A power supply circuit for plasma generation by which a large quantity of generated plasma can be smoothly obtained without increasing the sizes of an apparatus. An electric discharge generating electrode is composed of two or more first electrodes and one or more second electrodes. An LC series circuit is provided by connecting a capacitor C and a coil L in series between one of outputs of an alternating high voltage generating circuit which generates an alternating high voltage to be applied between the electrodes of electric discharge generating electrode, and the first electrode. When electricity is discharged in one of the electrode pair, voltage drop is suppressed by the coil, and since electric discharge from the other electrode pair is induced without being disturbed, a large quantity of plasma can be smoothly generated by common use of the alternating high voltage generating circuit.

In this kind of plasma generating apparatus due to electric discharge, the commercial frequency voltage or the high frequency voltage is raised up with high frequency transformer, so that the plasma is generated by applying its raised voltage between the opposed electrodes.
For example, in a plasma surface processing apparatus shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-297898 of the following Patent Document 1, the plasma generating apparatus is disclosed in FIG. 18. This plasma generating apparatus consists of a power supply circuit 100, a high frequency transformer 103, and a pair of electrodes 104, 105. Said power supply circuit 100 applies the high frequency voltage to the primary coil 101 of said high frequency transformer 103. At the secondary coil 102 of high frequency transformer 103, the raised high frequency voltage of about several thousand to ten thousand V occurs, and this high frequency voltage is applied between a pair of electrodes 104, 105. As a result, a plasma is generated by an electric discharge occurred between said pair of electrodes 104, 105. An air pump P generates an air flow by receiving the power supply from said power supply circuit 100. This air flow is supplied between a pair of electrodes 104, 105 and the plasma generated between electrodes is blown on the surface of object to be processed 106. By means of this plasma irradiation, the surface treatment of object to be processed 106 is performed. In addition, the condensers 107, 110 for limiting the discharge current are interposed between said secondary coil 102 and each electrode 104, 105. The resistance 109 connected in parallel to condensers 107, 110 is disposed to make the charged voltage remaining in condensers 107, 110 discharge immediately after stop of discharge and to prevent electric shocks due to its remaining electric charge.
Said plasma generating apparatus is applied to a plasma surface treatment device of object to be processed. However, since the possible range of plasma treatment is restricted essentially in the surface treatment device by single electrode pair, a plurality of plasma surface treatment devices are required to perform the treatment more in depth and more effectively. However, a method that a plurality of plasma surface treatment devices are employed increases in cost and a problem that the scale of treatment device becomes larger occurs. As one of countermeasure of this problem, there are methods that the power supplying circuit portion such as power supply circuit and high frequency transformer in the plasma generating apparatus is used in common, and the electric power is supplied to plural pairs of electrode, so that it is considered that the device generating the wider and larger plasma can be developed with small size and low cost.
FIG. 17 shows a common use example of power supplying circuit portion. The same reference numerals are used for the same components as FIG. 18. The common electrode 112 is disposed at the ground side of secondary coil 102, and two electrodes 111, 113 are arranged opposed to said common electrode. The condensers 114, 115 are interposed between each electrode and said secondary coil 102. According to such constitution, the power supply circuit 100 and the high frequency transformer 103 can be used in common for two pairs of electrode, but there were the following problems concerning the real plasma generation.
For example, when the electric discharge occurs between electrode 111 and common electrode 112, the electric discharge of condenser 114 advances with it. By this electric discharge, the electrical potential A of one output end of the secondary coil 102 to which condenser 114 was connected falls to several tens to 10 V, so that voltage drop occurs. As a result of this voltage drop, since the charged electricity of condenser 115 at side of another one electrode 113 flows to the electrode 111 and is lost, there was a problem that the electric discharge between electrode 111 and common electrode 112 is not induced.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-297898

Power supply circuit for plasma generation, plasma generating apparatus, plasma processing apparatus and plasma processed object


A lens system includes, in order from an object: a first lens group having negative refractive power; and a second lens group having positive refractive power, the first lens group including, in order from the object, a lens having a negative refractive power, a plastic aspherical lens, and a lens having a positive refractive power, and the following conditional expression |fp/f1|>4.0 being satisfied, where fp denotes a focal length of the plastic aspherical lens, and f1 denotes a focal length of the first lens group.

Recently the importance of portability of a digital camera is increasing, and attempts to decrease the size and weight of a lens system, which is installed in the camera, is progressing in order to decrease the size, thickness and weight of the camera unit. For example, a zoom lens comprised of a first lens group having negative refractive power, a second lens group having positive refractive power, and a third lens group having positive refractive power which are disposed in order from an object, where a plastic aspherical lens is disposed in the first lens group, has been disclosed (e.g. see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-37727).

Lens system and optical apparatus having this lens system


There is provided an information processing apparatus including a positional relationship information acquirer that acquires information indicating a position relationship between a first user and a second user, a nearness determiner that determines whether or not the first user and the second user are near each other, on the basis of the information indicating the position relationship, and a contact manager that sorts, on the basis of a result of the determination, a contact list which is provided to the first user and which includes contact information for the second user.

The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a recording medium.
Communication technology advances with the times, and new communication technologies using network communication, such as email and chat, have emerged in addition to the telephone. As a result, the concept of contact information is no longer limited to phone numbers, and now encompasses information such as email addresses and network addresses. Such new communication technologies are utilized on an information processing device such as a personal computer (PC), for example. Meanwhile, telephones have also come to incorporate comparatively advanced information processing functionality, as with smartphones, for example.
In these circumstances, various proposals have been made for technologies that utilize the information processing functionality of a device used for communication to automatically sort a contact list, and make using communication technology more convenient for the user. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-233564 describes a technology that rates the closeness between a user and other users according to the number of times the user communicates with the other uses, and sorts a contact list in order of the other users with the highest rated closeness.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and recording medium


A mass flow controller has: a flow rate sensor section that measures the flow rate of a fluid and outputs a flow rate measurement signal indicating the measurement value; a flow rate control valve disposed upstream or downstream of the flow rate sensor section; a calculation section that calculates a feedback control value to be supplied to the flow rate control valve by performing at least a proportional calculation on the deviation of the flow rate measurement value indicated by the flow rate measurement signal from a flow rate setting value; and an opening control signal output section that generates an opening control signal based on the feedback control value and outputs the opening control signal to the flow rate control valve. The function used for calculating the gain value in the proportional calculation differs between a changing period and a stable period.

1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to a mass flow controller that controls the flow rate of a fluid, such as gas and liquid.
2. Related Art
In a related art semiconductor manufacturing apparatus to which various kinds of gas used for manufacturing a semiconductor are supplied, a mass flow controller is provided for each gas supply channel to adjust the flow rate of the gas. A related art pressure regulator is connected in series to each mass flow controller so as to prevent an extreme change in pressure in the channel to which the mass flow controller is attached, thereby facilitating flow rate control.
A related art flow rate control method for the mass flow controller is PID (proportional integral derivative) control. For example, a related art feedback control is based on a variation of the related art PID control disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-280689 (hereafter "Patent Document 1"). According to the related art method disclosed in the Patent Document 1, the feedback control value is calculated by performing a PID calculation on the deviation, and multiplying the calculation result by a function whose value increases as the flow rate setting value decreases.
In a recent related art system, a regulator is provided only for a fluid supply source, such as a cylinder, rather than for each supply channel; however, the mass flow controller is provided for each supply channel.
This related art system configuration has at least the following disadvantage. If one of the supply channels is suddenly closed, or the flow rate of one of the mass flow controllers is substantially changed, the resulting pressure change affects the other supply channels or mass flow controllers (this is referred to as crosstalk). As a result the related art control method, which is based on the assumption that the pressure regulator controls the pressure change, may not be able to achieve adequate flow rate control.
More specifically, if the related art control method disclosed in the Patent Document 1 is used, and if the pressure on the primary side (the pressure on the upstream side of the mass flow controller) changes beyond a certain level, the flow rate excessively responds to the change and changes beyond a prescribed level.
As higher speed and precision are required in the related art control of the flow rate of the raw material gas or the like used in semiconductor processes, the speed of following the change of the flow rate setting value (the speed of response) cannot be sacrificed to suppress the above-described related art excessive response.


A welding tool for welding a blanking plate within a wellbore casing downhole thereby sealing the wellbore is described. The tool comprises a tubular body of a diameter sufficiently narrow to fit in a wellbore casing, the tubular body having a downhole end and a surface end; and a welding head assembly connected to the downhole end of the tubular body. The welding head assembly comprises a connector device for retaining a blanking plate to be welded within the wellbore casing, and a welding powder container which comprises a chamber for holding the exothermic welding powder, the chamber having at least a portion extending adjacent the blanking plate to be retained and proximate the wellbore casing to which the blanking plate is to be welded when the tool is positioned downhole in the wellbore casing; and an igniter wire opening for accommodating an igniter wire extending into the chamber.

Oil wells at the end of their life cycle require methods of abandonment. Ideally, the goal of abandonments is to safely seal off the well, and recover the land space the well occupies.
Current conventional methods of abandoning a well include the placement of an expandable plug in the wellbore and the welding of a steel cap at the top of the surface casing. Conventional abandonment methods generally require the excavation of a few meters of earth surrounding the well casing to expose the casing followed by external cutting of the casing with a torch and the placement of a well cap welded using portable arc welding equipment. These methods are time consuming and costly and have an environmental impact due to the excavation of the surrounding earth.
Wells are typically sealed with an expanding plug that is placed into the wellbore. It is more desirable to weld a steel blank off plate, also referred to as a blanking plate, into the wellbore, however, current methods are not able to avoid the excavation process associated therewith.
Traditional arc welding cannot be done downhole due to size constraints of the equipment involved and therefore cannot overcome the various downsides associated with excavation and external cutting.
One option is wire fed welding. However, wire fed welding is very sensitive and highly susceptible to impurities and would require extensive cleaning of the internal casing before welding. Even with extensive cleaning, weld contamination is a significant issue and obtaining a quality weld would be difficult. Further, wire fed welding is impractical as it is a complicated process and requires a significant amount of equipment.
A less impactful and/or more simple and/or less costly solution is therefore desired that potentially eliminates or mitigates these or other shortcomings in the field.

Downhole welding process and tool therefore


A vehicle parking control system includes a shift-by-wire apparatus that is operated based on an electric range position signal corresponding to one of the driving range and the non-driving range of the drive unit and that switches the lock mechanism to an engaged state and a released state in conjunction with a switching of one of the driving range and the non-driving range of the drive unit; a vehicle parking brake unit that is operated based on the range position signal and that switches a brake unit, which is provided to stop a rotation of the rotating member of the vehicle, between a braking state and a released state; and a control unit that operates the shift-by-wire apparatus and the vehicle parking brake unit based on the range position signal.

The present invention relates to a vehicle parking control system.
A parking brake is well known as a conventional method of holding a vehicle in a stopped state when it is parked. The parking brake is generally structured from a parking brake main body that is provided on a wheel and a lever member (or a pedal member) that is connected to the parking brake main body by a cable and is operated by an occupant of the vehicle.
Also, in a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission, a parking mechanism, which is a lock mechanism that is provided in the automatic transmission, is also well known as a method of holding the vehicle in a stopped state. The parking mechanism functions such that when the shift lever is moved into the Park range (P range), a parking pawl that is connected to the shift lever engages a parking gear that is fixed to an output shaft of the automatic transmission, thereby stopping the rotation of the output shaft and preventing (stopping) the rotation of a wheel of the vehicle, such as a driving wheel that is connected to the output shaft through a rotating member.
Therefore, when parking, the occupant must execute separately the above two methods in order to hold the vehicle in a stopped state. That is, the occupant must move the shift lever into the Park range (P range) to put the parking mechanism into an engaged state and also pull the hand brake that is the lever member, to put the parking brake into a braking state.
Accordingly, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2004-243927, a vehicle shift apparatus has been proposed in which the automatic transmission shift lever and the parking brake operate in conjunction. That is, the vehicle shift apparatus mechanically couples the shift lever and the parking brake. Specifically, the vehicle shift apparatus is structured such that the shift lever is connected to a brake cable, and when the shift lever moves to the Park range position from the Reverse range position, which is adjacent to the Park range position, the brake cable becomes taut and the parking brake operates.


The present invention provides a positive electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries, comprising domain-oriented agglomerated particles, wherein each of the domain-oriented agglomerated particles comprises a plurality of individually oriented secondary particles such that adjacent secondary particles thereof have mutually different orientation directions, and wherein each of the individually oriented secondary particles is composed of a plurality of primary particles which are composed of a lithium complex oxide with a layered rock-salt structure and are oriented such that the (003) planes of the primary particles do not intersect each other at least in one axial direction. According to the present invention, a positive electrode active material can be provided that is capable of achieving not only high initial output performance but also a high output performance retention rate when charging and discharging are performed repeatedly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positive electrode active material having a layered rock-salt structure for lithium secondary batteries.
2. Description of the Related Art
Positive electrode active materials using a lithium complex oxide (lithium transition metal oxide) having a layered rock-salt structure are widely known as positive electrode active materials in lithium secondary batteries (which may be referred to as lithium ion secondary batteries) (see, for example, Patent Document 1 (JP5-226004A) and Patent Document 2 (JP2003-132887A)).
It is known that, in positive electrode active materials of this type, diffusion of lithium ions (Li+) therein takes place along an in-plane direction of the (003) plane (i.e., any direction in the plane parallel to the (003) plane) while intercalation and deintercalation of lithium ions occur through a crystal plane other than the (003) plane (e.g., the (101) plane or the (104) plane).
Thus, for positive electrode active materials of this type, attempts have been made to enhance battery performance of lithium secondary batteries by exposing a crystal plane through which lithium ions are favorably intercalated and deintercalated (i.e., a plane other than the (003) plane, such as the (101) plane or the (104) plane) to a surface which comes into contact with a larger amount of electrolyte (see, for example, Patent Document 3 (WO2010/074304)).
In addition, in positive electrode active materials of this type, those having pores (also referred to as holes or voids) formed therein are known (see, for example, Patent Document 4 (JP2002-75365A), Patent Document 5 (JP2004-083388A), and Patent Document 6 (JP2009-117241A)). Furthermore, a positive electrode active material having voids inside, in which primary particles are oriented in the one axial direction in secondary particles, is also known, and this configuration makes it possible to obtain high output performance and rate performance (see, for example, Patent Document 7 (WO2012/137391).

Positive electrode active material for lithium secondary battery


A process for manufacturing carbon-steel strip having a thickness of less than or equal to 10 mm directly from liquid steel, by casting said liquid steel between the lateral surfaces, made of copper or copper alloy, of two internally cooled rotating horizontal rolls.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the continuous casting of metal. It relates more particularly to the casting of thin carbon-steel strip on plants of the type known as xe2x80x9ctwin-roll castersxe2x80x9d.
2. Discussion of the Background
Considerable progress has been made in recent years in the development of processes for casting thin steel strip directly from liquid metal. The process mainly used at the present time is the casting of said liquid metal between two internally cooled rolls, rotating about their horizontal axes in opposite directions and placed opposite each other, the minimum distance between their surfaces being approximately equal to the thickness that it is desired to confer on the cast strip (for example a few mm). The casting space containing the liquid steel is defined by the lateral surfaces of the rolls, on which surfaces the strip starts to solidify, and by side closure plates made of refractory, which are applied against the ends of the rolls. The liquid metal starts to solidify on contact with the outer surfaces of the rolls, on which surfaces solidified xe2x80x9cshellsxe2x80x9d form, arrangements being made for these shells to meet in the region of the xe2x80x9cnipxe2x80x9d, that is to say the region where the distance between the rolls is a minimum.
These casting processes are used both for casting carbon steel and for casting stainless steels or other ferrous alloys. However, the industrial application of twin-roll casting to carbon steels cannot be envisaged in an acceptable manner unless it is possible to obtain, in a constant manner, a strip surface quality sufficient for the subsequent treatments undergone by this strip (cold rolling operations, surface treatments, etc) to be possible and to result in the formation of products free of unacceptable defects. It is, in particular, of paramount importance for the strip produced by a twin-roll casting plant to be free of surface cracks, called crazes, because otherwise serious incidents may occur during its cold rolling.
In order to try to avoid such crazing, solutions have already been proposed which involve giving the surface of the casting rolls a particular texture, namely a succession of contiguous and parallel grooves, preferably combined with a silicon-manganese killed cast metal having a high sulfur content, of greater than 0.02% (document EP-A-0,740,972). However, this solution complicates the preparation of the rolls compared with the more conventional methods of preparation and, under its optimum conditions, limits the field of application of the cast products to those in which the high sulfur content of the metal is tolerable.
One object of the invention is to provide a process for manufacturing thin carbon-steel strip by twin-roll casting, resulting in the reliable production of strip free of surface crazing, this method having neither to limit the field of application of the products nor to necessarily lead to the use of long and complex methods for preparing the surface of the rolls. The apparatus involved and the products produced are also objects of the invention.
In accord with the objects, one subject of the invention is a process for manufacturing carbon-steel strip having a thickness of less than or equal to 10 mm directly from liquid steel, by casting said liquid steel between the lateral surfaces, made of copper or copper alloy, of two internally cooled rotating horizontal rolls, wherein preferably:
said liquid steel has the composition, in percentages by weight based on total weight: carbonxe2x89xa60.5%, manganese from 0.2 to 2%, siliconxe2x89xa62%, the %Mn/%Si ratio being between 3 and 16, and optionally aluminum+titanium+zirconiumxe2x89xa60.10%, and containing of course iron and the usual impurities;
said lateral surfaces of the rolls have contiguous dimples, giving said surfaces a roughness Rz of between 40 and 200 xcexcm and a roughness Ra of between 10 and 40 xcexcm; and
the atmosphere surrounding the meniscus of the liquid steel present between the rolls contains between 40 and 100% nitrogen, the balance preferably being composed of an inert gas insoluble in the liquid steel or of a mixture of such inert gases.
As noted, the invention also relates to strip produced by this process, as well as to the casting rolls necessary for its practical implementation.
Generally speaking, the invention indues combining particular conditions regarding the composition of the steel, the surface finish of the rolls and the composition of the atmosphere surrounding the surface of the liquid steel present between the rolls. The inventors have found that such a combination results in the uniform production of products having the required surface quality. The conditions under which this process is preferably carried out also have the advantage of not resulting in a casting process substantially more restrictive than the usual processes. In addition, the process of the invention requires that no action be taken on the composition of the metal, which would appreciably increase the cost of the strip, since it is not necessary to add expensive alloying elements to the liquid metal or to impose on the liquid metal unusually low contents of certain elements. Likewise, the ranges of use of products manufactured from the strip thus produced are not limited by the presence, in amounts higher than is customary, of elements such as sulfur, which could radically impair the mechanical properties of said products. Finally, this invention does not require increasing the heat flux to be extracted from the liquid metal by the rolls, whereas such an increase could be damaging to the service life of the cooled external surface of said rolls.

Process for manufacturing carbon-steel strip by twin-roll continuous casting, product produced and apparatus


Disclosed is a wafer stage allowing a plasma process under a heating condition at a high temperature, particularly, 400.degree. C. or more using the improved electrostatically chucking technology with the increased temperature-controllability. The wafer stage includes an electrostatic chuck and a temperature adjusting jacket disposed under said electrostatic chuck. The electrostatic chuck includes: a dielectric member made from an insulating material; an electrode formed of a brazing layer, which is disposed on the underside of said dielectric member for fixing said dielectric member; an aluminum nitride plate disposed on the underside of said electrode, to which said dielectric member is fixed through said electrode; a heater, disposed on the underside of said aluminum nitride plate, for heating said dielectric member; and a metal plate disposed on the underside of said aluminum nitride plate and also at least on a top or bottom side of said heater. The temperature adjusting jacket is made from a composite aluminum based material prepared by treatment of aluminum or an aluminum alloy with inorganic fibers under a high pressure, and includes a temperature adjusting means.

The present invention relates to a wafer stage mainly used for manufacturing a semiconductor device, and particularly to a wafer stage suitably used for a plasma process performed in a state in which a wafer is heated at a high temperature of 400.degree. C. or more.
In the field of manufacture of semiconductor devices, there are known a variety of plasma processes for wafers, such as plasma etching and plasma CVD.
In such a plasma process, particularly, in plasma etching, there is a tendency to adopt low temperature etching for increasing a processing accuracy. As is apparent from this viewpoint, the temperature control for wafers is being regarded important.
In recent years, with the advance of multi-level interconnection technology for LSIs, there has been strong demands toward development for a new interconnection material such as copper for reducing the resistance of the interconnection and toward adoption of high density plasma CVD for gap filling technology. As a result, a plasma process performed at a high temperature is being regarded important, in addition to the above-described plasma process performed at a low temperature.
In such a plasma process performed at a high temperature, however, a wafer receives a large heat input due to generation of plasma upon ion bombardment at an etching step or upon irradiation of high density plasma at a gap filling step by CVD or a barrier metal formation step by CVD. Consequently, the temperature of the wafer is possibly increased about 40 to 100.degree. C. or more as compared with that before generation of plasma.
Accordingly, in the plasma process performed at a high temperature in which a wafer is heated by a wafer stage holding the wafer, it becomes important to suppress the effect of heat input due to generation of plasma on the wafer and to control the temperature of the wafer at a setting value.
In the related art, however, the temperature control for a wafer has not been sufficiently performed at a high temperature, and from the practical standpoint, the process condition has been set such that the temperature of a wafer stage is previously set at a lower value in consideration of the above-described temperature rise caused during processing.
The reasons why it is difficult to control the temperature of a wafer in a plasma process performed at a high temperature are as follows:
(1) The heating of a wafer by a wafer stage is generally performed using a heater provided in the wafer stage; however, a temperature rise of the wafer caused by heat input due to generation of plasma cannot be suppressed only by heating using the heater. PA1 (2) In the case using a wafer stage including an electrostatic chuck for attracting a wafer and a metal made jacket for adjusting the temperature of the electrostatic chuck, although the improvement in the degree of bonding between a wafer and a wafer stage has been examined, an electrostatically chucking technology for improving the temperature-controllability for the wafer has been not established.
In particular, with respect to the item (2), at a high temperature, an organic material based film made from polyimide or the like cannot be used as a dielectric member for an electrostatic chuck, and a ceramic material is difficult to use because of the variable bulk resistivity thereof. Also, a ceramic material presents another problem in terms of the joint with a metal material in an electrostatic chuck or a metal made jacket.
In general, a ceramic material has a linear thermal expansion coefficient largely different from that of a metal, and consequently, when such a ceramic material is joined to a metal by thermal spraying or brazing, it tends to be broken in a heating condition due to a difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient therebetween. In particular, when the temperature of a wafer is set at 400.degree. C. or more upon a plasma CVD process, even in the case of using an Al made jacket, since there is a large difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient between an electrostatic chuck and the Al made jacket, it becomes difficult to prevent breakage of the electrostatic chuck and hence to direct join them to each other.

Wafer stage for manufacturing a semiconductor device


A six-gear or seven-gear vehicle transmission (1, 30) having one starting selector clutch (K1), two countershafts (5, 6), gear wheels non-rotatably disposed upon the input shaft (4) and designed as fixed wheels (12, 13, 14, 33, 37) which are in tooth contact with idler wheels (8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 35, 36), coupling devices (22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32) non-rotatably and axially movably supported on the two countershafts (5, 6), the same as one output gear wheel (18, 19) upon each of the two countershafts (5, 6) which are in tooth contact with one toothing (20) on a differential transmission (21) each two gear positions in a shifting gate of an H- or multi-H shifting gate (G1-G2; G3-G4; G5-G6; G7-RG) are associated with two different coupling devices (22, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32) in the transmission. To shorten the length and reduce the number of parts, the six-gear and the seven-gear transmissions (1, 30) are designed so that of the fixed wheels (11, 12, 13, 14, 33, 37) situated on the input shaft (4), at least two fixed wheels (12 or 37, 13, 14) are in tooth contact respectively with two idler wheels (8, 15 or 35, 36; 9, 16; 10, 17).

From DE 41 37 143 A1 has become known a multi-step synchronized countershaft transmission in which each two gears are associated with one of several shifting sets. These shifting sets consist as a rule of sliding sleeves axially movably but non-rotatably situated upon a shaft and which during a shifting operation, interacting with synchronizer rings disposed adjacent to the sliding sleeves, decelerate idler wheels and can non-rotatably connect them with the shaft.
In this known transmission, the two gears (first gear and third gear or second gear and fourth gear), associated with one shifting set, are two gears not consecutively following each other. This transmission construction is associated with the advantage that thereby a transmission shifting system is provided with which an overlapping operation and thus reduced shifting times are possible. But it is a disadvantage that such a transmission cannot be shifting with a selector device having one H-shifting gate since, with such a transmission, only gears immediately following each other can be shifting in the same shifting gate.
From EP 10 34 384 B1 a twelve-gear selector transmission for industrial vehicles is further known in which a splitter group is manually actuated while the main- or rear-mounted group is automatically shifted. For the splitter group and the rear-mounted group, pneumatic shifting devices are provided which, during selection of the shifting gate of the gear desired, are correspondingly activated by means of a manual shifting device. The shift pattern obtained thus corresponds to that of an ordinary six-gear selector transmission. But it is disadvantageous in this construction of transmission that separate pneumatic shifting devices have to be provided in order to make shifting the gears in accustomed manner in an ordinary H- or HH-shift pattern possible.
DE 30 00 577 A1 has, in addition, disclosed a selector device for motor vehicle transmission in which a manual shift lever is shifting in an HH shift pattern. Two shift fingers are disposed upon the selector shaft of the transmission, only one shift finger shifting the four gears of the main transmission. When changing from the second to the third shifting gate, one shift valve is actuated which engages the range change group. When shifting to the third and fourth gears, the second shift finger is then in gear. The separate actuation system of the range change group is also a disadvantage here.
DE 35 27 390 A1 also shows a manually shiftable dual-clutch transmission in which during actuation of the shift lever in a shifting gate, one of the two clutches of the dual-clutch is closed. The disadvantage in this shifting device is the limitation to only four forward gears when the shifting has to be purely manual without external force assistance.
It has finally been described in the not pre-published DE 102 331 547 A1, one shifting device for a transmission where at least one shifting set is associated with two non-consecutive ratio steps of the transmission. This shifting device is equipped with a mechanical conversion device by means of which a manual shifting device with one HH shifting gate can operate such a transmission.
In this shifting device 50, shown in FIG. 3, one shift lever 52 is passed into the HH shifting gate 51 and coupled with two selector shafts 53, 54 in a manner such that a movement of the shift lever 52 to a shifting gate 55 results in a swiveling of the selector shaft 53 around its longitudinal axis. In addition, a first gear wheel 56 which meshes with a second gear wheel 57 upon the second selector shaft 54 is fastened upon the first selector shaft 53. When the first selector shaft 53 rotates, the second selector shaft 54 rotates in the opposite direction. When selecting the shifting gate by the shift lever 52 in one selector gate 58, the two selector shafts 53, 54 are moved coupled by force parallel with their longitudinal axes.
The two selector shafts 53, 54 have besides shift fingers 59, 60, 61 which, according to the gear introduced, engage in recesses 62, 63 individual for each gear of shift rods 64 which are connected with shift forks. The shift forks for their part are in communication with the sliding sleeves of the shifting sets which, during an operation for non-rotatable connection of idler wheels with their shaft, are axially moved on these.
Against this background, the problem to be solved by the invention is to introduce the structure of a motor vehicle transmission in which each two gears situated in a shifting gate of an H- or multi-H-shifting gate of a transmission can be actuated by two different shifting sets or coupling devices shiftable by means of a conversion device known from DE 102 31 547 A1. The novel transmission structure must furthermore be utilizable for a six-gear transmission and for a seven-gear transmission to make thus possible to obtain a specially small length.

Six-gear or seven-gear selector transmission for a motor vehicle


Disclosed is a system and method for transmitting a data packet from a source to a destination via a network path having a number of hops. The sum of a playback delay associated with the data packet and the number of hops are stored in a header of the data packet. The data packet is transmitted from the source to the destination via the network path.

The present invention relates generally to quality of service in Internet Protocol (IP) networks, and more specifically to prioritizing data packets in an IP network.
Quality of service (QoS) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks is the throughput guarantee provided by an IP network to different data streams that are transported over the IP network (i.e., a guaranteed throughput level).
Network components, such as routers, often rely on indication mechanisms in an IP header of a packet to route the packet correctly. Several IP packet standards, or versions, exist. For example, packets can follow the standards defined by Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) (i.e., IPv4 packets) or Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) (i.e., IPv6 packets).
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an IPv4 packet header 100 including a Type of Service (TOS) field 104. The TOS field 104 is for Internet service quality selection. The type of service is specified via parameters such as Precedence, Delay, Throughput, and Reliability. The IPv4 header 100 also includes a Time-To-Live (TTL) field 108. The TTL field 108 contains a value that indicates to a network router or switch whether or not the packet has been in the network too long and is to be discarded. For a number of reasons, packets may not get delivered to their destination in a reasonable length of time. For example, incorrect routing tables may cause a packet to loop between two routers endlessly. A solution is to discard the packet after a certain time. The initial TTL value 108 is set in an 8 bit field of the packet header. Since each router is required to subtract at least one count from the TTL field, the count is usually used to indicate the number of router hops the packet is allowed before it must be discarded.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an IPv6 header 200 including a Traffic Class (TC) field 204. The IPv6 header 200 also includes a Hop Limit field 208. The Hop Limit field 208 indicates the maximum number of hops that the packet can travel before being discarded. The Hop Limit field 208 is similar to the TTL value in an IPv4 packet.
FIG. 3(a) provides more detail of the IPv4 TOS field 104. The TOS field 104 includes a Precedence field 304 and a Priority field 306. The Precedence field 304 is a field used to prioritize an IPv4 packet. The Precedence field 304 designates whether the network determines, using the Priority field 306, the priority of a packet or whether the Priority field 306 is ignored and the network does not determine the priority of a packet. The Priority field 306 allows the network to take of advantage of various queuing and congestion control mechanisms that may exist within the network.
FIG. 3(b) provides more detail of the IPv6 TC field 204. The TC field 204 is available for use by originating routers and/or forwarding routers to identify and distinguish between different classes or priorities of IPv6 packets. The TC field 204 is used to provide various forms of "differentiated service" for IPv6 packets. Differentiated Service Code Points (DSCP), or DiffServe, is a marker in the header of each IP packet that prompts network routers to apply differentiated grades of service to various packet streams, forwarding them according to different Per-Hop Behaviors (PHBs). This enables Internet and other IP-based network service providers to offer differentiated levels of service to customers and their information streams. DiffServ has also been implemented in the TOS field of an IPv4 packet.
When a packet enters an IP router, its IP header is inspected. The inspection determines a next hop and a priority with which the packet is forwarded from the current router. The priority is determined by interpreting the Precedence field 304 and Priority field 306 for the TOS field 104 of an IPv4 packet and the Differentiated Service Code Points (DSCP) value in the TC field 204 of an IPv6 packet. If a packet's header fields do not provide enough guidance to determine its priority, a deep packet inspection is performed to gain more information from which a priority decision can be made.
A packet's priority affects when the packet is scheduled to be transmitted to its next hop. In wired networks, the task of packet scheduling is to associate a packet with a time slot (at a constant power, data rate, and through one shared channel). In wireless networks, packet scheduling can be more general than that—its function is to schedule such resources as time slots, powers, data rates, channels, or a combination of them, when packets are transmitted. Specifically, based on a source's characteristics, QoS requirements, channel states, and/or queue lengths, a wireless scheduler assigns time slots, powers, data rates, and/or channels to the packets for transmission.
Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) is an Internet protocol for transmitting real-time data such as audio and video. RTP supports streaming data. To schedule an RTP voice stream over a wireless channel, the time that the packet is due at a destination router (i.e., the packet's deadline) needs to be known by the router sending the voice stream. Packets of an RTP voice stream, however, may be encrypted. If the voice stream is encrypted, then the deadline cannot be retrieved from the packet. Specifically, if a packet is encrypted, then any method that involves packet inspection will typically not be effective because no additional knowledge of the importance of the packet data can be obtained due to the encryption.
Wireless links are typically either the first or last link in the network. The majority of QoS is often determined by behavior of the last wireless hop node (e.g., router). The last wireless hop node will not typically be able to use a packet's header alone to determine the relative importance of a packet among packets of the same service ensemble (e.g., packets associated with a single Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone call).
Therefore, there remains a need for an improved way of identifying the priority of a packet at the last hop node.

Method and apparatus of precedence identification for real time services


The present disclosure relates to a gas generating cell including a housing having a cover, an anode cup and a sealing ring. The housing accommodates at least one anode, a cathode and a separator. The cover accommodates at least the cathode and the separator and, with the sealing ring, forms a preassembled unit to be inserted into the anode cup. The present disclosure also relates to a method of producing a gas generating cell, the gas generating cell including a housing having a cover, an anode cup, a sealing ring, and at least one anode, a cathode and a separator. The method steps include: placing at least the cathode and separator into the cover, thereby creating a preassembled unit; and, inserting the preassembled unit and a sealing ring into the anode cup.

The present disclosure relates to a gas generating cell, and to a method of producing the gas generating cell.
A hydrogen generating cell of the above-mentioned type is known from German Patent Document DE 35 32 335 C2. This hydrogen generating cell has a zinc anode, a hydrogen cathode and an alkaline electrolyte. The cathode consists of a PTFE-bound metal and/or carbon powder layer which is placed into a metallic network as a current conductor and, on the side preferably facing away from the network, contains a porous PTFE foil which is laminated on, for example, rolled on. This cell can be implemented, for example, by using a zinc/air cell of a commercially available construction, in which case, while air and oxygen are excluded, by closing an exterior circuit, a current flow, which generates hydrogen inside the cell, is generated. The hydrogen leaves the cell by an opening in the housing.
This construction creates the need of being able to implement cells which have a higher capacity than the commercially available zinc/air cells.
The present disclosure relates to a gas generating cell including a housing having a cover, an anode cup and a sealing ring. The housing accommodates at least one anode, a cathode and a separator. The cover accommodates at least the cathode and the separator and, with the sealing ring, forms a preassembled unit to be inserted into the anode cup. The present disclosure also relates to a method of producing a gas generating cell, the gas generating cell including a housing having a cover, an anode cup, a sealing ring, and at least one anode, a cathode and a separator. The method steps include: placing at least the cathode and separator into the cover, thereby creating a preassembled unit; and, inserting the preassembled unit and a sealing ring into the anode cup.
The present disclosure makes use of an inverse construction of the gas generating cell to address, among other aspects, for example, a need for cells having higher capacity than known zinc/air cells.
In comparison to the conventional zinc/air cells and the gas generator cells according to the currently existing construction, the gas generating cell of the present disclosure has different aspects. Thus, the cover of the conventional cell is filled with the zinc powder and the electrolyte, for example, is in the form of a zinc gel. The gas electrode is situated in the cup and lies on the cup bottom which, for the exchange of gas in the environment, has a breathing hole. Because of this arrangement, the cover part must be rotated during the mounting of the cell with its liquid content by 180°, which is a measure which is hard to carry out in a clean manner in the ease of cells with a fairly large content. The cup part with the gas electrode element which lies flat on it often presents problems during the operation, particularly when, during the closing of the cell, warping has occurred in the edge area of the electrode.
In contrast, the gas generating cell, according to the present disclosure has a cup, which now operates as the anode part, and which can be filled with the required quantity of zinc and electrolyte, whatever the form. It remains in this position. The cathode element is placed on it and is then closed off.
As a result of the optional sheet metal dome with the breathing hole, which arches over the gas cathode, a gas chamber is created which can be closed off by bonding agents and is disposed in front of the environment of the cell with which the cell corresponds. In this manner, it can be achieved to keep CO2 and other harmful gases away from the interior of the cell and to minimize water losses to the environment.
A collar or flange constructed according to the present disclosure permits a variety of embodiments of apparatuses equipped with these cells, The preassembled cathode unit with the sealing ring is easy to manufacture and dispose and can then be combined with anode cups of varying depths but with a constant diameter, in order to produce cells of a different gas generating capacity. In this manner, batteries (particularly zinc/air cells) as well as gas generating cells (particularly hydrogen generating cells) can be implemented.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Gas generating cell or battery and method of producing same


The inventor has created several power supplied to eliminate or greatly reduce the ground loop problem. The inventor has discovered that the ground loop distortion is caused by the switching from positive to negative in alternating current. What the inventor has found is that just placing a diode across the two terminals of a power supply works to eliminate distortion and the ground loop problem. In the two simplest power supplies, the inventor has places a diode across the output from a half wave inverter. This helps to eliminate the ground loop problem and other distortion. The inventor also shows three other more complicated designs for power supply which include diodes and capacitors.

All devices which need current for operation have, up until the time of this invention, an unsolved ground loop problem. It usually consists of varying ghost images or cross over distortion. The usual method of ridding the system of distortion is by filtering the end product. This is like closing the barn door after the cattle have escaped. The inventor's remedy stops the problem distortion at the source by eliminating the ground loop problem with his uniquely designed power supplies. Thus, the object of this invention is to eliminate the ground loop problem. Further, the object of this invention is to greatly reduce the distortion of any electronic device by eliminating the ground loop problem. The invention that achieved this elimination of the ground loop problem is a uniquely designed power supply. The advantage of the inventor's system is that distortion, the power consumption, and the unwanted heating of the device to which the invention is connected, is greatly reduced.


A high-strength galvanized steel sheet has a low YP, good stretch flangeability, and excellent corrosion resistance and contains, on a percent by mass basis, more than 0.015% to less than 0.10% of C, 0.5% or less of Si, 1.0% to 1.9% of Mn, 0.015% to 0.050% of P, 0.03% or less of S, 0.01% to 0.5% of sol. Al, 0.005% or less of N, less than 0.40% of Cr, 0.005% or less of B, less than 0.15% of Mo, 0.4% or less of V, and less than 0.020% of Ti, in which 2.2≦[Mneq]≦3.1 and [% Mn]+3.3[% Mo]≦1.9, and [% Mn]+3.3[% Mo])/(1.3[% Cr]+8[% P]+150B*)<3.5 are satisfied.

In the past, BH steel sheets of a TS: 340 MPa class bake-hardenable steel sheets (hereinafter referred to as "340BH") have been applied to automobile exposure panels, such as hoods, doors, trunk lids, backdoors, and fenders, which are required to have excellent dent resistance. The 340BH is ferrite single phase steel in which in ultra low carbon steel containing less than 0.01% of carbon, the amount of solute carbon is controlled by addition of carbide or nitride forming elements such as Nb and Ti, and solid solution strengthening is performed by addition of Si, Mn, and P. In recent years, from the further demand for the weight reduction of automotive bodies, various investigations have been carried out to increase the strength of the exposure panels to which the 340BH has been applied, to achieve a reduction in the thickness of the steel sheet, a weight reduction in the R/F (Reinforcement: inner reinforcement parts) with the same thickness of outer panels, a reduction in the temperature and the time in a bake coating process, and the like.
However, if large amounts of Si, Mn, and P are further added to the conventional 340BH to increase the strength thereof, surface distortion of pressed parts considerably deteriorates due to an increase in YP. In this case, the surface distortion indicates minute wrinkles and/or undulated patterns which are likely to occur on a press formed surface such as a periphery of a door knob portion. Since the surface distortion remarkably degrades the appearance quality of automobiles, steel sheets applied to the exposure panels are required to have low yield stress before press forming which is close to YP of the present 340BH while the strength of a press formed product is increased.
In addition, in press forming of the parts, although bending is performed on a flange portion to join to inner parts, if the ductility of an edge of a sheared or punched blank, that is so-called "stretch-flangeability," is not sufficient, cracks generate at the edge. For example, if the stretch-frangeability is deteriorated by increasing tensile strength from that of 340BH, cracks often generate on the edge of flanges by hemming the flanges of periphery of backdoors or window frame of doors, or by bending the edge of flanges of fenders to join to side-panels. Accordingly, a steel sheet used for the applications as described above is required to have excellent stretch flangeability.
Furthermore, a steel sheet used for automobiles is also required to have excellent corrosion resistance. Since steel sheets are closely in contact with each other at a hem processing portion and a spot welding peripheral portion of body parts such as a door, a hood, and trunk lid, chemical films are difficult to form by electrocoating. Hence, rust easily forms. In particular, in corner portions at a front side of a hood and a lower side of a door, at which water is liable to remain and which are exposed to a wet atmosphere for a long time, holes are frequently generated by rust. Furthermore, in recent years, car body manufactures have been considering increasing the hole-forming resistant life to 12 years from a conventional life of 10 years by improving corrosion resistance of car bodies. Hence, a steel sheet must have sufficient corrosion resistance.
Because of these circumstances, for example, in Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 57-57945, a method for obtaining a high-strength steel sheet of a 340 to 490 MPa grade is disclosed in which the amount of Ti is controlled in steel containing 0.02% or less of C so that Ti(%)/C(%)≧4.0 holds, and large amounts of Si, Mn, and P are added.
In addition, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 62-40405 discloses a method for obtaining a galvannealed steel sheet having both a low yield stress (YP) and a high ductility (El) by appropriately controlling a cooling rate of steel containing 0.005% to 0.15% of C, 0.3% to 2.0% of Mn, and 0.023% to 0.8% of Cr after annealing to form a dual phase microstructure primarily formed from ferrite and martensite.
In addition, Japanese Patent No. 3613129 discloses that when the total amount of Mn, Cr, and Mo is set to 1.8% to 2.5% in steel containing 0.02% to 0.033% of C, 1.5% to 2.5% of Mn, 0.03% to 0.5% Cr, and 0% to 0.5% Mo, a steel sheet having a YP of 300 MPa or less, excellent ductility (El), and excellent stretch flangeability (hole expanding ratio, λ) is obtained.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-134591 discloses a method for obtaining a high-strength galvanized steel sheet having a tensile strength of a 440 to 590 MPa class and excellent stretch flangeability (hole expanding ratio, λ) in which the total amount of Mn and Cr of steel containing 0.02% to 0.14% of C, 1.3% to 3.0% of Mn, and 0.3% to 1.5% of Cr is set to 2.0% to 3.5%, and a microstructure of the steel sheet is formed as a multi phase, on an area ratio basis, of 50% or more of a ferrite phase, 3% to 15% of bainite, and 5% to 20% of martensite.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-19502 discloses a method for obtaining a steel sheet having a low yield ratio, high BH, and excellent room-temperature anti-aging property which is obtained by setting Cr/Al to 30 or more in steel containing 0.02% to 0.08% of C, 1.0% to 2.5% of Mn, 0.05% or less of P, and more than 0.2% to 1.5% of Cr.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-233294, a method for obtaining a steel sheet having a low YR and high bake-hardenability is disclosed in which steel containing 0.01% to less than 0.040% of C, 0.3% to 1.6% of Mn, 0.5% or less of Cr, and 0.5% or less of Mo is cooled to a temperature of 550° C. to 750° C. at a cooling rate of 3° C. to 20° C./s after annealing and is cooled at a cooling rate of 100° C./s or more to a temperature of 200° C. or less.
However, since the steel sheet disclosed in JP '945 is IF steel in which C is stabilized by Ti and is ferrite single phase steel, as a strengthening mechanism, solid solution strengthening of Si, Mn, and P must be inevitably used Hence, YP is increased by adding large amounts of these elements, and appearance quality and powdering resistance of zinc-coated steel sheets are remarkably degraded.
The methods described in JP '405 and JP '129 disclose the steel in which an appropriate amount of a second phase primarily composed of martensite is dispersed in a ferrite microstructure, and YP is decreased as compared to that of solid solution strengthened steel, such as conventional IF steel. However, when press forming is performed on these steel to form body parts such as a door, there are many steel sheets having a large surface distortion amount as compared to that of the conventional 340BH. Hence, a further decrease in YP is required. In addition, since steel sheets often accompany cracks after bending of a flange end, further improvement in stretch flangeability is also required. Furthermore, when we investigated corrosion resistance of actual parts such as hoods and doors using the steel described above, it became clear that some steel sheets described in the examples had remarkably inferior corrosion resistance to that of the conventional 340BH at a portion at which the steel sheets were in close contact with each other. In addition, large amounts of expensive elements such as Cr and Mo, are added to many steel sheets described in these examples. Hence, the costs thereof remarkably increased.
In addition, since the steel described in JP '591 includes bainite as a microstructure, YP is high, and sufficient surface precision of pressed parts cannot be obtained. Furthermore, as in the case described above, it became clear that many steel sheets described in the examples had insufficient corrosion resistance.
Since Cr is positively used, the steel described in JP '502 has a relatively low YP and a high hole expanding property. However, as in the case described above, it became clear that many steel sheets described in the examples had insufficient corrosion resistance. In addition, since large amounts of expensive elements such as Cr and Mo, are added to these steel sheets, the costs thereof increased.
In addition, since the method described in JP '294 requires rapid cooling after annealing, it can be applied to a continuous annealing line (CAL) which performs no plating treatment. However, it is theoretically difficult to apply the above method to a current continuous galvanizing line (CGL) in which a plating treatment is performed by immersing a steel sheet in a galvanizing bath held at 450° C. to 500° C. during cooling after annealing.
As described above, a galvanized steel sheet which can satisfy all requirements, good corrosion resistance, a low YP, and excellent stretch flangeability, could not be obtained by conventional techniques.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a high-strength galvanized steel sheet which does not require addition of large amounts of expensive elements such as Mo and Cr, and which has excellent corrosion resistance, a low YP, and good stretch flangeability, and a method for manufacturing the same.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

High-steel galvanized steel sheet and method for manufacturing the same


The reliability of a semiconductor device is improved.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a technique effective when applied to a semiconductor device including a DC-DC converter.
In recent years, in order to achieve the reduction in size and the high-speed response of a power source circuit etc., the frequency of a power MOS•FET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) to be used in a power source circuit is increased.
In particular, the current and frequency of a CPU or DSP of a personal computer of desktop or notebook type, server, gaming machine, etc., tend to increase. Because of this, a power MOS•FET constituting a non-insulating DC-DC converter that controls the power source of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and DSP (Digital Signal Processor) is being developed to achieve a technique capable of coping with large currents and high frequencies.
A DC-DC converter widely used as an example of a power source circuit has a configuration in which a power MOS•FET for a high-side switch and a power MOS•FET for a low-side switch are connected in series. The power MOS•FET for a high-side switch has a switch function for controlling a DC-DC converter and the power MOS•FET for a low-side switch has a switch function for synchronous rectification and the voltage of the power source is converted by alternately turning on/off these two power MOS•FETs in synchronization with each other.
In Japanese patent laid-open No. 2007-266218 (patent document 1), a technique relating to a semiconductor device is described, in which a semiconductor chip having a power MOS•FET for a high-side switch formed, a semiconductor chip having a power MOS•FET for a low-side switch formed, and a semiconductor chip having a control circuit formed that controls their operations are included in one package.

Abstract: A package of a semiconductor device internally includes a first semiconductor chip and a second semiconductor chip in which power MOS•FETs are formed and a third semiconductor chip in which a control circuit controlling the first and second semiconductor chips is formed. The first to third semiconductor chips are mounted on die pads respectively. Source electrode bonding pads of the first semiconductor chip on a high side are electrically connected with a first die pad of the die pads via a metal plate. On a top surface of the die pad 7D2, a plated layer formed in a region where the second semiconductor chip is mounted, and another plated layer formed in a region where the metal plate is joined are provided and the plated layers are separated each other with a region where no plated layer is formed in between.


The present disclosure relates to the field of power technology, and in particular to a system for locating fault in power distribution network based on mixed mode wave recording.

The present application is a national stage application for PCT/US18/31457, filed on 7 May 2018, and received a favorable search report from USPTO on 12 Jul. 2018. Power distribution network is an important part of power system. But with the rapid evolvement to smart grid, there are large numbers of dispersed power source connected intermittently. This makes the distribution network fault communication more complicated, and causes more difficulties in accurate and rapid fault diagnosis.
In order to protect the distribution network working properly in high degree of intelligence, it is necessary to monitor the feeder lines operation data in real time, and to timely alert and troubleshoot abnormal situations, as well as quickly locating and dealing them. Therefore, the distribution network usually is installed with devices such as line fault indicators and feeder terminals, and these devices are used to record wave information in the operation of the distribution network.
At the present technology level, the methods for fault location usually need to manually extract the recorded wave features, and then use the features to identify and locate the ground fault. As disclosed in CN103728532, a zero-sequence voltage 3U0 and a zero-sequence current 3I0 are collected by using a distribution automation feeder terminal, and a series of processes are performed on 3U0 and 3I0 to extract the characteristics. Then, fault determination rules set by prior experience are combined with multiple distributed and automated feeder terminals to locate faulty section. CN104101812 also discloses a fault detection and location method and system for a small current grounded distribution network. In that case, the system master unit extracts the transient signals of zero-sequence voltage and zero-sequence current from the recorded waves at a plurality of locations in the distribution network. Then the similarity characteristics of each location waveform are calculated. Finally, based on the location specific characteristics and similarity characteristics to determine the suspected fault location.
It can be seen from the above that various fault location methods in the prior art still divide the waveform feature extraction and fault location determination into two steps. Therefore, the multi-position original waveform in the distribution network obtained through the terminal device in the power distribution network still needs to be artificially extracted to get to the characteristics, before the characteristics can be used to locate the fault.
This kind of fault location determination process does not achieve a non-end-to-end solution utilizing direct feedback. Therefore, the accuracy of fault location identification cannot be continuously improved. On the other hand, in applying existing machine learning model to the problem, because the model processing capacity is limited, therefore, diagnostic waveforms spanning over long period that can be used to detect fault progression or intermittent fault are not applicable—only the truncated wavelet segments are utilized. When giving wavelets as input to the machine learning model, no matter how the original waveform is truncated, the result will nonetheless be of loss of valuable information.

System for locating fault in power distribution network based on mixed mode wave recording


There is provided with an information processing apparatus. Location information indicating an approximate location of a measurement target relative to a projection apparatus is obtained. The projection apparatus projects, onto the measurement target, projection light of a predetermined pattern composed of light rays travelling in respective directions. For respective travelling directions, incident regions of the measurement target on which the projection light is incident are estimated in accordance with the location information. Amounts of the projection light toward the respective travelling directions are determined such that light amounts of reflected light from the estimated incident regions toward an image capturing apparatus fall within a predetermined range. The image capturing apparatus captures an image of the measurement target onto which the projection light has been projected.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique to determine an amount of projection light in a measurement system.
Description of the Related Art
A technique for three-dimensional measurement of an object is known as an important technical element in the field of machine vision. One method of the three-dimensional measurement technique is an active method in which a distance is measured by projecting light onto a target object and measuring reflected light. As one example, there is a method of projecting two-dimensional pattern light onto a target object and capturing an image of corresponding reflected light (projection image) with a camera. In this method, the location of the projection image in the captured image is detected by referring to the characteristics of the two-dimensional pattern light. Then, with the use of the travelling direction of the pattern light and the direction of detection of the projection image, the distance is triangulated.
With the active method, higher contrast of the projection image in the captured image leads to more improvements in the location detection performance and realization of stable and high-accuracy distance measurement. It is thus desirable that the reflected light from the target object be within the dynamic range of a camera and be as intense as possible within this range.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-241131 describes obtainment of an average distance to a target object using a distance sensor and determination of the intensity of projection light based on the obtained distance. More specifically, according to the description of this document, the amount of projection light is increased if the distance from a projection apparatus to the target object is long, and decreased if the distance is short.

Information processing apparatus, measurement system, control system, light amount determination method and storage medium


Provided is a material to be worked in face driving, which can facilitate making a face driver hold the material and can prevent a slide in the rotating direction between the face driver and the material, and a method for working the material. The material is to be worked with one end surface thereof held by the face driver having a center pin and a plurality of driving claws arranged around the center pin. A center hole into which the center pin is fit is formed on the one end surface. A recess or a protrusion existing in every phase in a circumferential direction around the center hole is formed on the one end surface. The recess or the protrusion is arranged within an area of the one end surface in a radial direction of the one end surface, into which the driving claws are driven.

Conventionally, face driving is known as a method for turning the outer circumferential surface of a material to be worked such as a shaft-shaped member. In the face driving, the outer circumferential surface of the material is turned while holding one end surface of the material in the axial direction thereof with a face driver and rotating the material with the face driver.
The face driver has a main body attached to a main spindle of a lathe or the like, a center pin protruding from the center of the main body, and a plurality of driving claws radially arranged around the center pin on the main body. The face driver holds the material by fitting the center pin into a center hole formed at the center part of the one end surface of the material and by driving the driving claws into the one end surface of the material.
The face driver integrally holds and rotates the material by making the driving claws bite into the one end surface of the material. However, if an amount of the bite of the driving claws into the one end surface of the material is small, a force of the face driver to hold the material may become less than a turning force applied to the material, which may cause a slide in the rotating direction between the face driver and the material.
In particular, if coining is performed on the one end surface of the material by cold forging or the like in order to form the center hole on the one end surface, the smoothness of the one end surface and the hardness of the material increase. As a result, the amount of the bite of the driving claws into the material becomes smaller, and the slide in the rotating direction between the face driver and the material becomes easy to occur, which may make it impossible to turn the material.
Accordingly, conventionally, as shown in JP-A 61-125703, impressions corresponding to driving claws of a face driver are formed, by pressing, on one end surface of a material to be worked, and then the driving claws are engaged with the impressions, thereby inhibiting a slide in the rotating direction between the face driver and the material.

Material to be worked in face driving and method for working the same


An articulated harvesting head load sensor arrangement is provided that includes two harvesting head sections (102, 104, 106) that are coupled with a first pivot pin (162) that is a load pin.

Agricultural harvesting heads such as draper platforms are designed to follow closely along the ground harvesting crops. To ensure that they follow the ground closely, they are configured to contact the ground and apply a slight ground force to the ground. Hydraulic electric circuits are typically provided to ensure that only a small portion of their weight is actually pressed against the ground. As the ground rises and falls underneath the agricultural harvesting head, the position of the agricultural harvesting head is adjusted up and down with respect to the agricultural combine on which the agricultural harvesting head is supported. This permits the agricultural harvesting head to adjust to changing terrain.
In recent years, articulated agricultural harvesting heads have been designed. Articulated heads comprise two or more elongated sections that are hinged to each other. As the terrain changes, each section rises and falls with respect to the ground independently of the other sections.
One problem in articulated agricultural harvesting heads is maintaining a relatively constant and light force against the ground. In a three section articulated agricultural harvesting head, for example, the two end sections are hingeably connected to a center section. The center section is supported on the agricultural combine itself. The two outer hinged sections are supported on the ground, and also are supported on the center section itself. To maintain a constant ground force of the two outer hinged sections against the ground, some of their load must be transferred to the center section. Yet the center section must also be maintained at a relatively constant ground force against the ground. This transfer of loads between the sections and to the agricultural combine itself is difficult.
As the ground terrain changes, however, the two outer hinged sections can contact the ground with such force that the two outer hinged sections are pulled backwards sufficient to damage the agricultural harvesting head or the feederhouse of the combine harvester that supports the agricultural harvesting head and carries it through the field.
To prevent this from happening, it is important that certain automatic responses occur whenever the outer hinged sections of the agricultural harvesting head dig into the ground too deeply and generate too large a backward force.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved arrangement for monitoring the ground force applied to the outer sections of an articulated agricultural harvesting head to permit corrective action to be taken and to prevent damage to the articulated agricultural harvesting head
It is an object of this invention to provide such an arrangement.

Articulated harvesting head load sensor arrangement


A death care merchandise display unit comprises two vertical, parallel, spaced wing wall panels, a vertical back wall means having lateral edges secured to the rear edges of the wing wall panels and optionally at least one decedent confinement chamber positioned between the two vertical spaced wing wall panels with a drawer slide means for rolling the chamber outward or a cornice display structure projecting from the vertical back wall of the merchandise display area or securement means for affixing death care merchandise selected from coffins, caskets, vaults, urns, sectionals or miniatures thereof and materials for decorating the same onto the merchandise display area. The securement means may consist of drawers adjacent to the decedent confinement chamber for exhibiting casket adornment materials. The cornice display structure may consist of two vertical panels and a horizontal beam secured to the vertical panels, the horizontal beam extending at least fifty percent of the distance defined by the vertical back wall. In addition, the cornice display structure may contain an illumination means affixed onto its inner perimeter. The securement means may further comprise a means for downwardly extending at least one decedent confinement chamber from a vertical wing wall panel.

Various casket display systems are known in the art. The more primitive of such systems consist of a casket display rack or support. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,937,768 which discloses a two-tiered casket display rack having a rigid C-shaped frame-like structure for the display of two caskets--one casket supported above another.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,017 discloses a more contemporary casket display system for full caskets. The display system of the '017 patent includes a two-tiered casket display rack retractable by means of a scissors unit which, in turn, is connected to a rod. The display rack of the '017 patent is not an integral part of the casket display system.
While the casket display system of the '017 patent offers a more serene setting than the primitive systems of the prior art, as set forth in the '768 patent, they do not permit the full display of merchandise used in the funeral and death care industry. In addition, it does not permit the display of all types of merchandise such as adornment accessories, urns and burial vaults.
Further, the display systems of the prior art containing a rollout rack onto which a full casket is mounted basically require the presence of two caskets--one on a top shelf and the second on a bottom shelf. Such systems are difficult to manage and handle especially since the lower casket is often required to be in a retracted state.
The need exists therefore for a display system which permits the exhibition of a greater volume and a greater type of death related merchandise at greater ease for the prospective purchaser. In addition, the need exists for a display system which can be more easily assembled and utilized than afforded by the systems of the prior art.


According to one embodiment, a sheet conveying device includes a roller, a motor, a clutch, and a torque generator. The roller conveys a sheet. The motor is a driving source. The clutch connects or disconnects drive of the motor with respect to the roller. The torque generator applies a torque to the roller.

An image processing apparatus includes an automatic duplex copy unit (hereinafter referred to as "ADU"). In order to perform image processing on both front and back sides of the sheet, the ADU reverses the front and back of the sheet. The ADU includes a sheet conveying device that conveys a sheet. The sheet conveying device includes a roller, a motor, and a clutch. The clutch connects or disconnects drive of the motor with respect to the roller. The sheet conveying device controls the conveying of the sheet by connecting and disconnecting the clutch. Depending on the specifications of the idling torque of the clutch, there is a possibility that the time (hereinafter referred to as "roller stop time") until the roller stops rotating if the clutch is disconnected extends, and the variation in the roller stop time increases.

Sheet conveying device and image processing apparatus


The riser tensioning system (10) includes a tensioning ring (18) for secured engagement with the riser and plurality of hydraulic cylinders (12) extending between the tensioning ring and a floating platform. A gimbal mechanism (42) acts between the platform and the riser to allow the riser axis to tilt relative to the floating platform. One or more elongate torque transfer members (38) extend between the tensioning ring and the gimbal mechanism and allow axial movement of the tensioning ring and the riser with respect to the floating platform.

Various types of tensioners have been devised for use in the oil and gas industry. U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,177 discloses a compensation mechanism with a passive damped pneumatic-hydraulic spring system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,827 discloses a modular riser tensioner, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,219 discloses a variable spring rate riser tensioner. U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,998 discloses a riser with a braking system. Other patents of interest includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,970,292, 4,004,532, 4,072,190, 4,215,950, 4,616,707, 4,721,053, 4,799,827, 4,828,230, 4,883,387, 4,883,388, 4,892,444, 5,020,942, 5,252,004, 5,283,552, 5,244,313, 5,551,803, 5,671,812, 5,846,028, 5,944,111, 6,045,296, 6,585,455, 7,112,011, 7,328,741, 7,329,070, and 7,632,044.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,778 discloses a riser tensioning system with three tensioners pivotally secured to a hollow surface of the production platform and to a tensioner ring. Publications of interest include U.S. 2005/0147473, U.S. 2006/0108121, U.S. 2006/0280560, U.S. 2007/0056739, U.S. 2007/0196182, U.S. 2008/0205992, and U.S. 2009/0145611.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, an improved riser tensioning system is hereinafter disclosed.


A system that controls the speed of a marine vessel includes first and second propulsion devices that produce first and second thrusts to propel the marine vessel. A control circuit controls orientation of the first and second propulsion devices about respective steering axes to control directions of the first and second thrusts. A first user input device is moveable between a neutral position and a non-neutral detent position. When a second user input device is actuated while the first user input device is in the detent position, the control circuit does one or more of the following so as to control the speed of the marine vessel: varies a speed of a first engine of the first propulsion device and a speed of a second engine of the second propulsion device; and varies one or more alternative operating conditions of the first and second propulsion devices.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,771, which is hereby incorporated by reference in entirety, discloses a control system for a marine vessel that incorporates a marine propulsion system that can be attached to a marine vessel and connected in signal communication with a serial communication bus and a controller. A plurality of input devices and output devices are also connected in signal communication with the communication bus and a bus access manager, such as a CAN Kingdom network, is connected in signal communication with the controller to regulate the incorporation of additional devices to the plurality of devices in signal communication with the bus whereby the controller is connected in signal communication with each of the plurality of devices on the communication bus. The input and output devices can each transmit messages to the serial communication bus for receipt by other devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,068, which is hereby incorporated by reference in entirety, discloses a marine vessel that is maneuvered by independently rotating first and second marine propulsion devices about their respective steering axes in response to commands received from a manually operable control device, such as a joystick. The marine propulsion devices are aligned with their thrust vectors intersecting at a point on a centerline of the marine vessel and, when no rotational movement is commanded, at the center of gravity of the marine vessel. Internal combustion engines are provided to drive the marine propulsion devices. The steering axes of the two marine propulsion devices are generally vertical and parallel to each other. The two steering axes extend through a bottom surface of the hull of the marine vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,928, which is hereby incorporated by reference in entirety, discloses a vessel positioning system that maneuvers a marine vessel in such a way that the vessel maintains its global position and heading in accordance with a desired position and heading selected by the operator of the marine vessel. When used in conjunction with a joystick, the operator of the marine vessel can place the system in a station keeping enabled mode and the system then maintains the desired position obtained upon the initial change in the joystick from an active mode to an inactive mode. In this way, the operator can selectively maneuver the marine vessel manually and, when the joystick is released, the vessel will maintain the position in which it was at the instant the operator stopped maneuvering it with the joystick.
Unpublished U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/965,583, which is hereby incorporated by reference in entirety, discloses a system and method for controlling movement of a marine vessel. An operator input device outputs a signal that is representative of an operator-desired heading of the vessel. A first sensor outputs a signal that is representative of a sensed actual heading of the vessel. A low gain proportional integral controller outputs a yaw rate request based upon the difference between the operator-desired heading and the sensed actual heading. A second sensor has an output that is representative of a sensed actual yaw rate of the vessel. A high gain proportional integral controller outputs a yaw moment request based upon the difference between the yaw rate request and the sensed actual yaw rate. The heading of the vessel is controlled based upon the yaw moment request.
Unpublished U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/787,108 discloses a system that controls speed of a marine vessel including first and second propulsion devices that produce first and second thrusts to propel the marine vessel. A control circuit controls orientation of the propulsion devices between an aligned position in which the thrusts are parallel and an unaligned position in which the thrusts are non-parallel. A first user input device is moveable between a neutral position and a non-neutral detent position. When the first user input device is in the detent position and the propulsion devices are in the aligned position, the thrusts propel the marine vessel in a desired direction at a first speed. When a second user input device is actuated while the first user input device is in the detent position, the propulsion devices move into the unaligned position and propel the marine vessel in the desired direction at a second, decreased speed without altering the thrusts.

Systems and methods for controlling speed of a marine vessel


A front vehicle-body structure controls inward breakage of an apron reinforcement in the event of a small overlap collision, without increasing weight. Embodiments include a pair of right and left apron reinforcements extending in a vehicle front-rear direction; and a pair of right and left hinge pillars respectively connected to rear ends of the pair of apron reinforcements. A reinforcement outer member of the apron reinforcement includes a linear portion extending in the vehicle front-rear direction from a rear end of the apron reinforcement connected to the hinge pillar to an intermediate portion of the apron reinforcement. A horizontal bead, provided as a deformation facilitating portion to facilitate deformation toward an inside of a vehicle body, is disposed on an outer surface portion positioned on a vehicle-width-direction outer side of the linear portion, the horizontal bead having a reduced longitudinal rigidity toward a front side in the vehicle front-rear direction.

A front vehicle-body structure of a vehicle has been known that includes a pair of right and left apron reinforcements extending in the vehicle front-rear direction and a pair of right and left hinge pillars respectively connected to rear ends of the pair of apron reinforcements. Also, in order to ensure safety of an occupant space in the event of an obstacle colliding with a portion of the vehicle on a vehicle-width-direction outer side relative to its front side frame (overlap region of not more than 25%), or a so-called small overlap collision, which is exemplified by small overlap rigid barrier (SORB) tests, a method has been known that causes an apron reinforcement to undergo inward breakage deformation toward a vehicle-width-direction inner side to thereby absorb collision energy.
For example, a front vehicle-body structure of a vehicle disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2018-135080 includes: a pair of right and left apron members (apron reinforcements) extending in the vehicle front-rear direction and constituting a closed cross-section; a pair of right and left hinge pillars respectively connected to rear ends of the pair of apron members; a front reinforcement provided on the vehicle-width-direction outer side within the closed cross-section; a rear reinforcement provided outside the closed cross-section at a position overlapping the front reinforcement in side view and connected to a joined portion between the apron member and the hinge pillar. The front reinforcement and the rear reinforcement are joined together via the apron member.
A wheel may be increased in diameter to improve designability and motion performance of the vehicle. Increasing the diameter of the wheel typically involves increase in tire width and increase in contact area between a road surface and the tire. This leads to increase in grip performance and cornering performance of the tire. In such a case where the wheel is increased in diameter, a wheel well is modified to widen toward the vehicle-width-direction outer side in order to accommodate a tire whose width is widened along with the increase in diameter of the wheel.


An improved landscape fabric is disclosed consisting of a sheet of thermoplastic material in which a plurality of alternating hollow ridges and valleys are formed. Each of the ridges is defined by a pair of upright sidewalls and an interconnecting top. A plurality of spaced apertures are formed through each of the upright walls at its juncture with an adjacent valley, being disposed to permit the flow of water and air therethrough to the underside of the sheet while inhibiting the passage of light therethrough. The improved fabric has extensibility and flexibility during installation, permitting it to conform to the area to be covered without having to be fabric itself.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is directed to an improved landscape fabric which permits the flow of air and water while resisting the passage of light therethrough.
Landscape fabric is commonly used today in landscaped areas for resisting the growth of weeds and other unwanted plant life. Conventional landscape fabric consists of an opaque film of polyethylene, typically black, having a thickness of 3-6 mils. The film is typically sold in long rolls that are typically 3 feet in width.
After the landscaped bed is prepared with proper soil and drainage, the landscape fabric is unrolled, placed over the bed and cut to any curved configuration of the bed. It is typically staked in place with plastic or steel staples or spikes to prevent movement. Holes are then cut in the fabric at points where plants are desired, and the plants (e.g., trees, bushes and perennials) are then planted through the fabric openings or holes and into the soil. The fabric is then covered by several inches of wood mulch, gravel or rocks, and in the case of crops such as strawberries or tomatoes, tucked into the sides of the plant bed.
Because the landscape fabric is imperforate, water and air are prevented from passing therethrough except through the holes cut as plant openings. Its opaqueness prevents the transmission of light. These water, air and light blocking functions substantially prevent the germination and growing of weeds, which is the primary function of the fabric. However, conventional landscape fabric is not without disadvantages.
First, because it is imperforate other than the plant openings, water and air for the growth of the desired plant life is itself restricted. This can be overcome to some extent by cutting relatively large openings for the plants, but in so doing the germination and growth of weeds is also encouraged in this enlarged area.
Second, conventional landscape fabric is flat and relatively thick, and although flexible to some extent it does not conform well to the irregular contours of the ground. It is possible to cause a tear or hole in the fabric if excessively stressed in a particular area, which can lead to weed growth. However, more importantly, the inability of the landscape fabric to stretch and/or conform to the contours of the ground make it more difficult to install.
The inventive landscape fabric overcomes these problems through its unique design.
Broadly speaking, the landscape fabric is formed (preferably by rotary molding) to include a plurality of ridges each of which has at least one upstanding or substantially vertical wall. In the preferred embodiment, the improved landscape fabric is formed with a plurality of aligned or parallel ridges and alternating valleys, with each ridge consisting of two substantially vertical walls and a rounded top. Small apertures are formed in each vertical wall which permits the flow of both water and air to the underside of the fabric. This flow is enhanced by the formation of a plurality of small transverse channels disposed in the trough or valley between the ridges in alignment with the apertures. Preferably, the transverse channels extend between opposed apertures in adjacent ridges. As water moves through the troughs or valleys between ridges, it falls into the small transverse channels and is led to the apertures, thus flowing through the fabric to ensure that the soil below the fabric is moistened with rain or watering.
However, at the same time, the fact that the apertures are disposed in substantially vertical walls inhibits the passage of light, which cannot travel horizontally in the troughs or valleys to reach the apertures.
The desired plants themselves receive adequate sunlight because they project through and above the landscape fabric. However, weeds and undesired plant life cannot gain a foothold below the fabric because they are unable to receive the necessary sunlight to grow.
The formation of the improved landscape fabric with a significant number of aligned ridges alternating with valleys is also advantageous because it gives the fabric some degree of stretch, thus enabling it to better conform to the contours of the land and any irregularities it may contain. Thus, it is more easily installed than conventional landscape fabric.
The improved landscape fabric is preferably formed from high density polyethylene with a thickness of 5 mils. The combination of the heavy thickness of the film and stiffness of the high density polyethylene results in a landscape fabric that is flexible while having improved strength and the ability to hold its shape in the application. The use of high density polyethylene also is advantageous because it enables formation from recycled plastic. Plastic milk bottles provide a readily available source of high density polyethylene, the reuse of which results in a highly useful product that simplifies installation and provides better long range results in plant growth and weed inhibition.