The invention provides a light source for optical communication. The light source includes a spontaneous emission generator, an optical wavelength band narrower, an optical modulator, and an optical amplifier. The spontaneous emission generator generates non-coherent light which is band narrowed, modulated and amplified for a wireless optical communication in free space. The invention avoids a health hazard in respect of human eyes and remove a noise based on a spontaneous emission generated from an optical amplifier.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a modulated light source for optical communication, a wavelength multiplexed optical transceiver, and an optical amplifier. This invention also relates to a wireless communication optical transceiver, and more particularly a wireless communication optical transceiver usable for free space optical transmission. This invention also relates to an active star coupler, and more particularly, an active star coupler regarding free space optical transmission, optical fiber transmission, and transmission via twisted pair cables. Further, this invention relates to an optical communication network including free space optical transmission, optical fiber transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
An optical wireless LAN system has already been commercially available. There is the standard called IrDA (Infrared Data Association) for the point-to-point optical transmission systems using free space light.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei. 3-91329 discloses a communication system, which should be called a "cellular network using free space optical signal". FIG. 28 shows the communication system. A mobile station 230 is provided with communication means 231 which adopts a spatial diversity system using free space light. Further, optical stations 232a and 232b, which are base stations for free space optical communication, are provided at important positions. The optical stations 232a and 232b are connected each other by means of a wiring network 237, and are connected to the optical station control station 233. The optical station control station 233 is connected to the public network circuit 236 via the mobile optical telephone exchange station 235.
The mobile station 230 and the control station 233 negotiate via optical stations 232a and 232b, and determine an optical station to be linked. This process is a control process, what is called "hand-over", and is basically the same as the control process of a cellular communication network. In the cellular communication network, adjacent cells use different frequencies to prevent interference between them. The system disclosed in Hei. 3-91329 prevents interference between adjacent cells by means of optical spatial diversity.
Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. Hei. 3-92840 discloses a system shown in FIG. 29. This system is provided with plural infrared transmitters 241a through 241c suspended from the ceiling 240. They communicate to each other by means of the horizontal free space light 243, and transmit vertical optical light 244 to the mobile station 242 being below them.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei. 3-108823 discloses an optical communication apparatus which combines a transmission optical system having a narrow dispersion angle usable for long-distance communication and a transmission optical system having a wide dispersion angle usable for short-distance communication.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei. 3-296332 discloses an interconnectable active star coupler. FIG. 30 shows the star coupler provided with a diode matrix 255 to realize a transmission matrix in which all diagonal elements are set to zero. Signals from input optical fibers 251 are transmitted to output optical fibers 252 via receivers 253, diode matrix 255 and transmitters 254. The diode matrix 255 consists of plural diodes 153, and diodes in the part 154 corresponding to the diagonal elements are removed to realize a transmission matrix in which all diagonal elements are zero. Takeshi Ota, "Coupled star network: A new configuration for optical local area network", IEICE Trans. Commun., Vol. E75-B, No.2, pp.67-75 (1992) also disclose the star coupler in detail.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei. 5-3457 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,257) disclose an interconnectable passive star coupler. FIG. 31 shows the star coupler provided with an optical waveguide circuit 263 formed in a substrate 262 to realize a transmission matrix in which all diagonal elements are set to zero. In FIG. 31, a reference numeral 261 denotes optical fibers. Takeshi Ota, "Four-port multimode interconnetable star coupler", Electron. Lett., Vol. 29, No. 10, pp.919-920 (1993) also discloses this star coupler in detail.
Hei. 5-3457 further discloses an optical communication network combining interconnectable star couplers and optical fibers.
The above-described optical wireless networks using free space light and point-to-point optical transmission system have been already commercially available. However, the system which links a backbone network to terminals, such as an optical wireless local area network (LAN), has no compatibility with a system communicating between terminals, such as IrDA. Each system is constructed by itself and it is inconvenient for users to deal with each system in a different way.
In recent years development of the plastic optical fiber (POF) of a graded index (GI) type is significant. A GI type POF having the core diameter of 500 m, the numerical aperture (NA) of 0.5 and a transmitting band of 600 MHzkm has been reported (refer to T. Ishigure et al. "High-Bandwidth, High-Numerical Aperture Graded-Index Polymer Optical Fiber" IEEE J. Lightwave Technol, vol. 13, No. 8, pp1686-1691 (1995)). When an optical fiber having a large core diameter and a large numerical aperture is used, it is expected that direct connection of the free space transmitting light with a light transmitting through optical fibers, is facilitated. However, an optical amplifier adaptable to an optical fiber having a large core diameter is difficult to fabricate. In order to provide a constant excited light density in a fiber type optical amplifier, the intensity of an excited light must be increased in proportion to a square of a core diameter, which is unrealistic. In the case of a semiconductor laser amplifier, although the stripe width can be widened comparatively easily, it is difficult in view of the fabrication process to thicken the thickness of the laser amplifier.
A wavelength multiplexed optical transceiver as shown by FIG. 33 has been known (refer to Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-85374). The wavelength multiplexed optical transceiver constituted by an integrated circuit board 11 where optical wave guide paths are integrated, a diffraction grating substrate 14, a photodiode array 15, a semiconductor laser array 16 and an optical fiber 20. A first slab wave guide path (for sending) 12, a second slab wave guide path (for receiving) 13, a first optical coupler 17, a second optical coupler 18 and optical wave guide paths for wirings 19a through 19k are formed on the integrated circuit board 11. Two sets of Fresnel reflecting mirrors 14a and 14b are formed on the diffraction grating substrate 4 and are attached thereto to correspond to the first slab wave guide path 12 and the second slab wave guide path 13, respectively.
The first slab wave guide path 12 and the semiconductor laser array 16 one end face of which is provided with a reflection free coating, are connected by the wave guide paths for wirings 19a through 19e. The wave guide paths for wirings 19a through 19d are connected to a polychromater unit 24 of the first slab wave guide path. The semiconductor laser array 16 is arranged with five semiconductor laser elements. The one end face of the semiconductor laser array 16 is provided with the reflection free coating and the face provided with the reflection free coating is attached to the side of the glass substrate 11. An output unit (common unit) 23 of the first slab wave guide path is connected to the first optical coupler 17. One branch of the optical coupler 17 is connected to the semiconductor laser array 16 via the optical wave guide path for wiring 19e and the other branch is connected to the second optical coupler 18 via the optical guide path for wiring 19e, respectively. A common terminal of the optical coupler 18 is connected to the optical fiber 20.
A laser beam, whose wavelengths are multiplexed can be emitted by the semiconductor laser array 16, the first slab wave guide path 12 and the Fresnel reflecting mirror 14a. The laser beam from the output unit (common unit) 23 of the slab wave guide path 12 is branched by the first optical coupler 17 whereby a portion of the optical output is outputted to the optical fiber 20 via the second optical coupler 18.
The second slab wave guide path 13 and the photodiode array 15 are also connected by the optical wave guide paths for wirings 19h through 19k. Four photodiodes are aligned at the photodiode array 15. An input unit (common unit) 25 of the second slab wave guide path 13 is connected to the second optical coupler 18 by the optical wave guide path for wiring 19g. Further, the optical wave guide paths for wirings 19h through 19k are connected to a polychromater unit 16 of the second slab wave guide path.
An optical signal transmitted from the outside via the optical fiber 20 is branched by the second optical coupler 18 and is led to the second slab wave guide path via the optical wave guide for wiring 19g. The optical signal is divided and focused by the Fresnel reflecting mirror 14b, passes through the optical wave guide paths for wirings 19h through 19k and is converted into electric signals.
It has been reported that a wavelength multiplexed laser oscillator adopted in the sending unit of the wavelength multiplexed optical transceiver cannot conduct high speed modulation since the cavity length is long (refer to M. Zingbl et al.,: "Characterization of a Multiwavelength Waveguide Grating Router Laser", IEEE, Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 6, No. 9, pp1082-1084 (1994)).
Further, in recent times, a technology referred to as MOPA (Master Oscillator Power Amplifier) has been developed. As schematically shown in FIG. 33, a light from a master oscillator 61 is amplified by a power optical amplifier 64 whereby an output 65 is outputted. A laser beam source having a narrowed band, such as a DFB laser, is frequently used as a master oscillator. The MOPA is often used with a main purpose of promoting the laser output (refer to, for example, Alan Mar et al.,: "Mode-Locked Operation of a Master Oscillator Power Amplifier", IEEE, Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 6, No. 9, pp1067-1069 (1994)).

Light source for optical communication, optical transceiver and optical communication network


An electric heating element having a central conductor and an outer metallic sheath is welded to a base of vessel to provide a heating container, for hot water in a domestic appliance for example. In order to carry out the welding, the vessel is heated up by an induction heater to a certain temperature and the temperature of the actual contacting welding surfaces raised above the certain temperature to a fusing temperature by applying and controlling electric power supplied to the conductor while the heating element is held firmly in position against the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to welding where components are joined together by heating component together to cause contacting surfaces to fuse and form a joint to hold the components together thereafter during normal use.
2. Description of Prior Art
Many vessels are used especially, but not exclusively, in domestic appliances to heat liquids, usually water, using an electric heating element. Conveniently for many applications, the heating element is attached directly to an outside surface of the vessel by some kind of welding process. In this way the heating element is conveniently supported by the vessel and provides a good conducting path for heat to enter the walls of the vessel. The vessels are made of metal and the electric element is insulated within a metal case or shield. It is already known to connect and fix the electric element to directly an outside surface of vessels by methods of hot welding. However, such methods are usually carried out in shrouded environments or furnaces so that each vessel, in a batch of vessels say, can be raised to the required temperatures, and held in contact with a respective electric heating element in the presence of a welding flux. Such methods are time consuming and must take place in a very carefully temperature controlled environment to avoid over-heating and possible permanent damage to either or both components.

Method of welding a heating element to a vessel for forming a heating container


A single-step process for the continuous preparation of a granular detergent composition or component, whereby 20 to 45% of a liquid acid precursor of an anionic surfactant, and at least an equivalent amount of a solid water-soluble alkaline inorganic material are continuously fed into a high-speed mixer/densifier, the mean residence time being from about 5 to 30 seconds, whereby the moisture content of the powder in the mixer is from 5 to 15%, and a degree of neutralization of at least 80% is attained.

Recently there has been considerable interest within the detergents industry in the production of detergent powders by means of processes involving the neutralization of a liquid acid precursor of an anionic surfactant with a solid water-soluble alkaline inorganic material, for example sodium carbonate. Such processes are sometimes referred to as in-situ neutralization processes. They have the advantage that by means of such processes detergent powders may be prepared without the use of a spray-drying tower, whereby substantial savings on capital and energy costs can be achieved.
Various in-situ neutralization processes have been described in the art. For example, GB-A-2 166 452 (Kao) discloses a process whereby an alkyl sulphonic acid, sodium carbonate and water are mixed in a strongly shearing apparatus to form a solid mass which is subsequently cooled and pulverized. The obtained powder is then granulated in a separate processing step.
GB-A-2 221 695 (Unilever) discloses a batch process for preparing a high bulk density detergent powder whereby a detergent acid is gradually added over a period of several minutes to a solid water-soluble inorganic material in a Fukae-mixer. Subsequently, the product is granulated in the presence of a liquid binder.
EP-A-342 043 (Procter and Gamble) discloses a process for preparing a detergent component whereby zeolite, sodium carbonate and linear benzene sulphonic acid are fed continuously into a high intensity Lodige mixer. The contact time is said to be relatively short in comparison to the reaction time required for complete neutralization of the acid, and therefore the powder is placed subsequently in a batch mixer and provided with gentle agitation for 5 more minutes.
The above in-situ neutralization processes have the disadvantage that they involve several processing steps in order to arrive at a granular detergent compound, and that the time required to obtain neutralization of the acid anionic surfactant precursor is in the order of several minutes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple and effective continuous in-situ neutralization process for preparing a granular detergent component or compound, in particular having a high level of anionic surfactant.
We have now surprisingly found that by means of the essentially single-step process of the invention a granular detergent compound or component may be prepared in continuous way whereby a degree of neutralization of at least 80% can be achieved, provided that the particle moisture content is maintained at values between 5 and 15%.

Detergent compositions and process for preparing them

Lever Brothers Company, Division of Conopco, Inc.


A method and apparatus to route information in a network is described. A technique is described to search for routine information that uses a first technique on at least a portion of a first value of a network address and a second technique on at least a portion of a second section of an address. In particular, the first value is associated with an aggregation identifier, and compared to a unique prefix. In this way, address identifiers may be generated, and this identifier is used to search for routing information.

Information may be sent through a network using a network address. For example, a router may receive information that is to be routed to another network device. The router may use a network address, such as a destination address, to search for the appropriate routing information. As the size of the network increases, however, a router may have less search time to route the information. Therefore, there may be a need to reduce search time for routing information that may result in the faster processing of packets.

Method and apparatus to improve network routing


The present invention relates to a sound emitting device. The sound emitting device includes a housing, a memory device. The housing includes a slot. The memory device carries a first number of a sound groups. In addition, each group contains a second number of sounds. The housing is configured to removably receive the memory device. The housing carries a plurality of actuators. In addition, number of actuators are more than the first number. Each sound group is selected using one of the plurality of actuators. At least one actuator is used to toggle between sounds of the selected group.

With the advancement in technology, sound devices such as bike bells, bike horns are accessories for vehicles such as bikes, scooters, bicycles, and the like. The bike bells, bike horns are detachable devices installed onto a bicycle for safety purpose. The sound device is a detachable multimedia device that can be removed to be used independently, or can be installed onto other devices. It is well known that traffic made up of cars, vans, or the like on roads or pedestrians can be a source of potential danger to cyclists. In places where there is heavy traffic, cycling represents a fast, cheap, healthy, and environmentally advantageous alternative to vehicle or public transport use. Cycle couriers are also known to work in urban cities where heavy traffic is likely. Most vehicles have blind spots or dead angles in which cyclists or pedestrians cannot be seen. However, conventional sound device such as bike bells and bike horns lack many useful features. In addition, conventional sound devices lack in safety for riders. Further, conventional sound devices are inefficient to control volume of the sound devices. Furthermore, conventional sound devices do not contain expandable sound cards. Moreover, conventional sound devices lack distance protection, early warning with louder volume, custom sounds, and controllable volume wheels.
The U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/314,454, discloses an accessory which produces distinct sounds in order to alert others of the presence of a bicycle. The accessory is formed of a housing, sound producing assemblies, and a mounting system. The mounting assembly may be clamped around left or right members of bicycle forks, frame, stays, or braces. Housing of the accessory will accommodate mechanical or electronic sound producing elements which are interchangeable and may be used individually or in combination. When installed and the bicycle is in motion, a variety of sounds may be produced depending on the configuration of the sound producing components.
The U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/931,960, discloses special novelty effects apparatus are provided for inclusion on bicycles providing a synthesizer circuit device having a microprocessor circuit element and a memory chip element or flash drive element for receiving instructions for novelty sound and lighting effects that simulate atypical sounds and lighting as would be expected to emanate from a bicycle, such as sound of a motorcycle throttling in takeoff with simulated tailpipe emissions though lighting effects, or sounds of a truck or airplane, all for the recreational and entertainment application to a rider of a bicycle.
The GB patent application GB201114869A, discloses an apparatus provides an audible cue that can be used as an alert to an occupant of a vehicle or a pedestrian. The apparatus includes at least one sound emitting element within a housing, the housing being securable to a bicycle, and a trigger element securable to the bicycle, for a rider of the bicycle to indicate when an audible cue is desired. The sound emitting element is arranged to generate an audible cue having a sound pressure level of at least 120 dB. The sound pressure level may further be at least 140 dB. The apparatus may further comprise at least one illumination source such as an LED. The sound emitting element may be arranged to operate in both a loud and quiet mode of operation. The quiet mode of operation may imitate a conventional bicycle bell.
The conventional systems and methods have several disadvantages. In prior arts, the focus is on an accessory that produces distinct sounds in order to alert others of the presence of a bicycle. In addition, the prior art discloses special novelty effects apparatus are provided for inclusion on bicycles providing a synthesizer circuit device having a microprocessor circuit element and a memory chip element or flash drive element for receiving instructions for novelty sound and lighting effects. However, the prior art is incapable to control volume of the sound devices. In addition, the prior art does not contain expandable sound cards. Further, the prior art lacks in distance protection, early warning with louder volume, custom sounds and controllable volume wheels.
In light of the above stated discussion, there is a need for a system which overcomes the above stated disadvantages.


One may use a new technique to determine the placement of exclusive-ors in each scan string of a chip may achieve improved test vector compression, and one may combine this technique with methods to minimize the overhead of the exclusive-or logic, to eliminate clock enable logic for multiple scan strings, to minimize the changes to existing test logic insertion and scan strings reordering, and to minimize the test vector compression computation time.

Prior co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/351,276, filed on Jan. 24, 2003, published as U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20030229834, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/750,949, filed on Jan. 5, 2004, published as U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20040148554, have demonstrated techniques to reduce digital test time and test pattern volume, by periodically inserting two-input exclusive-or gates (XOR) between selected pairs of flip-flops in the scan strings, connecting one input of each XOR to the prior flip-flop in the scan string and the other input of each XOR to the data input of the scan string and periodically connecting a flip-flop output of the scan string to a signature register such that the serial shift register scan in and scan out data may be compressed. The prior art describes the need for proper placement of these XOR and tap functions. The present disclosure improves on the work done in the prior art by disclosing a technique whereby more optimal placement of these XOR functions may be determined. The disclosure also presents a modified flip-flop structure, which can serve as both the inserted XOR function or a portion of the signature register.
As shown in FIG. 1, the prior art teaches the conversion of a traditional scan string, comprised of flip-flops 13, which are serially connected in order to be able to shift in test data through the scan string input 14, and shift out test results from the output 15 when testing a digital integrated circuit. The conversion consists of inserting XOR gates 12 periodically throughout the scan string, and periodically tapping off the output of a flip-flop into a checksum function, which is comprised of XOR functions 10 and a Multiple Input Shift Register (MISR) 11, whose output 15 provides a signature of the collected data. In this manner the prior state of the scan string is exclusive-ored with the input data at various points across the scan string to create a pattern with specific values on a subset of the flip-flops, called care-in locations, that are needed to test for specific faulty conditions. In the same fashion, the output results, which are collected from specific points on the scan string, called care-out locations, may be captured to detect the faulty conditions. This technique allows the vast majority of Automatic Test Pattern Generated (ATPG) tests to be performed on the integrated circuit with much less data and in far less shift clock cycles than traditional scan methods. The prior art also presents methods to determine the number of shift cycles and the corresponding input values of these compressed patterns by simulating with variables for the input values, generating a series of equations each consisting of the exclusive-or of the previous captured state in the scan string with one or more input variables and solving the resulting equations that reside on all of the care-in locations, while determining that sufficient shift cycles have been used to also capture the values on all the care-out locations from the previous pattern.
The current disclosure presents a simple algorithm to ensure that after N cycles shifting into a scan string that contains up to 2N flip-flops, no two flip-flops contain the same equation of input variables, thus optimizing the likelihood of finding a solution to the set of equations at the care-in locations in the fewest number of shifts.
Unfortunately, this solution requires at least half as many XOR functions as there are flip-flops in the scan string to obtain the improved segmentation of the scan-string, so the disclosure also presents a flip-flop with a built-in XOR function and a simple method for converting traditional scan strings into more optimally segmented and tapped scan strings.

Scan string segmentation for digital test compression


A compact disc labeling system for permanently imprinting a personalized label into the inner plastic ring of a compact disc. The invention includes a base member for receiving and securing a compact disc thereto, an interchangeable impact plate with outwardly protruding characters thereon corresponding to the personalized label and a handle member for compressing the impact plate against the inner plastic ring of a compact disc which has been secured to the base member. A thermostatically controlled heating system may be utilized to heat the interchangeable impact plate, thereby facilitating the penetration of the outwardly protruding characters into the inner plastic ring of the compact disc.

Audio recordings have evolved from the primitive analog wax recordings of the early twentieth century to the sophisticated digital recordings provided by digital audiotape (DAT) and compact discs. Shortly after the end of World War II, manufacturers introduced long playing vinyl phonograph records that were designed to revolve at either 331/3 or 45 revolutions per minute. Just as they made collections of the previously standard 78-rpm records substantially obsolete, compact discs in turn replaced long playing vinyl records in popularity in the late 1980's and early 1990's.
The compact disc offers many advantages over the heretofore standard long playing vinyl phonograph record. Most importantly, unlike records, the compact disc provides a pure, unadulterated and highly accurate digital reproduction of an audio recording. In addition to the improved sound quality, compact discs provide a greater dynamic range, offer a longer playing time, provide an increased immunity to distortion generated by dust and/or minor scratches and are not damaged during playback within a compact disc player.
A compact disc, which is approximately four and one half inches in diameter, generally includes a first data bearing side formed by covering a digitally encoded plastic baseplate with an optically reflective layer of aluminum and a protective layer of plastic, and a second informational side covered with indicia corresponding to the contents of the compact disc, the musical artist, the recording company and/or other associated information. Although compact discs are highly desirable in view of the abovedescribed audiophilic advantages, they suffer from several disadvantages due to their construction and small size. For example, the size of a compact disc allows it to be easily stolen because it is small enough to be hidden in a pocket, purse, container, book or other appropriate hiding place. In addition, the specific construction of a compact disc does not facilitate the personal labeling thereof and, consequently, compact discs that have been misplaced, borrowed with or without permission or stolen are commonly never returned. Unfortunately, unless a compact disc has been properly labeled, it is oftentimes impossible to positively identify the compact disc in order to facilitate its return to the original owner.
Compact discs are commonly labeled by applying an adhesive identification label over a portion of the informational side thereof. Although the application of an adhesive label may at first appear to solve the above-described problems and increase the probability of the return of a stolen, borrowed or misplaced compact disc, the label suffers from many disadvantages. First, the adhesive label commonly covers a portion of the indicia on the informational side of the compact disc, potentially concealing important information such as track descriptions, instruction or the like. Second, the adhesive labels may be easily removed, covered with an additional label containing identifying information corresponding to a "new" owner, or marked over. Finally, paper and adhesive residue from the adhesive label may damage the internal components of a compact disc player.


A liquid absorbing material, being provided in a liquid ejecting apparatus having a liquid ejecting head for ejecting liquid from nozzle openings formed on a nozzle forming surface, and being able to come into abutment with the liquid ejecting head so as to cover the nozzle openings and being stored in a cap having a discharge channel for discharging the liquid in the interior thereof, includes a body portion to be arranged in the cap when being stored in the cap, and a projecting portion arranged in the discharge channel.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet type printer, a cap device provided in the liquid ejecting apparatus, and a liquid absorbing material provided in the cap device.
2. Related Art
In general, as a liquid ejecting apparatus which ejects ink (liquid) from nozzle openings formed on a recording head (liquid ejecting head) onto a target, for example, an ink jet type printer (hereinafter, referred to simply as "printer") is widely known. In the printer of this type, so-called cleaning of the recording head is carried out for the purpose of restraining clogging of the nozzle openings by ink increased in viscosity and discharging ink containing air bubbles or dust from the nozzles of the recording head. The cleaning operation is adapted to suck and discharge viscous ink or ink containing air bubbles from the nozzle openings by sucking the content in a cap through a discharging portion of the cap in a state in which the cap is brought into abutment with the recording head so as to surround the nozzle openings. In the interior of the cap, an ink absorbing member (liquid absorbing material) for absorbing and holding part of ink sucked and discharged from the nozzle opening at the time of cleaning is stored.
As a printer provided with a cap in which an ink absorbing member is stored in the interior thereof, a printer described in JP-A-11-157088 is known. In the printer in JP-A-11-157088, an ink suction port (discharging portion) is provided so as to open through a bottom surface in a cap member (cap) and an ink absorbing member is stored in the cap member so as to cover the opening at the ink suction port.
In the printer disclosed in JP-A-11-157088, since a lower surface of the ink absorbing member which comes into surface contact with the bottom surface in the cap member is flat, when the interior of the cap member is sucked through the ink suction port, ink absorbed and held by the ink absorbing member can hardly be guided toward the ink suction port. Therefore, there arises a problem that the ink absorbed and held by the ink absorbing member can hardly be discharged from the ink suction port.

Liquid absorbing material, cap device and liquid ejecting apparatus


A franking machine is disclosed comprising a carriage manually movable along a bed and a print drum carried by the carriage to make rolling engagement with a mail item supported on the bed. A toothed rack extends along the length of the bed and gearing on the carriage meshes with the rack to drive the print drum and an impression roller carried by the carriage. The gearing is arranged such that as the carriage is moved in a forward direction along the bed, a mail item gripped between the print drum and the impression roller is fed along the bed in the reverse direction so that the length of traverse of the carriage, and the length of the bed, is less than the length of the franking impression to be printed.

This invention relates to franking machines which are used to impress a franking impression on mail items.
Known franking machines comprise a postage meter supported on a base in which the postage meter includes a print drum for printing franking impressions on mail items and electronic circuits for carrying out accounting and control functions in relation to operation of the postage meter. The print drum carries a printing die for printing an invariable pattern of a franking impression and a set of print wheels having type characters on their peripheries. Mechanisms are provided for setting the print wheels so as to print a required value of postage charge in the franking impression. The print wheel setting mechanisms are controlled by the electronic accounting and control circuits and the accounting circuits maintain accounting records which are updated during each franking operation to take into account the value of postage used. An electric drive motor is located in the base of the machine and drive from the motor is mechanically coupled to the print drum to cause rotation thereof through a single revolution in each franking operation.
Such franking machines have complex mechanisms and this together with the power drive to the print drum results in the franking machines being relatively costly to manufacture. Furthermore the motor drive results in the machine being heavy.

Franking machine with carriage mounted resilient pressure roller


This disclosure relates to methods and systems for queuing traffic in packet-switched networks. In one of many possible embodiments, a queue management system includes a plurality of queues and a priority module configured to assign incoming packets to the queues based on priorities associated with the incoming packets. The priority module is further configured to drop at least one of the packets already contained in the queues. The priority module is configured to operate across multiple queues when determining which of the packets contained in the queues to drop. Some embodiments provide for hybrid queue management that considers both classes and priorities of packets.

Packet-switched networks (e.g., the Internet) are useful for transmitting packetized data between different network devices. Such networks typically include nodes configured to communicate with each other by sending packets over links. Often, communications sent from one node must travel through intermediary nodes before reaching the destination node. The intermediary nodes are able to decipher routing information contained in the communication packets and forward (i.e., route) the packets in accordance with the information. The packets sent by a node may take different network paths to reach the destination node, where the packets are reassembled.
The routing of packets over packet-switched networks continues to become more complex, especially for networks that support time-sensitive applications (e.g., voice-over-IP) and/or provide quality-of-service ("QoS") guarantees to customers. Such networks are able to support different levels of service by prioritizing some communication packets over others. Prioritization of packets for transmission is typically performed in the nodes (e.g., at the routers) of networks, where packets are queued for transmission over a link.
Priority queuing refers to techniques for queuing packets for transmission based on priority. Many priority queuing techniques separate packets into distinct priority queues based on priority. Such techniques typically decipher priority levels of incoming packets, usually from information contained in the packets, and add the packets to the priority queues, with the highest priority packets being added to the highest priority queues, and so on down through the lowest priority queue. The packets in the different queues are then selected for transmission based on priority, with any queues in the highest priority queue being selected first for transmission. The practice of transmitting higher priority packets ahead of lower priority packets can be referred to as delay priority.
While conventional priority queuing techniques have enabled many packet-switched networks to support different levels of service having various QoS requirements, the queuing techniques exhibit shortcomings under certain routine network conditions. For example, delay priority often causes low priority queues to become congested when high priority traffic continues to flow into the high priority queues and dominate allocation of available bandwidth. Low priority queues are likely to continue to be filled even when all available bandwidth is being used for high priority traffic. This causes long delays for low priority traffic waiting for higher priority queues to clear.
If the higher priority queues are eventually cleared of packets, the low priority packets in the low priority queues will be suddenly transmitted using all available resources. The buildup followed by sudden transmittal of low priority packets may repeat with unpredictable inconsistency per cycle. Each cycle may vary significantly from other cycles due to the unpredictable nature of high priority traffic demands. Consequently, low priority traffic often exhibits significant discrepancies in lengths of transmission delay (i.e., latency). Unfortunately, significant variations may adversely affect congestion control mechanisms commonly used by network transmission protocols (e.g., transmission control protocol ["TCP"]). In other words, conventional priority queuing techniques suffer from the tendency to create unfair and highly variable traffic flows for low priority traffic. This problem may be referred to as a lack of flow fairness.
To help avoid congestion in priority queues, several conventional queuing techniques have been introduced for dropping packets from the priority queues. Unfortunately, these techniques are rather limited because they are applied to each priority queue on an individual basis. The dropping of packets is performed at each particular priority queue without considering packets in the other priority queues. Consequently, low priority queues may continue to be filled with packets without dropping them even when the packets will not be transmitted for a lengthy amount of time because of the presence of significant high priority traffic that will take precedence over lower priority traffic within the available bandwidth. Conventional queuing techniques fail to consider the presence of higher priority packets in the higher priority queues when determining the appropriate drop rate for lower priority queues.
Thus, although conventional queuing techniques are able to control transmission delay based on priority, current packet-dropping techniques do not adequately alleviate congestion in low priority queues because the techniques drop packets from the priority queues without considering the status of other priority queues. Moreover, conventional queuing techniques related to priority queuing do not adequately support flow fairness for low priority traffic.

Systems and methods for queue management in packet-switched networks


A game apparatus of education and entertainment purposes comprises a number of building pieces and a number of connector pieces. The building pieces have peripheral edges that employ slots to receive complementary sized portions of the connector pieces. The connector pieces have a number of different configurations to permit creation of a variety of three dimensional shapes, including arranging building pieces at right angles, and oblique angles. The building pieces can have indicia thereon to create text, images, or combinations thereof when put together. The building pieces are modularly sized so that differently shaped and sized pieces can easily fit together.

The present invention is directed to an apparatus for entertainment and education and a method of use, and in particular, to an apparatus employing a number of interlocking pieces that allow for the construction of three dimensional shapes, and that include indicia with the pieces for educational purposes during construction of the shapes.
In the prior art, various games and apparatus have been proposed that utilize interlocking pieces. U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,900 to Gallant discloses a three-dimensional puzzle structure that employs pieces that are irregular and polygonal shaped, and pieces that are flat planar blocks. The pieces are interlocked with dovetail joints.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,150,707 to Anderson discloses building blocks and a building assembly, wherein the blocks are joined together using a tongue and groove construction. The tongue and groove construction allows for constructing assemblies, which are basically right angled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,130 to Walker discloses a playhouse with elements based on two modular units. The playhouse is made up of panels and bendable strips are used to link the panels together.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,690 to Stoffle et al. discloses clamps for a free standing play structure. The clamps connect panels together in right angle, straight or angled configurations.
While the prior noted above suggests tongue and groove connection in various game and building apparatus, none of the prior art noted above allows for construction of shapes in a wide variety of configurations and ones that allow for creativity input by the builder. As such, a need exists to provide improved apparatus allowing for construction of three dimensional shapes using a number of modular pieces, and including modes of construction that couple shape making with educational/entertainment objectives such as image or text message creations or combinations thereof.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus having both entertainment and education use.
Another object of the invention is an apparatus that allows for the creation of three-dimensional shapes.
Yet another object of the invention is a method of using the inventive apparatus wherein the pieces are manipulated to make various shapes for entertainment and/or education.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as a description thereof proceeds.
In satisfaction of the foregoing objects and advantages, the present invention provides an interlocking apparatus for education and entertainment comprising a plurality of building pieces and a plurality of connector pieces. Each building piece further comprises a building piece portion having a periphery, a first thickness, and opposing first and second faces. The periphery includes a first connector portion extending along at least a portion of the periphery, the first connector portion having a second thickness, and having one of a slot or a protrusion.
Each connector piece has at least a pair of second connector portions, each second connector portion being complementary to the first connector portion by having a slot if the first connector portion has a protrusion or a protrusion if the first connector portion has a slot, so that one building piece can be connected to another building piece using a connector piece. A set of the plurality of the connector pieces have second connector portions that are right angled with respect to each other and another set of the plurality have second connector portions that are obliquely angled with respect to each other, whereby a three dimensional figure can be built using the building pieces and connector elements.
In a preferred embodiment, the first connector portions have a slot and the second connector portions have a protrusion. The first connector portion can extend along the entire periphery of the building piece. Each building piece and each connector piece is preferably made of a rigid non-metallic material, such as a hard plastic.
The plurality of connector pieces can include a number of configurations such as connector pieces that are: right-angled with a pair of second connector portions; are t-shaped with three connector portions; have a pair of right-angled connector portions (cross-shaped); and have a pair of second connector portions that are right-angled and a third connector portion which is angled at about 45xc2x0 from one of the right-angled connector portions.
The connector portions of the building pieces can be sized so that a recess is formed portion in one-face of the building piece, and the other opposing face can be generally flat.
A portion of the building pieces can have indicia on at least one of the first and second faces, and the indicia can form one of an image or text message, or a combination thereof particularly when pieces are joined together.
The periphery of each building piece can made up of a plurality of edges, with at least two edges being right angled. Dimensions of the right angled edges of the plurality of connector pieces are in multiples of a base dimension so that either individual building pieces can be connected together or an individual building piece can connect to at least two building pieces.
Each connector piece can have a body portion with each second connector portion extending therefrom, the body portion including a lip on either side of the connector portion, the lip abutting a peripheral edge of a the first connector portion when the connector piece is adjacent a building piece. The body portion is sized with respect to the second connector portion so that a body portion surface is interposed between surfaces of adjacent building pieces to form a continuous generally flat surface between the adjacent building pieces.
The invention also entails a method of forming a game apparatus by providing the building pieces and connector pieces, selecting a number of game pieces and connector pieces, and connecting the game pieces together using the connector pieces to make a desired structure. The structure can be assembled using indicia on the building pieces to create text, images or combinations thereof.

Apparatus for entertainment and education and method of use


The invention involves a system and a method of inspecting a selected part design from an inventory of computer-aided part designs for die compliance as to the part design""s geometric characteristics of die lock, draft, and sharp edge. The invention provides for an improvement of inspecting a computer-aided part design in order to lessen insufficient inspections which lead to manufacturing infeasibilities. The invention includes selecting a part design, defining a die open direction, evaluating die lock and draft characteristics of the selected part design, and evaluating sharp edge characteristics of the selected part design.

The present invention relates to a system and method of inspecting a selected part design from an inventory of computer-aided part designs for die compliance as to geometric characteristics of the part design with respect to die lock, draft, and sharp edge.
The number of design inspections performed on parts or workpieces increases each year as the supply of parts increase. In turn, the need for more effective design inspections also grows. More specifically, the need for a more efficient method of inspecting computer-aided part designs for die casting, injection molding, and stamping continues to increase, which increases part design productivity.
In the automotive industry, many parts are designed by using computer-aided software and hardware systems. For example, a system in which parts are created on a computer is called a computer aided design (CAD) system. A system in which parts may be manufactured by control of a computer is called a computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system. A CAD/CAM system aids the designer in several ways such as in developing the geometric detail required for the part which includes shape, dimensions, tolerance, etc. Alternatively, parts may be designed by other ways such as by machining which do not involve computer aided systems. However, without a CAD/CAM system, design and manufacturing costs and time typically are substantially higher.
Computer-aided part designs may or may not be evaluated prior to physically constructing the tool or the die thereof. In some situations, the dies of computer-aided part designs are directly constructed or xe2x80x9chand tooled.xe2x80x9d Then, after construction, the die is tested by actually attempting to manufacture the computer-aided part design. If no problems arise, then the part design is complete. However, if problems arise such as die lock, draft, or sharp edge, then further designing is necessary for the part design. In such situations, part designing may become very expensive and time consuming.
Also, computer-aided part designs may be checked manually for manufacturing or tooling feasibility and design efficiency, which may also result in very high costs. Typically, after the computer-aided part design is completed by a design engineer, a product engineer inspects the design for potential die lock, insufficient draft, and sharp edge. However, in most situations, the inspection involves only a manual or xe2x80x9ceyeballxe2x80x9d check. In fact, the only detailed inspection that is performed occurs when the manufacturer or supplier checks the part design for die lock, draft, and sharp edge by manual calculation methods. In some situations, a manual check is not sufficiently accurate in detecting die lock, draft and sharp edge. An insufficient inspection may result in manufacturing infeasibilities which consumes time and, in turn, leads to higher costs.
In many situations, the product engineer or manufacturer determines that the part design has die lock, insufficient draft, or a sharp edge. In this event, the design engineer is then notified that further design and modifications are required thereto, reducing design efficiency and productivity. Particularly, this increases the design time and labor costs, and decreases production rates and product quality rates. As an ultimate result, costs are increased.
Additionally, some CAD/CAM systems are provided with basic evaluations for computer-aided part designs. Typically, such basic evaluations include simple algorithms to check for basic compliance as to a single characteristic of the part design, such as draft characteristics. By only performing basic evaluations of the part design, as a result, insufficient evaluations occur more frequently than desired. Insufficient evaluations frequently lead to more time required for further designing.
Thus, what is needed is an improvement in the inspecting of computer-aided part designs for tool feasibility to increase part design efficiency and productivity.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method of inspecting a selected part design from an inventory of computer-aided part designs in order to meet the demand for higher design efficiency which increases the productivity of part designs.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method of inspecting a computer-aided part design in order to lessen inaccurate inspections which lead to manufacturing infeasbilities.
A more specific object of this invention is a method of inspecting a selected part design from an inventory of computer-aided part designs for die compliance as to the part design""s geometric characteristics of die lock, draft, and sharp edge. The method involves selecting the part design to be inspected for die lock, draft, and sharp edge compliance so that geometric information for the selected part design is acquired and defining a die open direction for the selected part design based on the geometric information of the selected part design. After defining the die open direction, the method then involves evaluating the die lock and draft characteristics of the selected part design with respect to the defined die open direction. This is done to determine if the die will open in the direction defined. Then, the method involves evaluating the sharp edge characteristic of the part design irrespective of the defined die open direction. This is performed in order to determine the degree of edge sharpness in comparison to a predetermined geometric characteristic of edge sharpness for the selected part design.
Another specific object of this invention is a more specific method of inspecting a selected part design from an inventory of computer-aided part designs for die compliance as to the part design""s geometric characteristics of die lock, draft, and sharp edge. The method involves selecting the part design to be inspected for die lock, draft, and sharp edge compliance so that geometric information for the selected part design is acquired and defining a die open direction for the selected part design based on the geometric information of the selected part design. After defining the die open direction, the method includes selecting a die lock, a draft, or a sharp edge evaluation which is to be performed on the selected part design. If the die lock evaluation is selected, then the method involves determining whether the workpiece is complex.
If the workpiece is determined to be not complex, then the method involves casting evenly-spaced rays through the surfaces of the designed workpiece such that the casted rays are parallel to the defined die open direction and sorting the points of intersection for each ray. If any casted ray has greater than a threshold intersecting number, then the workpiece has die lock.
If the workpiece is determined to be complex, then the method involves defining a normal vector originating from a surface of the part design and casting a single ray from the origin of the normal vector such that the casted ray is parallel and in the same direction as the normal vector. Then, the method includes determining the number of intersections of the single casted ray and determining that the workpiece has die lock if the single casted ray is greater than a maximum intersection number.
If the draft evaluation is selected, then the method involves defining a normal vector for a surface and finding a first angle between the normal vector and the die open direction. If the difference between a reference angle and the first angle is found to be less than a minimum draft angle, then the method involves indicating that the surface has insufficient draft. If not, then the method includes indicating that the surface has sufficient draft.
If the sharp edge evaluation is selected, then the method involves determining a second angle between a pair of adjoining surfaces to define an edge and determining a supplementary angle of the second angle. If the supplementary angle is greater than a maximum sharp edge angle, then the method involves indicating that the edge has a sharp edge.
Another specific object of this invention is an inspection system of a selected part design from an inventory of computer-aided part designs for die compliance as to the part design""s geometric characteristics of die lock, draft, and sharp edge. The system includes a mechanism for selecting the part design to be inspected for die lock, draft, and sharp edge compliance such that geometric information for the selected part design is acquired. The system further includes a mechanism for defining a die open direction for the selected part design based on the geometric information of the selected part design. The system further includes a mechanism for evaluating the die lock and draft characteristics of the selected part design with respect to the defined die open direction to determine if the die will open in the direction defined. The system also includes a mechanism for evaluating the sharp edge characteristic of the part design irrespective of the defined die open direction to determine the degree of edge sharpness in comparison to a predetermined geometric characteristic of edge sharpness for the selected part design.

System and method of inspecting tooling for feasibility


A device is provided for guiding a movement of a bar-type wind deflector in relation to a roof frame in a region between a position of use and a position of non-use, especially on a cabriolet. At least one pair of rotary levers is provided on the wind deflector. The rotary levers are mounted on the wind deflector at a first rotary lever end such that they can rotate about a first rotational axis, and on the roof frame at a second rotary lever end such that they can rotate about a second rotational axis, the rotational axes being parallel to each other. The rotary levers of each pair are staggered in relation to each other at least in the direction of a normal of one of the rotational axes. The rotational axes of each pair form the vertexes of a parallelogram.

The invention relates to a device for guiding a movement of a lamellar wind deflector with respect to a roof frame in a range between a use position and a non-use position, in particular on a cabriolet.
To avoid air draft and turbulence, wind deflectors are often provided on cabriolets. To adapt to different operating conditions, for example driving with an open or closed top, said wind deflector may be designed to be adjustable between a use position at a maximum distance from a roof frame, for example the roof frame of a cabriolet, and a non-use position in the vicinity of the roof frame.
German Patent Publication No. 38 33 046 A1 describes a motor vehicle having a cabriolet top and a wind deflector, in which a wind deflector is arranged on a front roof cross-member and can be adjusted between a rest position and an operating position by means of a raising device. The adjustment takes place, however, in a pivoting movement, in which the angle of the wind guiding element varies, which is disadvantageous in terms of aerodynamics.
It is an object of the invention to specify an improved device for guiding a movement of a lamellar wind deflector with respect to a roof frame in a range between a use position and a non-use position.
For the device according to the invention for guiding a movement of a lamellar wind deflector with respect to a roof frame in a range between a use position and a non-use position, a rotary lever arrangement is provided which comprises at least one pair of rotary levers which are arranged so as to be offset with respect to one another in such a way as to form a parallelogram linkage.
In a simple embodiment, the rotary levers are rotatably mounted at a first rotary lever end on the wind deflector by in each case one first rotary axle. At a second rotary lever end, the rotary levers are rotatably mounted on the roof frame by in each case one second rotary axle. The roof frame may for example be the roof frame of a cabriolet. All the rotary axles lie parallel to one another. The rotary levers of the pair are arranged offset with respect to one another at least in the direction of a normal to one of the rotary axles. The cross-sectional area between the rotary axles of the pair forms a parallelogram with the rotary axles as corner points. Such an arrangement of the rotary axles permits a parallel movement of the wind deflector. The wind deflector is prevented from tilting since, in this way, the wind deflector itself is part of the parallelogram.
A plurality of pairs of rotary levers is preferably formed, such that, in cross section, their rotary axles form the corner points of in each case one parallelogram per pair. Here, a rotary lever may belong to a plurality of pairs. The resulting parallelograms may be in congruent alignment and/or may at least partially overlap one another when projected onto one another.
In order to be able to move the wind deflector not only manually, a drive is preferably provided at least on one of the rotary levers or its second rotary axle. In the case of three rotary levers, the rotary levers may for example be arranged equidistantly on the wind deflector, with a rotary lever which is arranged between the two other rotary levers being provided with a drive.
The drive of a rotary lever preferably takes place by means of a crank arm. A crank arm of said type may for example have a first crank arm end and a second crank arm end. At its first crank arm end, the crank arm is mounted so as to be rotatable about a crank arm axle which lies substantially parallel to the rotary axles and which is arranged on the roof frame. At its second crank arm end, the crank arm has a rotationally symmetrical pin which engages into a slot or a groove which is provided on the driven rotary lever. Such a drive is suitable in particular for converting a rotational movement for example of an electric motor, which drives the crank arm, into a rectilinear movement, such as is to be performed by the wind deflector.
The wind deflector preferably has a use position at a maximum distance from the roof frame and a non-use position close to the roof frame, in which positions said wind deflector can be latched or locked. Such a latching action may take place by retaining clamps or similar devices which require an increased expenditure of force in order to leave the respective position. In the use position in particular, the latching may take place by virtue of the crank arm being perpendicular to the slot or groove, such that the linkage composed of the rotary lever and crank arm is self-locking. It is also possible, for example in the non-use position, for end-position locking of at least one rotary lever to take place by means of spring-loaded bolts which are controlled by a Bowden cable which is actuated for example by means of an idle stroke of the crank arm which is situated in the non-use position.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, two rotary levers, which are offset with respect to one another only in the direction of the rotary axles, are arranged in the vicinity of in each case one end of the wind deflector. Furthermore, a driven rotary lever is arranged in a central region of the wind deflector and is offset with respect to the two rotary levers in the direction of a normal to one of the rotary axles. Each of the two rotary levers, which are arranged at the ends, forms a pair with the driven rotary lever. Here, the parallelograms of the pairs fully overlap one another in the viewing direction of the rotary axles. In this way, the arrangement is made highly stable against twisting, which would occur with the use of a total of only two rotary levers if these were arranged at a large distance from one another on the wind deflector.
The use of two driven rotary levers in the central region of the wind deflector, which two driven rotary levers are offset with respect to one another only in the direction of the rotary axles, additionally improves stability. The drive of the rotary levers may take place together, for example by a common second rotary axle or by means of crank arms which are connected to one another.
The wind deflector may be curved in order to follow a predefined shape of the roof frame. Both a sickle-shaped curvature over an edge of the wind deflector and also a curvature or arching of the surface of the wind deflector or a combination of these are possible. The desired offset of the rotary levers in the region of the ends with respect to those in the central region is facilitated in both cases.
To prevent air turbulence, it may be advantageous to arrange a fine-mesh fabric between the wind deflector and the roof frame.
Said fine-mesh fabric may preferably be rolled up in the manner of a roller blind on the wind deflector or on the roof frame, such that said fabric is not in the way or trapped when the wind deflector is moved into the non-use position.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Corresponding parts are provided with the same reference symbols in all the figures.

Device for guiding the movement of a wind deflector


A hair bead stop and method of beading hair are disclosed. The bead stop comprises a first element with a passage therethrough and a second element movably mounted to the first element. In accordance with the method, the bead stop is threaded along a tool having a threader defining an aperture. At least one bead is also placed on the tool. Hair is passed through the aperture of the tool and then the bead and bead stop are moved along the tool over the aperture through which the hair extends, placing the bead and bead stop on the hair. Upon removal of the hair from the tool, the second element of the bead stop is moved with respect to the first to bind the hair between a first surface defined by the first element of the bead stop in the passage and an opposing surface of the second element. The bead(s) are maintained on the hair by the bead stop which is placed closer to the free end of the hair.

It is a common and popular practice to use beads to ornament hair. This practice is usually performed by putting beads in the hair manually or putting foil around the hair and stringing beads over the foil. Another method that has been used is threading beads over a needle with a loop of string attached, passing the bead over the string, and then threading the hair through the loop. The beads are then backed over the loop and onto the band of hair.
Manual hair beading, however, is time consuming. The string method is hard to use because of its high degree of flexibility, and the needle is hazardous and not suitable for small children.
Another problem associated with hair beading is retaining the beads on the hair. A rubber band wrapped around the hair, a small hair clip or the like may be used for this purpose, but all detract from the beauty of the hair beads and are difficult to use.
There is desired a hair bead stop and improved method for beading hair in which the beads are retained on the hair with such a hair bead stop.

Hair bead stop and method of beading hair

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A method and a device for testing whether planar material, in particular films, are leakproof. The planar material is continuously conveyed in a continuous process through a test chamber which has a test gas chamber on one side of the planar material and a measuring chamber on the other side of the planar material. The test gas chamber side is subjected to a test gas with a predefinable test pressure, and the presence of test gas on the measuring chamber side is detected.

The invention relates to a method for testing whether planar material, in particular films, are leakproof, in which the planar material is continuously conveyed through a test chamber, and to a device for carrying out this method.
Planar materials such as, for example, films, which are free of tears and holes and are thus gas-tight, are known to be required in numerous technical fields. For example, gas-tight films are required when manufacturing fuel cell stacks such as are used in fuel cell vehicles. For this purpose, the films are tested for gas-tightness after their fabrication.
In order to test whether planar materials are leakproof, electrical test methods are known which, however, cannot be applied to electrically conductive films, for example.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,064 describes a continuous method and a device for testing whether a diaphragm strip is leakproof. For this purpose, the diaphragm strip is unrolled from a first roller and rolled up again by a second roller. Between these rollers a test chamber is arranged in which a test fluid is applied on the upper side of the diaphragm strip. By means of a pressure difference which can be set in a defined fashion the test fluid is forced through the diaphragm strip, by way of a capillary effect at holes if they exceed a certain size so that said test fluid leaves behind a mark on a detector surface of a detector belt which is guided along in parallel with the diaphragm. The test fluid is fed via a distributor pipe which is embedded in a foam rubber block which is arranged transversely with respect to the direction of conveyance of the diaphragm strip, in order to apply the test fluid uniformly and to protect the diaphragm strip against damage.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,278 describes a method and a device for testing the tightness of sealed containers. For this purpose, the containers are fed through a tunnel-like chamber on a conveyor belt. At the start and end of a tunnel section of this chamber a carrier gas is fed into the chamber and the gas flows partially into the tunnel section and partially in the opposite direction. The carrier gas which flows into the tunnel section flows past a container to be tested and is then led out again via a branch and examined for impurities owing to a leak in the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,199 describes, for the purpose of testing whether a container is leakproof, a device with a test head which has two tubular ducts, one of these ducts being arranged inside the other. At a test point on the container to be tested, gas for analysis is fed into the device through the inner duct by means of a partial vacuum, while at the same time a selectable environmental gas flows out of the outer duct so that the test point is closed off from a possible other environmental gas.
Laid-open German patent application DE 196 05 920 A1 discloses a device for testing whether ceramic plates are leakproof. For this purpose, the plates are clamped in the device and a test gas is applied to them on one side.
If there are leaks in the ceramic plate, the test gas is forced through it as a result of overpressure and is registered on the low pressure side by a detector.
Laid-open patent application WO 02/088657 A2 describes a method and a device for investigating products from a polymer material such as, for example, films and bottles in terms of their permeation and desorption rates. The polymer contains for this purpose a first isotope of a test gas and a second isotope of the test gas is used on one side of the product. On the other side of the product, the concentration of both isotopes of the test gas is then measured separately.
The object of the present invention is to specify an improved device and an improved method for testing whether planar material is leakproof, in particular with respect to the supplying of the planar material to a test chamber, and its discharging therefrom, as well as the conduction thereof within this test chamber.
In the method according to the invention, a planar material is continuously conveyed through a test chamber in a continuous process. As a result of the continuous conveyance, planar materials, such as films, with virtually any desired size can be examined to determine whether they are leakproof. The test chamber contains, on opposite sides of the planar material which is being conveyed through, a test gas chamber to which test gas is applied, and a measuring chamber which is monitored for the presence of test gas. As a result, all the conceivable materials, even electrically conductive materials, can easily and reliably be tested to determine whether they are leakproof. The test gas chamber and/or the measuring chamber are sealed at a test chamber inlet duct and/or a test chamber outlet duct for the planar material which is to be tested by means of a gas curtain whose gas pressure is higher than the gas pressure in the test gas chamber or the measuring chamber. This avoids the situation in which the test gas flows, for example, out of the measuring chamber before it is detected. The seal, which is to this extent contact-free, avoids any risk of damage to the film such as occurs with a tactile seal.
The device according to the invention has a test chamber and means for continuously conveying the planar material through the test chamber, with the test chamber comprising a test gas chamber and a measuring chamber on opposite sides of the introduced planar material. In the case of the device, the test gas chamber and/or the measuring chamber has an open-pore material which contains in each case a planar surface, which is continuous from a test chamber inlet to a test chamber outlet on the side of the planar material. This open-pore material is used in the test gas chamber, on the one hand, for guiding the material to be tested as it is conveyed through the test chamber, and on the other hand, the open-pore quality ensures an even application of test gas. In the measuring chamber, the material has the purpose of supporting the surface material to be tested.
In one development of the invention, the inlet duct and/or the outlet duct are bounded by in each case two compressed gas chambers which lie opposite one another and which generate the respective gas curtain by means of a compressed gas, for example, compressed air. In one refinement of this measure, an open-pore material is introduced at least into one of the compressed gas chambers. This open-pore material serves primarily for guiding the planar material which is introduced. In addition, the open-pore quality ensures that the compressed gas passes through uniformly in order to generate the gas curtain.
In another development of the invention, the device has a vacuum pump which is coupled on the suction side to the measuring chamber. As a result of this vacuum pump it is possible for test gas which passes into the measuring chamber if there is a leak in the planar material to be reliably directed to the test gas sensor system.
In yet another development of the invention, the device has a computer-supported image processing system for coarse leak detection on the inlet side of the test chamber. By means of this image processing system it is possible to detect relatively large leaks in the planar material before the material enters the test chamber. This makes it possible to prevent material to be tested with relatively large leaks from entering the test chamber and to prevent the measuring chamber from being contaminated with too much test gas.
One advantageous embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawing and will be described below.


A clip having a plurality of locking ribs disposed on a front surface for engaging a mounting surface; a mounting channel disposed in a rear surface; the mounting channel adapted to receive a securing member for securing the clip to the mounting surface; a flange extending outwardly from a side surface, wherein the flange includes an engaging surface having a ridge portion and a recess portion; whereby the ridge portion of the flange is received into a complementary recess portion of a flange on a second clip, and the recess portion receives a complementary ridge portion of the flange on the second clip for interlocking engagement between clips.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting hardware for hanging items on walls, and more particularly, to interlocking clips for removably installing items on a wall, such as wall paneling and the like.
2) Description of Related Art
Wall paneling is a popular wall covering but can be problematic to install because it must be properly aligned, securely mounted, the front surface must remain intact, it is often heavy, and it is difficult to work with because the panels are typically large and cumbersome.
In some installations of paneling, a flush mounting of the finished panel to a base wall surface may be desired. While a flush mounting can be achieved by directly adhering a panel to a wall using an adhesive, this is undesirable because it does not accommodate for panel movement due to expansion and contraction, and can damage the panels if removal is required.
Further, panel hangers designed to mount a finished panel to a base wall surface do not provide an efficient way of aligning and adjusting the mounting points of the hangers during installation to ensure a proper fit and alignment between interconnecting components. Additionally, it is important for the hangers to allow for realignment and adjustment of the panels once mounted to the base wall surface.
A further problem arises in ensuring that the cooperating elements of traditional hanging hardware have fully engaged behind a wall panel so that the install is sure the panel is properly installed and secured. With existing hardware, the install is never truly sure if all the interconnecting elements are properly engaged.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a panel hanger that is simple, strong, and precise, yet still allows for the movement of panels after installation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a panel hanger that is configured to securely hold the wall panel on a base wall surface in a removable manner.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an alignment arrangement for mounting interlocking clips to different wall surfaces that ensures correct placement and engagement in a manner such that the install is assured of a proper connection between interlocking clips.

Interlocking clips for a wall panel mounting system


A system and method for discovering lightpath information in an optical network is disclosed. A selected node is requested to provide lightpath information. The node, in turn, requests the other node of the optical network to provide channel attribute data. The node processes the channel attribute data of a plurality of nodes to determine the lightpath information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to obtaining lightpath information for managing an optical network. More particularly, the present invention is directed to discovering and/or validating optical light paths.
2. Description of Background Art
An optical network commonly includes an external network management system having a management interface for managing a plurality of optical nodes. Referring to the exemplary prior art network of FIG. 1, an optical network 100 may comprise a plurality of optical nodes 110 coupled to each other by optical fiber spans 120, with each optical fiber span including at least one optical fiber (e.g., in some bi-directional networks each span has at least two fibers, one for each direction of communication). In a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical network, an optical service can be provided between two nodes 110 using an optical wavelength channel. A light path is commonly defined as a connection between two nodes in the network that is established by assigning a dedicated wavelength along each link of the path. A light path of a WDM optical network commonly utilizes the same wavelength channel throughout each link of its path, although in some cases the initial wavelength may be converted into a different wavelength along one of the nodes of the light path.
An element management system (EMS) 130 is used for high level administration of the optical network. EMS 130 may be communicatively coupled to each node via an Ethernet or other suitable data link 140.
In a conventional WDM optical network, part of the administrative function of EMS 130 is to provision the network to provide a desired service between a source node and a destination node. In order to fulfill this function, EMS 130 needs to know lightpaths capable of providing a desired service between two nodes. In many WDM optical networks, the individual nodes include one or more microprocessors for controlling the function of the node. The hardware and software complexity of a node may exacerbate the difficulty in determining a valid lightpath. Additionally, individual nodes may experience hardware or software upgrades, increasing the complexity of determining valid lightpaths.
The figures depict a preferred embodiment of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One of skill in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods disclosed herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the claimed invention.

System and method for optical light path discovery


To provide an electromechanical conversion element, a vibration actuator, a vibration actuator driving device, a lens barrel and a camera, which facilitate the achievement of the desired drive characteristics. An electromechanical conversion element comprising: a piezoelectric body having a polarization part polarized in a certain direction; and a plurality of separately formed electrodes on a continuous region of the polarization part.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electromechanical conversion element, a vibration actuator, a vibration actuator driving device, a lens barrel and a camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 9-103082 proposes the technique of adjusting an electrostatic capacitance value to a specified value by connecting an external capacitor to a piezoelectric element.
However, the electrostatic capacitance value of the piezoelectric element for driving an ultrasonic motor generally has a positive temperature coefficient (the electrostatic capacitance value increases with increasing temperature), and will vary with environmental temperature and the like.
Therefore, the vibration characteristics of the piezoelectric element will also vary with environmental temperature and the like. For example, when the piezoelectric element is used as the driving source of a lens drive motor, it may be difficult to obtain the desired drive characteristics.

Electromechanical conversion element, vibration actuator, vibration actuator driving device, lens barrel and camera


In a power converter, an input power source (98) is intermittently coupled to provide a current flow (Icoil) in consecutive cycles (T) to generate an output voltage (Vo). The coupling durations (Tp) are adjusted in conjunction with a cycle skip count (112CNT) which is the count of cycles in which no coupling occurs. In some embodiments, the adjustments are performed to keep the coupling durations near the maximum efficiency range (between TLOW and THIGH), and the skip count is adjusted at the same time to obtain the desired output voltage in the presence of load current variations. The coupling frequencies are kept in a desired range to avoid interference with other circuit elements.

Power supplies are often required to provide voltage or current regulation throughout a wide range of load values. The components used in the drive circuit are selected to provide maximum efficiency at the load value that is expected to be typical operation. Operation at load values that are very different from the design target causes the drive circuit efficiency to be less than optimal.

Power converters in which the input power coupling times are adjusted in conjunction with cycle skip counts


A system and method for responding to requests for processing made by an integration broker to an application having a single threaded application programmer interface, comprising receiving a request for processing; determining whether the received request is event-triggered or call-triggered; sending the request to a slave process assigned to event-triggered requests, when the request is event-triggered; and sending the request to a slave process assigned to call-triggered requests, when the request is call-triggered.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to information processing and more particularly to enterprise application integration systems having connectors providing an interface with a like number of application programs.
2. Description of the Background Art
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) systems are those that allow a company's internal enterprise applications to operate together. EAI vendors offer a variety of products ranging from a low-level transport technology that must be heavily customized to meet a customer's needs, to integration-specific software tools that help build custom solutions, and to more complete, product-based integration solutions.
EAI systems can be broadly classified under point-to-point systems and hub & spoke systems. A traditional point-to-point integration scheme 100 comprises dedicated custom connectors 101 from each application system pair 102 as depicted in FIG. 1. Another approach is a hub & spoke approach illustrated in FIG. 2. Obviously, a point-to-point architecture is not easily extensible because for each additional application system that needs to be integrated, the number of connectors will increase exponentially. On the other hand, the hub & spoke integration scheme 200 comprises an integration hub (also known as an integration broker) 201 and several spoke connectors (one for each application system 102 to be integrated) as depicted in FIG. 2.
The integration hub 201 typically contains: a generic business object model, a transformation engine that maps all application specific business objects to the generic form and vice versa during the integration process and, a collaboration engine that executes any business process logic that is part of the integration synchronization process.
Whenever a new application needs to be integrated, only a single new connector needs to be added in such a scheme. Since EAI systems are usually poised in the heart of an enterprise's information system, their performance and scalability become critically important.
Although there is no current industry standard benchmark metric (such as the industry standard OLTP benchmark TPC-C (an On Line Transaction Processing benchmark, see http://www.tpc.org/tpcc/ for more details) for measuring the performance of an integration system, the performance of integration systems typically can be measured using two broad metrics:                Business Process Transactions per unit time: this is a measure of throughput of integration transactions made through the integration hub;        Average Response Time for Synchronous Requests: this is a measure of average latency of a synchronous request made to an EAI system.
For point-to-point EAI systems, typical scaling solutions involve the manual addition of extra processing spokes (application connectors), each of which unnecessarily complicates management and administration of the overall integration solution. On the other hand, while most hub and spoke EAI systems are fairly well geared in scaling for the integration hub, not much has been done to address the scalability of the spokes (application connectors).
Although there is no current industry standard benchmark metric (such as the industry standard OLTP benchmark TPC-C for measuring the performance of an integration system, the performance of integration systems typically can be measured using two broad metrics:
Thus, a single synchronization point in the application connector that serializes all calls to the application, whether for a synchronous event delivery or for synchronous requests, becomes the crux of a performance bottleneck in most application connectors. In other words, in spite of multiple requests coming into the application connector at any point in time, they are all sequentially executed on their entry into the application. This dramatically affects the overall throughput of the system and the latency of individual requests. With the advent of the web-enabled user-interfaces, the need for quicker response times becomes even more critical to an end-user. Most connector architectures do not cater to this need.
For connectors of applications that have thread-safe APIs, there are no inherent scalability problems, since the underlying connector can be multi-threaded and concurrent connections to the underlying applications can be made. However, most APIs are not thread-safe and some applications do not even allow more than one connection from the same process.
FIG. 3 shows a serial-process connector agent architecture 300. The architecture 300 is illustrated by three main components: an integration hub 302, a connector (also known as an adapter) 304, and an application 306. The connector 304 comprises a listener 310, and a single-threaded API 312. The API is not thread safe. In such cases, a mutex 314 needs to be set to lock prior to making the API call. This restricts the use of the application until the mutex is unlocked. This creates a bottleneck in a process which is expected to handle thousands of concurrent requests.
With the advent of the support for call-triggered requests in the e-business arena, the need for quicker response times becomes even more critical. This current connector agent model 300 will obviously not scale, especially if: a high volume of incoming requests comes into the agent; a barrage of application events are generated within a short amount of time; or, both of the above happen concurrently.
Thus, there are two issues that are of critical concern to an end-user: the latency of individual synchronous requests to an EAI system and the need to maximize throughput of the overall event flow through the system. Most API libraries are unable to adequately address these problems because 1) they lack thread-safety, which precludes the use of multi-threading in the application connector and 2) they lack re-entrance within the same process, which sometimes restricts application connectors to a single connection, session or activity in the application. There is thus a need for solutions to the shortcomings discussed above.

Application connector parallelism in enterprise application integration systems

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to vacuum pumps and a method for creating and maintaining a high vacuum. A vacuum pump includes a regenerative section and a turbo-molecular section. A common first rotor carries forward-rotating elements of both the regenerative section and the turbo-molecular section. Additionally, a second rotor carries counter-rotating elements of the turbo-molecular section. A first drive rotates the first rotor in a forward rotational direction while a second drive rotates the second rotor in a counter-rotational direction. The drives may be controlled to drive the common first rotor on start-up, and to later drive the second rotor.

Certain research and manufacturing processes require the use of a process chamber with high vacuum. For example, in semiconductor wafer processing, vacuum is used during the thin-film deposition and etching operations, primarily to reduce contamination. In such processes, pumps capable of producing a "high vacuum" of 10−6 torr or lower are useful to assure adequate pumping speed at process pressure, and to allow for a low base pressure for cleanup between steps.
Several currently-available vacuum pump configurations are capable of maintaining a high vacuum. One design, the turbo-molecular vacuum pump, is frequently used in both manufacturing processes and in research instrumentation. A conventional stage arrangement of a turbo-molecular vacuum pump includes a stack of alternate rotors and stators. Each stage effectively comprises a solid disc with a plurality of blades depending (nominally) radially inwardly or outwardly therefrom. The blades are evenly spaced around the circumference of the disc and angled "about" radial lines out of the plane of the disc in the direction of rotation of the rotor stage.
The rotor and stator blades have positive and negative gradients respectively when viewed from the side in a radial line from the disc. That arrangement has the effect, in molecular flow conditions, of causing a movement of molecules through the pump.
The turbo-molecular vacuum pump is inefficient or inoperable outside the molecular flow realm. For that reason, a commercially available vacuum pump may contain, in addition to several turbo-molecular stages, one or more molecular drag stages and one or more regenerative stages placed between the turbo-molecular stages and the pump outlet.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a known compound vacuum pump 100 comprising a turbo-molecular section 50, a regenerative section 1 and a molecular drag section 2. Attached to a rotor 9 is a cylindrical rotor body 52 of the turbo-molecular section 50, placed at an inlet 31 of the pump. Extending radially outwardly from the rotor body 52 are rotor vanes 54 which collectively define three spaced arrays of vanes, each array having approximately 20 vanes.
The turbo-molecular section 50 also includes a stator 56 which is formed integrally with a body 22. Extending radially inwardly from the stator 56 are stator vanes 58 defining three spaced arrays of vanes, each array including about 20 vanes. The vanes 54 of the rotor interleaf with the vanes 58 of the stator and are angled relative to each other as is known in the turbo-molecular vacuum pump art.
The rotor 9 also comprises the rotor portion of the regenerative section 1. That portion includes a series of concentric rows of airfoils such as airfoil 10 that induce motion to the gas contained in channels 11. The channels 11 are stationary and are attached to the body 22 and stator 56. The regenerative portion of the pump is arranged to exhaust through the pump outlet 32.
The molecular drag section of the exemplary prior art pump illustrated in FIG. 1 is a Holweck section that includes cylindrical rotor sections 26, 27 and cylindrical stator sections 23, 24. The rotor sections 26, 27 are attached to the pump rotor 9, while the stator sections 23, 24 are attached to the pump stator. Helical grooves in the rotors and stators interact at close running clearances, transferring air molecules from the turbo-molecular section to the regenerative section.
A high-speed drive (not shown) is connected to a shaft 60 to drive the rotating components of the pump. The shaft, rotors and drive are supported by high speed, low friction bearings (not shown) such as dry ceramic race ball bearings or magnetic levitation bearings.
Operation of the turbo-molecular section of the above-described system requires high relative velocity of the turbo-molecular stators and rotors. On the other hand, the angular velocity of the rotor is limited by stresses placed on the components by centripetal acceleration, and also by maximum operating speeds of the other pump sections. Special fasteners and larger component cross sections are sometimes used to reduce stress and to permit a higher rotational speed.
The pumping speed requirements of the turbo-molecular section are often met by increasing the overall diameter of the pump, imparting a greater tangential velocity to the outer portions of the rotor vanes for a given rotational speed. That solution, however, increases the overall package size.
To start the above-described pump, the enclosed volume of the turbo-molecular section must first be partially evacuated. That is done to permit rotation of the opposing vanes in that section at the required high speeds. An additional downstream "roughing" pump is sometimes used for that purpose. A valved bypass line may be provided to permit the system to be pumped down without the turbo offering a restriction.
There is therefore presently a need to provide an improved compound or hybrid vacuum pump including a turbo-molecular pump section. Particularly, the improved pump should provide a solution to the conflicting speed requirements, and should reduce the need to evacuate the pump at start-up using a roughing pump. To the inventor's knowledge, there is currently no such technique available.

Integrated turbo/drag/regenerative pump with counter-rotating turbo blades