A battery pack and method of manufacturing same are provided. The battery pack can stabilize bending of a lead housed in a space defined by an external package. Leads 2, 3 of a battery element are bonded to a circuit board housed in a top cover 6. A holder 11 is mechanically fitted to the top cover 6, made of resin molded material and produced by injection molding, for example. The edge faces of ribs 12a, 12b, 12c formed on the holder 11 serve as planes which receive the circuit board 4 in the top cover 6. The top cover 6 and the holder 11 fitted to each other are turned 90°, and moved toward the opening in the edge face of the cell 1 while bending the leads 2, 3, which are bent along the contours of both the sidewalls and bottom surface of the holder 11 and housed in a space defined by the external package. The circumferential surface of the top cover 6 is bonded by heat to the inner surface of the external package.

The present invention relates to a battery pack used in, a lithium ion polymer secondary battery, for example, and a method of manufacturing such battery pack.
In recent years, portable electronic apparatuses, such as laptop personal computers, portable phones, and PDAs (personal digital assistant), have been widely introduced to the market, and, as a power source for such apparatuses, a lithium ion battery has been widely used having advantages, such as provision of high voltage, high energy density, and being lightweight.
Further, lithium ion polymer secondary batteries have been put into practical use in order to solve the problem of leakage of liquid, which may occur when using an electrolyte in a liquid state. Examples of such batteries are lithium ion polymer secondary batteries using, as an electrolyte, a gelatinized polymer film comprising a polymer impregnated with a non-aqueous electrolytic solution, or an electrolyte in a solid state.
The polymer lithium ion battery has a construction of a cell including a battery element which has a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a polymer electrolyte, wherein the positive electrode and the negative electrode are respectively electrically connected to leads, and which is covered with a packaging film, e.g., an aluminum laminate. Further, the cell and a wiring board having a circuit portion mounted thereon are together housed in a box-form plastic molded case comprising upper and lower cases.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-260608 has a description of an example of the lithium ion polymer secondary battery having the above construction.
Conventionally, leads, which are connected to the positive electrode and the negative electrode of a battery element, have been bonded to a circuit board by resistance welding and housed in a plastic molded case, together with the battery element.
In the present specification, a strip-like positive electrode, a strip-like negative electrode, and a polymer electrolyte and/or a separator disposed between the positive and negative electrodes, which are stacked on one another and spirally wound together in a longitudinal direction, wherein the positive electrode and the negative electrode are respectively electrically connected to lead terminals, is referred to as "battery element". A battery element that is covered with an outer covering (package) is referred to as "cell". The cell that further has a circuit board having mounted thereon a circuit, such as a protective circuit, is referred to as "battery pack".
The conventional construction of the battery using a box-form molded case has a drawback in that the thickness is increased. The conventional cell has been improved in order to solve the existing problems and studies have been made on a cell covered with neither upper nor lower molded cases in a thicknesswise direction of the cell, or a cell using a thin metal plate as package. In these cells, a resin mold is inserted into the cover from both the edge faces of the cell. With respect to the conventional battery pack, the constituent parts of the battery pack are assembled after the cell is finished. In addition, the assembly lines for the cell and the battery pack are separated from each other.
FIG. 15 shows a view for explaining how a circuit board is fitted in the conventional battery pack. In the battery pack having a conventional construction, the circuit board has been housed in a container space defined by a packaging film while bending leads connected respectively to the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the battery element.
In FIG. 15, reference numeral 21 designates a circuit board. The circuit board 21 has mounted thereon a protective circuit having a protective element, such as a PTC, a fuse, or a thermistor, or the like. In addition, a lead 22 of the battery element is bonded to the circuit board 21 by resistance welding. The circuit board 21 is turned 90° in a clockwise direction and disposed in an opening in the edge face on the top side of an package 23 for containing the cell, and then placed in an exclusive die and subjected to resin mold integral molding.
However, in the conventional battery pack having the above construction, leads are bent by means of a jig or by hand and incorporated into the packaging film, and therefore a problem arises in that the bent form of the leads is not made stable. In addition, a die for integral molding and an exclusive injection molding machine for integral molding are needed, and further a problem occurs in that the temperature elevation caused during the resin molding adversely affects the IC parts or soldering portions on the circuit board.
With respect to the conventional battery pack, the constituent parts of the battery pack are assembled after the cell is finished. In addition, the assembly lines for the cell and the battery pack are separated from each other. Therefore, there has been a problem in that the production process for the battery pack is complicated. On the other hand, a method in which the cell is finished and then the cell and a resin mold portion are subjected to integral molding is known, but this method has problems in that the temperature elevation caused during the resin molding adversely affects the IC parts or soldering portions on the circuit board, and that the dimensional accuracy of the battery pack is poor.

Battery pack and method for manufacturing the same


Machines may be connected to power distribution units (PDU/STSs) in such a way that if one PDU/STS fails or is taken out of service, the machines' loads are shifted more-or-less evenly to the other PDU/STSs. Several PDU/STSs may be provided for a group of dual-corded machines. The two cords of each machine are connected to a pair of PDU/STSs. Different pairs of PDU/STSs may be used for different machines. In normal operation, each machine may draw part of its power through each of the two cords. If one PDU/STS to which a machine is connected fails or is taken out of service, the entire load on that machine may be shifted to its remaining cord. Since redistribution may be approximately even across PDU/STSs, tolerance for one PDU/STS failure can be implemented with relatively little over-sizing of the PDU/STSs.

Many computers operate under some expectation of fault tolerance. Machines typically depend on some infrastructure, such as electrical power, network connectivity, etc. No infrastructure is 100% reliable, and the expectation of fault tolerance may dictate that operation of the machines continue smoothly (or, at least, that the machines halt gracefully) if some portion of the infrastructure fails.
One example of infrastructure that is subject to failure is the supply of electrical power. Computers and other machines depend on electrical power in order to operate. Many such machines are not able to handle an abrupt loss of power. For example, a computer may be in the middle of committing atomic operations (e.g., disk writes, state changes, etc.), which cannot easily be unwound if power is lost during the commit process. Even if the machine were able to deal with an abrupt loss of power, there may be quality of service issues (e.g., users' expectations that the machines will be running more often than not) that weigh against taking a machine out of service simply because a source of electrical power has been lost. Therefore, machines are often set up to use plural sources of power in the event that one source fails.
Mechanisms that may be used to provide plural sources of power are dual-cording and Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPSs). With dual-cording, a machine receives power through two separate power cords, each connected to its own power converter within the machine. In normal operation, the machine draws half of its power from each cord/converter. If the power supplying one cord (or the converter in the machine) fails, the power draw is switched to the remaining cord, so the machine continues to operate while drawing full power through one of its cords. A UPS is another type of mechanism that helps to provide fault tolerance in the event of a power loss. A UPS connects a machine to an underlying power source (e.g., the utility power grid), while also providing a battery backup. Thus, if the grid power fails, the UPS continues to supply power, temporarily, from its battery.
One arrangement involving UPSs and dual-cording is to use two UPSs. In such an arrangement, one of a machine's cords is connected to one UPS, and the other order is connected to the other UPS. In normal operation, half the power load flows through each UPS, but if a UPS fails, then the remaining UPS picks up the full load. However, this design involves massive over-sizing of UPS capacity, since it involves maintaining UPSs that, collectively, can deliver at least twice as much power as would be used during normal operation. A group of servers in a data center may draw thousands of kilowatts of power. It may not be practical to double-size the UPS capacity for an entire group of servers.

Connection between machines and power source


A device and method are shown for improving coronary blood circulation and cardiac contractile function, synchronizing coronary perfusion pressure with the patient's cardiac cycle, by alternately pressurizing and depressurizing an inflatable balloon located within the interior of the device. The device comprises a catheter having a distal end which is installed at the ostium of the coronary artery of a patient. The device is alternately pressurized during the relaxation phase of a patient's cardiac cycle and then depressurized during the contraction phase of the cardiac cycle to thereby modulate the coronary perfusion pressure and blood flow.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device and method for varying coronary perfusion pressure to provide therapeutic assistance in cases of insufficiency of coronary circulation and depressed cardiac contractile function.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Approximately 1/2 million Americans die of acute heart failure annually. Of these deaths, approximately 50% occur in spite of medical treatment (the other 50% do not reach the hospital). Although acute heart failure is presently treated with drugs and other therapy, present interventions are not sufficiently effective. Clearly, additional measures are needed to help save lives of patients suffering from acute heart failure due to obstruction of the coronary vasculature or due to extensive cardiac surgery or other causes.
The coronary circulation system delivers blood to the heart muscle during the relaxation phase of cardiac contraction. During the contraction phase, pressure in the heart muscle rises and restricts coronary inflow, even though the arterial pressure rises due to cardiac ejection of blood. This elevation of coronary pressure increases the stiffness of the heart wall. With increased stiffness, the heart must expend more energy to bend the heart wall in order to eject blood. In other words, contraction of the heart against a large coronary pressure results in more "internal work" relative to the beneficial "external work" of ejecting blood from the heart chamber. This phenomenon has been postulated in the literature with reference to the "Gregg Phenomenon" and also with reference to the "garden hose" effect. The Gregg Phenomenon refers to the observation made in the 1950's by Donald Gregg, a noted American coronary physiologist, that myocardial oxygen consumption varied with coronary perfusion pressure, even when all other determinants of myocardial oxygen demand, such as heart rate and arterial pressure, were held constant. More recent studies have shown that the Gregg Phenomenon results from coronary pressure induced changes in the ventricular systolic stiffness. See, for example, "Coronary Perfusion Related Changes In Myocardial Contractile Force And Systolic Ventricular Stiffness", by Iwamoto, Bai and Downey, Cardiovascular Research, 1994; 28:1331-1336. It can be theorized that, when the systolic coronary pressure is decreased, the heart wall becomes less stiff and can be more readily deformed during cardiac contraction. Thus, with reduced coronary pressure during the cardiac phase of contraction, the heart muscle requires less oxygen to overcome this important component of "internal" cardiac work.
The garden hose effect refers to the erectile characteristics of the coronary circulation and parallels the analogy of the Gregg Phenomenon. Alteration of coronary pressure changes the amount of blood in the coronary circulation and affects its rigidity. During cardiac contraction when arterial pressure is highest, the coronary pressure is also high, and this tends to distend the coronary circulation as does turning on a faucet to a garden hose. The garden hose effect is thus directly related to the Gregg Phenomenon. For further background on the Gregg Phenomenon see "Coronary-Ventricular Interaction: The Gregg Phenomenon", by Downey, Cardiac-Vascular Remodeling and Functional Interaction, Ed. Maryama, Hori, Janicki, Tokyo, 1997, pp. 321-332.
The present invention has as an object to provide a method and device for varying or modulating coronary perfusion pressure according to the phases of a patient's cardiac cycle. Since perfusion pressure alters myocardial stiffness, changes in systolic stiffness should affect myocardial oxygen demand by changing the ratio of internal to external work. With a decreased systolic perfusion pressure, myocardial oxygen demands will be reduced, thereby permitting an increase in myocardial oxygen utilization efficiency.
Another object of the invention is to provide a coronary counterpulsation device which will limit the energy expensive component of internal work during cardiac contraction, so that under conditions of limited availability of cardiac energy, more of the energy can be devoted to the external work of pumping blood.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device and method which will reduce coronary pressure during the contraction phase and which will also increase coronary pressure and blood flow during the relaxation phase, when coronary flow normally nourishes the heart muscle.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device and method for increasing coronary flow during the relaxation phase of the cardiac cycle which thereby increases flow through primary as well as supplemental, i.e., collateral, blood vessels supplying tissue whose normal source of blood flow has been compromised by coronary artery disease or other causes.
Another object of the invention is to provide a device and method for significantly decreasing cardiac morbidity and mortality.
Another object of the invention is to provide a coronary artery counterpulsation device and method which compliments existing acute heart failure therapies.

Coronary artery counterpulsation device and method


A method includes advertising a policy characterizing communication properties supported by a node. The policy may be distributed to another node in response to a request for the policy. Policy expressions in the policy include one or more assertions that may be grouped and related to each other in a plurality of ways. A system includes a policy generator for generating at least one policy characterizing properties of a node. A policy retriever retrieves a policy from another node and a message generator generates a message to the other node, wherein the message conforms to the policy from the other node.

Communication between various computing devices (e.g., personal computers, server computers, mobile devices) is increasingly commonplace in a number of network environments, such as, e.g., the Internet and corporate intranets to name only a few examples. Often, these computing devices are configured for communication in accordance with preferred or even required protocols. Traditionally when a computing device attempts to engage in communication with another computing device using an unrecognized protocol, an error message is sent to the first device, and further communication typically cannot proceed.
As an illustration, a commercial web site may require a user's computer to comply with a particular protocol or data format before the user is granted access to the payment web pages. For example, the commercial website may require that incoming messages be encoded according to a particular encryption scheme for security purposes, or that incoming messages be formatted using a particular compression scheme to facilitate efficient transaction processing. If the user's computer is not equipped to abide by the specified protocol or data format, the user's computer generally receives an error notification, such as a "400" error code defined in the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP). Typically, such error notifications are not very informative or helpful for a user to remedy the error, if possible, and continue communicating with the commercial website.
In addition, over time, as new protocols and data formatting techniques emerge, not all computing devices will necessarily have adopted the latest protocols and data formatting techniques. Thus, there will typically always be some differences between the protocols and/or data formats used by some computing devices and the protocols and/or data formats used by other computing devices. However, although some computing devices may not be able to apply the newest protocols or data formats, they typically can communicate using some other protocols or data formats. Unfortunately, a traditional computing device does not typically have the ability to identify the different protocols and/or data formats used by another computing device, and adapt, if possible, to the different protocols and/or data formats.


A wheel for maintaining a constant distance between an ink discharge plane of a recording head and a recording sheet is provided on a carriage such that it is upstream of the recording head as viewed in the direction of movement of the recording head in a unidirectional print mode. A sensor monitors whether the recording sheet is moved off a contact of a feed roller which feeds the recording sheet to a record position and a pinch roller. Before a trailing edge of the recording sheet is moved off the contact of the feed roller and the pinch roller, bilateral recording is conducted to print in each of forward movement and backward movement of the carriage. When the sensor detects that the trailing edge of the recording sheet has been moved off the contact of the feed roller and the pinch roller, the recording is switched to unilateral printing. The print range at the trailing edge of the recording medium is thus extended.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for recording an image by discharging ink droplets to a recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
In a prior art so-called ink jet recording apparatus, a distance between an ink discharge plane of a recording head and a recording medium such as a recording sheet or a plastic sheet (sheet distance) greatly affects a quality of a recorded image. The shorter the sheet distance is, the more the image quality is improved, but if it is too short, the ink discharge plane may contact the recording sheet due to unevenness of the recording sheet, which deteriorates the image quality. A current target for the sheet distance is approximately 0.7 to 1.2 mm.
FIG. 4 shows a front view of a construction of a carriage 6 which mounts an ink jet cartridge 3 in such a recording apparatus. Numeral 1 denotes a recording head integrated with the ink jet cartridge 3, and numeral 2 denotes a carriage wheel attached to the carriage 6 to reciprocally move the carriage 6 while maintaining a constant distance between an ink discharge plane of the recording head 1 and a recording sheet 4 (sheet distance). The carriage wheel 2 is made of a material which prevents the transfer of ink even if it contacts a recording plane of the recording sheet after printing.
A positional relation between the recording head 1 and the carriage wheel 2 is such that the carriage wheel 2 is upstream of the recording head 1 as viewed in the direction of forward (direction A) printing. Thus, the recording sheet 4 is biased to the platen 5 by the carriage wheel 2 to keep a constant sheet distance when the carriage 6 is driven forwardly in the stationary state of the recording sheet 6 in which the recording sheet 6 is off the contact of a feed roller 12 and a pinch roller 13.
FIG. 10 shows a main part of the recording apparatus. The recording sheet 4 is fed while it is pinched by the feed roller 12 and the pinch roller 13. When the recording sheet 4 reaches a record position, a pulley 7 is rotated so that the carriage 6 is reciprocally driven perpendicularly to the direction of feed of the recording sheet along a guide rail 9 to conduct a recording scan. The recording scan is conducted in each of the forward movement and the backward movement of the carriage 6. When one recording scan is completed, the sheet is fed in accordance with a recording width of the recording head 1. This process is repeated several times to complete one page of image recording. A sheet eject roller 14 and a wheel 15 are arranged downstream of the recording apparatus to feed the recording sheet after the recording.
In the prior art apparatus, when a trailing end of the recording sheet 4 moves away from the contact of the feed roller 12 and the pinch roller 13, the recording sheet 4 is no longer biased by the platen 5 and the sheet distance becomes stable. Thus, in the bilateral printing, the recording sheet 4 is biased to the platen 5 in the forward printing because the carriage wheel 2 is upstream of the recording head 1 as viewed in the print direction so that the sheet distance may be maintained constant, but in the backward printing, the recording sheet 4 is not biased to the platen 4 because the carriage wheel 2 is downstream of the recording head 1 as viewed in the print direction so that the ink discharge plane may contact the recording sheet 4 and the image quality is deteriorated. Thus, the apparatus is controlled to stop the printing when the recording sheet 4 moves away from the contact of the feed roller 12 and the pinch roller 13. Accordingly, the print range is narrowed.

Ink jet recording apparatus for maintaining constant distance between recording head and recording medium


A method, computer readable medium, and system are disclosed for performing traversal stack compression. The method includes traversing a hierarchical data structure having more than two children per node, and during the traversing, creating at least one stack entry, utilizing a processor, where each stack entry contains a plurality of intersected nodes, and adding the at least one stack entry to a compressed traversal stack stored in a memory, utilizing the processor.

Traversal of hierarchical data structures is commonly performed during various operations (e.g., ray tracing, collision detection, etc.). However, a large portion of available memory bandwidth on a processor is used by memory traffic to and from conventional traversal stacks (in which nodes are individually stored within the stack).
Thus, there is a need for addressing these issues and/or other issues associated with the prior art.


The pneumatically operated projectile launching device is preferably comprised of three principal elements: a body which houses and interconnects all of the pneumatic components and also houses the electrical power source, a grip mounted to the body which includes an electrical switch that activates a launching sequence, and an electrical control unit housed within both the body and the grip which directs flow between the pneumatic components to load, cock and fire the gun. The body preferably contains a plurality of chambers in communication with each other including a chamber containing and distributing pressurized gas, a chamber containing a compressed gas storage chamber and mechanisms for filling the storage chamber with gas and releasing gas from the storage chamber to fire the projectile, and a chamber containing mechanisms for loading and launching the projectile. The electrical control unit preferably includes an electrical power source which activates an electrical timing circuit when the electrical switch is closed, and two electrically operated pneumatic flow distribution devices. When the electrical switch is closed to initiate the launching sequence the projectile is first loaded into the launching mechanism by electrical timing circuit actuation of the first electrically operated pneumatic flow distribution device. The projectile is then fired when the electrical timing circuit actuates the second electrically operated pneumatic flow distribution device to release gas from the compressed gas storage chamber into the launching mechanism.

The current invention consists of a device for launching a projectile using pneumatic force. Guns using pneumatic force to propel a projectile are well known. In particular, it is well known to use pneumatic force to fire a fragile spherical projectile containing a colored, viscous substance (known as a "paintball") which bursts upon impact with a target. However pneumatically operated guns used in paintball applications (as well as existing pneumatically operated guns in general) suffer from several deficiencies affecting the accuracy of the shot which are eliminated by the present invention.
Existing pneumatically operated guns invariably use a spring mechanism in some fashion to aid in generating the propellent force necessary to fire the projectile at the desired velocity from the gun. The use of a spring creates a non-linear transformation of energy from a pneumatically stored potential form into kinetic acceleration of the projectile, since the spring releases continuously less energy as it expands from its maximum deformation to its undeformed natural state. In the case of any flexible projectile in general and particularly in the case of paintballs, this non-linear transformation of energy causes some deformation in the shape of the projectile that alters the ballistic forces created upon it in flight, adversely affecting the accuracy with which the projectile can be fired to strike its intended target. The adverse ballistic effects stemming from projectile deformation are particularly felt at the low projectile velocities required in paintball applications for player safety. Given the spring forces used in the existing state of the art, it is necessary to fire a paintball at the highest pneumatic pressures possible in order to eliminate these adverse ballistic effects. This has caused development of a thicker paintball shell to eliminate paintball breakage within the firing chamber of the gun. This increased thickness has in turn created a problem with paintball breakage as it impacts its target. To eliminate all of these problems without sacrificing player safety, it has become necessary in paintball applications to find a way to minimize projectile deformation at low pneumatic pressure levels, in order to permit the accurate sighting and firing of a low velocity shot.
The present invention solves all of these problems by eliminating the use of spring mechanisms in the transfer of energy to the projectile during the launching sequence. The invention uses a launching sequence which results in only the application of pneumatic force to the projectile. This creates a linear change in the amount of energy that is applied to the projectile as the pneumatically stored energy undergoes expansion and decompression upon release. This in turn minimizes the physical deformation of the projectile during the launching sequence, increasing the accuracy of the shot. In paintball applications, this linear application of force contributes greatly to increased accuracy, since a non-linear transfer of force at the low pressures required to limit paintball velocities to safe levels exaggerates the adverse ballistic effects on the paintball, due to its low velocity. A preferred embodiment of the present invention optionally provides electro-pneumatic control for both the projectile cocking and reloading operations to optimize firing sequence timing.
The accuracy of the present invention has been proven through testing at the projectile velocity levels used in paintball applications. Ten shot clusters from a conventional hand held paintball gun that is fired from a target distance of 60 yards typically exhibits an average maximum inaccuracy of 15 inches for projectile velocities in the 290 to 300 feet per second range. The same conventional paintball gun shot under the same conditions from a rigid mount typically exhibits an average maximum inaccuracy of 10 inches. In contrast, the present invention exhibited an average maximum inaccuracy of less than 8 inches when fired from a hand held position, and an average maximum inaccuracy of 4 inches when rigidly mounted.
The invention also provides increased aiming accuracy through the use of a cam shaped trigger and electrical switch arrangement to initiate the projectile launching sequence. This arrangement minimizes the pull force necessary to engage the switch by contact with the trigger, due to the mechanical advantage provided by the transfer of force through the cam. This in turn minimizes the amount of hand and arm movement experienced upon pulling the trigger, which increases firing accuracy.
Finally, the present invention also provides a significant accuracy advantage over all prior art spring-loaded guns at all pneumatic operating pressures, due to the minimized recoil experienced after a shot is fired. Typical spring-loaded guns exhibit greater recoil than does the invention, due to the non-linear reaction forces created on the gun body by the expansion of the spring. In contrast, the elimination of spring loading in the present invention eliminates these non-linear forces, minimizing the amount of recoil experienced and thus allowing greater accuracy over all types of existing spring-loaded gun designs in the firing of a shot.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching device that uses only pneumatic force to propel a projectile.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching device for use in the recreational and professional sport of paintball that uses only pneumatic force to propel the paintball.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching device which can be aimed and fired with greater accuracy than all types of spring-loaded guns at all pneumatic operating pressures.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching device for use in the recreational and professional sport of paintball which can be aimed and fired with greater accuracy than existing paintball guns at low pneumatic operating pressures.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching device that uses electro-pneumatic control to release the pneumatic force that propels the projectile.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching mechanism that uses electro-pneumatic control for both the projectile cocking and reloading operations to optimize firing sequence timing.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a projectile launching device for use in the recreational and professional sport of paintball that uses electro-pneumatic control to release the pneumatic force that propels the projectile.

Pneumatically operated projectile launching device


In some aspects, a method of monitoring a battery system of an industrial vehicle is disclosed. The battery system may include a first string of battery modules including at least two battery modules connected in series; a first contactor connected to a positive end of the first string of battery modules, a second contactor connector to a negative end of the first string of battery modules; a third contactor connected to the first contactor; a fourth contactor connected to the second contactor; and one or more controllers configured to monitor the first contactor and the second contactor. The method may include receiving, at the one or more controllers, an indication of a failure of one of the first contactor and the second contactor; and opening, via the one or more controllers, at least one of the third contactor or the fourth contactor.

Industrial operations, such as mining operations involve complex operations that require large industrial machines, and machine operators to undertake challenging tasks in often dangerous environments. Typical industrial machines used in mining include continuous miners, feeder breakers, roof bolters, utility vehicles for mining, load-haul-dump (LHD) vehicles, underground mining loaders and underground articulated trucks, and these machines are under significant stress during everyday mining operations. For example, such mining machines may be subject to rocks falling onto the machine or the complete collapse or cave-in of a mine wall or roof onto the machine. In the case where significant amounts rock or other material has fallen onto the machine, components of the machine are at high risk of damage. The potential for injury of a machine operator from component damage, engine difficulties, or component fires caused by damage from falling rocks is high, and damage to a mining machine or other engine difficulties may indefinitely immobilize the machine, preventing the removal of the machine from the dangerous mining environment. These risks are amplified when utilizing a battery powered industrial vehicle that requires high voltages to operate.
A LHD vehicle or similar industrial machine is normally provided with a bucket, container or other type of work implement for carrying/transporting a load. Such industrial vehicles require engines operating with power consumption needs significantly higher than conventional cars or trucks. For example, in connection with transportation of heavy loads, e.g. in contracting work, industrial vehicles are frequently used. An industrial vehicle may be operated with large and heavy loads in areas where there are no roads, for example for transports in connection with road or tunnel building, sand pits, mines and similar environments, which often requires higher torque output to the wheels to navigate such environments.
Industrial vehicles for underground mining operations, such as haulers for room and pillar type mining, may be powered by large battery systems carried on the vehicles. Such a battery system may include a housing containing an array of electrochemical cells, allowing the vehicle to travel without cords throughout a mine for a limited period of time. Such battery systems require high voltages to power mining vehicles, and the high operating voltages of these battery systems create added risk to engine malfunctions or battery failures. It is desirable for battery systems in vehicles to include systems and devices to monitor battery operating parameters and detect failures in battery systems. Furthermore, large industrial vehicles may be difficult to move when a battery system failure occurs, and thus there is a need for battery systems that can allow a vehicle to operate after a partial battery system failure.
The battery systems according to this disclosure address one or more of the challenges set forth above and/or other problems in the art. The scope of the current disclosure, however, is defined by the attached claims, and not by the ability to solve any specific problem.


There is disclosed a focussing system for concentrating radiation onto a target surface, comprising: a first reflective element forming part of the surface of a cone axially aligned along a first alignment axis, the first reflective element being positioned such that when planar radiation is incident on the first reflective element in a direction parallel to the first alignment axis, the planar radiation is focussed towards a first focus lying along the first alignment axis, wherein said part of the surface of a cone is contained within a sector having an included angle of less than 180 degrees; and a second reflective element having a reflective surface that at all points is flat in a direction parallel to a single reference direction, the second reflective element being positioned between the first reflective element and the first focus such that, when planar radiation is incident on the first reflective element in a direction parallel to the first alignment axis, radiation reflected from the first reflective element onto the second reflective element is focussed towards a second focus. A multiple target focussing system comprising a plurality of focussing systems, solar powered systems using focussing systems, kits, telescopes, defocussing light sources, and methods for assembling focussing systems are also disclosed.

Diminishing fuel reserves and the effects of climate change have highlighted the need to make the best use of all available energy sources. Solar energy is probably the most significant renewable energy source—it also has the advantage of minimal environmental impact. The development of technology for exploiting solar energy is very important for future energy production.
Solar energy can be utilized in a number of ways but for the production of 5-500 kW electrical power in dry sunny regions, where water is scarce, there are two leading possibilities: concentrated photo-voltaic (CPV) systems; and solar heated Stirling engines driving electrical generators.
What is needed for both are low cost solar concentrators that can produce high concentrations of at least 500 and preferably up to values in excess of 1000. For photo-voltaics, high efficiency Photo-Voltaic materials are expensive and high concentrations allow them to be used more cost effectively. For Stirling engines, high efficiency requires high heater temperatures and this can only be achieved with high levels of concentration.
Currently solar concentrators used to provide these high levels of concentration use designs that require reflective surfaces that are fully three dimensional. For example, in US2006266408 (Solfocus) a two stage concentrator is described that can provide high concentrations for Photo-Voltaic devices. The two mirrors are made out of glass and are silvered to give the required reflective coatings. The mirror profiles have curvature in two directions.
For Stirling engine applications, designs have centered on single stage parabolic reflectors that produce a point focus. Spherical reflectors have also been used—for high values of f/D (focal length/dish diameter) an approximate point focus is produced with a high enough concentration factor to be used in these applications. Alternatively, arrays of spherical reflectors have been used that approximate a parabolic reflector. Again the various reflector profiles have curvature in two directions.
Relatively expensive manufacturing techniques and materials are generally required to form the reflector profiles having curvature in two directions to the required accuracy. In addition, handling and transport of the reflective components from the factory to the installation site can be difficult, due to their bulk and potential fragility.
As well as the design of the basic concentrator system, other aspects of a complete solar generator system that need to be addressed concern the design of the cavity or window type receivers for Solar Stirling generators, aspects such as the angle of incidence for Photo-Voltaic generators, and more generally non-imaging "secondary" concentrators for both.
The principles used for the design of cavity receivers and non-imaging concentrators, such as Winston cones, are well established and known to those skilled in the art. See, for example, the following: 1) Pitz-Paal Robert. High Temperature Solar Concentrators. in Solar Energy Conversion and Photoenergy Systems in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. Eolss Publishers, Oxford UK 2007; and 2) Roland Winston, Juan C. Minano, Pablo Benitez, (with contributions by Narkis Shatz and John C. Bortz), Nonimaging Optics, Academic Press, 2004. (ISBN 0-12-759751-4). Also commercial software exists that greatly facilitates the design of these components. See, for example, ZEMAX, Optima Research Ltd, 8 Riverside Business Park, Stoney Common Road, Stansted, CM24 8PL, United Kingdom e.g. ZEMAX (ref 4). These tools are particularly useful for more detailed requirements such as attaining uniform temperature of the heater assembly or uniform illumination of the photo-voltaic cell.

Low cost focussing system giving high concentrations


Hinge reinforcement (10), for a motor vehicle door hinge, has a shape corresponding to the shape of the hinge bracket (6) and is able to be joined to the hinge bracket. The first end (11) of the reinforcement (10) facing the hinge pin (5) is provided with a fork-like shape so that it can be placed against the hinge pin (5) from below the bracket onto the hinge pin between the bearing arms (9) of the bracket, and on its side facing the bracket a cam (12) engages a recess (13) of the hinge bracket (6) to prevent the hinge reinforcement (10) from falling out. The second end (14) of the reinforcement is connected to the hinge bracket (6) by a fastening element.

In particular in motor vehicles having a drive, which is fastened to the tailgate, for automatically actuating the tailgate, it is necessary for the hinges to withstand higher loads than comparable standard hinges for tailgates without drives of said type. It has therefore already been proposed to replace the conventional standard hinges with higher-strength forged hinges or with hinges with larger cross sections.
A disadvantage of solutions of said type is inter alia that they require relatively expensive measures. In addition, said hinges must, on account of their installation size and the possible different outward-rotating behaviors, be taken into consideration already during the development of the vehicle.
It is already known from JP 06344774 A and JP 10203170 A to provide stiffening in the region of the hinge fastening to the body in order to withstand higher loads of tailgate hinges. Said measures must likewise be taken into consideration already during the assembly of the body.

Hinge reinforcement for a motor vehicle door hinge


An apparatus is arranged to construct a reclosable zipper attached to a polymeric web. The zipper has a female profile with first and second elongated legs substantially perpendicular to the web and a channel therebetween. The apparatus includes a punch wheel having a first surface for supporting a first portion of the web on a first side of the zipper. The punch wheel includes a plurality of projecting punches for engaging the channel between the first and second legs of the female profile and for exerting a punch force through the first leg to remove slugs from the first leg. The apparatus includes a die wheel adjacent to and coaxially aligned with the punch wheel. The die wheel has a second surface for supporting a second portion of the web on a second side of the zipper and has a plurality of voids for receiving the punches. The punch wheel includes a cam for pushing the punch, and the first and second surfaces are tapered. Each of the punches can have an L-shaped cross section, with a bottom of the L shaped structure engaging the channel.

Many consumer packaging applications employ reclosable bags. These bags use reclosable zippers for locking products within the bags. A typical reclosable zipper includes male and female profiles extending along the entire length of the zipper. The male profile typically may be tree-shaped, with an expanded head portion supported by a narrower trunk portion. The female profile is disposed opposite to the male profile and is adapted to mate with the male profile by a pair of legs having locking edges or cornered shoulders. The profiles are interlocked by properly aligning the male and female profiles and pressing them together along the entire length of the zipper. The opposing legs of the female profile slide over the expanded head portion of the male, and lock to it by hooking the head with the cornered shoulders and resting in the trunk portion.
If the bag is holding a grainy or dusty material, conventional zippers can be problematic. Particles of the grain or dust may get caught between the female legs. When this happens, the male profile is often precluded from interlocking between the female legs because of the presence of the particles. As a result, the bag may not be completely sealed.
Consequently, a need exists for a zipper for a reclosable bag which overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings associated with existing zippers.


A double-layer optical disk having characteristics that are less wavelength dependent, allows the use of a pickup comprising a light beam of a different wavelength to read each layer accurately and stably. In the double layer optical disk which comprises, a first reflection layer carrying first information, a spacer layer, and a second reflection layer carrying second information, each laminated on a transparent substrate having a specific refractive index thereby allowing a pickup to read said first and second information, the first reflection layer is formed by laminating a metal layer made of a metal thin film and a dielectric layer made of a dielectric having a refractive index higher than the refractive index of the transparent substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk having a plurality of reflection layers having pits or grooves carrying information, formed into a multi-layer structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Multi-layer optical disks are known as disks having a structure that a plurality of reflection layers respectively having pits or grooves carrying information are formed into a multi-layered structure, so that the information carried by each layer is optically read from one side of the disk. Among various multi-layer optical disks, double layer optical disks are used widely.
In recent years, there is a demand for increasing the recording density of each reflection layer of the multi-layer optical disk. To meet the requirement of high-density recording of information, it is conceivable to make pits or grooves on each reflection layer smaller and form them at higher density, to use a laser beam of a shorter wavelength for reading information carried by such a high-density disk.
When a gold thin film is used for the reflection layer, however, the reading of information on the reflection layer by means of the laser beam of a shorter wavelength becomes inaccurate because the optical characteristics of the gold thin film is largely wavelength dependent. Thus, when gold is used, the first layer of the double-layer optical disk becomes unable to function as an intermediate layer.
If, on the other hand, a dielectric multilayer is used as the intermediate reflection layer, it is possible to obtain desired optical characteristics. However, the use of dielectric multilayer has been practical not possible because of the problems such that the available percentage in its production process is very low because a number of steps are required to produce the layer whose total thickness amounts to more than one thousand nanometers, that desired reflectivity and transmittivity cannot be stably obtained because of the generation of cracks during its production process, and that degrading of the signal is caused by changes of the effective pit shape or optical interference.

Multi-layer optical disk having a reflection layer comprising thin metal film and a dielectric


A method and middleware is provided for information processing includes an input thread module (210), a ware thread module (220) and an output thread module (230). The input thread module (210) selects input thread messages from first data (520), the first data derived from information received by an input device (110) coupled to the input thread module (210). The ware thread module (220) is coupled to the input thread module (210) and generates ware thread messages corresponding to the input thread messages in response to the input thread messages to generate second data (620) and data processes the ware thread messages independently from one another (630). And the output thread module (230) is coupled to the ware thread module (220) and generates output thread messages from and in response to the second data (720) and provides the output thread messages independently from one another for writing to one or more output devices in accordance with the second data (730).

Conventionally, data and information is provided for processing in one of a number of standardized formats. For example, industries develop standardized formats for use within the industry, such as data formats for inventorying material. One such technology utilizes radio frequency tags affixed to inventoried material, devices, animals or other items, and is commonly referred to as Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology.
RFID technology utilizes RFID tags, which are electronic memory devices to which data representing information may be written to and/or read from by an RFID interrogator. The tag may be affixed to or otherwise associated with a particular tagged component, including an item, animal, assembly, device, or product, to store information on the tag relating to that tagged component. The RFID tag may include a memory chip and a radio signal receiving and transmitting device, both encapsulated together and forming a transponder. The transponder may be housed within a plastic or otherwise protective housing and is affixed to the tagged component.
RFID tags have data stored thereon in a standardized data format wherein the format and content of such data is structured in accordance with the standardized data format. The standardized data format is typically common to a particular industry or group. Thus, RFID tags for use within such group or industry utilize a standardized tag data format, common to all users within that group, including storage on the tag for only pre-determined data fields, each having a pre-set field size and location. There are many such standardized formats and each requires a RFID tag interrogator programmed to encode and decode such standardized format in order to communicate with the RFID tags.
The RFID interrogator communicates with the RFID tags and includes a radio signal sending and receiving device and a recorder for storing transmitted data. The RFID interrogator may also include a processor for reformatting or otherwise processing the transmitted data. The RFID interrogator may be a single component, such as a hand-held transceiver device, or may include multiple components, including, for example, a computer or other storage and/or processing component to handle data storage, processing, and transmission between the transceiver and the processor.
Such practices work well in certain industries, wherein the standardized format may successfully accommodate the data formatting needs for that particular industry, however, such formats are not applicable to other industries or groups. Therefore, such systems, such as RFID systems, are inefficient or impose undesirable limitations in an industry where no particular standardized data format may serve all data storage and retrieval needs for a particular industry. In addition, such systems are not usable across different groups or industries where different information may be presented in accordance with various standards.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for accepting and processing standardized data, such as RFID tag data, regardless of the format thereof. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

Method and middleware for standards agnostic transaction processing


The door can be safely and exactly opened and shut even when the door opening and shutting stroke value is not memorized in the non-volatile memory. The door opening and shutting stroke value measured in the setting time of the automatic door is memorized in the non-volatile memory 14. Then, the memorized door opening and shutting stroke value is read in the plant memory 15 for the door stroke value of the micro-computor 12. In the automatic door for opening and shutting the door 5 according to the door opening and shutting stroke value, when the door opening and shutting stroke value is not memorized in the non-volatile memory 14 after the power supply, the door 5 is opened and shut at the low speed to measure the door stroke value. And the door stroke value is memorized in the plant memory 15 for the door stroke value of the micro-computor 12 as the door opening and shutting stroke value, and the door 5 is opened and shut in accordance with the memorized value.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for memorizing a door opening and shutting stroke value as a control standard of a door opening and shutting operation in an automatic door.
2. Prior Art
An apparatus for controlling a door opening and shutting operation in an automatic door is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication H2-4747. In the cited reference, the disclosed apparatus comprises means for opening and shutting a door at a low speed with a power supply signal and a length measuring mode signal, means for measuring the stroke of the door in the low speed opening and shutting operation, and a non-volatile memory for memorizing the measured value as the door opening and shutting stroke value, wherein the door opening and shutting stroke value is measured in the setting of the automatic door to be memorized in the non-volatile memory so as to control the door opening and shutting operation based on the door opening and shutting stroke value at the power supply time.
With this apparatus, since the door opening and shutting stroke value is measured only in the setting of the automatic door and at the power supply time, the door opening and shutting stroke value memorized in the non-volatile memory is read out from the memory for the door stroke of the micro-computor to be able to control the door opening and shutting operation, it is not required to measure the door opening and shutting stroke value at every power supply time.
However, since in the aforementioned apparatus, only the measured door stroke value is memorized in the non-volatile memory, if the door opening and shutting stroke value is not memorized in the non-volatile memory on account of the failures of the non-volatile memory, communication errors, non-setting and like, the exact opening and shutting operation of the door can be not controlled, so that there is a risk that the door may strike a passer-by.

Memory method of door opening and shutting stroke value in automatic door


An aqueous reaction mixture having a pH of 4.5 to 5.5 of a multi-functional polydimethyl siloxane emulsified polymer, a methyl triethoxy silane, a mixture of substituted nonyl and octyl phenol derivative surfactants, non-ionic fluorinated alkyl ester surfactant and synthetic ethoxylated amine surfactants, a silanol terminated polydimethyl siloxane and ethanol. The reaction mixture is coated on a mold core surface and cured with heat to form a mold release surface that can be used in excess of twenty times prior to recoating.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to organopolysiloxane mold release compositions. More particularly, it refers to such mold release compositions also containing a methyl trimethoxy or triethoxy silane in an aqueous solution and methods for employing the composition in a mold.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the process of preparing molded products such as urethanes, natural rubber, silicones, neoprene, and other synthetic elastomers, it is necessary to coat the core surfaces of molds to prevent the molded product from sticking to the mold. Coatings used to prevent such molded products from sticking to molds are called mold release agents. Some of the mold release agents previously used are solvent based, and some are water based. Polydimethylsiloxanes have been used as one of the ingredients in prior art mold release compositions, as well as methyl triethoxy silanes together with surfactants, and in many instances with a catalyst. U.S. Pat. Re. No. 32,318 describes an aqueous lubricating composition for time curing bladders containing polydimethylsiloxane, methyl hydrogen or methyl trimethoxy silane, a surfactant and a metal salt of an organic acid. Organic solvents were specifically excluded from the composition because they degraded the rubber surfaces and required frequency of recoat. U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,881 describes coating compositions applied to a plastic substrate for providing improved scratch resistance. These scratch resistant compositions contain a hydrolyzed silicon tetraalkoxide, a methyl trimethoxy silane, and a metal salt. U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,928 describes mold release compositions containing a polydimethylsiloxane, an alkoxysilane such as methyl trimethoxy silane, a metal alkoxide, and a non reactive volatile organic solvent which is substantially water-free.
Although these prior art mold release compositions have the ability to release molded products, they suffer from the need to recoat the molds frequently, have odor problems, or are toxic. A mold release composition is needed that is environmentally friendly and will permit greater than twenty releases of molded urethane, natural rubber, neoprene, and other synthetic elastomer for transfer, compression, and injection molding.

Mold release composition and method coating a mold core


The invention relates to a computer-aided process of dental bar design for the purpose of fabricating removable implant-based dental restorations. The aim of the invention is to improve and automate the present dental restoration design process, which is very labor intensive and requires a lot of artistic work on the part of a dentist. The invention includes the developments of several algorithms and their integration into a computer-aided system to process the gingival and related data scanned from a patient's mouth and output a CAD model for fabricating the actual dental bar. Software has been developed to implement the inventive process.

The dental bar is an important piece in the implant-based dental restorations for partially or fully edentulous patients. Implant-based dental restorations have many advantages over standard removable dental restorations since the implants can prevent the loss of jawbones, especially in older patients, help to restore facial features, and enable the patients to get firm bites. A critical step in dental restoration is the fabrication of the dental bar on which the ceramic denture sits. A dental bar is patient-specific, i.e., a particular dental bar is outfitted for a particular patient as each patient's jaw is unique, and needs to be fitting firmly in a patient's mouth and confirming to the shape of the patient's gingival surface. Thus, the design of a dental bar is a crucial step in the fabrication of the dental bar and eventually success of the dental restoration.
Traditionally, designing of a dental bar has been done manually by a dentist, which is a lengthy and labor intensive process and requires high levels of artistic work on the part of the dentist. There have been attempts to develop methods and systems towards automated design and fabrication of dental bars, however, with very limited successes. Currently, the commercially available "automated" dental restoration systems are only capable of making restorations for single tooth, not for edentulous patients requiring multiple teeth restorations.
For example, CEREC® is a commercially available CAD/CAM system for design and fabrication of ceramic dental restorations (http://www.cereconline.com). The system consists of a data acquisition device (infrared camera), a milling machine unit, and a software module that generates the missing part of a patient's tooth. A dentist can use the system for crowns, fillings, and single-tooth restorations.
Procera® technology is another commercially available CAD/CAM process that involves computer generated copings to provide precision fit within the acceptable level according to the standards of American Dental Association (http://www.nobelbiocare.com). Prior to this technology all-ceramic restorations had to be bonded into place using resin cements, due to lack of strength and marginal integrity of the restorations. Crown restorations for single tooth produced by Procera® have been shown to be within the clinically accepted range for marginal opening gap dimensions.
The inventors' lab previously attempted to develop an automated process for dental bar design with limited success. The previous attempt is documented in Mr. Po-Wen Yang's thesis tilted "Feasibility Study of 3-D Cylinder Data Fitting on the Bar-retained Removeable Overdenture Design."
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a novel, automated method and system to design a dental bar for dental restorations.


A method and device for cutting a paper web (9) in a twin wire former (1) is described, said web being formed between two forming fabrics (4, 5) while wrapping a section of a forming roll (3), and the web cutting being carried out with the aid of jet cutters (10, 11) discharging jets of pressure medium so that a paper web of final width is obtained and, when applicable, a tail in the web. The jet cutters (10, 11) are arranged at the forming roll (3) so that the web cutting is carried out in the web at a point where the recently formed paper web (9) and the forming fabrics (4, 5) together wrap said section of the forming roll (3) in a sandwich structure.

The present invention relates to a method and device for cutting a paper web in the twin wire former of a paper machine.
Web cutting in the form of tail and/or edge cutting at the end of the forming fabric of a former is known, for instance, through U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,279,756, 2,709,398, 2,857,822 and 4,560,438.
In a twin wire former the paper web is trimmed and/or cut to a tail while being supported by one of the forming fabrics, at a point immediately before the pick-up means. A tail (also called a leader) is a strip, which is separated from the web at the wet end of a paper machine, ahead of the press section, in order to facilitate the threading of the web through the machine. For the cutting, usually water jets are used which encounter the paper web at relatively high pressure in order to form edge trimmings and a trimmed web and, when applicable, a tail, of predetermined width. One drawback is that, after slitting the paper web, the water jets spread so that water splashes all around the area. If the supporting fabric is a felt, as is the case in a crescent former, there is a considerable risk of fibers and fiber fragments being pressed into the felt and thereby giving rise to streaks in the paper web of final width when the tail cutting is complete. The pressure of the fluid jet must be limited in order to reduce the risk of the felt being damaged by the fluid jet. Repeated and extended tail cutting obviously increases said problem of fibers and fiber fragments being pressed into the felt, as well as the felt being damaged by the fluid jet even if the pressure thereof is maintained at a lower level. This in turn means that tail cutting is limited to paper webs having low basis weight such as below 30 g/m.sup.2 in uncreped state and that trimming cannot be performed at all on the felt at a point immediately before the pick-up means. If the stock contains wet strengthener, the basis weight limit is reduced still further. In order to obtain a paper web with straight edges and of a predetermined width in a crescent former, therefore, the outer forming fabric may be provided with impermeable edge portions as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,390. The inner, parallel edges of said edge portions, facing each other, thus determine the width of the finished paper web and said width is selected depending on the grade of soft paper to be produced. When the production of soft paper is to be changed from one grade to another, e.g. from tissue to towel paper, the width of the finished paper web must be altered in order to avoid undesirable losses during conversion of the paper web to the intended final products. To enable such alteration in the production from one grade to another, the outer forming fabric of the crescent former must be dismantled and replaced with another forming fabric with a different width between the impermeable edge portions. This exchange is troublesome and time-consuming and entails an undesirable loss of production. Furthermore, increased costs are incurred for forming fabrics as well as space to store them.

Method and device for web cutting in the former of a paper machine


The present invention relates to a cutting insert, a cutting tool for chip removing machining, a shim as well as a method for mounting a cutting insert. The cutting tool includes a holder equipped with at least one insert pocket including a base surface, at least one circular shim including opposite first and second surfaces, and at least one cutting insert, which includes a circular cutting edge formed at a transition between an upper side and an edge surface of the cutting insert. The upper side includes a chip surface comprising at least one chip breaker portion and the edge surface includes a clearance surface. The shim is provided between the base surface of the insert pocket and the cutting insert. The cutting tool includes a clamping arrangement for holding its parts together. The chip breaker portion is provided at a varying distance from the associated cutting edge. The shim and the cutting insert include at least one pair of cooperating projection and recess for indexing of the cutting insert. The pair of cooperating projection and recess is provided to be positioned in a position relative to a reference line or axis of the tool in order to orient the chip breaker portion in the chip surface to a desired relative position. The number of chip breaker portions is a multiple of the number of projections or recesses.

The present invention relates to a cutting insert, a cutting tool for chip removing machining, a shim as well as a method for mounting a cutting insert according to the preambles of the independent claims.
In tools for metal machining round cutting inserts of hard and wear resistant material such as cemented carbide are often used. A problem, which is created at use of round cutting insert, is that the cutting insert tends to be twisted arbitrary in the holder both by the operator and by the cutting forces. Through a number of documents, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,146,060, 5,478,175, 3,383,748 and 5,346,336 different solutions are proposed in order to lock the round cutting insert in the holder. Round cutting inserts have a problematic chip-breaking pattern.
Round cutting inserts have, for example, a difficulty with breaking chips at small cutting depths and at small feeds. There are, however, round cutting inserts with chip breaker that to some extent solve the later problem such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,478,175 and 3,383,748. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,336 a circular cutting insert is shown provided with five plane facets distributed at even partition on the clearance surface. The facets are provided to constitute defined positions in connection with indexing of the cutting insert. Each facet forms an acute angle with the center axis of the cutting insert. A locking screw locks the cutting insert to the pocket of the holder insert. A problem with the latter circular cutting insert is that it has difficulties to break chips at small cutting depths and small feeds.
Other documents showing circular cutting inserts are JP Patent Document No. 08-174311 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,878.
It is desirable to provide a cutting insert, which avoids the above-captioned drawbacks.
It is also desirable to provide a cutting insert, which can break chips at small cutting depths and small feeds.
It is also desirable to provide a cutting insert, which comprises a built-in positioning of the chip breaker portion.
It is also desirable to provide a tool and a cutting insert that comprise an adjustable chip breaker portion.
It is also desirable to provide a tool, a cutting insert, a shim and a method, wherein the cutting insert can be indexed exactly in a simple manner.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a cutting insert for chip removing machining comprises a substantially circular cutting edge formed at a transition between an upper side and an edge surface of the cutting insert, the upper side comprising a chip surface including at least one chip breaker portion and the edge surface comprising a clearance surface, the edge surface connecting to a lower side of the cutting insert, the lower side comprising at least one of a projection and a recess for indexing of the cutting insert. The chip breaker portion is provided at a varying distance from the associated cutting edge, the at least one of the projection and the recess is provided at a position relative to a reference line or axis of the tool in order to orient the chip breaker portion in the chip surface to a desired position, and a quantity of chip breaker portions is a multiple of a quantity of the at least one of the projection and the recess.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a circular shim for a cutting tool as described above is provided. The shim is adapted to be placed in the at least one insert pocket in order to support a circular cutting insert in the cutting tool. The shim comprises opposite first and second surfaces and a central hole. The first surface of the shim comprises an abutment surface for abutting against the at least one insert pocket, and the second surface of the shim comprises an abutment surface for abutting against the circular cutting insert and at least one of a projection and a recess for indexing of the cutting insert.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for mounting a cutting insert in a holder for chip removing machining is provided. The cutting insert has a substantially circular basic shape and comprises at least one cutting edge formed at a transition between an upper side and an edge surface of the cutting insert. The upper side comprises a chip surface comprising at least one chip breaker portion and the edge surface comprising a clearance surface. The cutting tool comprises a clamp for holding the cutting insert and the holder together. The cutting insert has at least one of a projection and a recess on its lower side. According to the method, a holder including at least one insert pocket with a base surface is provided. A circular shim is provided in the insert pocket, the shim comprising opposite first and second surfaces and a central hole, the first surface comprising an abutment surface for abutting against the base surface, the second surface comprising at least one of a projection and a recess for mating with the at least one of the projection and the recess on the lower side of the cutting insert. The cutting insert is provided with a quantity of chip breaker portions that is a multiple of a quantity of the at least one of the projection and the recess on the lower side of the cutting insert. The shim is screwed, with a screw, in position relative to the base surface such that the shim can be rotated. The cutting insert is positioned on the shim in such a manner that at least one of the at least one of the projection and the recess on the lower side of the cutting insert fits to a counterpart one of the at least one of the projection and the recess on the second surface of the shim. The cutting insert and the shim are rotated together until a desired position for the chip breaker portion relative to the holder has been obtained. The cutting insert is removed and the screw is tightened such that the shim is fixed in a desired position. The cutting insert is mounted in the position and the cutting insert is fixed in the pocket by a clamping arrangement.

Cutting insert, a cutting tool, a shim and a method


A method for aerial refueling situational awareness is described. The method includes providing, to a display, a video image of the refueling environment, and providing at least one video overlay onto the video image, the at least one video overlay indicative of a positional relationship between an aircraft to be refueled and a tanker aircraft, the at least one video overlay including at least one guidance cue to assist in the alignment and coupling of the aerial refueling boom with the receiving aircraft receptacle.

The field of the disclosure relates generally to aerial refueling, and more specifically, to methods and systems for directing remote aerial refueling operations.
As newer aerial refueling tankers are fielded, the boom operator is being moved from looking out a window in the tail of the aircraft to a highly sophisticated remote workstation near the flight deck. This move requires a high-fidelity enhanced vision system to be provided to the boom operator to enable them to visually acquire the aerial refueling environment, so that they may manually "fly" the aerial refueling boom into the receiver aircraft's refueling receptacle. This remote workstation is sometimes referred to as the Aerial Refueling Operator Station (AROS).
Both the AROS and the older systems in which the boom operator is in the tail of the aircraft utilize manual (human initiated) acquisition and identification of the receiving aircraft. Generally, acquisition is made via handoff from the pilot(s) to the boom operator via intercom during rendezvous between the tanker and receiving aircraft. As such, positive target (receiving aircraft) identification is determined through visual means by the Aerial Refueling Operator (ARO).
In systems that employ an AROS and an enhanced vision system, a 3-D Boom Aerial Refueling Camera System (BARCS) is utilized along with a wider field of view 2-D camera set called the Situational Awareness Camera Systems (SACS). In operation, the boom operator utilizes the SACS for peripheral situational awareness and the BARCS to make contact with the receiver aircraft using the flying boom.
The SACS gives the boom operator a wingtip to wingtip view behind the aircraft so they can keep track of the various receiving aircraft maneuvering behind the refueling aircraft, for example, formations of fighter aircraft that flow across the boom area to refuel. In such a scenario, the boom operator manually "flies" the boom with no on-screen visual cues, just the view through the camera systems. In a sense, the operator is "flying" the refueling boom via remote control, with no direct view to determine how the boom is aligned in space.
As can be easily understood, the currently utilized boom operation methodology involves many steps to be accomplished manually by the boom operator, with little or no automation to aid in this critical and sensitive operation. Another limitation is that the currently implemented boom operation methodology requires a qualified full time boom operator, adding expense to the mission and putting another aircrew member at risk. In addition, current systems do not do employ automated positive target identification which can result in having to manually establish communication between the tanker and the receiving aircraft. Manual identification can be distracting for the crew and can defocus the refueling effort, which is an inherently dangerous operation and requires the utmost of concentration to accomplish. Further, in certain emission controlled (EMCON) situations, radio communications with the receiver are not possible, thus making positive receiver identification more difficult.
There is no capability to give target identification and other visual aim point cues to the boom operator to accurately position the boom relative to the receiver aircraft as the mission unfolds. Rather, boom positioning is done manually and remotely via basic video camera systems. Further, there are no visual cues identifying the location and hazards surrounding the refueling receptacle, such as a Universal Aerial Refueling Receptacle Slipway Installation (UARRSI), on the receiving aircraft. Therefore minimal information is provided to take measures, such as micro maneuvering, to ensure successful and complete refueling operations. As can be easily understood, the lack of cues and manually intensive effort extended by boom operators can result in significant operator stress and fatigue.

Methods and systems for directing remote aerial refueling operations


The present invention comprises a system, apparatus, and method for subscribing to indicia related to a user experience or a peripheral device, in an embodiment a broadband wireless modem, recording selected indicia, and forwarding them to a server on a network. The system comprises a server coupled to a plurality of user terminals through a network, to receive a set of indicia, an apparatus for controlling a baseband/broadband processor, and a program product comprising instructions to adapt a central processing unit to perform as follows. In an embodiment, connecting to a broadband/baseband processor comprising issuing commands, subscribing to receive indicia, determining a condition has occurred, recording a plurality of indicia, forwarding a set of indicia to a destination on the network. Indicia includes measurement values, state changes, event occurrences, user actions, activity and inactivity at time stamped milestones, and sequences and combinations of the above.

Prior art, as disclosed in a related U.S. Pat. No. 7,609,650 issued Oct. 27, 2009, provides for a service quality platform of a data collection and management system to dynamically generate and download to a population of wireless devices rule-based data collection profiles. Profiles define what information is to be recorded on the devices in response to which conditions and events, as well as the conditions and events which enable the device to upload the set of information. Conditions or events comprise selected occurrences in the network or on the device that the device can sense, such as a call dropping or a user pressing a button on the device. Conditions and events also comprise the passage of time, or a request from a network administrator that the device report information back to the server.
Network monitoring solutions are well known in the art and widely employed by service providers, however, previously available solutions can only monitor and diagnose subsets of the overall telecommunications system and therefore have not provided the holistic view of network and device performance desired to efficiently identify and resolve quality issues. Typical approaches to network monitoring include "self-monitoring" wherein a network element reports on its own status and performance and reports any errors that occur during its operation. The resulting operational metrics from a single element can sometimes be indicative of a broader, system-wide problem, but rather than providing answers, problem resolution entails guesswork and extended troubleshooting, which wastes valuable resources and lowers customer confidence. Another common approach includes placing probes at various points in the network to determine if network elements are functioning according to specification. Sometimes referred to as "sniffers", "log monitors" or "event monitors", these monitoring systems are effective at identifying performance issues with a particular network element, but have failed to capture problems that stem from the interfaces among network elements, i.e., these solutions do not address the case where individual elements are performing according to specifications, but problems occur when those elements interact with one another. This far more complex and subtle set of problems has costly consequences to network operators when services cannot be delivered to end customers. Another monitoring approach known in the art involves pre-programmed service monitors, using specific elements to perform service transactions which emulate "real-world" transaction activity; end-to-end performance is then monitored and the results reported. While these solutions catch systematic failures, they cannot detect intermittent or dispersed problems, subtle impairments, or device or end-user specific issues. Further, they can only test anticipated usage scenarios and fail to adapt to new usages and interactions between services. Another mechanism for generating metrics involves integrating the software for creating the metrics with application software that is embedded on or downloaded onto the wireless device; this is in contrast to integrating metric-generating commands with, for example, the operating system software of the wireless device during the device manufacturing process.

Method for recording user experience or performance of a peripheral device


Disclosed is a multistage fluidized SSP reactor that tightens the distribution of residence time and the resulting average intrinsic viscosity of the polymer product. Less residence time is needed to achieve a desired average intrinsic viscosity. As the polymer beads continuously flow through sequential stages, poly-condensation reactions continue to develop almost under plug-flow conditions. Five fluidized stages or more provide advantageous performance.

Polyesters are condensation polymers that are important in the polymer industry. Common polyester resins include poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, poly(trimethylene terephthalate), PTT, and poly(butylene terephthalate), PBT. Commercial processes for manufacturing polyesters typically include four steps: esterification, precondensation, finishing, and solid-state polycondensation (SSP). The conventional melt-phase polymerization (MPP) process for manufacturing PET chips comprises the first three of these steps.
The esterification step can be performed in two principal ways. Direct esterification of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) with ethylene glycol (EG) and trans-esterification of dimethyl terephthalate (DMi) with EG or similar diols. Other commercially important glycols include 1,3-propanediol, 1,4-butanediol and 1,4-dimethylolcyclohexane. Direct esterification is considerably more rapid than trans-esterification. The direct esterification process also eliminates the need to recover or recycle methanol that is generated as a by-product
U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,157 discloses that long exposure to high temperatures in MPP causes thermal degradation which can form carboxyl and vinyl end groups. Vinyl end groups can deteriorate into acetaldehyde in the final polyester product. Less than one ppm of acetaldehyde is specified for PET bottle resins. Co-monomers such as purified isophthalic acid (PIA) and diethylene glycol (DEG) must be co-polymerized with PET to meet the bottle grade specification. The co-monomers reduce the temperature of melting the solid PET chips again inside the barrel of an injection molding machine and decrease the crystallization rate during the injectior/cooling cycle of the molten PET to give the injection-molded pre-forms. A homo-polymer of PTA and EG shows a peak melting temperature of about 259° C. by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), while a co-polymer of bottle resins has a peak melting temperature of about 248° C. Lower temperatures to melt the solid PET chips minimize the generation of acetaldehyde and improve the color of bottle pre-forms. A slow crystallization rate is favorable to produce the transparent pre-forms without haze.
The polyester oligomers from the esterification step are subjected to a second step, pre-condensation, in an intermediate reactor to upgrade the intrinsic viscosity. The finishing step in MPP continues to upgrade the molten PET to higher molecular weights appropriate for fiber grades and bottle pre-polymers. During the finishing step, the highly viscous molten PET is continuously stirred with a specially-designed agitator to increase its surface area for effective removal of EG or other by-products by using a very low vacuum or forcing an inert gas through the reaction mixture.
The molten PET from MPP is cooled and then formed into pellets or pastilles as pre-polymers. Clear pellets are made from extruded strands that are rapidly quenched and chopped up to have a maximum dimension of about 2.5 to 3.0 mm. Amorphous PET pellets from MPP typically have an intrinsic viscosity of 0.57 to 0.65 dl/g which is adequate for textile or carpet applications. Opaque pastilles are generated in a modified MPP process without the finishing step, which reduces the MPP reaction time from 3 to 7 hours down to about 2 hours. Partially crystalline pastilles as pre-polymers have, however, a relatively low intrinsic viscosity of 0.18 to 0.25 dl/g which is not sufficient for textile or carpet grades. Pastilles with a relatively low molecular weight are drop formed to have a maximum dimension of about 2.5 to 3.0 mm. Commercial beverage bottles requires the processing by injection molding and stretched blow molding of PET chips with intrinsic viscosity of about 0.72 to 0.85 dl/g. Hence, prepolymers from MPP must be fed to the subsequent SSP to increase the molecular weight of pellets for bottle uses or raise the intrinsic viscosity of pastilles for bottle, textile, or carpet grades.
SSP is a thermal treatment process to upgrade PET to a desired molecular weight that is proportional to intrinsic viscosity. SSP is typically performed in a gravity-driven moving bed reactor. The prepolymers fed to the SSP unit can be completely amorphous pellets or partially crystallized pastilles. However, amorphous PET pellets are only thermally stable and therefore not sticky up to the glass transition temperature of about 80° C. The SSP reaction temperature is, however, above 200° C. Consequently, it is a pre-requisite to partially crystallize the PET pellets after MPP and prior to continuous SSP in a gravity flow reactor. The potential for stickiness of partially crystallized PET pellets shifts from the glass transition temperature toward the onset of melting temperature of about 235° C. Hence, precrystallizer and crystallizer vessels are typically utilized between the MPP and the conventional SSP reactor. The elevation of the entire complex is usually very high because the precrystallizer is stacked above the crystallizer, and the crystallizer is stacked above the SSP reactor.
In a gravity-driven SSP moving bed with extruded pellets, the maximum reaction temperature is constrained by temperature at which the PET chips tend to stick. The normal operating SSP temperature for a copolymer is approximately 210° C., but the normal operating temperature of a homo-polymer can be as high as 220° C. The SSP reaction time can be as high as 12 to 18 hours to bring amorphous pellets of 2.5 to 3.0 mm in diameter and length and over 24 hours to advance semi-crystalline pastilles of 2.5 to 3.0 mm in diameter to the target intrinsic viscosity of 0.72 to 0.85 dl/g.
In an SSP reaction, either ester interchange shown in Formula 1 or esterification shown in Formula 2 occurs:
Typically, an inert gas stream, typically nitrogen, is purged through the SSP reactor to heat the PET particles and purge the by-products such as water and ethylene glycol from the SSP reactions. Purge of by-products decreases the occurrence of the reverse reaction and drives the equilibrium toward the poly-condensation. The purge gas stream is purified and recirculated to the SSP reactor. The SSP also provides a polymer with low acetaldehyde content. The acetaldehyde by-products are vaporized, diffuse out of the polymer when heated, and purged away by the inert gas stream during SSP. If the preceding MPP is conducted at relatively low temperatures, as explained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,157, it is expected to observe a smaller concentration of vinyl end groups and carboxyl end groups. The ester interchange reaction rate of Formula 1 is faster than the esterification reaction rate of Formula 2. B. Duh, Reaction Kinetics for Solid-State Polymerization of Poly(ethylene terephthalate), J. Appl. Poly. Science, Vol. 81, 1748 (2001) studied SSP of PET prepolymers in a batch fluidization bed and suggested a kinetic model with respect to the active end group concentration. The SSP reaction can be considered as a second-order reaction. The publication explains that if the particle sizes are small enough and the purge gas flow rate is high enough, the kinetics of poly-condensation will tend to be reaction-controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,420 discloses a rotary spraying congealer to convert the molten PET into beads having an average particle size of 100 to 250 μm. The beads are sufficiently crystallized during cooling after atomization to obviate a crystallizing step prior to SSP. The beads are then polycondensed in a fluidized bed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,157 discloses solid-state polycondensation of precrystallized prepolymers in a fluidized bed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,035 discloses an SSP unit comprising two unfluidized moving bed reactors in series preceded by a crystallizer and a preheater.
JP 49-18117 B discloses an SSP reactor comprising multiple discrete fluidized chambers. The PET pellets used had a maximum dimension of 4 mm and an initial intrinsic viscosity of 0.70 dl/g. In one embodiment, a partition separates the discrete chambers until opened to allow the contents to enter the succeeding chamber. In this embodiment, it took 6 hours of residence time to improve the intrinsic viscosity from 0.7 to about 0.98 dl/g. In a second embodiment, partitions separate the discrete chambers that are fluidly communicated by an overflow tube with an opening spaced above the floor of the chamber. Hence, fluidized PET pellets had to randomly spill over the top of the overflow tube to proceed to the subsequent reaction chamber. A total mean residence time of five hours was necessary to upgrade the intrinsic viscosity of the pellets in the reactor from 0.70 to above 0.90 dl/g. However, the distribution of intrinsic viscosity was broad, indicating the undesirable residence time distribution of the pellets that occurs in a reactor where chambers are communicated by an overflow tube.
A single fluidized bed has several advantages for continuous SSP of small PET beads. Fluidizing the beads reduces their sticking tendency because the agitated particles are not in contact long enough to stick together. Hence, a precrystallizing step after MPP and before SSP can be obviated. Moreover, fluidization of small PET beads assures rapid diffusion of by-products away from the beads to prevent the reverse reaction from occurring. Hence, bottle-grade polyester can be obtained with less reactor residence time. A smaller SSP reactor is then required. These improvements reduce the capital cost and the elevation of the SSP complex.
It is highly desirable to design a simple, inexpensive SSP process for producing PET particles with a sufficiently high intrinsic viscosity in less reaction time.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide an SSP reactor and process that can upgrade the intrinsic viscosity of polyester particles from the MPP having an initially low intrinsic viscosity. A further object of the invention is to treat the polyester from an MPP process that has omitted a finishing step. An even further object of the invention is to provide an SSP reactor and process that can provide polyester product with a sufficiently high average intrinsic viscosity over a short reaction period. Lastly, an object of the invention is to provide an SSP reactor and process that uses no crystallizer equipment before the SSP reactor.

Apparatus and process for continuous solid-state poly-condensation in a fluidized reactor with multiple stages


A reliable data communications protocol for the broadcast of long messages over a noisy medium, such as a frequency hopping communications link with multiple interferors. Long length messages are divided into a plurality of subpackets, each of which incorporates an error detection mechanism. A message integrity field is calculated based upon the contents of the subpackets, and is stored within one of the plurality of subpackets. The subpackets are transmitted two or more times. Each subpacket is stored by a recipient if received without error, and the recipient calculates a message integrity field based upon the stored subpackets. When the calculated message integrity field corresponds to the message integrity field received within the subpackets, the long message is deemed properly transmitted, reassembled from the plurality of subpackets, and processed appropriately.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to digital communications implemented using a frequency hopping spread spectrum technology. In particular, the invention relates to a technique for reliably transmitting long messages spanning multiple packets over a noisy frequency-hopped communications channel.
2. Background Art
As the prevalence and diversity of electronic devices incorporating digital communications techniques increases, it becomes important to implement versatile communications protocols that are well-suited to varied message contents and highly tolerant of noisy communications channels.
Frequency hopping spread spectrum ("FHSS") is an increasingly popular technique for implementing a digital communication link. FHSS involves the rapid alteration of a transmitted signal's carrier frequency in a known pattern, called the hop sequence. One advantage of a FHSS implementation is that interference sources occupying a portion of the communications channel do not completely disrupt the communication link; rather, only communications on hop sequence channels coinciding with an interference source are disrupted. Furthermore, in some circumstances, the carrier frequencies in the hop sequence can be dynamically allocated to eliminate frequencies at which interference is present, thus dynamically preserving a reliable communications link.
However, for some types of FHSS communications it is desirable to utilize a fixed hopping pattern. One example of this is for broadcast messaging to a plurality of remote receivers, such as that often employed by a cordless telephone system with multiple handsets and a single base unit. While the handsets are not "in use", they must be able to receive general messaging from the base unit to set up incoming calls, receive caller ID information, or perform other such functions. However, implementation of dynamic channel allocation with multiple receiving radios is often difficult because each channel substitution must be received and processed by every receiver without error. Also, handsets completing a call and returning to a standby state must become aware of changes in the broadcast hop sequence. Therefore, it is desirable to implement a fixed hop sequence for broadcast communications.
One substantial complication inherent to communications over a fixed hop sequence arises during the broadcast of long messages. Long messages are deemed those which contain an amount of data greater than that which can be transmitted during a single carrier frequency channel in the hop sequence. Thus, such messages are commonly broken up and transmitted via a plurality of data subpackets on different channels in the hop sequence. The message is then reconstructed and processed by the receiving device after all of the packets have been received. However, such messages are highly prone to errors inasmuch as an error in any one of the multiple transmitted packets will corrupt the entire message once it is reassembled by a receiving device.
The susceptibility of long messages to errors is further exacerbated by the use of a fixed hopping pattern. In circumstances when a large number of the channels in the hopping pattern are corrupted by interference, the hopping pattern may not even contain a number of consecutive "interference-free" channels sufficient to transmit an entire long message. Broadcast of long messages then becomes virtually impossible over such a highly noisy communications channel. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to enable the reliable communication of long messages over a noisy communications channel.
Even when channel noise does not completely prevent long message broadcast, the susceptibility of prior art fixed hopping pattern techniques to interference typically requires that a form of communications acknowledgement be implemented. An acknowledgement function would have the receiving handset(s) send back to the base some indication as to whether or not a long message was received without error. However, several disadvantages are inherent in the implementation of such an acknowledged communications protocol. The broadcasting device incurs added complexity to be able to also monitor one or more additional channels over which it would receive acknowledgement messaging from downlink recipients. Also, the downlink recipient devices over time consume substantial power by powering up their respective transmitters just to transmit an acknowledgement. In applications such as cordless telephones, where the broadcast recipients attempt to minimize power consumption due to limited battery capacity, the power consumption required to regularly transmit acknowledgements can comprise a substantial disadvantage. Therefore according to another aspect of this invention, a reliable long message broadcast protocol is provided that is also unacknowledged.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the present specifications, drawings and claims.

Broadcast in a wireless communications system