An anchoring structure for components such as a ball-stud grommet includes a head and a plurality of retention legs defining lips in spaced, confronting relationship with a surface of the head. The legs are arranged in a circle and are provided in sufficient number and in sufficiently close spaced relation that at least one leg on opposite sides engage edges of a slot for any rotational position of the fastener relative to the slot.

In the assembly of snap-fit components, it is necessary to account for build variation in component location. Build variation is the stack-up of tolerances between fastener locations when two different processes are used to locate the fasteners in each component. For example, an interior door trim on an automobile may have up to ten snap-fit fasteners protruding from the back surface that are designed to have blind lead-in and assembly to ten matching holes in the sheet metal of the vehicle. Because the processes are different between the manufacturing of the door panel (often molded) and the manufacturing of the sheet metal (often punched holes) there will be variations in the locations of the holes relative to each other. To allow for assembly of the door panel to the sheet metal, the blind fasteners used between the holes of the door panel and the holes of the sheet metal are allowed to float in oversize holes on the door panel. A 1.0 to 2.0 mm float will account for build variations between the two components and has worked successfully for the installation of automobile interior door trim.
Other assemblies cannot allow float in the blind attachment arrangement due to the fit and function requirements of the components being assembled. One example of such is the attachment of vehicle tail lamps and headlamps. The components for headlamps and tail lamps require solid attachment to the sheet metal of the vehicle so that proper adjustment, positioning and aim of the lights are achieved and maintained. The use of all floating fasteners is not feasible for these types of installations. To overcome the issues surrounding build variation, tail lamps and head lamps are known to be attached at one six-way locating position (a hole) and at up to three four-way locating positions (slots). Known fasteners are configured for either holes or slots, with different fasteners used for holes (circular) and for slots (elongated). Assembly plants must maintain inventories of each, and provide each to the proper place for installation.
Another problem is encountered in some situations with known elongated fasteners secured in slots. To insert the fastener into the slot, it is necessary to properly align the fastener with the elongated slot. If the longitudinal axis of the fastener and the longitudinal axis of the slot are not aligned properly, the fastener cannot be inserted into the slot or will be inserted with great difficulty, perhaps even damaging the anchoring portion of the fastener.
Known fasteners used in holes are circular, with four anchoring legs. Circular fasteners of this type will not work well in slots. The fastener is secure only if opposed anchoring legs are transverse to the axial direction of the slot. If not, the fastener will become loose and can fall from the slot.
A preferred blind fastener can be anchored regardless of the orientation of the fastener. Blind fasteners allow for the preassembly of components and shipment of the all parts in the assembly. If a single anchoring part is used between two components, the anchoring part is assembled in one of the components, generally aligned with the anchoring location of the other components and simply pressed together. When a two-part fastener is used, one part of the fastener is located in one component and the other part of the fastener is located in the other component, with the fastener parts generally located and pressed together during final assembly. Alternatively, one component can have an assembled fastener connected to it and subsequently aligned with the other component and pushed together. Again, in any of these situations, a preferred blind fastener does not require positioning or orientation relative to the anchoring hole, but merely general alignment therewith and compression for attachment. Preferred blind fasteners can be attached from one side of the components without having to attach or modify the items from the opposite side of the components.
A preferred fastener offers rigid attachment across both holes and slots, can be provided as a part in assembly attached to one component and allows for good lead-in and assembly.


A wall panel and joint structure for erecting structurally sound, thermally efficient and inexpensive structures for human habitat. Each wall panel includes a foam core faced on each side with reinforced cementitious facing panels, the foam edges of the composite panel being grooved peripherally inside the cementitious facing panels. At least one metal tongue member is inserted in opposing side edge grooves of abutting wall panels, and fasteners are mounted through the cementitious facing panels, any intervening foam, and into the tongue members to hold adjacent wall panels together. U-shaped channels are provided to finish an upper edge of the wall panel and to secure a bottom edge thereof to a floor structure. Wall mount clips are provided to secure the wall panels to existing subwall structures. Flanges are provided at an upper end of the tongue members to secure roofing members to the wall panels.

It has long been desirable to provide a single, thermally efficient, inexpensive wall panel structure for use in erecting housing or other structures. While many attempts have been proposed, many such wall panel structures are not sufficiently strong to serve as structural building panels without extraneous support or internal studding and the like. Such studding adds components and costs and frequently presents a thermal "short circuit" or bridge lowering the insulative value or rating of the panel.
Moreover, when individual panels are interconnected or joined, they may "rack", slide or twist with respect to each other resulting in less than desirable structural stability.
In addition, it is highly desirable to provide a thermally insulative weather-resistant wall panel capable of joinder with other such panels to produce a structurally sound and durable wall structure useful in erecting and forming the walls of a house or building. In many areas of the world, in relative low income, high population areas, inexpensive, structurally sound housing is difficult to obtain. The provision of insulated panels suitable for joinder to form structurally sound, thermally efficient, inexpensive enclosures for human habitat is particularly desirable.
While insulated wall panels have been proposed, the joining of the panels together, as well as the mounting of panels to associated other structures, are subjects in need of new ideas and improvements. As noted, prior joint and joinder concepts appear to lack a sufficiently substantive nature, produce a thermal "short circuit" destroying the panel's "R" value, or both. Moreover, it has been found difficult to provide a foam core wall panel of sufficient joinder strength and rigidity to serve as a component of a structural wall of such panels.
Accordingly, it has been one objective of this invention to provide an improved wall panel and apparatus for joining similar panels to form a structural capacity wall.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide an improved apparatus for securing one or more panels to a floor.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide an improved apparatus for securing one or more panels to a roof.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide an improved wall panel and mounting system without thermal transfers through the panel due to wall mounting or panel-joining components, wall studs or the like.
It will be appreciated that in some cultures or environments, there are pre-existing structures or walls, frequently old, which form the boundary of an office or apartment. These are occasionally damp and non-uniform. For example, in certain high-population density areas around the world, large multiple tenant structures have tapered, waving or damp interior structural walls unfit to serve as a basis for a healthy home.
Accordingly, a further objective of the invention is to provide a functional wall which may easily be adapted to and mounted on existing sub-walls despite irregularities of plane, wet or leaking conditions or the like.


A mobile communications device includes a controller, a connector device configured to couple with a computer system, an interface device, and memory. The interface device is coupled to the controller and configured to communicate an electromagnetic signal. The memory stores instructions performed by the controller to cause the interface device to communicate an electromagnetic signal including information associated with a user of the mobile device or of another mobile device, and to cause the connector device to communicate the information associated with the user to or from the computer system.

Users of an instant messaging service can communicate virtually and in real time with other instant messaging users. Users may manually create a buddy list of user names or online identifiers of other users of the instant messaging service, and may use such a buddy list to facilitate establishment of instant messaging sessions with those users included in the buddy list or to perceive the availability of those other users, commonly references as "presence."


A plant and a process for producing tires wherein the process includes the steps of: a) building a green tire on a toroidal support in a building line of a tire production plant; b) transferring the green tire and the relevant toroidal support from the building line of the production plant to a first holding unit; c) transferring the green tire and the relevant toroidal support from the first holding unit to a vulcanization line of the production plant; d) molding and vulcanization the green tire in the vulcanization line of the production plant; e) separating the molded and vulcanized tire from the relevant toroidal support; f) transferring the toroidal support, separated from the relevant tire, from the vulcanization line to the first holding unit; and g) transferring the toroidal support, separated from the relevant tire, from the first holding unit to the building line of the production plant, wherein steps b) and g) are carried out through a first transfer device and steps c) and f) are carried out through a second transfer device different from the first transfer device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing tyres for vehicle wheels.
In particular, the present invention relates to a process for producing tyres built on a toroidal support.
Another object of the invention is a plant for producing tyres for vehicle wheels, able to be used to carry out the aforementioned producing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
The production cycles of a tyre provide that, after a building process in which the various components of the same tyre are made and/or assembled in a building line, a vulcanization and moulding process is carried out, in a suitable vulcanization line, adapted for defining the structure of the tyre according to a desired geometry and tread pattern.
A tyre generally comprises a toroidally ring-shaped carcass including one or more carcass plies, strengthened with reinforcing cords, lying in substantially radial planes, (a radial plane contains the rotation axis of the tyre). Each carcass ply has its ends integrally associated with at least one metal reinforcing annular structure, usually known as bead core, constituting the reinforcing at the beads, i.e. at the radially internal ends of the tyre, the function of which is to enable assembling of the tyre with a corresponding mounting rim. Placed crown wise to said carcass is a band of elastomer material, called tread band, in which, at the end of the vulcanization and molding steps, a raised pattern is formed for ground contact. A reinforcing structure usually known as belt structure is placed between the carcass and the tread band. In the case of car tyres, this structure usually comprises at least two radially superposed strips of rubberised fabric provided with reinforcing cords, generally of metal material, positioned parallel to each other in each strip and in a crossed relationship with the cords of the adjacent strip preferably symmetrically arranged with respect to the equatorial plane of the tyre. Preferably said belt structure further comprises at a radially external position thereof, at least on the ends of the underlying belt strips, also a third layer of textile or metallic cords, circumferentially disposed (at zero degrees).
Finally, in tyres of the tubeless type, i.e. devoid of an air tube, a radially internal layer, called liner, is present which has imperviousness features to ensure the air-tightness of the tyre.
To the aims of the present description as well as in the following claims, by the term "elastomer material" it is intended a composition comprising at least one elastomer polymer and at least one reinforcing filler. Preferably this composition further comprises additives such as cross-linking and/or plasticizing agents. By virtue of the cross-linking agents, this material can be cross-linked through heating so as to form the final manufactured article.
In recent times tyre production processes in which a green tyre is built on a rigid toroidal support has been introduced in the field. Said processes are preferably used for tyres produced starting from a limited number of elementary semifinished products fed onto a toroidal support whose outer profile coincides with that of the radially internal surface of the tyre that is wished to be produced. The toroidal support is moved, preferably by means of a robotized system, among a plurality of working stations in each of which, through automated sequences, a particular building step of the tyre is carried out. At the end of the building steps, the toroidal support with the tyre supported thereby is arranged inside a vulcanization mould.
In the present context, by the term "green tyre" a tyre obtained by the building process is indicated.
An example of the aforementioned processes is described in WO 01/32409, in the name of the same Applicant, which illustrates a tyre building line provided with working stations, each arranged to make and assemble at least one structural component of the tyre being processed, in which at least one series of tyres comprising at least a first and a second tyre model that are different from each other is treated simultaneously, and in which the transferral of the tyres to the vulcanization line is carried out through robotized arms and according to a transferring rate which is equal to the transferring rate of the tyres to each of said working stations.
WO 01/39963, in the name of the same Applicant, on the other hand, illustrates a process for producing tyres that are different from each other, comprising a building unit having a plurality of working stations, each adapted for assembling at least one structural component on at least one type of tyre being processed, a vulcanization unit, and a device for transferring and moving the tyre being processed, operating between the working stations and the vulcanization unit.
Said device for transferring and moving the tyre transfers a green tyre to the vulcanization unit; after vulcanization, it picks up a vulcanized and moulded tyre from the vulcanization unit and transfers it to the first working station of the building unit, where the tyre is removed from the corresponding toroidal support. The latter is then transferred from the same device for transferring and moving the tyre into a temperature stabilizing device. In the case in which the tyre to be produced requires a different type of toroidal support, the device picks up the suitable toroidal support from a feeding station and inserts it into the temperature stabilizing device.
The Applicant has noted that since the aforementioned device for transferring and moving the tyre is arranged to carry out numerous operations and to make large displacements, requires large maneuvering spaces and therefore a plant of considerable size. In particular WO 01/39963 describes the use of a robotized arm translating on a rail, as a device for transferring and moving the tyre.
The Applicant has also verified that, in such known processes, any anomaly or malfunctioning in any one from the vulcanization unit, mounting/dismounting unit of the toroidal supports, and temperature stabilizing unit, has the immediate consequence of blocking the production plant with serious repercussions on its productivity.
For example, in the case of blocking of the mounting/dismounting unit of the toroidal support, the device for transferring and moving the tyre does not carry out the removal of the tyre from the vulcanizer, even if the vulcanization has been completed. Consequently, the tyre obtained becomes overvulcanized and therefore is not in accordance with the required specifications.

Process and plant for producing tyres for vehicle wheels


A product aligning system specially adapted for receiving and aligning product items in bulk quantity, includes a hopper for receiving masses of product items in bulk and including a hopper conveyor extending across the bottom of the hopper, a hopper nose conveyor for receiving product items conveyed by the hopper conveyor and extending outwardly from the hopper, and a scale conveyor for receiving items from the hopper nose conveyor. The hopper nose conveyor and scale conveyor each include powered rakes positioned above the item supporting surfaces of those conveyors such that substantially only a single layer of items passes therebeneath. The hopper nose and scale conveyors each include load sensing apparatus which detects an accumulation of product items on those conveyors and signals a computer control which slows the speeds of the hopper and hopper nose conveyors sufficiently to allow the accumulation of products to reduce. The system also includes a product orienting component which includes an array of V-shaped belts positioned in alternating relation with an array of O-ring belts. The O-ring belts are driven at a slower speed than the V-shaped belts, and further, are driven at varying speeds, so that individual product items which bridge between adjacent O-ring belts, or between a V-shaped belt and an adjacent O-ring belt, are rotated as a result of the speed differential to lay substantially in alignment with the V-shaped product supporting belts. Powered rakes are positioned above the V-shaped belts so that substantially only a single layer of aligned product is conveyed from the downstream ends of the belts.

The present invention relates to product handling systems and, more particularly, to systems for receiving bulk quantities of individual product items and arranging the product items uniformly to be deposited on product conveyors.
In product manufacturing operations, the product items typically are produced in bulk quantities, but in many instances are packed and shipped in packages of a selected number and orientation. This requires that the bulk of product items produced be organized and arranged uniformly so that the items can be placed into packages of a uniform count and orientation.
Typical of such product production operations is the production of cooked products such as frankfurters. Such cooked product items are produced in bulk, yet are packed and shipped in packages of discreet numbers and arrays, such as a package of eight frankfurters, arranged in stacked rows of four frankfurters each.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system for receiving bulk quantities of product items, and ultimately orienting the items uniformly to be placed on conveyors which deliver the items to packing machinery.


A lens barrel includes a cam cylinder that is provided with a cam groove on the inner circumference thereof and a linear cylinder that restricts movement of the lens holding unit. A plurality of bayonet protrusions are provided on the linear cylinder at different positions in the optical axis direction. A plurality of bayonet grooves that engage with the bayonet protrusions provided on the linear cylinder so as to achieve the relative position restriction between the cam cylinder and the linear cylinder in the optical axis direction are further provided on the inner circumference of the cam cylinder. In accordance with the relative rotation of the cam cylinder with respect to the linear cylinder, the relative position restriction between the cam cylinder and the linear cylinder due to the engagement of the bayonet protrusions with the bayonet grooves is changed to position restriction depending on the relative rotation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens barrel and an imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a lens barrel including a zoom mechanism that moves a plurality of lenses to a predetermined position by causing a linear cylinder to restrict the movement of a plurality of lens holding frames in the rotational direction while moving the plurality of lens holding frames for respectively holding the plurality of lenses in the optical axis direction by the rotation of a cam cylinder.
In order to meet the recent requirement for increasing an image-taking magnification, the number of lenses increases and a total extended length increases, resulting in a tendency with an increase in size of a lens barrel. On the other hand, there is also a requirement for thinning of a camera, and thus, the thickness of the camera when the lens barrel is retracted into the camera body needs to be reduced as much as possible.
In order to achieve thinning of a camera, it is contemplated that barrels in which the dimension is reduced in the optical axis direction are connected in a multi-stage configuration. However, there are many restrictions for disposing a plurality of cam grooves on a barrel without mutual intersection in terms of space.
On the other hand, bayonet grooves which are followed by bayonet protrusions provided on a linear cylinder are typically formed on the inner circumference of a cam cylinder. Then, the bayonet protrusion is mated with the bayonet groove so as to contact against both side wall surfaces of the bayonet groove in the width direction, so that the relative position restriction between the cam cylinder and the linear cylinder in the optical axis direction is achieved.
However, a plurality of cam grooves which are followed by the followers respectively provided on a plurality of lens holding frames is disposed on the inner circumference of the cam cylinder, a restriction may also occur in the space in which the bayonet groove is disposed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-093999 discloses a lens barrel in which bayonet grooves are disposed along the circumferential direction of the cam cylinder so as to intersect a plurality of cam grooves formed on the inner circumference of the cam cylinder. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-215279 discloses a lens barrel that restricts the relative position between the cam cylinder and the linear cylinder in the optical axis direction by sandwiching a portion between the image plane side wall surface of the bayonet groove and the image plane side end surface of the cam cylinder in the optical axis direction by the bayonet protrusion and the linear rib both provided on the linear cylinder at the TELE position.
In the lens barrel disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-093999, the bayonet grooves must be disposed so as to intersect all of the cam grooves such that the bayonet protrusion steps over the cam groove when the bayonet protrusion passes through the cam groove. If the bayonet grooves are not disposed as described above, the bayonet protrusion is outside the bayonet groove when the bayonet protrusion passes through the cam groove, so that the relative position restriction cannot be made between the cam cylinder and the linear cylinder in the optical axis direction. Thus, the degree of freedom in selection of parts in which the cam grooves and the bayonet grooves are disposed on the inner circumference of the cam cylinder decreases, so that the lens barrel fails to correspond to various operations of lens groups.
In addition, in the lens barrel disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-215279, the cam cylinder needs to rotate while avoiding the linear rib when the cam cylinder rotates relatively with respect to the linear cylinder, so that a restriction occurs in the arrangement of bayonet grooves.


A method for operating a digital computer in response to the occurrence of an exception is disclosed. The method provides for the examination both of the contents of a predetermined computer location and of the instruction code for the instruction causing the exception. The computer then utilizes the result of those examinations to determine the dismissibility of the exception. The computer transfers control to the next instruction after the instruction which caused the exception if that instruction is dismissible.

Digital computers all have a supervisory program, known as an operating system, which controls the basic operations of the computer. It is the operating system which initially starts the computer operating when the computer is turned on. The operating system is a program that controls the execution of the programs that the user wishes to use, which are called application programs or simply applications. The operating system is usually invisible to the computer's user; it is the application program which the user actually observes running.
The operating system is usually designed to prevent the user from performing operations which are erroneous in some predesignated way. For example, the computer cannot divide a number by zero, since the result cannot be calculated. Such an erroneous operation generates a response known as an exception. If while running an application the operating system encounters an instruction which creates an exception, it will transfer control from the application which is being executed to a separate subroutine or program designed to handle that exception. These subroutines or programs are known as trap routines or trap handlers. Thus using the above example, if an application attempted to divide a number by zero, control of the computer would be transferred to a trap handler. Similarly, if an application tries to read from or write to a device or memory location which does not exist, the operating system will transfer control of the computer to a trap handler. Some trap handlers terminate the application program which is being executed, while others provide some type of warning message to the user.
A trap which occurs when an instruction attempts to perform some illegal operation is known as an exception trap. Exception traps can be very helpful to the computer's user, since exception traps catch inadvertent errors which may otherwise have gone unnoticed. Some such errors are otherwise undetectable by the user. Exception traps can be a hindrance, however, in cases where the application programmer knows that the exception will produce harmless results and that the instructions which create the exception are the best available for reaching that programmer's desired results.
For example, modern digital microprocessors can often perform mathematical functions much faster than they can access most commercially practical memory devices. To prevent idle processor time, programmers and optimizing compilers attempt to generate code that intersperses load instructions with computations performed on data already in the processor's internal registers. Ideally the program issues an instruction which loads data into an internal processor register and then proceeds with a calculation that involves only data currently in the internal registers. The load instruction is completed during the time period occupied by the subsequent computation. By the time the computation is completed, the data specified in the load instruction will be available for the next computation.
Consider a simple loop which add the contents of two arrays, A(i) and B(i), to produce a third array C(i)=A(i)+B(i). Here, i runs from 1 to N, where there are N elements in each of the arrays. The conventional method for coding such a loop produces code for the following operations:
(1) Load 1 into register i PA1 (2) Load A(i) into internal register x PA1 (3) Load B(i) into internal register y PA1 (4) Add the contents of x and y producing a result in internal register z PA1 (5) Store the contents of z in memory location C(i) PA1 (6) Increment register i and branch to (2) if i.ltoreq.N PA1 (1) Load 2 into register i PA1 (2) Load A(1) into register x PA1 (3) Load B(1) into register y PA1 (4) Add the contents of x and y to produce a result in register z PA1 (5) Load A(i) into register x PA1 (6) Load B(i) into register y PA1 (7) Store the contents of z at C(i-1) PA1 (8) Increment i PA1 (9) Branch to (4) if i.ltoreq.N+1
The above code contains two successive load instructions at steps (2) and (3), which must be completed before the instruction at step (4) can be executed. The processor must wait for the load instructions to be completed before performing the addition at step (4). During this time, the processor is idle.
The above example may be recoded in a manner that avoids much of the processor idle time as follows:
Here, the load instructions are interspersed with other instructions that can be executed while the load instructions are being completed. These loads are obtaining the values to be used in the next iteration of the loop of steps (4)-(9) in advance of actually performing the necessary addition. The problem with this method of coding the loop occurs at the last value of i. When i=N+1, the values of A(N+1) and B(N+1) will be requested. However, since there are only N elements in each of these arrays, there are no such elements in the arrays A and B. As a result, a memory exception may be generated which causes a trap. The trap handler may terminate the program, or produce some other undesirable result.
Since the contents of the illegal memory addresses are never actually used by the code, the memory violation is harmless. Unfortunately, prior art trap handlers routines have no means of ascertaining which memory violations are harmless.
One method that has been suggested for solving this problem involves defining two sets of instructions, normal instructions and dismissible instructions. An example of an instruction that might exist in both dismissible and non-dismissible forms is a load instruction. When a normal load instruction produces a trap condition, the trap operates normally. However, when a dismissible load instruction generates a trap condition, the condition is "dismissed" and the program resumes execution. Typically the dismissible instructions are distinguished from non-dismissible instructions by one bit of the instruction code. The computer hardware is designed to suppress a trap interrupt if the instruction generating the interrupt has the bit in question set to a predetermined value.
While this method of dealing with dismissible trap conditions allows the type of code described above to be used, it has a number of drawbacks. First, it can not be utilized on existing processors that do not implement these instructions in hardware. Since the indication of dismissibility of an instruction is contained in the instruction code and processed by the interrupt hardware, specially constructed processors must be utilized.
Second, two instructions must be provided for each operation that may generated a dismissible trap condition. This reduces the number of instructions that can be provided for any given instruction code length. If the instruction code length is increased to accommodate the new instructions, the amount of memory needed to store the program will increase or a fewer number of distinct operations can be described in the instruction set of the computer.
Third, the hardware designer must anticipate all instructions that may generate dismissible traps. Either the designer must be over-inclusive in designing the dismissible instruction set or the programmers will be limited in the code that can be run on the processor. If the designer is over-inclusive, processor hardware, and possible memory costs, will be increased due to increased hardware complexity. If the designer is under-inclusive, the programmer will be limited in his or her ability to provide efficient code for some task.
Finally, this approach does not allow the processor to make the decision on whether or not to dismiss an exception dependent upon the state of other registers in the processor. For example, it would be advantageous to allow the programmer to dynamically specify the dismissibility of certain classes of instructions during the execution of the code. This could be done by examining the contents of one or more registers in the computer and basing the dismissibility decision on the specific instruction causing the exception and the contents of these registers. Such conditional exception handling is difficult to implement in hardware without substantially increasing the complexity, and therefore cost, of the hardware.
Broadly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved method for operating a digital computer in response to an exception.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of determining whether an instruction is dismissible which can be implemented on existing processors.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a computer which allows a single instruction code to represent both dismissible and non-dismissible instructions which perform the same operation.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a computer which does not require that the hardware designer anticipate all instructions which may generate dismissible traps.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a computer which allows the processor to determine dismissibility of an instruction in a manner that depends upon the status of computer registers or other hardware devices.
These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention and the following drawings.

Software method for implementing dismissible instructions on a computer


A symmetrical inductor. The inductor comprises first, second, third and fourth semi-circular conductive lines disposed in an insulating layer on a substrate, having first and second ends, respectively. The second semi-circular conductive line makes the first semi-circular conductive line symmetric, in which the first ends of the first and second semi-circular conductive lines are electrically connected to each other. The third semi-circular conductive line is parallel to and located outside the first semi-circular conductive line, in which the second ends of the third and second semi-circular conductive lines are electrically connected to each other. The fourth semi-circular conductive line makes the third semi-circular conductive line symmetric, in which the second ends of the fourth and first semi-circular conductive lines are electrically connected to each other. The first, second, third and fourth semi-circular conductive lines have the same line width and the same line space, in which the line space exceeds the line width when the line width is less than 6 μm.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor device, and in particular to a symmetrical inductor in differential operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many digital and analog elements and circuits have been successfully applied to semiconductor integrated circuits. Such elements may include passive components, such as resistors, capacitors, or inductors. Typically, a semiconductor integrated circuit includes a silicon substrate. One or more dielectric layers are disposed on the substrate, and one or more metal layers are disposed in the dielectric layers. The metal layers may be employed to form on-chip elements, such as on-chip inductors, by current semiconductor technologies.
Conventionally, the on-chip inductor is formed over a semiconductor substrate and employed in integrated circuits designed for radio frequency (RF) band. FIG. 1 is a plane view of a conventional on-chip inductor with a planar spiral configuration. The on-chip inductor is formed in an insulating layer 104 on a substrate 100, comprising a spiral metal layer 103 and an interconnect structure. The spiral metal layer 103 is embedded in the insulating layer 104. The interconnect structure includes conductive plugs 105 and 109, a metal layer 107 embedded in an underlying insulating layer (not shown), and a metal layer 111 embedded in the insulating layer 104. A current path is created by the spiral metal layer 103, the conductive plugs 105 and 109, and the metal layers 107 and 111 to electrically connect internal or external circuits to the chip.
A principle advantage of the planar spiral inductor is increased circuit integration due to fewer circuit elements located off the chip along with attendant need for complex interconnections. Moreover, the planar spiral inductor can reduce parasitic capacitance induced by the bond pads or bond wires between on-chip and off-chip circuits.
The planar spiral inductor, however, occupies a larger area of the chip and has lower quality factor (i.e. Q value). To reduce chip area and improve Q value, thickness of the spiral metal layer 103 is increased, and line space S1 between the inner and outer coils is reduced. Additionally, a two-level spiral inductor has been disclosed. Generally, in the same inductance, the two-level spiral inductor needs only ½ to ¼ of the chip area of the one-level spiral inductor. Moreover, the two-level spiral inductor requires fewer coils for the same inductance. Thus, quality factor is improved due to fewer coils providing less resistance.
Although the two-level spiral inductor has less resistance and better quality factor, wireless communication chip designs are more frequently using differential circuits to reduce common mode noise, with inductors applied therein symmetrically. The symmetrical application results in the inductor having the same structure from any end. The planar spiral inductor shown in FIG. 1 and the two-level spiral inductor are not symmetrical, and, if applied in a differential circuit, will not suitably prevent common mode noise.


An improved instrument panel includes an airbag cover defined by a tear strip on an inner face of the airbag cover. The outer face of the instrument panel does not include any indication of the tear strip, and thus has a seamless appearance. A hinge is preferably provided to secure the airbag cover to the remainder of the instrument panel when the airbag deploys.

This invention relates to the provision of a vehicle instrument panel having an outwardly facing surface which includes no seams over an area that tears away upon actuation of an underlying airbag.
Airbags are incorporated into the passenger side of known vehicles. Typically, airbags are provided with a separate cover which is forced away from the remainder of the instrument panel when the airbag deploys. The use of the separate airbag cover has presented some concerns to the designer of the instrument panel. First, there is a gap between the separate cover and the remainder of the panel which is relatively unsightly. Moreover, it has been somewhat difficult to match the texture and color of the cover and the remainder of the instrument panel.

Vehicle instrument panel with seamless airbag cover


A heat dissipating member, a heat dissipating mechanism, and an information processing apparatus capable of improving the cooling efficiency without increasing the size of the apparatus are disclosed. In the information processing apparatus, it becomes possible to effectively transfer heat from a unit such as a memory disposed in an inner space of the apparatus to the outside regardless of the layout position of the unit by using the heat dissipating mechanism fixed to a unit and a heat dissipation surface so that the heat is transferred from the unit to the heat dissipation surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a heat dissipating member, a heat dissipating mechanism, and an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to a heat dissipating member for transferring heat from a heat generating part to a heat dissipation surface, a heat dissipating mechanism for transferring heat from a heat generating part to a heat dissipation surface, and an information processing apparatus including the heat dissipating mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a forced cooling method and a natural cooling method have been widely used to cool electronic parts mounted on a substrate in an information processing apparatus such as a controller for a device integrated in a system such as a vending machine or a ticket vending machine. In the forced cooling method, cooling air is forcibly supplied to electronic parts with, for example, a cooling fan. On the other hand, in the natural cooling system, an opening is formed on a chassis accommodating electronic parts, and heat from the electronic parts is discharged to the outside of the chassis by heated rising air (convection current).
However, when the forced cooling method is used, a cooling fan is required to be added inside the chassis, thereby increasing the size of the chassis and making it difficult to maintain the quietness of the apparatus due to the noise generated when the cooling fan is operating. On the other hand, when an information processing apparatus using the natural cooling method is installed at a site where no environmental control is practiced such as in the open air, undesirable air currents countering the rising air current may occur, thereby preventing the generated heat from dissipating from the chassis, or foreign material may be introduced into the chassis, thereby damaging the apparatus.
To solve the problems, a third cooling method is proposed. In the cooling method, one surface of a substrate is disposed in the vicinity of the inner wall surface of the chassis and high heat generating parts are mounted on the surface; other parts are mounted on the opposite surface of the substrate so that the heat from the high heat generating parts is transferred to the outside through the chassis working as a heat sink. However, in this method, the substrate is required to be separated from the inner wall surface of the chassis by some distance. Because of this structure, unfortunately, it is difficult to further improve the cooling efficiency. In addition, the substrate is required to be substantially parallel to the inner wall surface of the chassis. Because of this limitation, when plural substrates are required to be disposed in the chassis, the degree of freedom in designing the layout of the substrates is reduced and the size of the apparatus is increased.

Heat dissipating member, heat dissipating mechanism, and information processing apparatus


A castor includes a main body, two rollers, a plurality of rolls, two retaining members, and two covers. Thus, the rolls are rotatably mounted between the main body and the respective roller, so that each of the rollers is rotatable on the main body smoothly. In addition, the rolls and the rollers are made of the same material to reduce the friction between the rolls and the rollers during rotation of the castor, so that the rolls and the rollers are not easily worn out during a long-term utilization. Further, the rollers are covered by the covers so that only the through hole of the main body is exposed outwardly from the covers and the rollers, thereby enhancing the aesthetic quality of the castor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a castor and, more particularly, to a castor for a chair.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional castor for a chair in accordance with the prior art shown in FIG. 4 comprises a rotation body 10 provided with a connecting tube 11 pivotally mounted on a leg (not shown) of a chair, a shaft 12 extended through the rotation body 10, and two rollers 13 mounted on the shaft 12 and combined with the rotation body 10. However, the shaft 12 made of metal and the rollers 13 made of plastic material are made of different materials to increase the friction between the shaft 12 and the rollers 13 during rotation of the rollers 13, so that the rollers 13 are easily worn out during a long-term utilization. In addition, the rollers 13 are not rotatable on the shaft 12 smoothly.
Another conventional castor for a chair in accordance with the prior art shown in FIG. 5 was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 687,838 and comprises a rotation body 23 provided with a connecting tube 24 pivotally mounted on a leg (not shown) of a chair, a shaft 22 extended through the rotation body 23, two rollers 20 mounted on the shaft 22 and combined with the rotation body 23, and a plurality of rolling balls 21 mounted in the rollers 20 to facilitating rotation of the rollers 20. However, the rolling balls 21 made of metal and the rollers 20 made of plastic material are made of different materials to increase the friction between the rolling balls 21 and the rollers 20 during rotation of the rollers 20, so that the rollers 20 are easily worn out during a long-term utilization. In addition, the rolling balls 21 are made of metal so that the rolling balls 21 are easily rusted during a long-term utilization.

Castor that is operated smoothly and conveniently


Method of determining at least one stability margin for a combustor (12), by obtaining modal characteristics of at least one spectral peak in the thermoacoustic dynamics, as well as determining the stability margin for the combustor (12) on the basis of the obtained modal characteristics, and an apparatus being adapted to carry, out said method.

Several methods to determine a stability margin of a combustor or combustion chamber have been proposed. Approaches to determine a stability margin are usually developed and/or validated on laboratory combustors. The degree of effectivity in applying the same strategies to full scale industrial combustors and, particularly, annular gas turbine combustors and full gas turbine combustors is questionable. For example, the measurement location may corrupt the stability margin estimation.

Thermoacoustic precursor method and apparatus

IFTA INGENIEURBURO FUR THERMOAKUSTIK GMBH


An Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) includes optical elements located and oriented so a pump beam is generating an idler beam and a signal beam while all of these beams propagate in common directions at any given time as they move through the OPO. In one form of the invention, the optical elements include a dichroic mirror, a non-linear crystal, and right angle prisms. The beams are reflected by one of the right angle prisms back through the non-linear crystal so that walkoff is cancelled.

Optical parametric Oscillators (OPO) are passive, optical devices which convert a high intensity laser beam (pump) into two beams (signal and idler) having different wavelengths than the pump beam. In this technique, a laser beam is directed to pass through a non-linear optical crystal such as BaBa.sub.2 O.sub.4, LiB.sub.3 O.sub.5, LiNbO.sub.3, KTiOPO.sub.4, or the like. The interaction between the high intensity electrical field of the laser pump beam and the crystal results in conversion of the pump beam into two beams of different wavelengths (signal and idler) while preserving momentum and energy. The wavelengths of these beams can be tuned over a wide spectral range by varying the orientation of the crystal with respect to the laser beam, by changing the crystal's temperature, or by applying a variable voltage across the crystal. Various tuning ranges can be achieved by properly selecting the laser, the non-linear crystal and the optical components of the system.
Different constraints limit the practicality of presently available OPO designs. The high laser intensity required from the laser source to efficiently pump an OPO, can exceed the optical damage threshold of the non-linear crystal, or of the dielectric coatings of the various optical components within the cavity.
In linear cavities of the prior art, the pump beam traverses the cavity in one direction whereas the signal and the idler beams oscillate back and forth. However, the parametric process takes place only when the parametric beams (signal and idler) propagate in the same direction as the laser pump beam. This severely limits the efficiency of presently available systems. Another limitation with presently available systems is presented by the walkoff associated with the propagation of extraordinary beams in birefringent materials, such as the non-linear crystal used in the OPO. The walkoff can limit the effective gain length of the crystal, and therefore the conversion efficiency.
In critical phase-matching configurations, the beams which are generated by the non-linear process propagate with different polarization than the laser beam. The parametric gain length is defined as the length within the crystal along which the beams interact to stimulate gain. The walkoff that is associated with the propagation of beams with different polarizations within a birefringence material limits the effective gain length. The walkoff angle depends on the choice of non-linear crystal, the pump wavelength, and the geometric configuration (e.g., in Type I OPO in BBO this angle is in the range of 2-5 deg, and the effective gain length is limited to a few diameters of the pump beam).
A technique to increase the gain length by reducing the walkoff is disxclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,047,668 and 5,079,445. The walkoff compensation presented in these patents is achieved by placing two crystals with their optical axes opposing each other. However, the two crystals have to be rotated in a counter direction to each other with great mechanical precision in order to allow tuning.
Finally, the system efficiency is significantly impaired due to the Fresnel losses inside the cavity. Since the idler and the signal are tuned continuously over a wide spectral range, it is practically impossible to provide an Anti-Reflection (AR) coating that will reduce the surface reflection losses over a spectral range that will cover the pump, signal, and idler wavelengths.
These problems have to be resolved in order to build tunable laser systems which will be reliable and efficient, be easily tunable and adaptable to various uses. Therefore, there is a need for an OPO system that offers solutions to these problems and which can be operated with commercially available lasers, yet can be tuned over a wide spectral range without risking optical damage. Such a system should also be small and simple to align and operate. Such a system will close the gap between conceptual ideas and a useful and practical apparatus for research, medical applications and industrial applications.

Ring cavity optical parametric apparatus


A method for producing a semiconductor device having a sidewall insulation includes providing a semiconductor body having a first side and a second side lying opposite the first side. At least one first trench is at least partly filled with insulation material proceeding from the first side in the direction toward the second side into the semiconductor body. The at least one first trench is produced between a first semiconductor body region for a first semiconductor device and a second semiconductor body region for a second semiconductor device. An isolating trench extends from the first side of the semiconductor body in the direction toward the second side of the semiconductor body between the first and second semiconductor body regions in such a way that at least part of the insulation material of the first trench adjoins at least a sidewall of the isolating trench. The second side of the semiconductor body is partly removed as far as the isolating trench.

Semiconductor devices having sidewall insulation are necessary, for example. for CSP (chip size package) device packages, wherein, in a particularly space-saving embodiment, a contact area is formed at a sidewall of a semiconductor body. The contact area is insulated from the semiconductor body by a sidewall insulation layer. Such an embodiment is described, e.g., in German publication DE 10 2005 004 160 A1 and U.S. counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 7,663,222 B2.
Further examples of semiconductor devices having sidewall insulation are additionally known for power semiconductor components. Such a semiconductor device is described, for example, in German publication DE 103 51 028 A1 and U.S. counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 7,378,741.

Method for producing a semiconductor device


A bidirectional amplification system and method are disclosed. A single optical line amplifier and isolation loss filters are used to amplify signals in both the east and west directions with sufficient gain along a fiber.

In current large-scale networks, information flows through a series of nodes in the network from one location or site to another. As the network grows, more and more transmission lines may be added to handle the heavy traffic flow between nodes. FIG. 1 illustrates a related art system 100 that has east 110 and west 140 terminals. The east 110 and west 140 terminals communicate via lines (e.g., lines 152, 154, 156 and 162, 164, 166) that run between the terminals (e.g., optical fiber pairs 156 and 166, 164 and 154, 152 and 162. East 110 and west 140 terminals can be located a significant distance apart.
Accordingly, line amplifier nodes (e.g., 120, 130) can be interposed between the terminals (e.g., every 40-80 kilometers) to compensate for the signal loss in the transmission medium (e.g., optical fiber) by amplifying the signal. Additionally, associated dispersion compensation modules (e.g., DCMs 122, 128, 132 and 138) can be added to correct for the signal degradation caused by the transmission medium (e.g., dispersion in the optical fibers). Further, to increase the bandwidth available each east and west line can have a plurality of channels communicated on separate bands (e.g., red and blue signals), as is known in the art.
If the bandwidth provided by both bands is not needed for each direction, a single fiber can be used to carry both directions using one band for the east direction and one band for the west. There are several implementations of a bidirectional optical communication on a single fiber. These single-fiber implementations use counter-propagating channels from two non-overlapping bands of the optical spectrum. Although this system configuration can reduce the number of fibers for bidirectional communication, it can further complicate design of the amplifier nodes. For example, in one solution the red and blue signals are separated at respective inputs, routed through separate amplifiers, and then recombined at the respective outputs. However, this configuration still requires two amplifiers per node, one for each direction.
FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative configuration according to the related art for designing a bidirectional amplifier as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,404 entitled "Bidirectional Optical Telecommunication System Comprising a Bidirectional Optical Amplifier." The bidirectional amplifier configuration includes four wavelength (λ) selective optical couplers 221-224, one unidirectional optical amplifying unit 220, two optical connectors 206, 207 and portions 225, 226, 227, 228 of passive optical fiber. The components are coupled with each other to form an optical bridge connection. This configuration uses only one amplifier 220. However, it does not achieve a useful gain when the typical 40 dB optical return loss is taken into consideration.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, two signals λ1 and λ2 pass along a fiber, in opposite direction. The fiber is connected via connectors 206 and 207. Wavelength selective couplers 221-223, split the signals so that they enter the optical amplifier 220 from the same direction, are amplified, and then split by the wavelength couplers 221, 223, and 224 to continue their travel along a common fiber in opposite directions. In the operation of the system described, some of the signals are leaked in the wrong direction (e.g., leakage of amplified signal λ1 254 through coupler 224 that is reflected back 252 from coupler 221 to connector 206), which is called optical return loss (ORL). The general formula that governs the return loss is:Preturn=Pin+G−2Lisolation  (1)ORL=Pin−Preturn,  (2)where, P is power, G is amplifier gain, Lisolation is isolation loss through the device and ORL is optical return loss. Typically, Lisolation for conventional filters, couplers and the like is 20 dB. Accordingly the maximum gain Gmax calculated for a four module system is:Gmax=2Lisolation−ORL=2Lisolation−40=0  (3)Applying this general equation to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 2 yields:Preturn=Pin+G−L224−L221; andGmax=L224+L221−ORL=20+20−40=0  (4)where L224 and L221 are the isolation losses through those corresponding devices. As determined in the foregoing sections, Gmax should be set to zero to avoid excessive amplified signal leakage. Additionally, the four-port configuration also suffers from poor performance when there is a fiber break, which can result in a 14 dB back-reflection.


The invention provides ligands and fragments thereof to a receptor on the surface of activated CD4+ T-cells. An exemplary ligand is designated ACT-4-L-h-1. Preferred fragments include purified extracellular domains of ligands. The invention also provides humanized and human antibodies to the ligand. The invention further provides methods of using the ligand and the antibodies in treatment of diseases and conditions of the immune system. The invention also provides methods of monitoring activated CD4+ T-cells using the ligands or fragments thereof.

Immune responses are largely mediated by a diverse collection of peripheral blood cells termed leukocytes. The leukocytes include lymphocytes, granulocytes and monocytes. Granulocytes are further subdivided into neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils. Lymphocytes are further subdivided into T and B lymphocytes. T-lymphocytes originate from lymphocytic-committed stem cells of the embryo. Differentiation occurs in the thymus and proceeds through prothymocyte, cortical thymocyte and medullary thymocyte intermediate stages, to produce various types of mature T-cells. These subtypes include CD8+ T cells (also known as cytotoxic/suppressor T cells), which, when activated, have the capacity to lyse target cells, and CD4+ T cells (also known as T helper and T inducer cells), which, when activated, have the capacity to stimulate other immune system cell types.
Immune system responses are elicited in several differing situations. The most frequent response is as a desirable protection against infectious microorganisms. However, undesired immune response can occur following transplantation of foreign tissue, or in an autoimmune disease, in which one of a body's own antigens is the target for the immune response. Immune responses can also be initiated in vitro by mitogens or antibodies against certain receptors. In each of these situations, an immune response is transduced from a stimulating event via a complex interaction of leukocytic cell types. However, the participating cell types and nature of the interaction between cell types may vary for different stimulating events. For example, immune responses against invading bacteria are often transduced by formation of complexes between an MHC Class II receptor and a bacterial antigen, which then activate CD4+ T-cells. By contrast, immune responses against viral infections are principally transduced by formation of MHC Class I/viral antigen complexes and subsequent activation of CD8+ cells.
Over recent years, many leukocyte cell surface antigens have been identified, some of which have been shown to have a role in signal transduction. It has been found that signals may be transduced between a cell-surface receptor and either a soluble ligand or a cell-surface-bound ligand. The amino acid sequences of leukocyte surface molecules comprise a number of characteristic recurring sequences or motifs. These motifs are predicted to be related in evolution, have similar folding patterns and mediate similar types of interactions. A number of superfamilies, including the immunoglobulin and nerve growth factor receptor superfamilies, have been described. Members of the nerve growth factor receptor family include NGFR, found on neural cells; the B-cell antigen CD40; the rat OX-40 antigen, found on activated CD4+ cells (Mallet et al., EMBO J. 9:1063–1068 (1990) (hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes); two receptors for tumor necrosis factor (TNF), LTNFR-1 and TNFR-II, found on a variety of cell types; 4-1BB found on T-cells; SFV-T2, an open reading frame in Shope fibroma virus; and possibly fas, CD27 and CD30. See generally Mallet & Barclay, Immunology Today 12:220–222 (1990) (hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes).
The identification of cell-surface receptors has suggested new agents for suppressing undesirable immune responses such as transplant rejection, autoimmune disease and inflammation. Agents, particularly antibodies, that block receptors of immune cells from binding to soluble molecules or cell-bound receptors can impair immune responses. Ideally, an agent should block only undesired immune responses (e.g., transplant rejection) while leaving a residual capacity to effect desirable responses (e.g., responsive to pathogenic microorganisms). The immunosuppressive action of some agents, for example, antibodies against the CD3 receptor and the IL-2 receptor have already been tested in clinical trials. Although some trials have shown encouraging results, significant problems remain. First, a patient may develop an immune response toward the blocking agent preventing continued immunosuppressive effects unless different agents are available. Second, cells expressing the target antigen may be able to adapt to the presence of the blocking agent by ceasing to express the antigen, while retaining immune functions. In this situation, continued treatment with a single immunosuppressive agent is ineffective. Third, many targets for therapeutic agents are located on more than one leukocyte subtype, with the result that it is generally not possible to selectively block or eliminate the response of only specific cellular subtypes and thereby leave unimpaired a residual immune capacity for combating infectious microorganisms.
Based on the foregoing it is apparent that a need exists for additional and improved agents capable of suppressing immune responses, particularly agents capable of selective suppression. The present invention fulfills these and other needs, in part, by providing a ligand (ACT-4-L) to a receptor localized on activated human CD4+ T-lymphocytes.

Ligand (ACT-4-L) to a receptor on the surface of activated CD4

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A light emitting device includes an LED chip, a light-transmissible member and a light-reflecting member. The LED chip has a plurality of interconnecting side surfaces having a roughened structure and a plurality of corners. The light-transmissible member covers the side surfaces and the corners and includes a light-transmissible material layer having a breadth value W(A) of a viscosity coefficient (A) range of the light-transmissible material, which satisfies a relation of W(A)∝B*D/C: where B represents a thickness of the light-transmissible material layer, represents a thickness of the LED chip measured from the first surface to the second surface, and D represents a roughness of the roughened structure. A method for manufacturing the light emitting device is also provided.

A conventional chip-scale package (CSP) light emitting device for single-sided light emission usually has a relatively good beam pattern to meet the miniaturization trend. Referring to FIG. 1, one type of the conventional DSP light emitting device for single-sided emission includes an LED chip 91, two electrodes 92, a light-reflecting material layer 93, and a wavelength conversion material layer 94. Since light emitted from a side surface of the CSP light emitting device is blocked by the light-reflecting material layer 93, the luminous flux of such CSP light emitting device is relatively low.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, another type of the conventional CSP light emitting device for single-sided light emission includes a LED chip 91′ that has a front surface 97, a rear surface 98 and a side surface 96 interconnected between the front and rear surfaces 97, 98, a wavelength conversion layer 94′ disposed on the front surface 97, a pair of spaced-apart electrodes 92′ disposed on the rear surface 98, a transparent material layer 95 that covers the side surface 96 and that is tapered from the wavelength conversion layer 94′ toward the rear surface 98, and a light-reflecting material layer 93′ connected to the wavelength conversion layer 94′ and the transparent material layer 95. The light-reflecting material layer 93′ is capable of reflecting light exiting from the side surface 96 toward the front surface 97 so as to increase the luminous flux of the CSP light emitting device.
However, conventional methods for manufacturing such CSP light emitting device for single-sided light emission cannot ensure that the side surface 96 of the LED chip 91′ is completely covered by the transparent material layer 95. When the coverage of the side surface 96 by the transparent material layer 95 is incomplete, the light exiting from the side surface 96 may not be fully reflected toward the front surface 97 by the light-reflecting material layer and thus affecting the front light extraction efficiency of the conventional CSP light emitting device. In view of the aforesaid limitations, the front light extraction efficiency of the conventional CSP light emitting devices produced in the same batch by the conventional methods may be non-uniform, which detrimentally affects the manufacturing yield of the conventional CSP light emitting devices.

Method for manufacturing light emitting device


The present invention relates to a fusible switch for use in a multiphase circuit. The switch includes an operating mechanism which is secured to the enclosure of the switch and provides for a handle to operate the opening and closing of switch contacts. Movement of the handle stores energy in the operating mechanism which is subsequently released in a quick motion just as the switch contact is to be opened or closed. The switch also provides for heat sinks and means for venting the enclosure to dissipate the heat created from the higher voltage and greater current density carried by this improved switch.

A fusible switch is usually mounted in an enclosure and incorporates an insulating base to carry an incoming line terminal for each phase. The circuit for each phase is completed through a pivotal knife blade which engages a corresponding contact stab and is electrically connected with a fuse clip having a fuse seated therein. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,648, commonly assigned to the Square D Company, a fusible switch is shown utilizing the above mentioned construction and which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Fusible switches are used in switchboards to distribute power for commercial and industrial applications. The need arises to distribute more power through enclosures which are the same size or smaller. This requires increasing the electrical rating of the switch to carry a higher voltage and current density while decreasing the size of the enclosure housing the electrical parts.
Among the problems caused by increasing the electrical rating of a switch is the heat emitted by the current carrying parts and the arc created by operating the switch. The parts can be damaged without proper ventilation of the switch and dissipation of the heat build-up.
Furthermore, the switch must be economical to manufacture. A switch with a higher electrical rating at comparable cost allows more widespread application. This also alleviates the problem of selecting an appropriate class of fuse.


An armrest construction for chairs includes an armrest support having a lower end constructed for attachment to a chair, an upper end, and a mounting block attached to the upper end. A pivot block is pivoted to the mounting block at a main pivot, the pivot block having an upwardly-extending follower. First and second gears are each pivoted to the pivot block, the gears having intermeshing teeth at an inner end such that rotation of the first gear causes the second gear to simultaneously rotate in an opposite direction, the first and second gears further having outer ends. A support plate having pivot/slide members engages the outer ends of the first and second gears, and further has a guide operably engaging the follower to guide lateral movement of the support plate along a predetermined path. The support plate is rotatable about the main pivot to adjust the angular orientation of the armrest construction and is laterally movable along continuously parallel positions to adjust a width of the armrest construction relative to the chair. The armrest construction is mounted on a vertically-adjustable armrest support member for optimal adjustability.

The present invention concerns adjustable armrests for chairs that can be adjusted in multiple directions and orientations relative to a seated user for increased comfort and ergonomics.
Adjustable armrests allows users to comfortably support their forearms while working, despite the differences in their sizes, shapes, and preferences. This can be particularly important for computer operators and for people having desk jobs, where the person may stay seated for long periods of time, and where different users use the same chair. It is also important for users that are physically large or heavy, or that are physically small or light in weight, to be able to adjust the armrest to a lateral position that is both comfortably close to them, but far enough out of the way to not restrict their body movements in the chair. The amount of adjustment must be relatively large in order to accommodate as many users as possible. However, a large range of adjustment often causes present armrest adjustment mechanisms to become sloppy at their outermost extended positions, and/or reduces their durability because of the increased torsional forces that they encounter.
Sometimes, in an effort to make highly-adjustable armrests more secure, complicated latching and securing mechanisms are added. However, such parts are expensive, often complex, and are not easy to operate. Further, sometimes it is not intuitively obvious how latches and triggers operate, such that users new to the chair must undesirably spend time figuring out how to operate the armrest in order to adjust it. Also, multi-part mechanisms can lead to quality problems during manufacture and warranty problems in service.
To summarize, modem users demand armrests that are simple and easy to operate, that are intuitively obvious to adjust, and that have a good, solid feel during adjustment. At the same time, customers want long life and low cost. Accordingly, an armrest construction solving the aforementioned problems and having the aforementioned advantages is desired.


A method for providing data useful in procedures associated with the oral cavity, in which at least one numerical entity representative of the three-dimensional surface geometry and color of at least part of the intra-oral cavity is provided and then manipulated to provide desired data therefrom.

There are many procedures associated with the oral cavity in which a precise three-dimensional representation of the cavity is very useful to the dental practitioner. Herein, "practitioner" refers to any one of a dentist, dental surgeon, dental technician, orthodontist, prosthodontist, or any other caregiver that may be involved in determining, preparing or providing dental treatment to a patient, particularly orthodontic treatment.
Such representations enable the practitioner to study the cavity of individual patients in a similar manner to the study of the traditional plaster model. More importantly, three-dimensional numerical entities of the dental cavity also allow the practitioner to study alternative methods or approaches when dealing with particular dental problems of any given patient. For example, in orthodontics, a computer model of a patient's teeth may be manipulated to arrive at the optimal arrangement for brackets to ensure effective treatment of crooked teeth. For such procedures, it is often useful to provide a three-dimensional representation of the individual teeth, each of which can be moved independently in a computer simulation of the orthodontic treatment plan and orthodontic record. Hitherto, identification and separation of the data sets representative of the individual teeth has been performed manually.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,739,869, assigned to the present Assignee, a method for virtual orthodontic treatment is disclosed in which a virtual set of orthodontic components is associated, in a virtual space, with a first virtual three-dimensional image of teeth, and then by a set of rules which define the effect of the set of components' teeth, the effect of the virtual treatment can be computed. This virtual treatment can be used to predict the results of a real-life orthodontic treatment as to design such a treatment.
Another procedure relates to the manufacture of a dental prosthesis, such as a crown or bridge, which requires the finish line, or transition boundary between the prosthesis and the dental preparation to be precisely defined in three-dimensions. Obtaining the finish line coordinates from a computer model is more efficient and often more accurate than from a plaster cast, and moreover facilitates the production of such a prosthesis, for example via CNC machining, rapid prototyping, or other computerised technologies, if desired.
There are also procedures in which particularly good three-dimensional definition of a large area of the intraoral cavity is required, and it may be necessary at times to scan parts of the cavity sequentially and then "stitch" the various data sets together. Thus, surface topologies of adjacent portions, at times from two or more different angular locations relative to the structure, are determined and the topologies are combined, in a manner known per se. In practice, such stitching is usually performed automatically, by identifying a surface profile or topography corresponding to at least part of the data of one data set that is substantially identical to that of another data set. The data sets are then manipulated such as to match the coordinates of the surface profile between the data sets to obtain a larger numerical entity comprising these data sets in their proper spatial relationship. However, the data sets often include surface data relating to the soft tissues such as gums, cheeks and tongue, for example, which may distort and move while the different scans are performed. This relative movement makes the stitching procedure more problematic, since parts of the data sets thus obtained will never synchronise, even though they relate to overlapping portions of the intra-oral cavity.
In procedures relating to the manufacture of a dental prosthesis such as a crown or bridge, or in other dental restorations, it is important to match the color and texture of the prosthesis with that of the surrounding teeth in the vicinity of the target area in which the prosthesis is to be implanted, to give the prosthesis or restoration a natural appearance. Traditional methods of color matching are based on visual comparison between a removable tooth-shaped color tab of a shade guide, such as for example Vita, and the surrounding teeth. The practitioner can then choose the standard shade that best matches the overall color of the other teeth. The appropriate shade reference can then be communicated to the laboratory that is to manufacture the prosthesis. Similar matching methods are routinely employed for enabling the color of filler material to be matched to the tooth that requires a filling. It should be noted that unlike the tooth shades from the shade guides, which are uniform in color, a tooth have many different shades. For example, tooth stains and the like alter then tooth's color locally. Attempts have been made at providing a more exact match. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,164 a system is described for the selection of form and color structure of teeth, and includes several assortments of models and representations as well as layering diagrams of different tooth forms and color structures. A comparison of form and color structure between the patient's teeth and the models is made, and a suitable assortment is selected. The layering diagrams thus produced enable the production of the prosthesis to be carefully controlled to provide the desired form and color structure. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,674 a method and apparatus are described for obtaining the best color match with respect to adjacent teeth, for different lighting conditions, but considers only the overall color of the teeth, and does not address local variations of color in the teeth. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,525,819, a calorimeter is provided for providing, inter alia, the one-dimensional array of color data along a line on the surface of the intra-oral cavity, including the teeth. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,006 a method is described for comparing the tooth shade after the patient's teeth are whitened, in which a color two-dimensional image of the tooth is obtained before the whitening, comparing the color information representative of the color of the tooth, and identifying one or more tooth shades with a combined color corresponding to the color of the tooth. After whitening the tooth, another image is taken thereof and compared to the image before whitening.
Other US patents of general background interest include the following.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,851,113, 5,871,351, 6,118,521, 6,239,868, 6,246,479, 6,417,917, 6,538,726, 6,570,654 and 6,573,984 color measuring systems and methods such as for determining the color or other characteristics of teeth are disclosed, in which these characteristics are obtained using a fibre optics arrangement which is targeted onto a specific area of each tooth and at a certain height and angle with respect to this area. The color measurement data obtained may be used to implement processes for forming dental prostheses.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,332, a method and system for determining the color characteristic of a tooth employs the photographic imaging of the tooth, and the photographing of visually selected color standards, to achieve the final selection of the closest color match. The resulting photographic images, which may be on a single photograph, are subjected to calorimetric or spectrophotometric analysis to achieve the final selection of the closest match.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,209, a spectrophotometer device measures and provides general colorimetric data regarding hue, chroma, value, and translucency for each of the incisal, middle, and cervical regions of the tooth. This calorimetric data is then converted via an algorithm to a recipe that the dentist or dental technician follows in constructing a dental restoration. A porcelain system is also provided which allows a user to independently alter one color component while not affecting the other three color components.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,033,222, a fabrication method for dental translucent restorations involves forming a dental die from impression of tooth stump, in which a series of die spacers of differing shades are used to match or replicate an assortment of tooth stump or dentin tooth shades. The method comprises applying color and shade to match dentist's prescription, forming a dental wax-up and then the dental structure.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,190,170, and 6,238,567, an automated tooth shade analysis and matching method is used for making a dental prosthesis. An image of the teeth is acquired including black and white normalization references for determining absolute black and absolute white within the image. The image is normalized in accordance with the normalization references, and then standardized by matching the pixels of the normalized image to selected shade standards for the prosthesis.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,593, a method for producing a multi-colored dental restoration is disclosed. A compacting die is filled with a matrix of two or more plastics materials of different colors, and the pressure is applied to the matrix in the die.
The 3D surface structure of the teeth is not considered in any of the aforesaid patents.

Method for providing data associated with the intraoral cavity


A device for forming blisters in which a web material including a thermoplastic resin that is supplied to a rotary forming drum is heated and deformed by heat in accordance with the configuration of cavities provided on the rotary forming drum. A predetermined tension in the range of 5 kg/215 mm to 50 kg/215 mm is applied to the web material while feeding it. When the rotary forming drum consists of a polygonal drum, each peripheral surface of the drum is formed as a curved surface extending along an arc whose radius is larger than that of the circumscribed circle of the polygon. This invention can be used in a packing device for foods, drugs, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for forming blisters which are useful in the blister packing technique used for packing foods, drugs, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, polypropylene web materials in the form of sheets, films, etc. have come to be used frequently as a packing material for blister packing, and in particular, for PTP (Push Through Packing) which is mainly used for packing drugs. When using such polypropylene web materials, it is the general practice to adopt a "preheater hot-plate-contact compressed-air system" as the technique for forming blisters. This "preheater hot-plate-contact compressed-air system" employs a forming device which has in its forming section a cavity section having cavities and a compressed-air box facing this cavity section and equipped with plugs. A preheated web material is placed between the cavity section and the compressed-air box, blisters being formed on the web material by means of the plugs and compressed air. In this system, a web material is heated by placing it between hot plates. If the heating temperature is relatively high, various inconveniences may be involved, such as fusion of the web material to the surface of the hot plate, the generation of creases, elongation of the web material due to tension during feeding, and transfer of the surface roughness etc. of the hot plate to the surface of the web material, which will lead to various types of defective formation as well as insufficient transparency of the blisters. Conversely, if the heating temperature is relatively low, the form reproducibility of the forming section will deteriorate. By form reproducibility is meant here the ability to form blisters into a configuration identical to that of the cavities in the forming section. The suitable temperature range is very narrow and therefore, it is necessary to make the hot plate having a high accuracy in a temperature and no temperature difference as to a web material in the plate direction. Besides, in order to stabilize the formation, there is a limit to the type of web material that can be used. That is, the material must have a low softening point and no tendency to melt. The material must be of high uniformity and of high quality. It must exhibit high accuracy in wall thickness, involving no flapping or snaking. In order to overcome these difficulties, a technique (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-126117) has been proposed according to which cavities are formed in the forming section of a rotary forming drum, suction holes being provided in the non-forming area of the drum, a web material being closely contacted around the peripheral surface of the drum, and the web material fed from the rotary forming drum being heated while receiving a low tension of 0.1 kg/cm from a dancer roll. Since the heating and forming are conducted on the rotary forming drum, it is capable of continuously performing the thermoforming of web materials and that at the same time, since the web material can be wound around the rotary forming drum with a satisfactory tightness, the forming operation can be performed in a stable manner as long as a proper web material is selected by the technique mentioned above.
The problem with the above prior art technique is that the tension applied to the web material by means of the dancer roll is as low as about 0.1 kg/cm, which can lead to defective formation in part since the web material may not adhere to the rotary forming drum in a satisfactory manner, depending on the physical properties (heat expansion, heat contraction, etc.) and other properties (wall-thickness accuracy, flapping, snaking, etc.) of the material.
In some cases, the configuration of the rotary forming drum used for blister formation is made polygonal, e.g., octagonal, so that it may be well suited for the formation of relatively long blisters.
However, a polygonal drum involves the problem that gaps are left between the drum peripheral surface and the web material would around it, so that those sections where no blisters are to be formed are also heated, resulting in creases being generated all over. As a result, the blisters become hard to seal with cover material after they are filled with drugs.


A fractional horsepower motor has a thrust bearing assembly mounted on the motor shaft to dampen the axial movement of the shaft. The assembly includes a thrust collar formed of resinous material and a thrust plate formed of metal with a wave spring positioned therebetween. Apertures in the thrust plate receive resilient hook projections formed on the thrust collar as a means for coupling the plate to the collar. Torque transmitting projections formed on the thrust collar engage notches formed in the thrust plate. The hook projections and the torque transmitting projections act together to capture and hold the wave spring between the collar and plate.

This invention relates generally to bearing assemblies and, more particularly, to thrust bearing assemblies for mounting on a motor shaft.
In fractional horsepower electric motors, the rotor and motor shaft assembly tends to move axially within the housing and against the end plates and bearing means supported in the end plates. Such axial movement of the motor shaft must be limited for proper motor operation since excessive end play is detrimental to machine performance. Additionally, axial vibration gives rise to an objectionable knocking or bumping sound from within the motor. Consequently, thrust bearings are conventionally carried by the motor shaft between the rotor and the bearings mounted in the end plates.
Numerous configurations of such bearings are known. There are, for example, the configurations illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,573,510; 3,624,434; 4,955,791; 4,887,916; 3,553,511; 4,008,928; 3,789,251; 4,295,268; 4,245,870; 4,800,309; 4,308,478; and 4,711,590.
In the past, the thrust bearing arrangements for such motors have involved a number of separate components resulting in the need to assemble a number of loose parts at the time of motor assembly. Furthermore there was considerable tolerance build-up of the thrust assembly for free end play control of the motor rotor. Prior designs also tended to use elastomers, such as cushion washers, that deteriorated in the presence of lubricants and reactants that accumulate during motor operation over a wide range of temperature and other operating conditions.
According to the present invention, a thrust bearing assembly for mounting on a motor shaft includes a thrust plate and a thrust collar including first means for joining the thrust plate to the thrust collar, and second means for resiliently damping axial movement of the motor shaft. The second means is positioned between the thrust collar and the thrust plate.
Illustratively, the thrust collar comprises an outer perimeter, and the first means includes perimetrally spaced-apart resilient hook projections and a plurality of perimetrally spaced-apart torque transmitting projections.
In one embodiment of the invention, the thrust plate is formed to include perimetrally spaced-apart apertures to receive the resilient hook projections. The thrust plate further includes a plurality of perimetrally spaced-apart notches into which ends of the torque transmitting projections extend. The hook projections alternate with the torque transmitting projections on the thrust collar.
Further, the second means for damping axial movement comprises a wave spring. Also, the thrust collar is formed of a resinous material and is press fitted to the motor shaft so as to prevent rotational movement between the shaft and thrust bearing assembly, and to restrict lubricant flow along the shaft past the thrust bearing assembly.
Additional objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.


A modular faucet is provided with a pipe including an inner well, an aperture proximate to a first end, a groove at a second end, and a recess communicating with the groove; a tee including an externally threaded hollow cylinder, a projection on an inner surface of the cylinder, and a depression on an outer surface and communicating with the cylinder wherein the recess passes through the projection and is fastened in the groove; a hose having one end threadedly secured to the longitudinal part and an internally threaded other end; a spout including a latch at one end, and an externally threaded projection at one end; and a hollow adapter including a slot on an inner surface, a protuberance on an outer surface, and a protrusion distal the protuberance. The hose passes through the depression, the cylinder, and the pipe to threadedly secure to the spout.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to faucets and more particularly to a modular faucet with improved characteristics including an extendable spout.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional faucet is shown in FIGS. 1, 2A, 2B and 3. The faucet includes a sink deck A, cold and hot water valves A1 on both sides of the sink deck A, a pipe A2 extending upward from the sink deck A, two couplings F each threadedly secured to one of the cold and hot water valves A1, a tee B mounted on an underside of the sink deck A and including two lateral parts communicating with the couplings F respectively, and a longitudinal part B2 secured to one end of a flexible hose C by means of a nut C1, and two weights E mounted on the hose C under the sink deck A. The hose C passes through an opening B1 of the tee B into the tee B. Further, the hose C passes through the pipe A2 to connect to a spout D by threadedly securing a nut C2 at its end to a threaded projection D1 at a rear end of the spout D.
In use, a person may pull the hose C a short distance. Further, the weights E facilitate the hose C pulling back to its concealed position after use. However, the spout D may turn undesirably due to no fastening means for fixing the spout D (see FIGS. 2A and 2B). Moreover, the hose C may be jammed due to tight engagement of the opening B1 and a portion of the hose C (see FIG. 3). In addition, the opening B1 may be broken after a number of pulling and retracting operations.
Thus, the need for improvement still exists.


The present disclosure provides a method for controlling a drone, a drone, and a system. The method for controlling a drone comprises: determining operating parameters of a moving platform according to field-of-view images containing the moving platform collected at any two different moments and flight parameters of the drone; calculating a time-varying tracking position of the moving platform based on the operating parameters; controlling the drone to track the moving platform according to the time-varying tracking position of the moving platform; and controlling the drone to perform a landing operation according to a relative position of the moving platform and the drone during tracking. The technical solutions according to the present disclosure have high landing accuracy, rely less on device performance and have high versatility.

A drone, also called an UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by radio remote control equipment and its own program control device. With the development of drone technology, drones have been extensively used in plant protection, logistics, power inspection and other fields.
In the prior art, most drone landing platforms are fixed at a certain position. After the drone takes off from the position of the drone landing platform, if the drone needs to fly back, it must return to the take-off location to complete the landing. The moving platform can effectively improve the maneuverability in work of a multi-rotor drone and save working time. Since the moving platform is in motion, how to guide the multi-rotor drone to track and approach the moving platform, and how to guide the drone to accurately land on the platform during the landing process are problems that currently need to be solved.

Method for controlling a drone, drone and system


Implementations generally relate to improving metadata. In some implementations, a method includes determining timestamps, where the timestamps correspond to images. The method also includes determining one or more reference times based on predetermined metadata. The method also includes detecting a timestamp error in one or more timestamps based on the one or more reference times. The method also includes adjusting each timestamp having a timestamp error based on the one or more reference times.

Social network systems often enable users to upload media content such as photos, and enable users to create photo albums. Social network systems also enable users to share photos with each other. A user can create a photo album that is associated with the user's profile. As the owner of the photo album, the user can then allow other users to view the photo album when visiting the photo section of the user's profile. Photos may have associated metadata created by digital cameras and by smartphones with embedded cameras, which might not be accurate.

Image timestamp correction using metadata