An articulated nose bridge for a head mounted display for adjusting the height, tilt, and distance of the display on the wearer's face. The articulated nose bridge including a nose piece configured to rest on a wearer's nose, a bridge piece located between a left eye display and a right eye display of the head mounted display, and an articulator. The articulator includes a nose end coupled to the nose piece, and a bridge end pivotally coupled to the bridge piece and allowing a viewing angle of the left eye display and the right eye display to be adjusted by the wearer. The articulated nose bridge may additionally include a locking mechanism having a locked position that prevents the bridge end of the articulator from pivoting and a free position that allows the bridge end of the articulator to pivot. The locking mechanism may include a spring or tensioner that automatically returns the locking mechanism to the locked position after the wearer has moved the locking mechanism into the free position. In addition, the nose end of the articulator is pivotally coupled to the nose piece. Further, the locking mechanism may include a gear segment and a pawl configured to engage the gear segment in the locked position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to head mounted displays and more particularly to adjustment mechanisms for controlling the alignment of the head mounted displays with a wearer's eyes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Head mounted displays have been used for years in a number of applications as a replacement for the conventional cathode-ray-tube (CRT) and liquid-crystal flat panel displays. Head mounted displays have been used, for example, in 3-D applications, video game applications, virtual reality applications, military applications, and other applications where mobility or privacy are desirable.
Traditionally, head mounted displays have been either mounted to helmets worn by the user, or incorporated mechanisms that used a compression fit against the head to keep the display in place. One examples of such a mechanism is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,893, entitled "Head-Mounted Image Display Apparatus." This mechanism controls the position of the head mounted display by adjusting the compression between a pad pressing against the back of the head and a pad that rests on the forehead. A similar mechanism is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,224 entitled, "Head-Mount Image display Apparatus" in which the pads at the back of the head are spring loaded to control the pressure.
Another example of a compression fit mechanism is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,339, entitled "Head Mounted Display." This mechanism allows a wearer to adjust the position of the display by controlling the circumference of a padded headband. A similar headband mechanism is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,096, entitled "Head Mounted Display." These mechanisms give the wearer some ability to adjust the height of the display relative to the eye.
Recently, some head mounted displays have been developed that are worn more like eyeglasses (eyeglass displays). These eyeglass displays support the entire weight of the head mounted display on the wearer's ears and nose. Thus, if the position of the eyeglass displays on the face is to be adjusted, the adjustment should occur either between the ear contacts and the "rims" of the eyeglass display, or between the nose contact and "bridge" located between the rims of the eyeglass display.
Eyeglass displays having a nose bridge 1 that can be adjusted in and out to control the distance between the wearer's eyes and the video display portions 2 of the eyeglass displays are shown in FIG. 1 and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,126, entitled "Monocular Portable Communication and Display System." This adjustable nose bridge allows the wearer to select the optimal viewing distance between the eye and the display portion of the eyeglass display despite variations in the wearer's facial structure and vision. The eyeglass display shown in FIG. 1, however, lack a nose bridge that can adjust to accommodate variations in height and tilt that might be desired by the wearer.
Height adjustment for eyeglasses, on the other hand, have been considered in the past. For example, controlling the height of bifocal eyeglasses using an adjustable nose bridge is shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B and additionally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,758. Adjusting the height of bifocals allows the wearer to position the lower (reading) lenses 3 of the bifocal glasses 4 where they are most convenient for the task at hand. Thus, when reading a book on a table a wearer might prefer the reading lenses low so she could conveniently look down through the reading lenses at the book without having to tilt her head down in an exaggerated way to interpose the reading lenses between her eyes and the book. At the same time, the lowered reading lenses allow the wearer to look forward through the upper (long distance) lenses 5 at her surroundings. Alternatively, a wearer using a computer might prefer the reading lenses 3 raised in order to view a computer screen through the reading lenses without tilting her head back to interpose the reading lenses between her eyes and the computer screen.
Adjusting the height of an eyeglass display may also offer certain advantages. For example, wearing an eyeglass display low on the face would allow the wearer to make eye contact with another person while conversing. At the same time, the lowered eyeglass display could allow the wearer to glance down and view data relevant to the conversation displayed on the eyeglass display. Alternatively, the lowered eyeglasses may be preferred by a wearer who spends a great deal of time viewing data through the displays so that she may remain aware of her surroundings by looking over the top of the eyeglass display.
Similarly, a wearer might choose to wear the eyeglass display high on the face. This configuration might be convenient for those who work with their hands and follow complex procedures such as doctors or mechanics. The raised eyeglass display may be used, for example, to show instructions, diagrams, or alternate views of the subject to the wearer. At the same time, the wearer's hands, any instruments or tools, and the subject of the instructions are in full view below the eyeglass display.
Finally, despite the advantages discussed above of wearing the eyeglass display high or low on the face, some wearers will undoubtedly prefer to wear the eyeglass display at eye level on the face. This position would be the most distraction free and thus it might be preferred for viewing a movie, enjoying a virtual reality experience, or simply concentrating on important work.
Merely raising and lower the eyeglass display on the face using a mechanism similar to that shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, however, will not allow the most efficient viewing of the eyeglass display by the wearer. This is because the images displayed within the eyeglass display are typically configured to be viewed optimally when the wearer's line of sight is perpendicular to the plane of the image. Usually, the eyeglass display is configured so that the perpendicular viewing angle is achieved when the eyeglass display is worn at eye level. When the height of the eyeglass display on the face is controlled using a nose bridge that merely raises or lowers, however, the eyeglass display will pivot about the wearer's ears as the height of the eyeglass display is adjusted. Since the wearer's ears rather than the wearer's eyes act as the pivot, the wearer's viewing angle will not remain perpendicular to the plane of the displayed image when the display is moved above or below eye level. To compensate for the change in viewing angle that occurs when the height of the eyeglass display on the face is changed, the eyeglass displays should include an adjustment for tilt. The tilt adjustment would allow the optimal perpendicular viewing angle to be achieved at whatever height the wearer chooses to wear the eyeglass display.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that there is a need for a nose bridge for an eyeglass display which can be used to adjust the height of the display on the face, the tilt of the display, and the distance between the eye and the display.

Articulated nose bridge for head mounted display


A limited leak-down variable duration lifter and its adjustment is provided to maximize performance gains at low engine rpm when used with a conventional cam and more particularly with a conventional hi-performance camshaft. The increased performance gains were here-to-for unobtainable with conventional variable duration lifters and the conventional adjustment. By utilizing an adjustable valve train to precisely position the plunger of an accelerated leak variable duration lifter near the bottom of its travel, optimum reductions of lift and duration are achieved without exceeding amounts that would be detrimental to the engine and its valve train. To maintain proper rocker arm geometry, the plunger is positioned closer to its seat in the assembled state by either reengineering the internal dimensions of the lifter, or by providing a spacer or spacers between the plunger and the push rod cup, or plunger and seat.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to hydraulic valve lifters, and more specifically to variable duration hydraulic valve lifters, also know as fast bleed lifters.
2. Prior Art
Conventional hydraulic valve lifters have the benefit of adjusting the valve train, if necessary, every time the valve seats. They are designed with very little bleed down as compared with variable duration lifters. In fact, most hydraulic lifters are designed with as little bleed down as possible.
Variable duration hydraulic valve lifters, on the other hand, have a deliberately faster bleed down rate so as to improve the low end performance of the engine. They are an improvement upon the basic hydraulic lifter for increasing low end torque, engine vacuum and other low end performance characteristics of high performance engines. The performance cam of the high performance engine causes valve overlap, which is effective at improving performance at high speeds, but reduces low-end torque, engine vacuum, fuel economy, increases exhaust emissions and produces a rougher idle. The variable duration, or "fast bleed" lifter helps to improve this problem. The bleed down rate of a variable duration lifter is carefully set so that the plunger leaks down more at low rpm than it does at higher rpm. This begins to restore the lift and duration as the rpm increases; hence the term "variable duration".
Jack L. Rhoads has three prior patents on bleed-down lifters, the first of which is U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,609, issued on Nov. 25, 1975. The second is a modification and improvement on the first and bears U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,731, issued Jun. 25, 1985. Thorough descriptions of the purpose and functioning of bleed-down lifters are found in those patents. Since variable duration lifters cause the valve train to tick at idle, a third U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,106, designed to quiet the valve train, was issued on Apr. 3, 1990. This patent requires the use of a specially modified camshaft. Our invention applies to these lifters, as well as any other fast bleed lifter such as the "sloppy fit" lifter in which the bleed bypass consists of a loosely fit plunger. It also applies to all the different designs of hydraulic lifters such as flat tappet, roller lifters, lash adjusters, hydraulic buckets, etc.
None of the above patents, however, produce the performance increases for conventional cams that this invention does. They either do not have the precise bleed down control necessary, or as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,106, the design is for a completely different purpose of quieting the valve train by utilizing a modified cam with special closing ramps. A conventional cam is a cam that is designed for use with conventional lifters, either hydraulic or solid lifters, and is not specifically designed to be used exclusively with fast bleed down lifters referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,106.
The former patents control the amount of bleed down by the size of groove machined into the side of the plunger, and other bleed down lifters such as the "sloppy fit" control bleed down by the dimensional clearances between plunger and the outer lifter body. They are adjusted from the top down, leaving ample travel between the plunger and lifter seat for excessive bleed down if the bleed rate is too high. This makes precise bleed down impossible as valve spring pressure, oil pressure, oil viscosity and engine temperature all work together to alter the total bleed down. A bleed rate that is ideal for one engine may be too much for another. As a result, the bleed rate must be made less than optimum because of the concern that too much bleed down will cause undue stress to the valve train which could cause valve train damage. The latter patent has provision for controlling the bleed down, but its purpose is to quiet the valve train by utilizing a modified cam with special closing ramps. It was not intended to be used with conventional cams at all, and virtually all cams currently available are of the conventional design.
This invention combines the precision bleed down control of the latter patent, with the conventional high performance cams used with the former two patents. As a result of this combination, performance gains have been significantly improved with camshafts that are readily available to the public, without excessive stress to the valve train. By limiting the bleed down of the variable duration lifters as described in this invention, maximum reductions in lift and duration can be realized without fear of bleeding too much and damaging the valve train. This has many advantages over the prior art.


To protect against overuse of a motor, such as may be used to control seat position in an automotive vehicle, an estimated temperature of the motor is determined based on an ambient temperature, a current applied to the motor, a period of time during which the current is applied to the motor, and at least one thermal property. A voltage applied to the motor is reduced, such as by a motor controller, when the estimated motor temperature is greater than a safe operating temperature of the motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The following relates to a system and method for protecting a motor against overuse based on an estimated motor temperature.
2. Background Art
It is increasingly common in automotive vehicles to use electric motors for positioning a wide variety of vehicle components, including specifically both driver and passenger seats. Controllers are typically provided for controlling such motors based on input from a vehicle seat occupant. In that regard, the vehicle seat occupant provides such input by manipulating switches to direct the vehicle seat position. Such switches can include memory position switches, which position the vehicle seat based on position information previously stored in a memory.
Present motors used in automotive vehicles for positioning vehicle seats use a Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) device that when heated increases its resistance, thereby protecting the motor against the thermal effects of overuse. However, such a PTC device adds to the cost of the motor assembly.
As a result, there exists a need for a system and method that would eliminate such a PTC device, thereby reducing the cost of the motor assembly. Such a system and method would estimate the motor temperature, based on factors such as ambient temperature, current, time and thermal properties, thereby eliminating the need for thermal protection PTC devices and resulting in a cost savings.

System and method for estimating motor temperature for motor overuse protection


A step motor comprising two sets of annularly arranged electromagnets and which are disposed in left and right frame bodies respectively in bilateral symmetry, a wobble disc of magnetic body arranged between the sets of electromagnets, a supporting shaft which is pivotally coupled to the center of the light surface of the wobble disc and fixedly coupled to a bearing portion at the center of the right frame body, an output shaft which is fixedly coupled to the center of the left surface of the wobble disc by way of a universal joint and rotatably supported by a bearing portion at the center of the left frame body, a crown gear fixedly arranged on the magnetically permeable armatures of the right set of electromagnets and a crown gear fixedly arranged on the right surface of the wobble disc at the outer circumferential portion thereof which confronts the crown gear on the right set of electromagnets and has teeth different in number from those of the crown gear. The output shaft can produce a high torque at a low speed by successively energizing the annularly arranged electromagnets thereby successively attracting the wobble disc to wobble it and converting the wobbling into turning force by way of the two crown gears having teeth different in number meshing with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nutating step motor for producing the rotation of the output shaft thereof with a high torque and a low speed caused by the difference in the number of teeth between a crown gear on a wobble disc of magnetic body which wobbles as it is successively attracted by each of annularly arranged electromagnets when it is energized successively, and another crown gear fixedly arranged on the magnetically permeable cores of the electromagnets.
The step motor according to the present invention is not only optimum for machine tools which require a low speed revolution under a computer numerical control, mainly such as various industrial robots, business machines, NC, MC, etc., but also has features useful in various fields such that it can be directly coupled to a machine tool which requires a very low speed revolution without using a reduction gear.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional step motor of this kind s disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,764 which expired Feb. 22, 1989 as illustrated in FIG. 1 of the attached drawings. The motor a attracts a wobble disc b of magnetic body by the electromagnetic force of an energized electromagnet e thereby to produce mating contact between a crown gear c provided at the outer circumferential portion b.sub.2 of the wobble disc b and a crown gear d which is provided on the side of the frame in such a way as to confront the crown gear c, so that the wobble disc b continues wobbling.
At that time, the wobble disc b only wobbles circularly by magnetic attractive force but does not rotate at all. An inner crown gear f provided on the wobble disc b adjacent to the center thereof mates with a crown gear h provided at the end portion i of the output shaft g in such a way as to confront the inner crown gear f as a result of the wobbling of the wobble disc b, so that the output shaft g, is rotated due to the difference in the number of teeth between the inner crown gear f and the crown gear h.
Accordingly, the output shaft turns due to the difference in the number of teeth between the inner crown gear f and the crown gear h, i.e., which is usually one or two, as a result of a cycle of wobbling of the wobble disc b.
(1) As illustrated in FIG. 1, the step motor wobbles smoothly by the crown gear c provided at the outer circumferential portion b.sub.2 of the wobble disc b and the crown gear d which is provided on the side of the frame so as to confront the crown gear c. The step motor is further provided with a crown gear f on the wobble disc 1 inside the crown gear c and a crown gear h on the output shaft for rotating the same.
Since the step motor is provided with two sets of gears, i.e., the crown gears c and d which mate with each other as a result of wobbling of the wobble disc b and the crown gears f and h for rotating the output shaft thereof, it is complicated in structure and costs high.
(2) The inner crown gears f and h for rotating the output shaft thereof due to the difference in the number of teeth therebetween illustrated in FIG. 1 are small in pitch circle diameters and inevitably cannot have many teeth in order to obtain a high torque at a low speed since they are provided inside and the pitch of the teeth is determined as illustrated in FIG. 2, so that the step motor cannot prove the merit of the low speed motor.
(3) Moreover, when the inner crown gears f and h for rotating the output shaft cannot have many teeth, it is not only difficult to position the step angle with accuracy but also there occur problems that the teeth wear out rapidly to cause damages, the lives of the devices are shortened, and so on.
(4) Since the step motor has to be provided with the crown gears c and d for only mating with each other by the wobbling of the wobble disc b and the crown gears f and h for rotating the output shaft, it need many gears, so that it is complicated in structure, troublesome in assembling and expensive in manufacturing.
It is the object of the present invention to solve the problems (1) thru (4) set forth above.


An MRI apparatus includes an imaging data acquiring unit and a blood flow information generating unit. The imaging data acquiring unit acquires imaging data from an imaging region including myocardium, without using a contrast medium, by applying a spatial selective excitation pulse to a region including at least a part of an ascending aorta for distinguishably displaying inflowing blood flowing into the imaging region. The blood flow information generating unit generates blood flow image data based on the imaging data.

1. Technical Field
The subject disclosure relates to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) that magnetically excites nuclear spins of an object with an RF (radio frequency) signal having the Larmor frequency and reconstructs an image based on NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) signals generated due to the excitation.
More particularly, the subject disclosure relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and a magnetic resonance imaging method that can perform MRA (Magnetic Resonance Angiography) for acquiring a blood flow image without using a contrast medium.
2. Description of Related Art
Magnetic Resonance Imaging is an imaging method that magnetically excites nuclear spins of an object set in a static magnetic field with an RF signal having the Larmor frequency and reconstructs an image based on NMR signals generated due to the excitation.
In the field of the magnetic resonance imaging, MRA is known as a method of obtaining an image of a blood flow. An MRA without administration of contrast materials is referred to as a non-contrast MRA (for example, refer to Japanese Publication of Patent Application No. 2001-252263). As the non-contrast MRA, an FBI (fresh blood imaging) method has been devised. In the FBI method, an ECG (electrocardiogram) synchronization to capture a fast blood flow pumped by a heart is performed, and thereby a blood vessel is satisfactorily depicted.
Meanwhile, MR (Magnetic Resonance) perfusion and delayed enhancement are conventionally used for examining an ischemic part and an infarcted part in heart. In the conventional cardiac study, cardiac perfusion and delayed enhance MR imaging are performed under a contrast-enhanced (CE) MRA method in which a patient is given a contrast medium after undergoing medicational stress or exercise stress for the perfusion study.
FIG. 1 shows a cross-section of myocardium for explaining the conventional cardiac study method that uses CE MRA. When dynamic imaging is performed by administering a gadolinium-based contrast medium to a patient, the level of the signal from "tissue A" becomes high. This is because blood flows into "tissue A" which is supplied with blood by normal blood vessels inside the myocardium as shown in FIG. 1. However, in a state in which blood vessels are dilated under medicational stress or exercise stress, a region of low signal level appears as "ischemic part B", because blood flow volume decreases relatively due to stenosed blood vessels. Therefore, the region of the low signal level can be diagnosed as "ischemia is indicated as B". In this way, ischemia test is also called stress perfusion and it can detect an ischemic part as a defect of vascular circulation by administering a contrast medium to a patient under medicational stress or exercise stress.
Additionally, a late delayed enhanced (LDE) technique is known as a method for the diagnosis of infarction. The LDE is a diagnosis method which allows a contrast medium to flow into the myocardium tissue, and thereby diagnoses the part without a function to wash out the contrast medium as the infarction. For example, in "infarction part C" where blood vessels are occluded as shown in FIG. 1, the contrast medium remains within the part C, because the tissue doesn't have the function to wash out the contrast medium. Thus, LDE occurs due to the residual contrast medium, and it enables the detection of "infarction part C" as a region of high signal level as compared to the normal "tissue A" where the contrast medium is washed out.
A cardiac examination is also performed in other diagnostic imaging units and its results are displayed in various display methods. For example, technology to display a myocardium layer of different cross-sections by using cardiac CT image data acquired with X-ray CT (computed tomography) apparatus is known. Also, technology to display a cross-sectional image of myocardium in a bulls-eye method by using cardiac 3-dimensional image data acquired using ultrasonograph (US) is known (for example, refer to the Japanese Publications of Patent Application Nos. 2006-198411 and 2005-531352).
However, in the conventional cardiac examination using an MRI apparatus, ischemic and infarct parts are diagnosed by performing dynamic imaging after injection of gadolinium-based contrast materials under influence of medicational stress or exercise. Therefore, imaging timing is restricted to the period where contrast medium is washed-out in the normal tissue and still in the infarction area after administering a contrast medium, otherwise sufficient contrast can not be obtained. Thus, it has a limit in terms of temporal resolution as a problem. Additionally, spatial resolution also degrades due to the restriction of time resolution. Under the aforementioned technical background, there is a problem that image quality varies and diagnosis varies among readers.
Moreover, the relationship between the gadolinium-based contrast medium and Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF) is concerned due to a black-box warning from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Furthermore, in stress perfusion test, risk of medication such as adenosine and dipyridamole is also a huge concern. The aforementioned problems apply to a case in which CE MRA imaging is acquired for various imaging regions.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and magnetic resonance imaging method


Provided is a process for producing a silane coupling agent, which can shorten the time required for the production process. A process for producing a silane coupling agent, characterized by comprising a step of reacting a silane compound (A) with a compound (B) which has a hydroxyl group and further contains an atom having an unshared electron pair other than an oxygen atom derived from the hydroxyl group, in the presence of a metal-containing catalyst (m) to obtain a silane compound (C) which has an alkoxyl group containing the atom having the unshared electron pair other than the oxygen atom derived from the hydroxyl group.

In recent years, from the perspective of vehicle safety, improvement in safety of tires on wet road surfaces has been demanded. Moreover, from the perspective of reduction of carbon dioxide emissions along with a growing interest in environmental issues, further fuel efficiency of vehicles has also been demanded.
For these demands, conventionally, as a technique for simultaneously pursuing improvement in performance of tires on wet road surfaces and reduction in rolling resistance, a method of using an inorganic filler such as silica as a filler of a rubber composition for use in tire treads has been known to be effective. However, a rubber composition comprising an inorganic filler such as silica, which has a high viscosity in unvulcanized state and requires multistage kneading, while reducing the rolling resistance of tires, improving the braking property on wet road surfaces, and improving driving stability, has a problem in workability. Therefore, in the rubber composition comprising an inorganic filler such as silica, breaking strength and wear resistance significantly deteriorate, and problems such as delayed vulcanization and poor dispersion of fillers occur. Thus, when an inorganic filler such as silica is compounded in a rubber composition for treads, it is essential to add a silane coupling agent so as to decrease the viscosity in the unvulcanized state of the rubber composition, ensure the modulus and the wear resistance, and also further decrease the hysteresis loss.

Process for producing silane coupling agent


A tripod for supporting apparatus in general and, in particular, for optical or photographic apparatus and the like. The tripod has a spider, a pillar arranged to be housed with a stem of the pillar in a through-hole formed through the spider, and a head arranged for receiving the apparatus and connected to a first end of the pillar. In the closed-up or fully retracted condition, that is, in the most compact condition of the tripod, the head is at least partially housed inside the through-hole.

Within the specific technical field, it is desirable to provide tripods which can satisfy the conflicting requirements of minimized size when closed up or fully retracted and of maximized positioning height when the tripod is opened out or fully extended. A constructional limitation typical of known tripods results from the fact that each leg of the tripod is articulated to the spider by a pin extending through the first leg section; this obstructs the further sections which are fitted telescopically in the first, affecting their useful length and limiting their extension.
A first known tripod solution which pursues this aim is described in European Patent Application EP 1122486. In order to maximize the positioning height of the fully extended tripod, this solution maximizes the length of each leg section of the tripod by using an articulation of the legs to the spider which is achieved by opposed appendages projecting radially from a cap fitted on the top of the leg section articulated to the spider. This solution affords the advantage of making the best use of the telescopic lengthening of the legs, permitting optimal utilization of the space inside the telescopic extensions.
However, even with this solution, the tripod is still quite bulky in the fully retracted condition.

Tripod for supporting apparatus in general and, in particular, for optical or photographic apparatus and the like


A three-dimensional knitted fabric with a large-diameter circular knitting machine is knitted with a plurality of stitches that form a plurality of stitch courses oriented in each case in a stitch-course direction of the knitted fabric and a plurality of stitch wales oriented in each case in a stitch-wale direction of the knitted fabric, wherein at least one of the stitches is in the form of at least one corrugation-forming stitch, which extends in the stitch-wale direction over a plurality of stitch courses and binds at least one corrugation in the knitted fabric.

For the production of conventional three-dimensional textile products, making-up is unavoidable. The term making-up means all the operations that are necessary for producing a textile product. These include in particular the conversion of a plurality of flat textile products into a three-dimensional form by cutting, arranging, introducing applications and/or stitching. For some time, there has been the desire to produce three-dimensional knitted fabrics in a single process step directly on a (single) knitting machine, in order to reduce or even to avoid the effort for making-up. Therefore, methods for producing three-dimensional knitted fabrics using what are known as flat knitting machines have already been developed. These methods allow three-dimensional knitted fabrics or three-dimensionally formed textiles to be produced in one piece and in one process without stitching, without cutting and/or without making-up. This means that the three-dimensional knitted fabric can be fully manufactured on a single machine, which was previously not possible or was possible only in several stages with high production effort. The known methods are in this case configured such that they have to be carried out with what are known as flat knitting machines, because the arrangement of the needles in flat knitting machines allows the increasing and decreasing of stitches, which was previously considered to be absolutely necessary in order to produce three-dimensional knitted fabrics. However, flat knitting machines are less productive and so the known methods have only limited suitability for relatively large runs.
Compared with flat knitting machines, what are known as large-diameter circular knitting machines are about six times more productive. For this reason, large-diameter circular knitting machines are primarily used for the textile mass production of two-dimensional knitted fabrics. In order to produce T-shirts, for example, the two-dimensional knitted fabrics have to be complicatedly made up into a three-dimensional form in a downstream process. However, large-diameter circular knitting machines are not suitable for carrying out the abovementioned methods for producing three-dimensional knitted fabrics. Therefore, at present, a productive production method that allows flexible three-dimensional geometric shaping of knitted products does not exist. However, the trend in the textile industry is toward ever shorter development cycles for new products or prototypes. In addition, there is a growing customer desire for increasingly individual production, for example tailored to body shape.
It is possible to obtain a three-dimensional knitted fabric in that first of all a planar (two-dimensional) knitted fabric is produced (on a machine), said fabric then being converted into a three-dimensional knitted fabric in a subsequent step by a joining process, in particular a stitching process, at edges of the knitted fabric. In this case, the edges of the knitted fabric may need to be processed or produced after the knitting process and/or before the joining process. The stitching, making-up and/or cutting of two-dimensional knitted fabrics to form a three-dimensional knitted fabric is complicated, results in undesired offcuts and can lead to insufficient shape accuracy of the three-dimensional knitted fabric.

Method for knitting a three-dimensional knitted fabric

RHEINISCH-WESTFÄLISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE (RWTH) AACHEN


Compositions for nail varnish, which are free or substantially free of nitrocellulose, include, in a cosmetically acceptable organic solvent:                a primary film-forming agent consisting of polyvinyl butyral,        a fumed silica,        at least one secondary resin,        at least one plasticiser,        at least one colourant, which is insoluble in said solvent.The disclosure also relates to the use of the compositions for protecting and/or making-up the nails, as well as to packaged, ready-to-use items intended for the use.

Nail varnishes have changed little since their original design. They can be used not only to adorn and beautify the nails (make-up) but also to protect them (care). In the field in question, nails obviously include both fingernails and toenails.
For the formulation of a traditional nail varnish, several conventional ingredients are used, including:                a primary film-forming agent: this agent provides fast drying, nail adhesion, hardness and gloss. It must however be plasticised because it is brittle.        one or more secondary resins (polymers) for improving the quality of the film: the primary film-forming agent is supplemented in commercial formulations by one or more texturing resins that make it possible to increase the dry extract and thus to control the amount of film formed on the nail surface, and thus to increase certain properties such as gloss or adhesion. The secondary resins used have long been products obtained by condensation of toluene sulphonamide and formaldehyde, and known notably under the trade name Santolite®. However, for safety reasons (high residual formaldehyde content), the latter products are increasingly being abandoned and replaced by other types of resins, for instance polyester resins, which are considered more acceptable from a cosmetic point of view.        one or more plasticisers of the primary film-forming agent in order to optimise and modify the flexibility and pliability of the film.        one or more usual solvents: these solvents, most often organic in nature (notably acetone, ethyl acetate or butyl acetate) are mixed with the other ingredients to form a more or less fluid composition that is easily applied on the nail with a brush. In particular, they must be capable of dissolving the film-forming agent and the secondary resins. They also allow the viscosity of the varnish to be adjusted to a suitable value. Lastly, the evaporation rate of the solvent (volatile solvent) should be neither too fast nor too slow in order to obtain the best gloss/drying compromise.        one or more colourants: colourants that are soluble in the formulation medium are practically never used in the field of nail varnishes. On the other hand, organic and/or mineral pigments (that are insoluble in the formulation medium) authorised by regulations in cosmetic applications are used very frequently or even systematically. It is known that mineral pigments tend to promote a sedimentation phenomenon. Organic pigments, for their part, are more sensitive to chemical stability phenomena, which will be discussed below. The composition may also contain, as or in addition to the pigments, pearlescent agents and/or glitters of various natures.
For purposes of sale, nail varnish compositions prepared from the above ingredients are packaged in containers or bottles usually sealed by caps incorporating brushes for applying the product on the nail. This format and use present formulators with two particular constraints. The first difficulty is that, when the product is stored and at rest, potential sedimentation of the pigments and/or pearlescent agents within the composition should be limited to a minimum in order to maintain its homogeneity in the bottle. Stabilising colloids are often used to help control these sedimentation and physical stability phenomena. These colloids are organophilic clays (modified clays), obtained by substitution of mineral cations by organic cations from common quality clays, such as bentonite or montmorillonite. The second difficulty lies in the fact that, after removal from the bottle by a user, the nail varnish must be able to spread easily over the nail but stop flowing after application, which implies that the varnish can regain its initial viscosity once it is no longer set in motion with the brush.
Today, nitrocellulose (also commonly called "cellulose nitrate") is by far the most common primary film-forming agent used in nail varnishes. This substance indeed has many properties compatible with its application: transparency, adhesion and drying, thus making it a versatile, ubiquitous and almost universal raw material in the world of commercial nail varnishes.
However, the use of nitrocellulose is not without its disadvantages. Firstly, it is a delicate, even dangerous raw material to manufacture due to its unstable nature (highly flammable and explosive). In addition, it is prepared from cotton cellulose, by direct attack of cotton bales by a concentrated sulphonitric mixture that leads to controlled hydrolysis of the polymer and to integration of nitrogen in determined proportions. Owing to its manufacturing method, nitrocellulose thus contains residual amounts of acids (nitric acid, sulphuric acid) which can cause stability problems when the nitrocellulose comes into contact with certain types of pigments, particularly organic pigments (shade degradations).
Furthermore, nitrocellulose-based nail varnishes tend to yellow over time due to nitrocellulose degradation, thereby causing undesirable changes in the initial colour of the nail varnish. For these various reasons, many attempts have been made to substitute this film-forming agent by other systems, even if, even today, nitrocellulose, as previously mentioned, continues to be the nearly universal formulation base for commercial nail varnishes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,324 describes a nail varnish composition comprising polyvinyl butyral as the primary film-forming agent, a complementary resin and an organic solvent, this composition which can be additivated with colourants and bentonite. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,203, it was proposed to substitute nitrocellulose by a low-molecular-weight ethyl methacrylate film-forming homopolymer. However, the varnishes described in this document prove not to adhere well to the nail, and the films thus formed are insufficiently long-lasting.
In the document FR 2 617 043, an attempt was made to substitute nitrocellulose by a film-forming copolymer resulting from copolymerisation between alkyl (meth)acrylates and hydroxyalkyl (meth)acrylates. However, it proves that with this type of film-forming agent, a softening of the film on the nail is observed as of 24 hours after application, which is disadvantageous in terms of durability and of acceptability for the consumer. In the document EP 2 248 514, it was proposed to replace nitrocellulose by a film-forming system consisting of an optionally esterified styrene-maleic acid anhydride copolymer in combination with an epoxy resin. However, the use of such a system leads to highly water-sensitive products due to the acid functions from maleic anhydride, which results in a short lifespan on the nail.
The document EP 1 608 322 describes nail varnishes containing organic fibres, such as aramid fibres ("micropulp"). It recommends the use of nitrocellulose as the primary film-forming agent ("primary resin"), and all the examples were prepared using large amounts of nitrocellulose. Examples 1 and 2 describe nail varnishes that, in addition to nitrocellulose, also contain polyvinyl butyral mixed with hydrated silica.
Lastly, the document FR 2 675 995 proposes colourless or coloured nail varnishes whose novelty is to contain, in addition to the usual ingredients (solvent, film-forming agent, resin, plasticiser, etc.), aramid fibres. The most particularly preferred film-forming agents are nitrocelluloses, and examples 1 and 3 of the document describe nail varnishes which, in addition to large amounts of nitrocellulose (more than 15% by weight), also contain polyvinyl butyral mixed with hydrated silica.
The present invention aims to solve, in whole or in part, the problems of the nail varnish compositions of the prior art, in particular those that are nitrocellulose-free. More precisely, the invention aims to propose compositions for nail varnish, which are free or substantially free of nitrocellulose, which are physically and chemically stable, in particular in terms of their colour, and which have excellent properties of use in application, notably of adhesion and of hold on the nail, as well as an excellent profile in terms of safety and of regulatory compliance. Following extensive research on this issue, it has now been found that this and other objectives can be achieved by means of a specific formulation containing a unique combination of ingredients, which provides an acceptable response to all the properties required for a nail varnish intended for commercial use, while avoiding the use of nitrocellulose.


The present invention provides a battery module system including a plurality of battery modules in a series electrical connection through a specified sequence, each battery module having a male connector and a female connector, the female connector of each battery module in electrical engagement into the male connector of an adjacent battery module, wherein the male connector and female connector are positioned along the sidewall of each battery module and have insulating structures that protect handlers of the battery modules from high voltage electrocution. The present invention also provides a battery module system in which the male and female connectors are attached to a top surface of each battery module.

Hybrid Electrical Vehicle (HEV) battery packs consist of number of battery modules, wherein each battery module has a plurality of battery cells. Typically, the battery modules are in electrical communication through module to module series connections. Module to module connections typically require nut and bolt arrangements that provide a number of difficulties, since this manufacturing method is prone to over-torquing or under-torquing of the nut and bolt fasteners. Additionally, cross threading of the bolts is also common, which may destroy the positive or negative battery post when over-torqued. The concise assembly required for high voltage battery module manufacturing and the need for closely monitored torque control render bolt and nut arrangements uneconomical for high voltage battery module manufacturing.
Further, methods for manufacturing high voltage battery modules present a number of dangers to those handling the high voltage battery modules during and after the manufacturing process. Although, each module usually has less than a 50 volt capacity, battery modules are currently being connected in series in order to meet the increasing demands of high-voltage applications, in which voltage levels on the order of about 100 volts to greater than 600 volts are presenting a number of challenges for ensuring safety during the manufacture of these high voltage connections using typical manufacturing methods.
In light of the above, what is needed is an electrical connector system for high current and high voltage applications that can be manufactured in an economical and safe fashion. Further, a need exists for a maintenance serviceable battery pack in which electrical connectors may be reliably and safely manufactured.

Integrated module connection for HEV battery


Designs of 2-port optical devices are disclosed. The optical devices so designed are amenable to small footprint, enhanced impact performance, lower cost, and easier manufacturing process. The optical device comprises at least two collimators, each of the collimators including: a single-mode fiber, and a multi-mode graded index fiber, aligned with the single-mode fiber in a way that the multi-mode graded index fiber and the single-mode fiber are spliced together, wherein the multi-mode graded index fiber is designed to have a predefined length.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally related to the area of optical communications. In particular, the invention is related to optical devices, modules or assemblies as pluggable devices processing light beams and the making thereof. The optical devices modules or assemblies include, but may not be limited to, 2-port pluggable fiber based WDM filters, pluggable optical fiber isolator, and miniature optical collimators.
2. The Background of Related Art
Optical fiber is an ideal waveguide than can transmit light between two ends thereof with very low loss to the light. However, a lot of optical functions available in free-space optics could be impractical or more expensive to be realized in the fiber media. For example, fiber collimators are widely used in fiber optic devices to couple light between fiber and free-space. As the characteristics of the light propagating in the fiber and in the free-space are usually very different, the interface between them are usually very lossy which makes a lot of applications impractical. With a collimator, one can achieve light coupling at low loss and a relatively long working distance in free-space to insert one or more free-space components in order to realize optical functions with complexity such as optical WDM, optical isolator, optical attenuator, and etc.
Currently, two types of collimators are widely used in telecom applications: C-lens collimators 100 and GRIN lens collimators 102 as demonstrated in FIG. 1 (a) and FIG. 1(b). Both approaches place a fiber facet at or around the focal point of a lens so that a light at the other side of the lens is collimated into paralleled beam to achieve a long working distance. Usually, a small angle (8°) is introduced at the interface between the fiber and the lens in order to manage the return loss to an acceptable level (usually 50-60 dB). As the C-lens and GRIN lens are both fabricated by bulk optical fabrication techniques, such as cutting, polishing and etc., it is difficult to achieve compact sizes (e.g., <1 mm). As the optical devices nowadays go smaller and smaller, which causes more and more complexities within the same dimension restrictions, these types of optical collimators of FIGS. 1 (a) and (b) limit the size of the optical devices.
Accordingly, there is a great need for such optical modules being made small, and at the same time, the collimators so designed are amenable to small footprint, broad operating wavelength range, enhanced impact performance, lower cost, and easier manufacturing process. Moreover, an emerging need for telecommunication devices calls for pluggable devices. Such needs have been witnessed by the active devices such as fiber optical transceivers and transponders that take a variety of form factors such as SFP, XFP, QSFP, CFP, etc. As the growth matures in active optical devices, passive optical devices such as optical WDM filters, multiplexers, attenuators, switches, isolators, will also need to match up to be pluggable in order to help more demand in planning and deployment flexibility. To facilitate such a pluggability need, fiber collimator dimension often is the limiting factor in order to shrink a fully functional passive device of interest to the necessary dimension.

Two-port optical devices using mini-collimators


A method for waking up a circuit, comprising charging a voltage line of the circuit with a constant wake-up current until the voltage line reaches a predetermined voltage. Also, an apparatus, comprising a circuit portion, a switch configured to selectively couple an input of the circuit portion to a supply voltage, a current source configured to generate a first current, and a control circuit configured to control a state of the switch depending on the first current.

In modern electronic circuits, power consumption is an increasing concern. Generally, it is desirable to keep the power consumption as low as possible, which for example prolongs the battery lifetime in mobile applications and also reduces problems for example caused by heating of portions of the electronic device due to power dissipation.
Therefore, electronic circuits or portions thereof may be configured to have at least two modes of operation comprising an active mode or state where the electronic device or portion is operating normally and a sleep mode or state where the electronic circuit or portion thereof is inactive and its power consumption is reduced. Such a sleep mode may for example be obtained by separating the respective portion of the electronic circuit from a power supply, reducing the supply voltage of a power supply or connecting the portion of the electronic circuit to a power supply having a reduced supply voltage.
If an electronic circuit portion which is in sleep mode needs to be used, it is "woken up", i.e. put in the active mode. Depending on the application, the time needed for such a wake-up may be critical. Therefore, to enable the use of such a sleep mode even for applications where time may be critical, there is a need for a fast wake-up of such electronic circuit portions.

Apparatus and method for waking up a circuit


A superabrasive cutting element, the substrate of which is structured with a reduced dimension circumferential portion about which is formed an annular portion of superabrasive material, such as sintered diamond in the form of a polycrystalline diamond compact, to provide a ring- or skirt-like portion of superabrasive material at the perimeter of the cutting element to reduce residual tensile stresses existing at the perimeter of the cutting element after formation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to superabrasive cutting elements used in drill bits to perform earth boring, and specifically relates to superabrasive cutting elements which are structured to reduce residual tensile stresses proximate the cutting edge perimeter of the cutting element.
2. Description of Related Art
Superabrasive cutting elements are manufactured for placement in drill bits which are used for drilling or boring earth formations. The majority of superabrasive cutting elements comprise a portion of superabrasive material which is positioned to contact the earth formation for cutting, and a substrate member to support the superabrasive portion and provide structure for attachment of the cutting element to the drill bit. The superabrasive portion is typically a "table" comprised of a polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) or other suitable material, such as cubic boron nitride, and the substrate is often formed from a material such as cemented tungsten carbide or other suitable material compatible with the superabrasive portion.
The configuration of cutting elements varies widely and the patent literature is replete with examples of various cutting element designs. The variety in configurations of cutting elements is principally directed by a desire or need to form a structurally stronger, tougher and more wear-resistance and fracture-resistant element. It is well-known, for example, that superabrasive cutting elements can fail or may have limited service life due to stress fractures, which manifest themselves in fracture, spalling and micro-chipping of the superabrasive table. Drilling in hard rock or shale formations, or formations with hard rock stringers, is especially damaging. It is known that the tendency toward such stress fractures or failures is caused by the fact that the materials comprising the superabrasive portion, or diamond table, and the substrate have different coefficients of thermal expansion, elastic moduli and bulk compressibilities. After formation of cutting elements by the known high temperature and high pressure techniques, the table and substrate materials subsequently shrink at different rates during cooling, resulting in internal residual stresses in the superabrasive table, notably in the vicinity of the interface between the table and substrate. Consequently, the diamond table material tends to be in residually stressed compression while the substrate material tends to be in residually stressed tension prior to being subjected to cutting loads experienced during drilling operations. Fracturing of the cutting element may result at the cutting edge, whether on the table, at the perimeter of the cutting edge or near the interface between the diamond table and the substrate. Further, such residual stresses in the cutting element may provoke delamination of the table from the substrate or delamination in the table itself under the extreme temperatures and pressures of drilling.
Various solutions have been suggested in the art for modifying the internal residual stresses in cutting elements to avoid or limit the described failures. Hence, the configuration of the cutting element may be designed to address the residual stress problem. Cooperative table and substrate configurations which purport to address the issue of cutting element failure are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,207 to Phaal; U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,327 to Dennis; U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,969 to Hardy, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,477 to Flood, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,779 to Dennis; U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,199 to Newton; EP 0322214 issued to De Beers Industrial Diamond; EP 0214795 issued to De Beers Industrial Diamond and EP 0687797 issued to Camco Drilling Group.
The cutting element configurations disclosed in the prior art have demonstrated varying degrees of success in modifying the stress states in the cutting element. It would be advantageous, however, to provide a cutting element configuration which further improves upon the reduction of residual tensile stresses in the superabrasive layer of the cutting element, particularly on the cutting face and in the area near the perimeter of the cutting edge.

Reduced residual tensile stress superabrasive cutters for earth boring and drill bits so equipped


A copper theft alarm system is disclosed. The alarm system can be deployed on existing grain bins or other electrically powered equipment, allowing persons to receive an automated phone call, text message notification, or other desired notification when the system has sensed that a copper cable is being pulled out of a conduit. The notification can aid in potentially disrupting a thief's activity.

The present invention relates to an alarm for a grain bin system or other electrical equipment. More specifically the invention relates to an improved alarm system that senses when a cable supplying power or control to a grain bin or associated equipment has been removed or tampered with and triggers an alarm or notification to a remote user.
Grain storage facilities are commonplace wherever crops are produced in the United States and abroad. These facilities typically include one or more storage buildings, often referred to as "grain bins," in addition to equipment for handling and maintaining the stored grain, such as ventilation fans, heaters, pumps and the like. In order to power the equipment, large diameter cables (typically made from copper) are run from each piece of equipment to an electrical panel located at the facility. The cables are often run in underground conduits for ease of installation and increased safety.
With the rising price of copper, theft of these power cables is becoming a more prevalent problem worldwide. Since a typical grain bin system includes multiple long cable runs, each comprising heavy gauge copper wire conductors, their value on the scrap market makes them an attractive target for burglars. Additionally, because grain bins are typically located in rural areas, theft can take place out in the open with little probability anyone will ever witness the crime. Replacement costs for burglarized cables can reach into the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars including labor.
The steps required to steal a cable from a grain bin can be quite time consuming. First, the electrical panel must be opened to de-energize the cables. Then the ends of the cable must be disconnected from their termination points. Once the ends are free, the thieves will often pull the cable out of the conduit using a chain or rope tied to a vehicle, as substantial pulling force is often required. Since separate conduits are normally run to each piece of powered equipment, the process must be repeated multiple times to steal all of the cables at the facility. What is needed is a system for notifying a remote user or otherwise triggering a notification when a burglar has initiated the process so that he/she may be deterred and/or caught before all of the cables have been removed.
Prior attempts to address grain bin cable theft have suffered from significant drawbacks. For example, surveillance cameras have been used to monitor the areas around the grain bin. However, would require prohibitively expensive constant monitoring by personnel to detect when thieves are present. Other devices require a dedicated external source to power the alarm, which increases cost and allows thieves to disable the alarm by disconnecting the external power source. The present invention seeks to address at least these problems in addition to others.

Copper theft alarm for grain bin systems


A reversible buck or boost converter is operable in a buck mode and in a boost mode. In the buck mode, the converter receives a supply voltage via an input terminal and generates a charging current that is supplied to a battery, thereby charging the battery. The supply voltage is also supplied through the converter to an output terminal. In a boost mode, the converter receives power from the battery and generates a supply current and voltage that is output onto the output terminal. The same single current sense resistor is used both to control the charging current in the buck mode and to control a constant current supplied to the output terminal in the boost mode. The output current is controlled to be constant, regardless of changes in the in the battery voltage and changes in the output voltage.

A light-weight portable auxiliary battery pack device for use with portable electronic devices (for example, cellular telephones) includes a rechargeable battery. Such an auxiliary battery pack device may have a slim piggy-back structure and form that fits under and around the sides of a cellular telephone so that the cellular telephone can be slid into the device. The device typically includes a plug connector that engages the main dock receptacle connector of the cellular telephone when the cellular telephone is in place in the device. Examples of such auxiliary battery pack devices are the Juice Pack line of products available from the on-line store of Mophie, LLC at www.mophie.com.
A cellular telephone typically is supplied to the user with an AC-to-DC wall adapter that supplies proper power to the cellular telephone. If AC wall power is available, then the AC-to-DC wall adapter is plugged into the auxiliary battery pack device. The cord and plug of the AC-to-DC wall adapter is used for this purpose. Power from the AC-to-DC wall adapter then charges the battery of the auxiliary battery pack device through the cord. In addition, the cellular telephone may be plugged into the auxiliary battery pack device. If the cellular telephone is plugged into the auxiliary battery pack device, then power from the AC-to-DC wall adapter is also provided through the battery pack device to the cellular telephone through the main dock receptacle connector of the cellular telephone. In this condition, the battery is being charged at the same time that the cellular telephone is operable from AC wall power. If the auxiliary battery pack device is then unplugged from the AC wall adapter or otherwise ceases to receive power, then the auxiliary battery pack device uses its battery as a power source. In some examples, a DC-to-DC converter within the auxiliary battery pack device converts the DC voltage from the battery into a suitably regulated supply voltage for powering the cellular telephone. The cellular telephone is then powered from the battery of the auxiliary battery pack device. From the perspective of the cellular telephone, the cellular telephone is receiving proper DC power through its mail dock receptacle connector just as if the cellular telephone were receiving power from its AC-to-DC wall adapter or from a docking station.
Methods and structures for improving such auxiliary battery pack devices are sought.

Reversible buck or boost converter that determines boost output current from sensed boost input current


A mold for hot stamping is disclosed. The mold may include: a base plate configured to receive and exhaust coolant, at least one lower mold and at least one upper mold. The at least one lower mold may be mounted at a surface of the base plate, and configured to receive the coolant from the base plate. The lower mold may also have the same shape as a lower shape of a product so as to form the lower shape of the product during hot stamping. The upper mold is made of material different from that of the lower mold, coupled to an upper portion of the lower mold, has the same shape as an upper shape of the product so as to form the upper shape of the product, and is configured to receive the coolant from the lower mold such that the coolant flows in the upper mold.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mold for hot stamping and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mold for hot stamping and a method of manufacturing the same that can improve cooling speed and cooling performance by flowing coolant smoothly during hot stamping where a super high strength product is manufactured at a high temperature.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, molds are divided into injection molds for manufacturing plastic products, press molds for manufacturing products by using steel plates, and die casting molds for manufacturing products by melting metals and injecting the molten metal into the die casting molds. Typically, such molds include a movable mold and a fixed mold so as to manufacture the products without a hitch. Particularly, as use of the molds for manufacturing the products used in a vehicle increases, the molds as well as the products must technologically progress with new design needs.
Recently, improving collision performance and securing safety have become one of the main concerns of the vehicle manufacturing industry. As a result, vehicle manufacturing companies have begun to use transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steel, dual phase (DP) steel, aluminum alloy steel, and magnesium alloy steel or conduct investigation into new technologies such as tailed welding blank (TWB), hydroforming, hot stamping so on to lighten and strengthen a vehicle body.
Herein, the hot stamping is a process for forming a panel at a high temperature to lighten the weight and to maintain strength of the vehicle body during manufacturing. After a material is heated to the high temperature, the material is pressed and a mold itself is cooled to manufacture high strength products according to the hot stamping.
The hot stamping process includes heating a blank to a temperature greater than an Ac3 transformation point so as to austenitize the blank completely. The blank is formed and quickly cooled in the mold to transform the blank into high strength martensite.
The components of the vehicle body manufactured by the hot stamping have tensile strength greater than or equal to 1500 MPa. Therefore, collision performance of the vehicle may be improved and a high degree of safety may be provided to its occupants.
In order to supply coolant into the mold used in a conventional hot stamping process, coolant apertures configured to receive the flow the coolant are directly formed at the mold. In this configuration, however, it is very difficult to form the coolant apertures in the mold for manufacturing products of complex shapes and thus a large amount time is necessary for forming these coolant apertures in the mold.
When a number of the coolant apertures are formed in the mold to cool the mold quickly, the strength of the mold may be deteriorated in the conventional hot stamping method. Therefore, cracks or damage may occur in the mold due to contraction or deformation of the mold when the temperature of the mold changes quickly. Thus, the coolant flowing in the mold may as a result leak.
Since design, manufacture, and verification of coolant flow lines in the mold is achieved based on an actual model, initial investment and time for developing the products may increase. Therefore, an optimal cooling method for the mold should be developed at a design step of new products.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Mold for hot stamping and method of manufacturing the same


In a self-traveling working machine such as a crane, a working attachment such as a boom is arranged to transversely extend below an operator's cabin in such a manner that part of the cabin overlaps the attachment, it being arranged that during crane operation, the cabin is moved widthwise outside the working machine to avoid interference with the boom.

The rough terrain crane (also called a wheeled crane) as one kind of self-traveling working machines has conveniences capable of small sharp turns and capable of moving quickly, and therefore the crane has been used also in a small scaled construction site for construction of a private house or the like. Further, a residential district is so narrow in road width that the crane need to move into a narrow section passing through the roads provided with obstacles such as electric poles, street lamps, trees and the like, and therefore various devices have been made to narrow the width of the machine.
As a rough terrain crane having the width of the machine reduced, the crane disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-39316 is well known.
In this crane, a multiple telescopic boom as a working attachment is offset toward one side from the center of the machine body in order to narrow the width of the machine while securing a space of a cabin.
However, in the boom of the rough terrain crane, a rate of weight held with respect to the weight of the machine body is very large, about ⅓, and therefore such a large-weight boom as described is offset, the center of gravity of the machine body of the whole rough terrain crane is deviated from the center in the width direction of the machine body. Accordingly, the machine body becomes unbalanced in terms of weight to the left and right, and therefore a tilting angle defined in the vehicle control rule in Japan cannot be secured as the case may be, failing to clear car inspection, thus producing an evil that cannot run on a general public road as a vehicle.
Further, conventional self-traveling working machines including a self-traveling crane had the following problems.
A. Problem on the center of gravity of the machine body A description will be made of a self-traveling crane disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 9-39645 Publication, as an example (see FIGS. 27-29).
This self-traveling crane is that a position of the center of gravity of the machine body is lowered, and a frame (a traveling frame) of a lower traveling body is made to have a high rigidity, thereby enhancing the ability of the crane.
That is, in a self-traveling crane having a crane apparatus mounted on a traveling frame 72 of a lower traveling body 71, the traveling frame 72 is formed to be box-like whose section is almost closed by two side plates 72c, 72c opposed to each other by connecting an upper plate 72a, a bottom plate 72b, and an upper plate 72a, a bottom plate 72b.
Further, front and rear drive shafts (hereinafter referred to as an axle) 74, 74 pass through the traveling frame 72 through through-holes 73, 73 provided in the side plates 72c, 72c of the traveling fame 72, and drive shafts 75, 75 for transmitting power to differential gears of the axles 74, 74 also pass through the traveling frame 72.
A rotating pedestal portion or a rotating base 76 is disposed in a center portion in the width direction of the traveling frame 72, and an upper rotating body 79 provided with a multistage telescopic rising/falling boom 77 as a working attachment and a cabin 78 is mounted on the rotating pedestal portion 76.
An engine 80 is mounted at the rear of the traveling frame 72.
The following effects can be obtained by employing the above-described structure for the traveling frame 72 of the self-traveling crane.
{circle around (1)} By passing the axle 74 through the traveling frame 72, the position of the traveling frame 72 lowers to lower the height to a roof of the cabin 78, that is, lower the height of the crane in its traveling attitude.
Because of this, since the position of the center of gravity of the whole crane lowers, the tilting angle becomes large, and the stability during crane operation enhances. Further, the position of the center of gravity of the crane lowers to thereby provide an allowance in the vertical direction. That is, the height of the traveling frame 72 itself can be made high, and a sectional area of the traveling frame 72 can be made large, thus enhancing the strength thereof.
However, according to the above-described crane, the rotating pedestal portion 76 for supporting the upper rotating body 79 rotatably is disposed on the upper surface of the traveling frame 72 and is at a position above the support position of the front and rear axles 74, 74, which is therefore insufficient in terms of lowering the height of the machine, and particularly, smaller the width of the machine, it is difficult to secure the traveling stability.
B. Problem on the length of the working attachment
In the self-traveling working machine including a self-traveling crane, the upper rotating body is rotatably mounted on the lower traveling body provided with wheels or crawlers, and the cabin and the working attachment are provided on the rotating frame of the upper rotating body.
In the case of the crane, as the working attachment, the multistage telescopic boom is generally supported free to rise and fall on the rotating frame and mounted from backward to forward of the rotating frame passing through one side of the cabin in the maximum fallen state.
Incidentally, the lengthy working attachment is sometimes required in a narrow depending on the using conditions of the machine, but in mounting the lengthy working attachment in the self-traveling working machine, there results in the multistage system in order to secure the performance at the time of normal traveling time and the workability in a narrow, and the longer the length, the number of stages of the working attachment increases to increase the weight thereof.
For solving such a problem as described above, in the mobile crane shown, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Registration No 2529509 Publication, the base end of the internal boom is projected rearward from the base end of the external boom in the state that the telescopic boom is most contracted, whereby a pivotal connecting position (a rising/falling position) of the external boom can be moved in the direction of the end of the telescopic boom by a length portion corresponding to the rearward projecting amount of the internal boom.
As a result, the telescoping stroke of the internal boom with respect to the external boom can be increased without increasing the rotating radius of the rear end of the upper rotating body when the crane is working.
Further, in the crane proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-211193 Publication, the boom is rotatably pivoted at the end of the base boom, the base boom is made to be rocked laterally with respect to the boom base portion, and even if the lengthy boom is arranged to meet a condition, namely, the radius of rear end of boom at the time of travel>radius of rear end of frame>radius of rear end of boom at the time of working, the safety at the time of traveling is secured, and the rotating radius of the rear end when the crane is working is made small to enhance the workability at a narrow.
Further, in the anchor executing machine proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-140575 Publication, the boom bracket can be moved laterally with respect to the base frame to thereby enhance freedom of execution.
However, in the art shown in the aforementioned Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2529509 Publication, the internal boom is movably arranged within the external boom so that the internal boom is projected from the rearward of the external boom, and therefore the full length of the external boom is unavoidably shortened. Accordingly, there poses a problem that the number of stages of the telescopic boom increases naturally, and the weight of the telescopic boom increases.
Further, a trouble occurs in rising/falling rocking of the telescopic boom unless the internal boom is moved in an extending direction with respect to the external boom, and therefore a clearance is provided at the lower portion of the telescopic boom, which poses a further problem that a position of the center of gravity of the telescopic boom is high. There is possibility of impairing the stability of the mobile crane during traveling.
On the other hand, in the art shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-211193, the base frame and the boom constitute an articulated boom, therefore posing a problem that construction becomes complicated and the weight increases. Further, there poses a further problem that the height of the rear end portion of the boom is high, and a position of the center of gravity of the boom is high, and the stability of the machine body during traveling is possibly impaired.
Further, in the anchor executing machine shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-140575, the boom bracket itself can be moved laterally, with respect to the structures of the mobile crane shown in Japanese Utility Model Registration No 2529509 Publication, and the crane shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-211193, but the boom bracket can be moved only on the upper rotating body, thus posing a problem that when a lengthy boom is mounted, the projecting amount forward of the upper rotating body increases or the number of stages of the boom increases, resulting in an increase of movement into a narrow or of weight. Further, in the anchor execution machine, since the boom is pivoted at a high position, the center of gravity of the machine body is also high.
With respect to the self-traveling working machine which runs on the road, there are many problems such as a problem of a weight limit of road, and, there is disadvantageous in terms of the travel performance such as acceleration, braking or turning due to an increase in inertia force during traveling resulting from an increase in weight, and the traveling apparatus for supporting a great weight is unavoidably large-scaled, resulting in an increase in weight by which the entry into a narrow is lost. Further, the higher the center of gravity of the machine body, there is disadvantageous in terms of traveling stability with respect to the direction of falling down toward the side.


Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to synchronizing for directory actions performed while offline. In aspects, file system objects that reside on a remote data store are made available for offline use. While offline, a client receives an indication that a directory is to be deleted or renamed. In response, the client modifies its local copy of the directory and its descendants if any and stores one or more tombstones that include information that the client can use when synchronizing the changes made to the directory when the client is reconnected to the remote data store. When the client reconnects to the remote data store, the client synchronizes changes made while offline with the remote data store. Resolution conflict mechanisms may be used during this synchronization.

Some operating systems allow a user to designate certain files to be available for offline use. When the user is connected to a server that hosts the files, the user's machine accesses the files from the server. When the user is not connected to the server, the user's machine obtains a cached copy of the files from a data store that is local to the user's machine. Later, when the user's machine is reconnected to the server, the cached copies of the files on the user's machine are synchronized with the copies of the files stored on the server. The above mechanism works well when only files are involved but has issues when directories are involved. In particular, when directories are involved, a user is not allowed to delete or rename a cached directory while the user's machine is offline.

Synchronizing for directory changes performed while offline


A fishing reel according to an embodiment includes a spool rotatably supported between a left side plate and a right side plate of a reel body, and a fishing line guide having a first portion and a second portion. The first portion has a first through hole, the second portion has a second through hole, the first through hole guides a fishing line to be wound on the spool, and the second through hole has a width in a left-right direction larger than the first through hole and being continuous with the first through hole. A front surface of the first portion is angled to a rear side with respect to a perpendicular line extended from a center of a rotational axis of the spool to an extending direction of the fishing line.

A known double-bearing fishing reel includes a spool rotatably supported between left and right side plates, and a level wind mechanism. The level wind mechanism includes a fishing line guide for uniformly winding a fishing line on the spool. The fishing line guide reciprocates in a left-right direction in accordance with winding operation of a handle. Therefore a fishing line threaded through the fishing line guide is uniformly wound on the spool by the winding operation of the handle.
Such a conventional fishing reel has a disadvantage that fishing tackles cannot be casted far away since a relatively large resistive force works on the fishing line when the line in released from the reel. In order to overcome this disadvantage, there is a conventional example in which a portion of an insertion hole formed in the fishing line guide is made wider than the other portion of the insertion hole (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication 2013-243997). The fishing line guide is arranged on the reel body such that a fishing line passes through the wider portion of the insertion hole when the fishing line is released, whereas the fishing line passes through the narrow portion of the insertion hole to be guided to the spool when the fishing line is wound on the spool. Accordingly the resistive force acting on the fishing line from the fishing line guide can be decreased when the fishing line is released, and the line is orderly guided to the spool through the narrow portion of the hole when the line is wound.
The narrow portion of the insertion hole in the conventional fishing line guide is configured to have a slightly larger width than the diameter of a fishing line in order to prevent the line from moving roughly in the left-right direction when the line is retained in the narrow portion. In this way, the fishing line can be orderly wound on the spool. However, when the fishing line is knotted, the knot tends to get caught on the narrow portion of the hole.

Fishing reel having a fishing line guide that guides a fishing line wound on a spool


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to mitigating at least one coverage hole [108] from a coverage area served by at least one serving cell [102A to 102L]. In a preferred embodiment, a method is disclosed comprising: identifying at least one of at least one first optimum cell and at least one second optimum cell from the at least one serving cell [102A to 102L] based on the coverage hole information based on least one first cell parameter and at least one second cell parameter respectively; determining a final set of target cells comprising at least one final cell and mitigating the at least one coverage hole [108] by modifying the transmission parameter of the at least one final cell based on at least one of the coverage hole information, the at least one first cell parameter and the at least one second cell parameter.

With the advancements in communications technology (such as GMS, EDGE, HSPA, LTE, etc.) over recent years, wireless networks are widely deployed to provide communication and content services such as voice, video, data, advertisement, content, messaging, broadcasts, etc. To this end, said wireless networks have multiple access points/networks that are configured to support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One such network is a UMTS network, a successor to GSM technologies. The UMTS networks currently supports not only various air interface standards such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) but also supports various enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for providing higher data transfer speeds. However, due to various limitations possessed by the UMTS network, an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), being a radio access network standard, is considered to be a replacement of the UMTS and HSDPA/HSUPA technologies as specified in the 3GPP releases 5 and beyond, since LTETs E-UTRA is an entirely new air interface system with advanced features including higher data rates and lower latency.
The 3GPP specification describes a coverage hole as an area with poor coverage where the pilot signal strength is below the threshold which is required by a User Equipment (UE) to maintain an access to the network, or the SINRs of both serving and neighbor cells is below a level needed to maintain a basic service. Particularly, in the coverage hole, the signal strength of a cellular network experienced by the UE is insufficient to maintain the connectivity and also, there is no coverage from an alternative 3GPP LTE cell. Consequently, the UEs are not able to make network entry or hand overs (HO), or call drops and therefore, may suffer from call drops and Radio Link Failures (RLF). Coverage holes can be caused by physical obstructions (such as new buildings and hills), unsuitable antenna parameters, or inadequate radio frequency (RF) planning.
Accordingly, in order to overcome the aforementioned problems inherent in the existing/outgoing solutions, there exists a need of an efficient mechanism for mitigating existing coverage holes based on various parameters such as coverage hole information, cell parameters, transmission parameter of the serving cells. Further, there exists a need to enhance the coverage area effectively, thereby catering more number of users/user equipments.

System and method for mitigating a coverage hole from a coverage area


An ion trap apparatus is provided. The ion trap apparatus comprises two or more radio frequency (RF) rails formed with substantially parallel longitudinal axes and with substantially coplanar upper surfaces; and two or more sequences of trapping and/or transport (TT) electrodes with each sequence formed to extend substantially parallel to the substantially parallel longitudinal axes of the RF rails. The two or more RF rails and the two or more sequences of TT electrodes define an ion trap. The two or more sequences of TT electrodes are arranged into a number of zones. Each zone comprises wide matched groups of TT electrodes and at least one narrow matched group of TT electrodes. A wide TT electrode is longer and/or wider in a direction substantially parallel to the substantially parallel longitudinal axes of the RF rails than a narrow TT electrode.

An ion trap can use a combination of electrical and magnetic fields to capture one or more ions in a potential well. Ions can be trapped for a number of purposes, which may include mass spectrometry, research, and/or controlling quantum states, for example. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation many deficiencies of such prior ion traps have been solved by developing solutions that are structured in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, many examples of which are described in detail herein.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for ion traps


Apparatuses, methods and systems used to reduce the time needed to process images of a bar code or optical code captured by a image bar code scanner. Image bar code scanners read bar codes or optical codes by capturing digital images of the codes using an image capture device and then processing the captured images to decode the optical code or bar code. The processing time is reduced by rotating the images to align the axis of the codes contained in the captured images with the rows of photo detectors in the image capture device.

Bar code scanners are used in a wide variety of applications that rely on bar codes to store information. Industries such as retail, airline, self service, automotive, parcel delivery, pharmaceutical and healthcare use bar codes to provide inventory control, customer identification, item tracking and many others functions. Bar code scanners scan or read a bar code that is typically attached to or printed on an object. A typical bar code is comprised of a number of bars separated by spaces. Information is encoded on a bar code by varying the width of the bars and spaces. When a bar code is placed within the field of view of a scanner, the scanner will read the bars and spaces comprising the bar code and then use this data to decode the information encoded in the bar code. This operation is called reading a bar code. The information encoded on a bar code usually takes the form of an alphanumeric number.
An imaging bar code scanner reads a bar code by capturing a digital image of the bar code and then processing the image to detect and read the bar code. Processing the image to find a bar code is a very computationally intensive process. In high pass-by applications where the bar code is moved past the scanner at high speeds, the bar code being scanned is physically located within the scanner's field of view for a relatively short period of time. During this short time period, multiple images must be captured and processed. This places limits on the time available to process each captured image. In some situations, there is insufficient time to process a captured image before the next image is captured for processing. Increase the processing power of the scanner is one possible solution but this also adds expense to the scanner. Other solutions simply limit the pass-by speed of the bar code thus allowing more time to process the captured image, which reduces the required processing power. Although, what is needed is a way to reduce the computational requirements needed to analyze a captured image so that no increase in scanner processing power is required and there is no reduction in pass-by speed.

Method, device and system for scanning optical codes