example, Patent Literature 5 discloses that a nitrile group is introduced to improve the flexibility, but the electric resistance still tends to be high.
In addition, polyamide/imide-based binders also exhibit a high adhesion property, and are particularly excellent in electrical stability, thermal stability, and mechanical strength. The problem of the polyamide/imide-based binders is that, like acrylic binders, the electrical resistance is high, the flexibility is poor, and the electrode is easily broken. Utilizing mechanical strength, an example of supplementing flexibility with use of a metal oxide having a large expansion and contraction of the electrode accompanying insertion and desorption of lithium ions during charge and discharge as a negative electrode active material has been reported (for example, Patent Literature 6). However, a combination of the polyamide/imide-based binder and the metal oxide has not fully solved the problems of high resistance and poor flexibility. In addition, the polyamide/imide-based binders have a drawback that they are expensive.
Furthermore, polyvinyl alcohol-based binders also exhibit a high adhesion property and are industrially excellent because the raw material resin is inexpensive, but there is a problem that the slurry stability is low because of high resistance and easy aggregation of active material. On the other hand, an example of adding a general-purpose dispersant such as cellulose derivatives or a thixotropic property imparting agent for the purpose of increasing the viscosity of a binder using a thickener has been reported (for example, Patent Literatures 7 and 8). However, the problem of high resistance in the binder has not been solved.
Recently, demands for extending the usage time of portable terminals and shortening the charging time have increased. In particular, improvements in the battery capacity (low resistance, high efficiency), life (cycle characteristics), and charging speed (rate characteristics) are an urgent need.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems and circumstances, and the purpose of the invention is to provide a polyvinyl alcohol-based binder composition that is highly adhesive but excellent in slurry stability and in low resistance and to improve battery characteristics (high efficiency) in a non-aqueous electrolyte battery.

Binder composition for non-aqueous electrolyte batteries, and binder aqueous solution for non-aqueous electrolyte batteries, slurry composition for non-aqueous electrolyte batteries, electrode for non-aqueous electrolyte batteries and non aqueous electrolyte battery each utilizing same


A laundry dryer comprising a housing and a rotatably mounted laundry drum. A carbon contact holder assembly including a supporting part and includes a receptacle having a longitudinal axis disposed at an angle α with respect to a perpendicular cross sectional plane of the laundry drum. The supporting part includes an integrally supporting arm extending in a direction of the longitudinal axis of the receptacle. The supporting arm includes an attachment section configured to attach to the housing and a clamp strap configured to hold cables. A carbon contact is disposed in the receptacle and movable against a spring force along the longitudinal axis in a radial direction of the laundry drum. The dryer includes a latching receptacle disposed on the supporting part that includes a plug-in contact connected to the carbon contact by a flexible lead.

A laundry dryer with a carbon contact is described in EP 1 770 201 A1. In order to accommodate a laundry drum with the largest possible radius in the housing of a laundry dryer, no components are placed above or below the vertical axis of the laundry drum that would hinder a maximum utilization of the volume. In this design, the carbon contact holder assembly is mounted obliquely with respect to a reference plane of the laundry drum extending vertically or horizontally, which makes it possible to accommodate the carbon contact holder assembly in a free space of the laundry dryer volume. The drawing shows an arrangement of the carbon contact holder assembly in the lower side area of the laundry drum. A carbon contact holder assembly that is suitable for such an arrangement is described in European Patent Application EP 1 626 479 B1, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
German patent specification DE 44 37 635 C2 shows a support for the carbon contact holder assembly that is attached to a supporting structure of the housing by means of screwed connections. The carbon contact holder assembly is configured to receive two carbon contacts that are insulated with respect to each other and that are positioned in the upper side area of the laundry drum. This has the advantage that, if maintenance is needed, the carbon contacts are arranged so as to be easily accessible in the housing. A screwed connection is provided in order to securely attach the carbon contact holder assembly to the supporting structure of the housing. However, this embodiment has the drawback that, when the support is mounted, the tightening of the screws can cause the carbon contacts to shift with respect to the sliding contact strips on the circumference of the drum. This results in residual moisture measurements that are incorrect or altogether absent. Another drawback of this configuration relates to the layout of the flexible leads to the carbon contacts, which increases the assembly effort needed for the carbon contact holder assembly.
German patent application DE 10 2006 005 786 A1 describes a laundry dryer in which the receptacle for the carbon contacts or the supporting part for them is mounted on the attachment section by means of a swiveling and spring-loaded lever. Due to the many moving parts, this construction is complicated, and a precise positioning has to be ensured during the assembly. Furthermore, it can happen that, over the course of time, the contact carbons diverge from their prescribed course if the lever hinges are worn out.


A papermaking belt having a reinforcing structure and a pattern layer is disclosed. The reinforcing layer has a first layer of interwoven machine direction yarns and cross-machine direction yarns. The machine direction and cross-machine direction yarns of the first layer are interwoven in a weave. The pattern layer extends outwardly from and into the first layer. The pattern layer provides a web contacting surface facing outwardly from the first layer. The pattern layer further has at least one region having an amorphous pattern of elongate two-dimensional geometrical shapes having a longitudinal axis having an angle relative to either of the machine direction or the cross-machine direction. The amorphous pattern of two-dimensional geometrical shapes has a statically controlled degree of randomness.

Fibrous structures, such as paper towels, facial tissues, toilet tissues, and board, printing, and writing grades of paper, are a staple of every day life. The large demand and constant usage for such consumer products has created a demand for improved versions of these products and, likewise, improvement in the methods of their manufacture. Such cellulosic fibrous structures are manufactured by depositing an aqueous slurry from a headbox onto a Fourdrinier wire or a twin wire paper machine. Such forming wires are generally an endless belt through which initial dewatering of the slurry occurs and fiber rearrangement takes place. Frequently, fiber loss occurs due to fibers flowing through the forming wire along with the liquid carrier from the headbox.
After the initial formation of the web, which later becomes the cellulosic fibrous structure, the papermaking machine transports the web to the dry end of the machine. In the dry end of a conventional machine, a press felt compacts the web into a single region cellulosic fibrous structure prior to final drying. The final drying is usually accomplished by a heated drum, such as a Yankee drying drum, or a series of can driers for board, printing, and writing grades of paper.
One of the significant aforementioned improvements to the manufacturing process, which yields a significant improvement in the resulting consumer products, is the use of through-air drying to replace conventional press felt dewatering. In through-air drying, like press felt drying, the web begins on a forming wire that receives an aqueous slurry of less than one percent consistency (the weight percentage of fibers in the aqueous slurry) from a headbox. Initial dewatering of the slurry takes place on the forming wire, but the forming wire is not usually exposed to web consistencies of greater than 30 percent. From the forming wire, the web is transferred to an air pervious through air drying belt.
Air passes through the web and the through-air-drying belt to continue the dewatering process. The air passing the through-air-drying belt and the web is driven by vacuum transfer slots, other vacuum boxes or shoes, predryer rolls, and the like. This air molds the web to the topography of the through-air-drying belt and increases the consistency of the web. Such molding creates a more three-dimensional web, but also creates pinholes if the fibers are deflected so far in the third dimension that a breach in fiber continuity occurs.
The web is then transported to the final drying stage where the web is also imprinted. At the final drying stage, the through air drying belt transfers the web to a heated drum, such as a Yankee drying drum for final drying. During this transfer, portions of the web are densifted during imprinting to yield a multi-region structure. Many such multi-region structures have been widely accepted as preferred consumer products. An exemplary through-air-drying belt is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,746.
As noted above, such through-air-drying belts used a reinforcing element to stabilize the resin. The reinforcing element also controlled the deflection of the papermaking fibers resulting from vacuum applied to the backside of the belt and airflow through the belt. Such belts use a fine mesh reinforcing element, typically having approximately fifty machine direction and fifty cross-machine direction yarns per inch. While such a fine mesh may control fiber deflection into the belt, they are unable to stand the environment of a typical papermaking machine. For example, such a belt may flexible enough so that destructive folds and creases occur. Fine yarns do not generally provide adequate seam strength and can burn at the high temperatures encountered in papermaking.
There are other drawbacks of other through-air-drying belts. For example, the continuous pattern used to produce a consumer preferred product may not allow leakage through the backside of the belt. In fact, such leakage may be minimized by the necessity to securely lock the resinous pattern onto the reinforcing structure. Unfortunately, when the lock-on of the resin to the reinforcing structure is maximized, the short rise time over which the differential pressure is applied to an individual region of fibers during the application of vacuum can pull the fibers through the reinforcing element, resulting in process hygiene problems and product acceptance problems, such as pinholes.
Standard patterned resinous through-air-drying belts maximize the projected open area, so that airflow therethrough is not reduced or unduly blocked. Patterned resinous through-air-drying belts common in the prior art use a dual layer design reinforcing element having vertically stacked warps. Generally, the wisdom has been to use relatively large diameter yarns, to increase belt life. Belt life is important not only because of the cost of the belts, but more importantly due to the expensive downtime incurred when a worn belt must be removed and a new belt installed. Unfortunately, larger diameter yarns require larger holes therebetween in order to accommodate the weave. The larger holes permit short fibers, such as Eucalyptus, to be pulled through the belt and thereby create pinholes. Unfortunately, short fibers, such as Eucalyptus, are heavily consumer preferred due to the softness they create in the resulting cellulosic fibrous structure.
Additionally, the effect of superimposing a repetitive design, such as a grid, on the same or a different design can also produce a pattern that is distinct from the components of the pattern. This is known to one of skill in the art as a Moire pattern. Such Moire patterns can detrimentally impact the appearance of products produced by such a forming structure by having unintended designs appear upon the product. These unintended Moire designs are likely to be distinct from any of the patterns used to generate the forming structure.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a forming wire that reduces fiber loss and non-uniform fiber distribution in specific areas of the resulting product. Such a forming wire should provide a patterned resinous papermaking belt that also overcomes the prior art trade-off of belt life and reduced pinholing. Additionally, the forming wire should provide an improved patterned resinous belt having sufficient open area to efficiently use during manufacturing. Also, the papermaking belt should provide for a patterned resinous belt that produces an aesthetically acceptable consumer product comprising a cellulosic fibrous structure by eliminating Moire patterns resulting from the papermaking process.


The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for controlling and regulating an internal combustion engine 6; via a transducer disk 16 on the crankshaft 12 and a pickup 15, the annular position of the crankshaft 12 is ascertained continuously, with gasoline direct injection valves, in which the fuel injection valves 5 receive the fuel 1 from a pressure-imposing electric fuel pump 9 via a fuel rail 7. A control unit 25 evaluates the output signals of the pickup 15 to determine the annular position and to ascertain the rpm; depending on the annular position, the control unit 25 trips injection and/or ignition pulses. According to the invention, to detect the phase relationship of the engine 6, the pressure course in the fuel rail sensor 8 is evaluated. Upon blowback at compression counterpressure of fuel-air mixture into one of the injection valves in the event of an incorrect phase relationship offset by 360xc2x0 KW, this leads to a significant pressure increase in the fuel rail sensor 8; the fuel rail sensor signal is delivered to the control unit 25, and as a result by means of the control unit a reverse synchronization by 360xc2x0 KW of the ignition and injection is effected, and the affected fuel injection valve 5 into which the blowback takes place is immediately closed.

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for detecting and varying the phase relationship in an internal combustion engine, as generically defined by the preamble to the main claim.
In an internal combustion engine, especially one with a plurality of cylinders, with a crankshaft and a camshaft, the engine control unit, as a function of the position detected for the crankshaft or camshaft, calculates when fuel is to be injected, into which cylinder, and at which instant the ignition must be tripped. It is usual to ascertain the annular position of the crankshaft with the aid of a pickup, which scans the crankshaft, or a transducer disk with a characteristic surface that is connected to the crankshaft. On the basis of the pulse train obtained, the control unit can detect the angular association.
Since the crankshaft rotates twice within one operating cycle, in the case of a four-stroke engine, however, it is not possible to determine the phase relationship of the engine unambiguously solely by scanning the crankshaft. If the phase relationship is wrong, the ignition and injection are output by the control unit with a transposition of 360xc2x0 KW. Because of the fact that one cycle of a four-stroke engine amounts to 720xc2x0 KW, and solely by means of the sensor in the transducer wheel it cannot be determined which of the four strokes is present.
If the phase signal is defective, in statistical terms every other attempt at starting will fail, since the ignition and injection are output incorrectly by the control unit by the amount of 360xc2x0 KW crankshaft. The motor accordingly fails to turn over. Furthermore, in a direct gasoline injection engine, gas from the combustion chamber is forced back into the injection valves and the fuel rail, which then impairs the starting performance even if the phase relationship is correct.
For the phase relationship to be detected correctly, the prior art typically provides a second pickup or sensor, which scans a transducer disk, communicating with the camshaft, that has a reference marking on its surface. Since the camshaft rotates only once during one work cycle, from the signal furnished by the camshaft sensor, with a single pulse per work cycle, the control unit can detect the phase relationship of the engine and perform a synchronization. Such a system is described for instance in German Patent Application P 4230616.7.
German Patent Disclosure DE-OS 4418578 discloses an apparatus for detecting the phase relationship in an internal combustion engine that makes do without a second sensor in the form of a camshaft sensor, by performing a check of the phase relationship under certain conditions; this condition is advantageously the resumption of sequential fuel injection after the overrunning shutoff. More precisely, by way of a segment time comparison, it is ascertained here whether the rpm of individual injected cylinders occurs in the expected annular position, and from this the conclusion of a correct or incorrect phase relationship is drawn; the term xe2x80x9csegment timexe2x80x9d means a time that elapses while the crankshaft rotates by an angle that is generally designated as a segment.
In direct gasoline injection engines with one fuel injection valve per piston of an internal combustion engine, the emergency operation concept of intake tube injection with dual ignition cannot be employed. Furthermore, if the phase relationship is wrong, gas is forced out of the combustion chamber back into the injection valves and the fuel rail, which means that even if the phase relationship is correct, the starting performance is impaired, or starting is prevented entirely.
The present invention therefore has the object of disclosing an apparatus and a method by which detection of the phase relationship is possible at starting, and by which an improved starting performance in the event of failure of the phase signal is obtained. According to the invention, this object is attained by the body of the main claim and by the dependent claims.
The apparatus according to the invention has the a substantial advantage that already existing component groups and components can be used; no additional camshaft sensor is required, and no extra pressure sensors are necessary, either. The rail pressure evaluation is typically done directly in the control unit, without additional circuitry. Optionally, the pressure signal of the fuel rail signal can also be delivered to the control unit for evaluation by way of a simple analog/digital comparator circuit.
After detection of the reference marking, a special injection without ignition takes place in one of the fuel injection valves at top dead center.
If the phase relationship is wrong at the time of engine starting, the affected injection valve into which blowback occurs from the compression counterpressure is immediately closed, and the pressure increase is imparted to the control unit, for instance via the analog/digital comparator circuit. A reverse synchronization of the injection and ignition by 360xc2x0 KW is thereupon tripped by the control unit.

System and method for detecting and influencing the phase position of an internal combustion engine


The acoustic resistance inside the microphone of the present invention can be adjusted mechanically by a simple electrical operation from the outside, and thereby directivity can be changed easily without adversely affecting the acoustic characteristic, even if the microphone is a single directivity dynamic type microphone. The microphone has a front acoustic terminal and a rear acoustic terminal, and makes directivity variable by having an acoustic resistance changing unit of the rear acoustic terminal. The acoustic resistance changing unit has a piezoelectric element arranged in opposition to the rear acoustic terminal with an air layer in between, and makes the acoustic resistance of the rear acoustic terminal variable by varying a voltage to be applied to the piezoelectric element. The rear acoustic terminal opens in a flat part formed in a microphone unit constituent part, and it is recommended to arrange the acoustic resistance changing unit with a narrow air layer between the flat part and the acoustic resistance changing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microphone the directivity of which has been made variable by making acoustic resistance variable.
2. Related Background of the Invention
In a single directivity condenser microphone having a front acoustic terminal and a rear acoustic terminal, it is possible to change its directivity by changing the acoustic resistance of the rear acoustic terminal. If the acoustic resistance of the rear acoustic terminal is reduced (lowered), more speed components of sound waves can be taken in and thereby the directivity becomes more bidirectional. If the acoustic resistance of the rear acoustic terminal is increased (raised), a heart-shaped curve indicative of the directivity characteristic changes into a hyper cardioid, a cardioid, and a sub-cardioid, and the microphone becomes more omnidirectional and if the acoustic resistance is extremely raised, the directivity becomes omnidirectional.
In the case of a single directivity dynamic microphone, it is possible to change its directivity by changing the acoustic resistance between a diaphragm and a rear air chamber. However, in order to obtain omnidirectivity, it is necessary to close the rear acoustic terminal.
As conventional examples of a variable directivity condenser microphone, there are examples described in Patent documents below. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-184347, an example is described, in which a variable directivity condenser microphone is configured by arranging insulating washers of a pair of condenser microphone elements back to back and coupling them via a coupling ring, and an elastic acoustic resistance material is disposed between both the insulating washers. In the assembly process, by adjusting the degree of tightening the respective insulating washers against the coupling ring, it is possible to change the amount of compression of the acoustic resistance material to change the acoustic resistance value and thus making the directivity variable. There is an advantage in that the acoustic resistance can be adjusted to obtain an excellent directivity by, for example, adjusting the degree of screwing one of the microphone elements against the coupling ring in a state in which the pair of condenser microphone elements continue to be coupled via the coupling ring.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-143595 describes a variable directivity condenser microphone, in which a microphone unit is configured by coupling the two condenser microphone elements by a coupler with respective acoustic resistors facing each other, and the acoustic resistance material of the microphone unit constitutes a ladder-like acoustic circuit. There is an advantage in that a microphone having a stable characteristic on the whole can be provided easily by making an acoustic measurement of each element to confirm the tension of the diaphragm and variations in acoustic resistance before coupling the two elements by the coupler, and by combining elements having similar characteristics.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-339192 describes a microphone unit accommodating a diaphragm, a back plate, a cover plate, etc. in a unit case, in which a path through which the back part of the back plate is communicated with the outside is formed and an adjustment mechanism that changes the acoustic impedance of the path is provided therein. As an example of the adjustment mechanism, an example is described, in which a path is provided in the cover plate, a bolt is screwed into the path, and the acoustic impedance of the path is changed by adjusting the degree of screwing the bolt.
The configurations to make the directivity of a microphone variable include a configuration in which a plurality of microphone units having different directivities are provided and the signal output of each unit is electrically added or subtracted, a configuration in which the distance between the front and rear acoustic terminals is made variable, etc., in addition to the various configurations described above. In addition, there is a variable directivity condenser microphone unit in which the polarity and voltage of a polarization voltage are changed.


A method for producing a laminated all-solid-state battery 100, including: housing an all-solid-state battery laminate 15, having one or more all-solid-state unit cells, in a casing 20 composed of a laminated film 21, the one or more all-solid-state unit cells obtained by laminating a negative electrode current collector layer having a negative electrode current collector tab 1a, a negative electrode active material layer, a solid electrolyte layer, a positive electrode active material layer and a positive electrode current collector layer having a positive electrode current collector tab 5a in this order, pressing the all-solid-state battery laminate 15 housed in the casing 20 in the direction of lamination from outside the casing 20, injecting a filler into the casing 20 while maintaining pressure, and sealing the casing 20.

Laminated batteries are known to have a plurality of power generation elements sealed in a laminated film and to be used as lightweight batteries capable of demonstrating high levels of energy density and output density.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes a battery pack that houses power generation elements, obtained by laminating or winding a positive electrode plate, separator and negative electrode plate, in a laminated film casing obtained by compounding a polymer and metal. This Patent Document 1 further describes that a solid electrolyte can be applied to the prescribed battery of this patent document, and that a vacuum can be drawn prior to sealing and after having inserted the power generation elements in the laminated film.
Patent Document 2 relates to an all-solid-state battery obtained by covering all-solid-state battery elements with a casing composed of thermoplastic resin or thermosetting resin. Examples of Patent Document 2 describes an example in which the all-solid-state battery elements are covered with a polybutadiene resin composition followed by housing in a laminated film.
Patent Document 3 relates to a bipolar battery provided with an insulating layer on the surface of a foil current collector. A structure in which the insulating layer protrudes lengthwise outside the foil current collector by the width of a single cell, and a structure further having a different insulating layer that covers the edge of each electrode, are described as examples of an embodiment of this patent document.

Laminated all-solid-state battery including a filler


This invention discloses a fin, for use on a surfboard and other watercraft, of a low-drag, high-lift, high-aspect-ratio, low-sweepback-angle planform of symmetrical foil section, with a fit root section that has a forwardly projecting leading edge and cutaway at the trailing edge, alone or in combination with winglets placed on the vertical fin element so as to minimize tip-vortex drag, so as to make the surfboard or watercraft more maneuverable, easier to propel through the water, and to stabilize the surfboard or watercraft.

Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics have much in common because both disciplines involve the study of the movement of a fluid, air or water, past a structure. Surfing, and other water sports such as sailing, power boating, windsurfing, kite surfing, wakeboarding and water skiing, for example, thus share some common aspects derived not only from aerodynamic principles, but also from hydrodynamic principles. This disclosure relates to an invention intended primarily for use on surfboards, but given the teachings of this disclosure is easily practiced in or adaptable to sports involving other watercraft such as those mentioned.
The sport of surfing involves a complex interaction between surfboard, surfboard rider, and waves. As in the sports of skiing and snowboarding, and unlike other board-riding sports such as windsurfing, kite surfing, water skiing, and water boarding, surfers while surfing are propelled by the effects of gravity pulling the surfer down wave faces. Unlike other board sports, surfers after riding a wave toward shore typically must propel themselves back to the spot where they can catch the next wave.
Surfing requires more than simply sliding uncontrolled down a wave face; good surfers are able to control both surfboard speed and surfboard direction. Similarly, good surfboards are those that are capable of high speeds if the surfer so desires, are otherwise easily maneuverable, are easy to paddle, and are quick to catch waves. Surfboard speed and maneuverability depend on a variety of characteristics of the surfboard itself, and of attached surfboard appendages, known as fins, although some people have referred to surfboard fins as skegs. Modern surfboards uniformly use one, two, three, or four fins, but most commonly either one large center fin, or one large center fin, and two side fins as shown in FIGS. 5, 6, 10, and 11. In this section, the term "surfboard" is meant to include the attached fins, unless otherwise indicated.
Within certain limits, surfboard speed typically is accomplished by adjusting the pitch of the board in relationship to the wave face. Pitch is the longitudinal angle the surfboard makes from the horizontal. Surfboard pitch is controlled by the surfer moving forward toward the nose of the board, or backward toward the tail of the board, and thus adjusting the center of gravity of the surfer and surfboard system in relation to the center of buoyancy such that the board slide down the wave face with the correct inclination such that it either planes on the water or stalls in the water, to speed up or to slow down the board. Generally speaking and to certain limits, surfboard speed is increased by moving forward on the board and decreased by moving backward on the board. All else being equal, a surfboard—including its fins—with less drag will move faster through the water because drag is the force of resistance to forward motion. Thus with less resistance, a board with less drag can move faster through the water. Surfboard speed is thus is inversely related to the surfboard's drag.
Likewise, surfboards are easier to paddle where they have less drag, again because drag is the force of resistance to the surfboard's forward motion. Thus a surfer paddling a surfboard that has less drag can do so more easily and for a longer period of time before exhaustion.
Surfboards typically cannot catch waves by lying idle in the surf. Rather, the surfer at the lineup must await the approach of a suitable wave, then turn to the wave's direction of travel, and quickly accelerate by paddling to an appropriate velocity to catch the coming wave. Surfboards that have less drag will catch more waves more easily because the surfer can expend less energy to accelerate the board to wave-catching velocity, or can accelerate more quickly. Paddling, wave-catching and maneuverability also are better on surfboards with less drag. Surfboard acceleration is this inversely related to the surfboard's drag.
Drag is a function of the surfboard's shape, surface area, attitude in the water, and shape, as well as a function of the design of the surfboard fins. Minimizing surfboard drag and surfboard-fin drag is particularly important because unlike other ski or board sports, after surfers have successfully ridden a wave, they must propel themselves by paddling back through the surf, or back to the lineup to catch another wave, which is increasingly tiresome or exhausting with increasing drag. In order to catch waves, drag is likewise important to keep that a minimum so that surfers may paddle quickly to catch the wave, something that is increasingly difficult to do with increasing drag. Decreased drag thus enables surfers to surf longer and to catch more waves.
Turning of a surfboard involves a complex interaction between a surfer adjusting the roll angle of the board, by adjusting the pitch of the board, and by surfboard and surfboard-fin design. Generally speaking, surfboards having more rocker, the curved shape of a banana with surfboard tip and tail elevated from the horizontal, have a natural tendency when placed on edge to turn consistent with the rocker shape. But increased rocker also increases drag, compromising speed, compromising the ability to accelerate to catch waves, and increasing the difficulty of paddling the surfboard. Surfboard edges, or rails, can be anything from circular or rounded in shape, known as soft rails, to flat or hard rails in which the flat surfboard bottom turns sharply upwardly to meet the surfboard's top deck. Surfboards with hard edges tend to turn more quickly or more sharply than those with softer rails. Surfboards, as opposed to surfboard fins, have undergone a significant and largely empirical design evolution applying these concepts since the beginning of the modern sport in approximately the 1950s and 1960s.
But surfboard-fin design has evolved relatively little over the past several decades of the modern sport of surfing. Surfboard fins assist turning of a surfboard much as rudders and ailerons help boats or airplanes turn or maneuver, by providing largely lateral resistance and lift, with some vertical lift component depending on the orientation to the vertical of the fin in the water. Without fins, a surfboard in a turning maneuver would tend to spin out, whereas with one or more fins, a surfboard rider can use his or her weight to control the yaw angle of the fin while riding a wave, and can use the attached fin or fins as a lever against which to turn the board. As in surfboard design, minimizing drag in designing fins is an important objective because doing so increases speed, increases acceleration capabilities, and minimizes necessary paddling effort.
But minimizing drag of the fins is not enough; else the fins could of course be infinitesimally small to the point of nonexistence. To the contrary, surfboard-fin design must minimize drag while maximizing lift, because lift is the force that makes the surfboard turn, just as the force of lift allows sailboats to sail toward the wind, airplanes to fly, and both to turn. Thus a more efficient, higher-lift fin can be smaller in size, with less surface area, and thus with less drag than a less-efficient fin that has more surface area and more drag.
Surfboard fins available on the market today, and for which patent applications have in the past been made or granted almost uniformly ignore important hydrodynamics principles, or applicable aerodynamics principles.
Hydrodynamics teaches that interference drag is caused by the intersection of a watercraft the hull and appended to such as a keel. Designers have attempted to minimize interference drag by shortening the length of the keel-to-hull intersection by means of a cut away at the trailing edge of the keel. Although helpful, the cut away trailing edge tends to be less effective at reducing interference drag than a forwardly upwardly protecting root after leading edge.
Hydrodynamics and aerodynamics teach that lower sweepback angle increases lift while decreasing drag for a given surface area. But foil selection is critical because lower sweepback-angle fins are more prone to stalling than higher sweepback-angle fins. Greater sweepback angle on a fin that is being turned places the entire planform obliquely to the turning direction and functions more as a brake than a higher-aspect ratio fin.
Hydrodynamics and aerodynamics teach that higher-aspect ratio planforms generate more lift with less drag than lower aspect ratios. Aspect ratios of 2:1 or more are preferred over lower aspect ratios.
Hydrodynamics teaches that underwater foils should not be too thin, or cavitation will occur. Underwater foils should be between 9 percent and a 15 percent thickness.
Hydrodynamics teaches that fins used as rudders should not be too thin, and that a certain foil sections maintain laminar flow necessary to produce lift with a minimum drag over a wide variety of angles of attack as contrasted with other types of foil sections. NACA 0010 and 0012 foil sections have a demonstrated history of effectiveness. Maximum foil width should be no greater than 35% aft of the leading edge, and point of maximum width 30 half of the leading edge is demonstrated as being particularly desirable for rudders as in NACA 0010 and 0012 series foils.
Hydrodynamics teaches that the end of fins should have the same shape as the cross-section of the foil shape within the fin itself.
Hydrodynamics teaches that foils should not have a great taper ratio and that the tip chord length should be between 40 and 60 percent of the root chord length.
Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics teach that endplates, fences, wings, or winglets placed at the end of wings, keels, or other hydrofoils can be effective at reducing the loss of lift that occurs at the end of such surfaces due to downwash and tip-vortex drag. But if improperly designed, used, or placed, such devices will increase surface area to such an extent that overall drag is increased, and there is no net benefit demonstrated by the use of such endplates, fences, wings, or winglets.
Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics teach that winglets, as opposed to endplates, fences, or wings, have proven effective at reducing induced drag while increasing lift in greater proportion than the increased area and associated additional form drag of the winglet, and thus greater lift with less drag than an equivalent increase in planform area or span length. Winglets have a shorter chord length than the wing tips to which the winglets are attached, as distinguished from endplates, fences, or wings. Winglets should themselves be effective lifting surfaces, and should be designed with the aerodynamic and hydrodynamics principles discussed above.
Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics teach that elliptical wings or fins yields tip vortices that are less concentrated at the tips, the downwash is spread more evenly across the wingspan. Here, the term "elliptical" does not necessarily refer to the shape of the planform, which planforms generally do exhibit elliptical lift, but to the distribution of lift across the planform. Rectangular wings or fins can yield a close approximation to elliptical lift distribution.
Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics teach that winglets themselves can benefit from winglets, which when attached to winglets on a wing or fin, result in a C-shaped wing or fin shape to the wing or fin to which the winglets are applied when viewed from the leading or trailing edges of the wing or fin assembly. Overall wing or fin lift is increased with such a C-shaped wing or fin assembly.
Existing surfboard fins typically do not incorporate the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic principles discussed above. For example, surfboard fins typically are heavily raked or swept back from the vertical, often to the point where the leading edge of the surfboard fin is approximately 35 degrees to the perpendicular to the fin root chord. This condition encourages downwash, the situation in which water flowing horizontally past the fin moves from one side of the fin to the other, then creates a large vortex behind the fin as it travels though the water. Moreover, the high-sweepback angle contributes to the loss of the laminar flow of water past the fin, such that the water on the back half of the fin is turbulent as opposed to smoothly flowing, and thus such fins stall earlier and lose lift and turning ability at a shallower angle of attack than a fin of low sweepback angle. Turbulent conditions as encountered with typical surfboard fins should be avoided in order to minimize drag while maximizing lift.
Surfboard fins typically have no recognizable hydrodynamic section or foil shape; they appear to not be designed or engineered other than to look good, and they look like one another. Indeed, many surfboard fins are nearly flat in section, particularly when used as side fins. When a surfboard with such flat-sectioned fins turn or yaw such that the angle of attack between fin and moving water no longer is straight ahead, or a zero angle of attack, many surfboard fins quickly stall. Stalling is the critical loss of foil lift, the angle of attack at which fins cease functioning as fins, and begin working only as brakes, creating drag but no lift. In airplanes, the airplane dropping from the sky illustrates wing stalling, whereas in surfing, fin stalling generally results in the board slowing or stopping, and in losing the wave, which continues uninterrupted. Consequently, a shortcoming of existing surfboard-fin design is that they are typically too flat in section, and are not engineered to incorporate low-drag foil sections that produce lift with minimum drag over wide range of yaw angles.
Surfboards today commonly have one, two, three, or four fins, but combinations of one fin and three fins are most common. When in combinations of more than one fin, the side fins typically are arranged near to the edges, or rails of the board. Side fins typically today are toed-in, arranged not parallel to the longitudinal axis of the surfboard, but rather with their leading edges pointed inwardly by a few degrees. Although this arrangement assists the turning of the board when only one such fin is immersed, when two such toed-in fins are immersed, they act together as a brake, increasing drag, because one wants to turn left, while the other right. Toed-in side fins is simply an effort to work around, accommodate, or to resolve existing fins' inability to create lift over a wide range of yaw angles without stalling, or to accommodate flat-sided side fins, but in the process, the typical arrangement of side fins increases drag and promotes stalling as compared to a non-toed-in arrangement of side fins. Moreover, the toed-in arrangement of side fins inhibits paddling and acceleration, causing earlier surfer exhaustion, and inhibiting acceleration and thus wave-catching ability.
With some exceptions, surfboard fins generally have a much longer chord length at their base, the fin root, than they have at their tips, thus a high taper ratio, and typically fins have a short span, and a low aspect ratio. Although this design combination assists with strengthening the fin, it aggravates drag. Hydrodynamics principles teach that underwater appendages such as keels and rudders, or analogously, surfboard fins, should have high aspect ratios and comparatively short root lengths and taper rations between 0.4 and 0.6 in order to maximize lift while minimizing drag.
Some surfboard fins, as in some old sailboat keel designs, decrease the fin root length by means of a cutaway or a scallop where the fin meets the board at the fin's trailing edge. But hydrodynamic principles teach that a cutaway at the trailing edge, while helpful to decreasing drag, is less effective at minimizing drag than a forward-projecting, foil-shaped blended keel or fin section, much like bulbs on the bows of freighters and the other ocean-going ships actually decrease drag by projecting forward of the ship's hull.
Aerodynamics and hydrodynamics principles teach that an endplate, wing or winglet, a surface oriented generally perpendicular to the fin and parallel to the path of water travel past the fin, decreases or prevents drag-inducing and lift-decreasing downwash. Downwash is the tendency of a fluid on the high-pressure side of a wing, keel, or fin to move to the low pressure side, in a circular motion. Plates or wings are effective at preventing that movement from one side of the wing, keel, or fin, but at a penalty—the plate or wing adds surface area to the wing, keel or fin. Hydrodynamics studies and experiments, however, teach that winglets—small wings with chords significantly shorter than the fin chord itself and with significantly smaller areas that the wing, keel or fin to which attached—produce the same or similar downwash-canceling effects as wings, but with a much smaller surface area, and thus with a much smaller drag penalty. Thus the incorporation of winglets, as opposed to wings, increases lift while decreasing drag.
Moreover, winglets assist in maintaining lateral lift that otherwise would be lost when a surfer rolls the board to one side in a turning maneuver thus placing the surfboard fin at an angle to the vertical, shortening the vertical length, and creating a tendency of the fin to pop out of the water, losing all turning control of the fin. To be effective and to avoid increasing drag, the winglets themselves must be effective lift-producing surfaces, must be correctly sized and placed or they risk increasing drag by virtue of their added surface area. Increasing lift with low drag increases wing, keel, and fin efficiency and speed.
Hydrodynamics teaches that a rounded nose section, as exists with NACA 0010 and 0012 foil sections, is better for rudder design because such rounded nose sections facilitate lift production over a wide range of yaw angles. Existing fin design typically are sharp or angular at the nose. In addition to decreasing the effective useful range of fin before stalling, the design is dangerous when it strikes surfers, because of the sharp surfaces, especially the tip.
Surfers, especially those who surf longer surfboards or surfboard called longboards, often attempt to noseride, a stance on the board forward of the board's midsection, as shown in FIG. 11. Surfboards are prone to nosediving when a surfer is surfing a surfboard from that location.
The following definition list is helpful to an understanding of this disclosure.
TermDefinitionAngle of attackThe angle between the direction of finmovement through the water and thefin's chord line.Aspect ratioAspect ratio is a measure of how longand slender a fin is from fin root to tip.The aspect ratio of the fin is defined asthe square of the span divided by the finarea. Typically high-aspect-ratio finshave long spans and aspect ratios of 2:1or greater, while low-aspect-ratio finshave short spans and lower aspectratios. Higher aspect-ratio fins havelower drag and higher lift than loweraspect-ratio fins.Boundary layerThe layer of water molecules near thesurface of the fin whose velocities arechanged that by movement of the finthrough the water. Boundary layer flowmay be either laminar or turbulent.ChordThe distance between the leading edgeof the fin and the fin's trailing edge.Chord lineThe line between the fin's leading andtrailing edges.DownwashA fin with an angle of attack other thanzero creates lift and has a difference inwater pressure on the two sides of thefin. Near the fin tip, water is free tomove from the region of high pressureto the region of low pressure, creating acircular water flow from one side to theother, which creates a vortex or helixbecause of the fin's movement throughthe water. Larger circular flows result inlarger vortices, greater drag, and lift.The presence of winglets at or near thetip of the fin inhibits this circular flow,reduces vortex size, decreases drag andincreases lift.DragDrag is the hydrodynamic force thatopposes any watercraft's motion throughthe water, and is a vector quantity alongand opposed to the watercraft's path oftravel through the water. Drag isdirectly proportional to the area of thefin, and also is affected by fin shape, foilshape, fin thickness, and fin aspect ratio.Fin rootThat portion of the fin that constitutesthe base of the fin when the fin is withinthe fin box, the lowest exposed portionof the fin when in use.Fin baseThe portion of the fin intended to fitsnugly with a fin box to limit unintendedmovement, while providing a means ofadjustability in the longitudinal direction.Fin boxThe channel within into which the finbase is placed, typically with a channelthat allows longitudinal adjustment,while restricting side-to-side movement.The fin box is not claimed as aninvention in this disclosure.FoilThe cross-sectional profile shape of thefin.Laminar flowLayered or smooth-flowing water withinthe boundary layer, as opposed toturbulent or disordered flow within theboundary layer.LiftThe vector-quantity force created by themovement or turning of water past acurved fin surface, which force actsperpendicular to the direction of waterflow. Lift is directly proportional to thearea of the fin.LineupThe spot outside the area of breakingsurf at which surfers await waves to ride.The takeoff zone from which surfersmust quickly accelerate from a standstillto a sufficient velocity in order to catchthe approaching wave.NACAThe National Advisory Committee onAeronautics, the predecessor to NASA.NACA performed extensive testing onairfoil shapes to determine the lift anddrag characteristics of various foilshapes.PitchPitch is the angle of deviation from thehorizontal of the surfboard's or otherwatersports board's longitudinal axis-e.g, the nose of the board or watercraftis pointed somewhat upwardly ordownwardly, as in airplanes when theytake off and climb or descend.PlanformThe planar shape of the wing or foil,which for wings is typically the outline ofthe horizontal plane, and for ruddersand fins, the outline of the vertical plane.RollRoll is the angle of deviation from thehorizontal of the surfboard's or otherwatersports board's side-to-side axis-e.g. the board is leaning somewhat onits right or on its left edge, as inairplanes when they bank their turns.StallLoss of lift, as demonstrated by theturbulent flow of water past the fin.Differently shaped foils have differentpoints or angles of attack at which theystall. A stalled fin moving through thewater loses lift, but increases drag, thusacting as a brake.SweepbackThe angle by which the one-quarter-chord line of the foil sections within theplanform deviates from theperpendicular to the root chord. Someauthorities refer to leading edgesweepback angle, which as the nameimplies refers to the angle away from theroot chord perpendicular of the wing orfin's leading edge.Water sports boardA watercraft primarily used by a singlerider, propelled by gravity, waves, windor by towing, such as a surfboard, akite-surfing board, a sailboard orwindsurfer, a waterski, or a wakeboard.WingletA planar, foil-sectioned projectionsubstantially perpendicular to the finplane, generally placed at or near a fintip or wingtip to reduce tip vortices andconsequent downwash and drag.YawThe angle of deviation from straightforward in the path of travel to anorientation other than straight, aspinning about the vertical axis, as inairplanes landing in a strong crosswindthat "crab" their way to a safe landing.Rudders that steer move though anangle of yaw, as do fins on a turningsurfboard.

High-lift, low drag fin for surfboard and other watercraft


Methods, systems and apparatus for producing a variable, known number of nanoparticles of various materials in an expanding mist in a vacuum or enclosure. The configurations allow for this mist of small particles to be produced in bursts, at repetition rates over a wide range of frequencies. The technique produces an isotropically expanding mist of particles. Direct applications of the invention can be used for the development of high power short wavelength incoherent light sources for applications in EUV lithography (EUVL), advanced microscopy, precision metrology, and other fields.

EUVL (extreme ultraviolet lithographys) is expected to succeed Deep UV (ultraviolet) lithography technology for the production of silicon-based computer chips, at and beyond the 35 nm node. This technology is expected to take over fabrication in the 2007-2009 time frame. The stepper machines that print these chips are expected to cost $20-40M each, and, in this time frame, anticipated sales of 200-300 units/year are expected, providing the three major stepper manufacturing companies, ASML (Netherlands & USA), Nikon and Canon (Japan), with a new $100 B/year market. The light sources for these steppers, are currently required to provide greater than 100 W of 'clean power' and can account for up to 20% of this total market. A source of sufficient power is identified as the principal problem area in the ITRS (SEMATECH) Roadmap for the development of EUVL. The roadmap has been modified periodically over the years to take into account the required increase in wafer throughput, larger (300 mm) wafers, and higher Cost of Ownership (CoO), and the power of the source demanded has progressively increased. Currently the total required emitted power within a solid angle of 2π, from a source of <1 mm in size within a 2% bandwidth at a wavelength of 13.5 nm, is 400-1000 W. This large amount of power is the major challenge for companies developing the light sources.
There are two primary types of light sources being developed, those that depend on electrical discharge plasma, and those that use a laser-plasma source. Both approaches operate at frequencies in excess of 6 kHz, with pulse-to-pulse stability of approximately 1%. They are also required to be capable of long term operation (up time >95%), and 'clean' operation. By 'clean' operation we mean 'debris-free' or protected from the effects of particulate emission and plasma ions emanating from the source.
Both laser plasmas and discharge plasmas can produce high velocity particulate emission or 'projectiles' that will damage the expensive, precision-coated EUV collection mirrors that are in direct line-of-sight of the source. In laser plasmas, this particulate debris can originate from solid target sources, or close-proximity nozzles used to inject gaseous targets. In discharge sources the debris originates from the electrodes or from insulative materials close by. The plasma ions are, of course, inherent to the plasmas themselves. They need to be stopped from sputtering (ablating) the collection mirrors. Several techniques have been devised to stop the sputtering, including Repeller Field approach disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,651 issued to Richardson, et al. on Apr. 23, 2002, which is incorporated by reference.
Companies developing discharge plasmas (DP) are Philips (hollow-cathode discharge), Xtreme Technologies (HC Z-pinch), Cymer (dense plasma focus), PIEX LLC star discharge), EUVA (capillary discharge pinch plasma). Those developing laser plasma (LP) sources are Grumman Technologies (TRW and CEO), Xtreme Technologies, JMAR Research Inc, EUVA (Ushio and Komatzu), Exulite (France), Powerlase (UK) and Innolite (Sweden).
Most of these companies are focusing their R&D activities on Xenon-based plasmas. Those using discharges are injecting gaseous Xenon into the source. Those developing LP sources use either a high-pressure Xe gas spray, which in a vacuum generates Xe nano-particles or 'clusters', or they are using thin (approximately 20 μm diameter) liquid Xe jets as targets.
Although the use of Xenon mitigates, to some extent the debris problem, its principal drawback is low conversion efficiency to in-band, 13.5 nm EUV light. Both DP and LP sources have been limited to conversion efficiencies (CE) of 0.5-0.7%. The highest CE recorded so far has been 0.95%. Moreover, there are now solid, atomic physics, reasons to believe that the CE of Xenon will not improve much beyond these values. These low CE's have adverse implications for both DP and LP sources. For LP sources it means the use of laser systems having a power in excess 40 kW, beyond current technical capabilities and possibly prohibitively expensive. For DP sources, the low CE poses extreme problems with heat removal from the source and very large electrical power requirements (approaching 1 MW).
The present invention advances the art by inclusion of a method, apparatus and system for generating a known number of nanoparticles of various substances, from a material-specific source, irradiated by a low power pulse laser source. There are a wide number of possible applications for use of the novel method, apparatus and system, ranging from pulse laser deposition (PLD) techniques to the generation of small numbers of nanoparticles across a specific area for biological or biochemical applications. We cite ere one specific application of this generator, as a component in a system for high-power short wavelength incoherent light sources for applications in EUV lithography, advanced microscopy and precision metrology.

Generator for flux specific bursts on nano-particles

University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


The present invention relates to a device and method for transmitting/receiving a packet in a communication system. The present invention includes: the processes of determining at least one MPEG media transport (MMT) asset protected by an application layer forward error correction (AL-FEC); determining at least one FEC flow for transmitting the at least one MMT asset; determining the MMT asset transmitted from the at least one FEC flow in each case and determining an FEC coding structure to apply to the at least one FEC flow; producing at least one source flow by dividing the MMT asset transmitted from the at least one FEC flow on a transmission unit basis; and producing and transmitting at least one parity flow by performing AL-FEC encoding on the at least one source flow according to the FEC coding structure.

Increase of various content, and increase of content of great quantity such as a high definition (HD) content, and a ultrahigh definition (UHD) content causes data congestion to be gradually increased in a network. In this condition, contents transmitted by a sender, e.g., a host A, is not normally transmitted to a receiver, e.g., a host B, and some of the contents may be lost in a route. Generally, since data is transmitted by a unit of a packet, loss of the data occurs by a unit of a packet. Accordingly, since the receiver cannot receive the packet due to the loss of the data, it is impossible to identify the data in the lost packet. Therefore, it causes deterioration of audio quality, degradation of video image quality or an image breaking, an omission of an insert title, a loss of a file and the like making an inconvenience for a user. For reasons of the above description, a method of recovering the loss of the data occurring in the network is required.

Device and method for transmitting/receiving a packet in communication system


A metal halide lamp in which an arc tube is housed within a bulb having a base at one end thereof. The arc tube includes a main tube, two thin tubes that extend one from each end of the main tube, and a pair of electrode inductors. The main tube and the thin tubes are made from translucent polycrystalline alumina and constitute a discharge vessel having a discharge space therein. Lamp power under dimming conditions is set in a range defined by maximum lamp power Wmax [W] and minimum lamp power Wmin [W], with a surface area S [cm2] of the inner surface of the discharge vessel satisfying Wmax/60≦S≦Wmin/20.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to metal halide lamps and lighting methods for the same.
2. Related Art
A metal halide lamp includes an arc tube formed from a discharge vessel having a discharge space therein and constituted from a main tube and two thin tubes that extend one from each end of the main tube, and a pair of electrode inductors that are sealed one within each thin tube so that respective ends of the inductors are opposed in the discharge space. A light-emitting material, a buffer gas, and a starting rare gas are enclosed within the arc tube. The light-emitting material is formed from halides such as dysprosium iodide (DyI3), thulium iodide (TmI3), holmium iodide (HoI3), thallium iodide (TlI) and the like, while the buffer gas is formed from mercury and the starting rare gas is formed from argon and the like.
The discharge vessel is made from a translucent ceramic material, since this increases the heat resistance of the arc tube above that of conventional arc tubes made from quartz glass, and also because of the favorable lamp properties that are obtained such as high lamp efficiency, high color rendering, and long life.
In recent years, investigations into the operation under dimming conditions of metal halide lamps using a ceramic discharge vessel have been conducted with a view to reducing energy consumption. However, when a metal halide lamp with a ceramic discharge vessel is operated at low lamp power under dimming conditions, the lamp properties deteriorate markedly in comparison to operation at high lamp power, making the lamp impractical. Note that in the present invention, a lamp is defined as being impractical if either the color temperature differential or the Duv (deviation from blackbody locus×1000) differential under dimming conditions at minimum and maximum lamp power is ≧750 K and ≧7, respectively.
That is, the concentration of light-emitting material, buffer gas, argon and the like enclosed in the arc tube is designed for dimmed lighting at high lamp power. Thus, the vapor pressures of the halides (TlI, DyI3, TmI3, HoI3) constituting the light-emitting material when the lamp is operated at high lamp power are well balanced, allowing an ideal emission spectrum to be obtained. However, when the lamp is operated at low lamp power, there is only a slight reduction in the vapor pressure of TlI in contrast to the marked drop in the vapor pressures of the rare-earth metal iodides (DyI3, TmI3, HoI3). Consequently, the strong emission spectrum obtained for the Tl emission causes a change in color temperature, while the weaker emission spectrums obtained for the rare earth metals cause a deterioration in lamp efficiency.
In view of this, a metal halide lamp has been proposed that equalizes the drop in vapor pressure of the halides during low lamp power operation by replacing TlI (exhibiting only a slight drop in vapor pressure under low lamp power conditions) with MgI2 (magnesium iodide), which has almost the same vapor pressure change as rare-earth metal halides such as DyI3, TmI3, HoI3. This enables excellent color rendering to be obtained even when the lamp is operated at low lamp power (see, for example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-42728).
However, with metal halide lamps having MgI2 enclosed therein, lamp life is shortened due to the high reactivity of the MgI2 with the translucent ceramic material constituting the discharge vessel, making these lamps not really practical for dimmed lighting.

Dimmable metal halide lamp and lighting method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.