A method and apparatus of transmitting time critical messages over a network is provided. Data which has minimal bandwidth requirements, such as data packets utilized in applications such as twitch games, is received or generated in a network device. The data is classified as minimal bandwidth data and prioritized relative to other data for transmission before the other data. The data is then transmitted by the device to a second device on the network before the other data is transmitted.

Certain computer applications, such as dynamic simulations and "twitch" games require time-critical user input and computer response. Twitch games are a class of computer games exemplified by fighting or combat games in which a user controls a character and inputs movement and firing or hitting commands at a high rate. Twitch games are characterized by a high degree of user interaction, and since user input is on the order of seconds or fractions of a second, this input requires immediate registration and response from the computer in order to maintain the playability and realism of the game. Twitch games thus require the user to respond quickly to computer signals, and the computer to quickly respond to user input. Any delay by the computer to the user input would thus result in the improper flow or execution of the game or simulation.
Twitch games are also characterized by the transmission of messages of a small size and of only a few different types. Users of twitch games input commands through a device such as a joystick or keypad. These devices typically allow only a limited number of commands, such as lateral and vertical movement and various punching, kicking and firing commands as required by the games. Because the commands invoke relatively non-complex responses from the computer, the commands can be encoded within messages of a small size. For example, in a typical twitch game the command to fire a gun can be encoded and sent in a command word requiring only 8-bits.
Many computer games and simulation programs were originally written for and executed on single computer consoles such as arcade machines. These machines typically allow for player against computer, or multi-player play through multiple input devices on the console. With the growth of personal computer use and network access, however, many computer games are increasingly being played between players on personal computers over a network or modem link.
Although use of general purpose computer networks for the execution of real-time and time critical applications has increased, these networks are typically ill-suited for such applications because of transmission protocols that introduce an unacceptable degree of network latency. Latency is the minimum time required to transmit a packet through the network devices and lines constituting the network. A primary determinant of the latency of a network is the amount of transmission bandwidth available in each network device. As the complexity of a network and the amount of traffic over a network increases, this bandwidth is consumed and latency correspondingly increases. For many applications, increased latency results in slower transmission which does not jeopardize program execution. However for applications such as twitch games, increased latency could render a game or simulation unplayable.
One approach to playing twitch games over a computer network has been to utilize special low latency networks specifically designed for real-time and time critical applications. This approach has the disadvantage of being expensive and impractical for casual users. A second approach has been to dedicate a general purpose transmission medium to the time-critical application. This method may provide sufficient bandwidth for the application, but typically requires that no other application transmit messages over the network at the same time. This approach thus denies the use of the network to general purpose traffic while a game or simulation is being played.
It is thus desirable to provide a method of executing time-critical computer applications, such as twitch games, over general purpose networks without the network latency associated with such networks. One of the primary general purpose networks gaining widespread use is the Internet. Messages are transmitted over the Internet using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The TCP/IP protocol is based on the principle of "best effort" transmission between entities on the network. Messages on the Internet are non-prioritized and implement collision mechanisms in order to reach their destination. Because of the non-deterministic nature of TCP/IP message transmission, the Internet is not well suited to applications requiring time-critical response.
A recent extension to TCP/IP protocol has introduced the concept of reservation of network resources within individual network devices on the Internet as an attempt to facilitate the execution of real-time applications across the Internet. Such resources include memory and buffer space within computers and routers on the network. The reservation of such resources provides adequate network bandwidth for deterministic transmission of application messages which require time-critical response. However, present reservation protocols do not provide priority queuing for small data packets which require extremely low latency transmission but do not require substantial network bandwidth. Therefore, what is further needed is a mechanism for extending resource reservation protocols to accommodate the prioritization of low bandwidth, minimum latency messages of small packet sizes.

Method and apparatus for transmitting data having minimal bandwidth requirements


A class of high efficiency (e.g., .gtoreq.20%) materials for use as display pixels to replace conventional phosphors in television, monitor, and flat panel displays. The materials are comprised of nanocrystals such as CdS.sub.x Se.sub.1-x, CuCl, GaN, CdTe.sub.x S.sub.1-x, ZnTe, ZnSe, ZnS, or porous Si or Ge alloys which may or may not contain a luminescent center. The nanocrystals may be doped with a luminescent center such as Mn.sup.2+ or a transition metal. The nanocrystals have passivated surfaces to provide high quantum efficiency. The nanocrystals have all dimensions comparable to the exciton radius (e.g., a size in the range of approximately 1 nm to approximately 10 nm). A quantum dot nanocrystal display phosphor that has a size selected for shifting an emission wavelength of a constituent semiconductor material from a characteristic wavelength observed in the bulk to a different wavelength. A field effect flat panel display is described that employs the nanocrystals of this invention, as are embodiments of plasma displays and fluorescent light sources.

Phosphorescent materials or phosphors have been employed for a number of years in the construction of cathode ray tubes having a display screen that is excited by an electron beam. When struck by the electron beam the phosphor material absorbs energy from the beam and subsequently re-emits the energy as electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths within the visible range.
Representative U.S. Patents in this general area include the following.
Wainer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,989) discloses a cadmium sulfide phosphor that may be deposited as ultra-fine particles on a glass or quartz base.
DiStefano (U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,889) discloses a cadmium sulfide (CdS) semiconductor material. Both the Wainer '989 and DiStefano '889 patents disclose the combination of CdS and ZnS in at least one embodiment. The luminescent layer as practiced by DiStefano comprises a polycrystalline thin film 40 of semiconductor material forming individual grains 36 oriented with random size, orientation, and configuration. The typical size of each grain 36 ranges from about 1 micron to about 100 microns. The film 40 is conductive in the lateral direction. A thin skin 35 of majority type dopant forms a layer which preferably covers all surfaces, whether they be the film surface 34, a grain boundary 38, or the interface 42 between the film 40 and the substrate 32.
Delahoy (U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,071) discloses cadmium sulfide semiconductor particles in a necklace configuration that range in size from 10 to about 3000 angstroms.
Mie (U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,716) discloses a fluorescent display element having an integrated semiconductor element 3 and a cadmium sulfide fluorescent display element.
Ellis (U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,116), Fraas et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,361) and Lee (U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,788) disclose cadmium sulfide semiconductors and/or graded cadmium sulfide crystals with and without other materials.
In an article entitled "Photochemistry of Semiconductor Colloids. 17. Strong luminescing CdS and CdS-Ag.sub.2 S Particles", Ber. Bunsenges Phys. Chem. 91, 88-94 (1987), L. Spanhel, H. Weller, A. Fojtik and A. Henglein, report the preparation of Q-CdS sols which fluoresce with quantum yields said to be close to 100%. Strong fluorescence is said to occur when defect sites, at which radiationless recombination takes place, are blocked.
In a paper entitled "Doped Nanocrystals of Semiconductors-A New Class of Luminescent Materials", The 1993 International Conference on Luminescence, TH1B-2, Aug. 9-13, 1993, Univ. of Conn., Storrs, Conn., R. N. Bhargava reports the incorporation of a luminescent center (Mn.sup.2+) in nanosize (30 .ANG.-70 .ANG.) particles of ZnS. The nanosize ZnS particles are said to show an increased energy bandgap due to quantum confinement, which is also said to effect the recombination kinetics of the Mn.sup.2+ luminescence. The 1.7 millisecond Mn.sup.2+ decay time in the bulk is reported to be shortened to about 3 nanoseconds after several hours of curing with UV radiation (300 nm).
In this regard reference is also made to a publication entitled "Optical Properties of Manganese-Doped Nanocrystals of ZnS", Physical Review Letters, Vol. 72, No. 3, pgs. 416-419, Jan 17, 1994, by R. N. Bhargava and D. Gallagher.
Both of these publications describe a method of doping ZnS nanocrystals with Mn.

Semiconductor nanocrystal display materials and display apparatus employing same


An exchange of momentum wind turbine vane having a large area for exchange of momentum which is made rigid with buckleable wing columns capable of automatic self-feathering the vane to protect it from damaging high-speed wind. The large vane area provides very low windspeed startup. In the preferred embodiment the vane is plastic and very inexpensive to manufacture. Four embodiments are described and shown.

This invention is an improvement in vanes for small wind turbines. It applies to small exchange of momentum wind turbine vanes.
Wind energy has been utilized by mankind since ancient times. It is believed that mechanical windmills in one form or another have been in use for thousands of years. Horizontal axis windmills have been in use over 700 years. Modern technology and innovation are making the gathering of wind energy much more efficient and wind energy devices more self-regulating.
Windmills can be classified by the orientation of the axis on which the blade or blades are mounted, specifically, horizontal axis and vertical axis wind turbines. One of the advantages of some vertical blade wind turbines is that they do not need to be oriented with respect to the direction of the wind because they are designed to utilize wind from all directions.
Modern, small, horizontal-axis wind turbines usually have a blade assembly upwind of the tower supporting the wind turbine and a tail assembly extending downwind of the tower. The tail assembly orients the wind turbine with respect to the wind. A typical small horizontal axis system has a generator, power train, and blade assembly mounted so that they can rotate as a unit about a vertical axis allowing them to track the wind. Larger, more sophisticated, and more expensive wind turbines have devices which can determine the direction of the wind and control mechanisms powered by electric motors which turn the entire unit to face into the wind.
There are some wind turbines, on the other hand, that have the blade assembly downwind of the tower upon which they are mounted. The oncoming wind produces a force on the blade system which tends to orient the blades to be perpendicular to the wind. The main drawback to such systems without the stabilizing effect of a tail assembly is the tendency of the entire wind turbine to make wide rotational excursions about its vertical axis due to the randomness of wind interacting with the turbine's blades. This is particularly disruptive for exchange of momentum machines since their vanes have much more surface area than those of wind turbines using Bernoulli's Principle.
There are two types of horizontal axis windmill blade systems: the aforementioned, now ubiquitous Bernoulli's Principle type and the exchange of momentum type. Exchange of momentum devices have been in use for thousands of years. Windmills operating on Bernoulli's Principle are relatively new. They have come to dominate in the marketplace despite the superiority—at least for small units—of windmills operating on the exchange of momentum principle. Both types have their advantages. Bernoulli's Principle wind turbines are a better choice in the case of higher speed wind and in the case of very large wind turbines. Exchange of momentum systems are better suited to low-speed wind and lower power, less expensive, smaller generator systems.
Although exchange of momentum wind turbines have many advantages over Bernoulli's Principle turbines, there is one case in which Bernoulli's Principle turbines are clearly superior and the only reasonable choice, specifically, for turbines of very large size. In the case of large diameter turbines, the speed of the blades at their extremities is so great that energy cannot be transferred practically by the means of exchange of momentum, and the induced drag force is so large that the energy lost from drag forces greatly overwhelms any exchange of momentum blade system. Some Bernoulli's Principle wind turbines have blades in excess of 180 feet in length. At a leisurely pace of just 10 revolutions per minute, the speed of the tips of blades of such length will exceed 125 miles per hour. At such speeds, the vane of an exchange of momentum system would be retreating from the oncoming wind at such a high speed that an extremely high velocity wind would be necessary just to keep up with the retreating vane surface—much less transfer momentum to the vane. Additionally, if the vanes of an exchange of momentum system could reach such speeds, drag forces would greatly overwhelm an exchange of momentum system.
The blades of wind turbines operating on Bernoulli's Principle have a profile that is similar to that of the wings of an aircraft. Their driving force is the same force that causes an airplane wing to produce lift. The faster the wind blows, the greater the "lift" force exerted on the blade. This greater force moves the blade faster and produces more power. However, the faster the blade moves, the greater the drag force acting on the blade which tends to slow it down, decrease its efficiency, and reduce the power it can produce.
The speed at which the end or tip of a vane moves depends upon the rate of rotation of the vane and its length. For any given speed of rotation, the tip of the vane moves the fastest and each incremental portion of the vane towards the hub moves slower. The speed at which the vane tip of a smaller wind turbine vane advances is not great even for a relatively fast turning vane. Consider and compare a small vane turning twice as fast as the large blade in the example given above. A vane having a length of 10 feet turning at 20 revolutions per minute (twice as fast as the example above) has a vane tip which is moving at only slightly over 14 miles per hour. If the vane angle is 30 degrees, the vane surface at the end of the vane is moving at only about 7 miles per hour in the direction of the axis of rotation. If the wind is also moving at 7 miles per hour, the wind is exerting no force on the vane in the direction of its axis of rotation. Hence, any wind that is moving at a speed in excess of 7 miles per hour would contribute power.
The vane systems of exchange of momentum turbines typically have a very large surface area compared to Bernoulli's Principle blades. The greater the area of the vane, the greater is the potential exchange of momentum and, therefore, power. However, concomitant with that larger vane surface area is the possibility of extreme forces acting on the vane system when it is subjected to very high-speed winds.
One of the great problems with wind turbines and particularly exchange of momentum wind turbines is the potential significant damage high-speed wind can inflict upon the device. This is particularly true with exchange of momentum wind turbines with their vanes having a very large surface area exposed to high-speed wind. The forces produced by high-speed winds impacting the relatively large surface area of exchange of momentum turbine vanes can become extremely destructive.
Many means have been developed to protect wind turbine blades from the extremely destructive forces of high-speed winds. One method illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 1,936,233 (Groves, 1933) has a wind-driven rotor behind a series of vertically mounted shutters which can be closed in front of the turbine. Closing the shutters blocks the wind from reaching the turbine. This system has significant drawbacks, however, such as requiring a very high-strength tower and massive tower foundation to resist the extremely high wind forces the system would experience in a strong storm. These forces would be particularly large if the shutters were closed thereby not allowing wind to pass through. In addition, the many slats in the shutter system would be susceptible to icing and could fail to operate in cold and icy weather.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,012 (Charles, 1979) reveals another way turbine blades could be protected from high-speed wind. This patent discloses a fan blade for an automobile having a series of bends which would decamber with increasing fan speed. Such a device could be adapted for use as a wind turbine. However, such an arrangement would have at least one very significant disadvantage in a wind turbine. Because winds are uneven and constantly varying in speed and force, wind turbine blades constructed in this fashion would be continually cambering and decambering. The constant changes in shape and mass distribution while rotating could cause large, unpredictable forces in the relatively large wind turbine blade system and supporting tower which could lead to its destruction, or, at the very least, require significant design effort in an attempt to anticipate and design for such forces. U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,231 (Barnstead, 1973) is similar in having the deflection of the blade more or less proportional to the force applied to it and, therefore, suffering from the same disadvantages of possible cycling of shape and mass distribution if it were to serve as a wind turbine blade.
Another way to counteract the destructive forces of high-speed winds which has been designed for wind turbines incorporates mechanisms to "feather" the vanes or sails as they are sometimes called. U.S. Pat. No. 1,334,485 (Clipfell and Manikowske, 1920) is illustrative. The wind turbine in this case features a multiplicity of vanes radially disposed about a central hub. The wind turbine is designed to allow the vanes to rotate about their own longitudinal axes under the influence of a plurality of governor weights which react to the speed of the rotor. Thus, the vane could be oriented along the flow of air for minimal interaction with the wind when the wind speed is high or the vanes could be turned so the flow of air would make contact with the vane's surface to cause exchange of momentum when the wind speed is less. Unfortunately, the large number of vanes with accompanying hinges, pins, and connecting arms would be susceptible to corrosion and, most significant, freezing in winter. Such an eventuality could cause the unit to be destroyed in high winds. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 2,633,921 (Monney, 1953) incorporates a flexible canvas-like vane secured by cables and tensioning springs to a number of "shafts" extending radially from a hub. This device, too, suffers from its susceptiblity to malfunction caused by extreme weather and ice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,637 (Traudt, 1986) discloses a mechanism which allows the blades of a downwind turbine to both feather and pivot downwind so that, instead of extending radially in possibly damaging high winds, the blades pivot back so they extend downwind and out of the flow of the wind. This would be, if it were built, a complex and expensive device which would also be susceptible to icing and would be unable to produce any power after the blades had pivoted.
In addition to the applicable aforementioned impairments, Bernoulli systems require higher windspeeds to start their relatively narrow blades systems in rotation from rest than do exchange of momentum systems. Their slender and expensive blades are only able to accept a small percentage of the kinetic energy of the air that passes through their swept area—a percentage far less than the theoretical Betz Limit—thereby diminishing their potential power output. Furthermore, Bernoulli Principle blades must have carefully designed and precisely manufactured blades in order to implement the Bernoulli Principle. Such precision makes them much more expensive to manufacture than exchange of momentum vanes.
Indeed, Bernoulli Principle blades are very expensive to use in wind turbine applications. While Bernoulli Principle wind turbines would extract more power if they were equipped with three, four, or even five blades than they would with just two blades, the very high cost of the blades makes it too expensive to produce Bernoulli Principle wind turbines with more than three blades since each additional blade costs as much as the previous blade but adds less power because of increased parasitic drag. Vanes constructed in accordance with the invention disclosed herein need merely be a relatively flat surface. They need not have special characteristics beyond being substantially impermeable to air.


Provided are a method, system, and program for providing a mirror copy of data. An update to a primary storage is received and transferred to an intermediate system in a first transfer mode. The update is transferred from the intermediate system to a secondary storage in a second transfer mode, wherein the secondary storage provides a mirror copy of updates to the primary storage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system and program for providing a mirror copy of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data storage systems may maintain a secondary copy of data at a remote site to use in the event of a failure at the primary site. Such dual or shadow copies are typically made as the application system is writing new data to a primary storage device. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM®), the assignee of the subject patent application, provides two systems for maintaining remote copies of data at a secondary site, extended remote copy (XRC) and peer-to-peer remote copy (PPRC). These systems provide a method for recovering data updates between a last, safe backup and a system failure. Such data shadowing systems can also provide an additional remote copy for non-recovery purposes, such as local access at a remote site. These IBM XRC and PPRC systems are described in IBM publication "Remote Copy: Administrator's Guide and Reference," IBM document no. SC35-0169-02 (IBM Copyright 1994, 1996), which publication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In such backup systems, data is maintained in volume pairs. A volume pair is comprised of a volume in a primary storage device and a corresponding volume in a secondary storage device that includes an identical copy of the data maintained in the primary volume. Typically, the primary volume of the pair will be maintained in a primary direct access storage device (DASD) and the secondary volume of the pair is maintained in a secondary DASD shadowing the data on the primary DASD. A primary storage controller may be provided to control access to the primary storage and a secondary storage controller may be provided to control access to the secondary storage.
In prior art systems, there are generally two modes for transferring data from the primary to the secondary storage systems—asynchronous and synchronous. In asynchronous mode, the host transfers data to the primary storage and write acknowledgment is immediately returned to the host even before the data is committed on the secondary site. After receiving acknowledgment, a copy of the updates are transferred to secondary storage. Updates not yet transferred to secondary storage are maintained in a journal. With the asynchronous technique, delays at the host are minimized because the host receives immediate acknowledgment. However, the mirrored copy of the data on secondary storage is not current with the updates at the primary storage.
In synchronous mode, the host does not receive acknowledgment until the data is committed to the secondary storage and the acknowledgment is returned by the secondary storage. In this mode, the mirror copy is current because the host write is not complete until the data is transferred to the secondary site and the writes are confirmed as applied to the secondary storage in the same order as applied to the primary storage. Further, the performance in synchronous mode is substantially affected by the distance between the primary and the secondary site because performance degrades as the distance increases, i.e., the I/O rate at the host application depends on the distance between the primary and secondary sites. As the distance increases, the host application I/O processing rate significantly decreases because it takes longer for the secondary site to acknowledge the update of the data at the secondary storage site.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved techniques for mirroring data between primary and secondary sites.

Method, system, and program for providing a mirror copy of data


For the oligomerization of a fatty ester or fatty acid containing conjugated double bonds, the reaction uses a catalyst consisting of an activated earth, e.g., montmorillonite, at a temperature of from 100.degree.-180.degree. C., preferably from 130.degree.-160.degree. C. The process can be carried out continuously or in a batch process on a fixed bed and is particularly applicable to conjugated methyl esters obtained by conjugating and transesterifying sunflower seed oil. The oligomerized products obtained are particularly useful as lubricants or polycondensation reactants.

The present invention relates to a novel process for oligomerization of fatty esters and acids of polyunsaturated oils. More precisely, it is concern with a process for the production of dimers and trimers at low temperatures and with small quantities of catalyst from any polyunsaturated ester or acid whose double bonds are conjugated or conjugatable.
Dimers or trimers obtained from acids or esters may be used as base materials in the production of lubricants, polyamide monomers, amide type anticorrosive agents, or paint additives.
The preparation of fatty acid dimers or oligomers from monoenyl, dienyl or trienyl fatty esters or acids is known. Activated earths (also called "activated clays") containing various additives (water, acid, chlorinated derivative, lithium salt, etc.) are currently employed as catalysts. British patent document GB 2 172 597 and the article published by J C COWAN in J.A.O.C.S. Vol 39, 1962, pages 534-545, describe the syntheses. The disadvantages of this technique are known. The reaction requires from 6 to 10% by weight of activated earth with respect to the product to be oligomerized and this earth is lost. Temperatures of 220.degree. to 250.degree. C. and reaction times of 6 to 8 hours are required. Filtration is difficult. When starting from polyenyl structures, the products obtained are in part aromatic. The cloud point of these compounds produced from a polyenyl acid is not very low. It is thus preferred to use monoenyl extracts of tallow. Finally, the resulting acidity when starting from esters is often high, whatever the ester employed.
Lubricant bases cannot be manufactured using this synthesis. Fatty acids form by ester hydrolysis which necessitates that the fatty acids be esterified before any hydrogenation that may be required. In addition, the monomers must be distilled off since not only do these monomers have low molecular weights but, even in the absence of hydrogenation, a large quantity of saturated derivatives is also produced during the course of the reaction. The esters of the dimers and oligomers are then transesterified with a higher alcohol if starting from methyl esters. The manufacture of a lubricant base is thus a relatively lengthy process, and it would be of advantage to simplify the process.
The literature records attempts to manufacture diners or oligomers at low temperature (120.degree.-180.degree. C.) (French patent FR 2 202 874). However, the process used does not appear to be very attractive. The ion exchange resin used, which is only active towards dienes and trienes, gives rise to a significant amount of ester hydrolysis despite the relatively low temperature (130.degree.-140.degree. C.), bringing the acidity to acid values which may reach from 12 to 30. The product obtained is quite colored and the resin rapidly loses activity. Finally, the dimer/trimer weight ratio is close to 1, while a good value generally obtained with activated earths is on the order of 4 to 5. Dimers rather than trimers are in demand for numerous applications.
In one example in the literature, low temperature oligomerization of fatty acid esters is effected using almost 10% by weight of activated earth; however, in this instance the esters of very rare oils are used, such as esters of China wood oil or oiticica oil (British patent document GB-A 1 466 418). These esters are double bonded trienes with trans-configurations. These structures are deemed to be very polymerizable.
Finally, German patent document DE 1 268 616 mentions the use of conjugated polyunsaturated esters in a co-oligomerization reaction of esters and coumarone or indene in the presence of activated earths between 40.degree. and 180.degree. C. In this patent document, it is indicated that there is no homopolymerization of the conjugated esters since the saponification values of the products which are not monomers, after distillation, are very different from those of the dimers.

Process for oligomerization of polyunsaturated acids and esters, products obtained and use thereof


Battery parts, such as battery terminals, and associated systems and methods for making same. In one embodiment, a battery part has a sealing region or sealing bead located on a lateral face of an acid ring for increasing resistance to leakage therepast as the battery container shrinks. Another embodiment includes a forming assembly for use with, for example, a battery part having a bifurcated acid ring with spaced apart lips. The forming assembly can include movable forming members that can be driven together to peen, crimp, flare or otherwise form the lips on the bifurcated acid ring.

Battery parts such as battery terminals, which are typically cold formed or die cast, are normally secured to a container with a portion of the battery terminal located inside the container and a further portion located outside the container. The battery containers, which are typically plastic such as polyethylene, are molded around a set of acid rings that are located on the portion of the terminal that is located within the container. The acid rings provide an extended interface and consequently a tortuous path to inhibit or prevent electrolyte from escaping from the battery container. Because the acid must follow an extended interface to escape this type of sealing, with a set of concentric acid rings, is often referred to as a labyrinth seal.
Because the battery terminals are cast or cold formed the radially protruding acid rings are generally formed with either a rectangular cross sectional shape or a slight outward taper to facilitate removal of the battery terminals from the mold.
While battery terminals have a generally rectangular cross sectional shape are used extensively other shaped acid rings have been used in order to prevent the plastic container from shrinking away from the terminal and upsetting the interface between the battery part and the container which could cause leakage of electrolyte. Generally, these type of acid rings provide lateral engagement between the acid ring and the container.
For example, the 1971 United Kingdom patent specification GB 1236495 discloses a battery terminal wherein two acid ring are bent toward each other to provide a dovetail shaped gap that extends along the entire length of the acid ring so that it enables the two adjacent acid rings to form a dovetail joint with the battery container and thereby provide lateral engagement between the acid ring and the container.
The 1971 United Kingdom patent specification GB 1,245,255 discloses three acid rings that have been deformed to create a dovetail shaped gap between adjacent acid rings with the dovetail gap extending along the entire length of the acid ring to form two dove tail joints with the container and thereby provide lateral engagement between the acid ring and the container. In this embodiment the acid rings are compressed sufficiently to deform the acid rings so that the acid ring tapers inwardly along the entire length of the ring, that is from the circumferential edge of the acid ring to the base of the acid ring.
The 1981 Japanese patent JP56159054 discloses a further embodiment wherein the battery terminal acid rings are deformed along the entire length of the acid ring to form inclined projections on the acid rings that engage the cover to provide effective liquid tightness and thereby provide lateral engagement between the acid ring and the container.
The 1993 Hofmann German patent DE 4127956 A1 discloses a battery terminal wherein the ends of the acid rings have been rounded and the lower acid ring has been provided with a wedge shaped profile to increase the sealing effect with a container and thereby provide lateral engagement between the acid ring and the container.
The 1994 Hofmann German patent DE 4241393 C1 discloses a battery terminal wherein the ends of the acid rings have been rounded and a barb or undercut that forms a hook which is located on the back side of the acid ring. The "hook" on the back side of the deformed acid ring hooks into the plastic container i.e. to lateral restrain the container to prevent the plastic battery container material from shrinking away from the battery terminal. In addition, a further embodiment is disclosed wherein adjacent acid rings are of the same thickness but are angled away from each other in order to laterally restrain the container with respect to the acid rings.
The 1992 Hofmann European patent 0 601 268 B1 discloses a battery terminal wherein the ends of the acid rings either have a rounded end or a triangular shaped end with a barb or hook on the back side of the acid ring. This "hook" on the back side of the deformed acid ring hooks the plastic to prevent the plastic battery container material from shrinking away from the battery terminal by laterally restraining the container with respect to the acid rings.
The 1992 Hofmann European patent application 0 601 268 A1 also discloses the battery terminal wherein the ends of the acid rings either have a rounded end or a triangular shaped end with a barb or undercut or hook on the back sides of the acid ring. In addition, a further embodiment of an acid ring is disclosed wherein two adjacent acid rings, which are of the same thickness, are angled away from each other to laterally restraining the container with respect to the acid rings by forming a dovetail like joint.
The 1989 Hofmann German patent application DE 3942175A1 discloses a method of forming a battery terminal with acid rings by cold rolling the terminal to form the circumferential acid rings.
Speigelberg U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,084 describes a process of forming an acid ring with a hook by first deforming the battery terminal from a rectangular shaped acid ring to an arrowhead shaped acid ring. The transformation to the hook shape is obtained by rotating the battery terminal relative to a cold forming roller to deform an acid ring with a rectangular cross section into an acid ring having an undercut or overhang. The cold rolling process involves substantial deformation of the acid ring on the cast battery part in order to produce the hook for engaging the battery container.
While the prior art provides acid rings with rectangular shapes that are either bent or transformed into a different shape by cold rolling to form a lateral restraint between the battery container and the terminal. The lateral restraint is obtained by either forming a hook on the acid ring or forming a dovetail or dovetail like engagement between the battery container and the battery terminal.
In contrast to the prior art acid rings, where the shape of the acid ring is substantially altered, in the present invention one can cast a battery part with the acid ring having a bifurcated end separated by a circumferential grove or an end with a single annular tapered lip. The bifurcated end results in two outwardly extending annular lips on each acid ring.
The annular lips on each acid ring can be flared away from each other to produce a beveled surface or sealing bead along an annular outer portion of each of the annular lips which not only laterally restrains the container with respect to the terminal but also forms an enhanced sealing region between the container and the acid ring. In addition the circuitous path provided by the bifurcated acid rings can increase the resistance to electrolyte leakage by providing a more tortuous interface between the acid rings and the container.
A further feature of the invention is the flaring of the lips can be obtained by applying a radial compressive force to the bifurcated ends of the acid ring. Since only the bifurcated ends of the acid ring are flared it substantially eliminates problems that can occur with prior art cold farming deformation of a pressure cast battery terminal. That is, an interface between a die cast portion of battery terminal and a cold rolled portion of the battery terminal can lead to cracks or stress areas between the cast region and the cold formed region of the battery part, which can be subject to electrolyte leakage therethrough. By minimizing the interface one can minimize the opportunity for leakage.
Thus the flaring of the lips on the bifurcated acid ring of the present invention produces a back flare sealing region that extends circumferential around the terminal which not only enhances sealing but also restrains lateral engagement between the container and the acid rings and at the same time minimizing the occurrences of fractures or stress cracks in metal that has a portion of the original die cast shape altered by cold rolled deformation.
The present invention provides a battery part that eliminates the substantial deformation or acid ring transformation necessary to either form an under cut or overhang on the acid ring or to deform an acid ring along its entire length to form a dovetail engagement as shown in GB 1236495; GB 1,245,255; JP 5619054 and EPO 06012681A1. In addition, the present invention further eliminates the need to mechanically deform the acid ring from a rectangular shape to an arrow head shaped acid ring or to an acid ring with a hook or an acid ring with a beveled surface that extends along the entire length of the acid ring as shown in EP006012681B1 and DE 4241393.
Thus, by flaring the lip or lips on the circumferential end of the acid ring one can form annular sealing regions, laterally restrain the container with respect to the acid ring, and inhibit electrolyte from escaping from the battery container with a more tortuous path. Not only does the present invention inhibit escape of electrolyte by providing a circumferential sealing ring it also make it easier to flow the plastic around the acid ring since the flared lip extends along only a portion of the acid ring. In addition, the present process minimizes stress produced in the battery part when a substantial part of a die cast battery terminal is subsequently transformed to a substantially different shape by cold rolling since the lips on the end of the acid ring can be flared instead of mechanically deformed into an entirely different shape.

Battery parts and associated systems and methods


An electro-optic display comprises a layer (130) of a solid electro-optic material, at least one electrode disposed adjacent the layer (130) of electro-optic material, and a layer (180) of a lamination adhesive interposed between the layer (130) of electro-optic material and the electrode, the lamination adhesive (180) having a higher electrical conductivity in a direction perpendicular to the layer of lamination adhesive than in the plane of the layer.

This invention relates to electro-optic displays and to adhesive compositions for use therein. This invention relates in part to adhesive compositions with electrical properties which render them especially suitable for use in electro-optic displays. Certain adhesive compositions of the present invention may also be useful in applications other than electro-optic displays. This invention also relates to materials and processes for lamination of electro-optic displays.
Electro-optic displays comprise a layer of electro-optic material, a term which is used herein in its conventional meaning in the art to refer to a material having first and second display states differing in at least one optical property, the material being changed from its first to its second display state by application of an electric field to the material. The optical property is typically color perceptible to the human eye, but may be another optical property, such as optical transmission, reflectance, luminescence or, in the case of displays intended for machine reading, pseudo-color in the sense of a change in reflectance of electromagnetic wavelengths outside the visible range.
The electro-optic displays of the present invention typically contain an electro-optic material which is a solid in the sense that the electro-optic material has solid external surfaces, although the material may, and often does, have internal liquid- or gas-filled spaces, and to methods for assembling displays using such an electro-optic material. Such displays using solid electro-optic materials may hereinafter for convenience be referred to as "solid electro-optic displays". Thus, the term "solid electro-optic displays" includes rotating bichromal member displays (see below), encapsulated electrophoretic displays, microcell electrophoretic displays and encapsulated liquid crystal displays.
The terms "bistable" and "bistability" are used herein in their conventional meaning in the art to refer to displays comprising display elements having first and second display states differing in at least one optical property, and such that after any given element has been driven, by means of an addressing pulse of finite duration, to assume either its first or second display state, after the addressing pulse has terminated, that state will persist for at least several times, for example at least four times, the minimum duration of the addressing pulse required to change the state of the display element. It is shown in published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0180687 that some particle-based electrophoretic displays capable of gray scale are stable not only in their extreme black and white states but also in their intermediate gray states, and the same is true of some other types of electro-optic displays. This type of display is properly called "multi-stable" rather than bistable, although for convenience the term "bistable" may be used herein to cover both bistable and multi-stable displays.
Several types of electro-optic displays are known. One type of electro-optic display is a rotating bichromal member type as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,808,783; 5,777,782; 5,760,761; 6,054,071 6,055,091; 6,097,531; 6,128,124; 6,137,467; and 6,147,791 (although this type of display is often referred to as a "rotating bichromal ball" display, the term "rotating bichromal member" is preferred as more accurate since in some of the patents mentioned above the rotating members are not spherical). Such a display uses a large number of small bodies (typically spherical or cylindrical) which have two or more sections with differing optical characteristics, and an internal dipole. These bodies are suspended within liquid-filled vacuoles within a matrix, the vacuoles being filled with liquid so that the bodies are free to rotate. The appearance of the display is changed to applying an electric field thereto, thus rotating the bodies to various positions and varying which of the sections of the bodies is seen through a viewing surface. This type of electro-optic medium is typically bistable.
Another type of electro-optic display uses an electrochromic medium, for example an electrochromic medium in the form of a nanochromic film comprising an electrode formed at least in part from a semi-conducting metal oxide and a plurality of dye molecules capable of reversible color change attached to the electrode; see, for example O'Regan, B., et al., Nature 1991, 353, 737; and Wood, D., Information Display, 18(3), 24 (March 2002). See also Bach, U., et al., Adv. Mater., 2002, 14(11), 845. Nanochromic films of this type are also described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,038, International Application Publication No. WO 01/27690, and in U.S. Patent Application 2003/0214695. This type of medium is also typically bistable.
Another type of electro-optic display, which has been the subject of intense research and development for a number of years, is the particle-based electrophoretic display, in which a plurality of charged particles move through a suspending fluid under the influence of an electric field. Electrophoretic displays can have attributes of good brightness and contrast, wide viewing angles, state bistability, and low power consumption when compared with liquid crystal displays. Nevertheless, problems with the long-term image quality of these displays have prevented their widespread usage. For example, particles that make up electrophoretic displays tend to settle, resulting in inadequate service-life for these displays.
Numerous patents and applications assigned to or in the names of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and E Ink Corporation have recently been published describing encapsulated electrophoretic media. Such encapsulated media comprise numerous small capsules, each of which itself comprises an internal phase containing electrophoretically-mobile particles suspended in a liquid suspension medium, and a capsule wall surrounding the internal phase. Typically, the capsules are themselves held within a polymeric binder to form a coherent layer positioned between two electrodes. Encapsulated media of this type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. D485,294; 5,930,026; 5,961,804; 6,017,584; 6,067,185; 6,118,426; 6,120,588; 6,120,839; 6,124,851; 6,130,773; 6,130,774; 6,172,798; 6,177,921; 6,232,950; 6,249,271; 6,252,564; 6,262,706; 6,262,833; 6,300,932; 6,312,304; 6,312,971; 6,323,989; 6,327,072; 6,376,828; 6,377,387; 6,392,785; 6,392,786; 6,413,790; 6,422,687; 6,445,374; 6,445,489; 6,459,418; 6,473,072; 6,480,182; 6,498,114; 6,504,524; 6,506,438; 6,512,354; 6,515,649; 6,518,949; 6,521,489; 6,531,997; 6,535,197; 6,538,801; 6,545,291; 6,580,545; 6,639,578; 6,652,075; 6,657,772; 6,664,944; 6,680,725; and 6,683,333; and U.S. Patent Applications Publication Nos. 2002/0019081; 2002/0021270; 2002/0053900; 2002/0060321; 2002/0063661; 2002/0063677; 2002/0090980; 2002/0106847; 2002/0113770; 2002/0130832; 2002/0131147; 2002/0145792; 2002/0171910; 2002/0180687; 2002/0180688; 2002/0185378; 2003/0011560; 2003/0011868; 2003/0020844; 2003/0025855; 2003/0034949; 2003/0038755; 2003/0053189; 2003/0076573; 2003/0096113; 2003/0102858; 2003/0132908; 2003/0137521; 2003/0137717; 2003/0151702; 2003/0189749; 2003/0214695; 2003/0214697 and 2003/0222315; and International Applications Publication Nos. WO 99/67678; WO 00/05704; WO 00/38000; WO 00/38001; WO 00/36560; WO 00/67110; WO 00/67327; WO 01/07961; WO 01/08241; and WO 03/104884.
Many of the aforementioned patents and applications recognize that the walls surrounding the discrete microcapsules in an encapsulated electrophoretic medium could be replaced by a continuous phase, thus producing a so-called "polymer-dispersed electrophoretic display" in which the electrophoretic medium comprises a plurality of discrete droplets of an electrophoretic fluid and a continuous phase of a polymeric material, and that the discrete droplets of electrophoretic fluid within such a polymer-dispersed electrophoretic display may be regarded as capsules or microcapsules even though no discrete capsule membrane is associated with each individual droplet; see for example, the aforementioned 2002/0131147. Accordingly, for purposes of the present application, such polymer-dispersed electrophoretic media are regarded as sub-species of encapsulated electrophoretic media.
An encapsulated electrophoretic display typically does not suffer from the clustering and settling failure mode of traditional electrophoretic devices and provides further advantages, such as the ability to print or coat the display on a wide variety of flexible and rigid substrates. (Use of the word "printing" is intended to include all forms of printing and coating, including, but without limitation: premetered coatings such as patch die coating, slot or extrusion coating, slide or cascade coating, curtain coating; roll coating such as knife over roll coating, forward and reverse roll coating; gravure coating; dip coating; spray coating; meniscus coating; spin coating; brush coating; air knife coating; silk screen printing processes; electrostatic printing processes; thermal printing processes; inkjet printing processes; and other similar techniques.) Thus, the resulting display can be flexible. Further, because the display medium can be printed (using a variety of methods), the display itself can be made inexpensively.
A related type of electrophoretic display is a so-called "microcell electrophoretic display". In a microcell electrophoretic display, the charged particles and the suspending fluid are not encapsulated within capsules but instead are retained within a plurality of cavities formed within a carrier medium, typically a polymeric film. See, for example, International Application Publication No. WO 02/01281, and published U.S. Application No. 2002/0075556, both assigned to Sipix Imaging, Inc.
Other types of electro-optic materials, for example, polymer-dispersed liquid crystal, may also be used in the displays of the present invention.
Although electrophoretic media are often opaque (since, for example, in many electrophoretic media, the particles substantially block transmission of visible light through the display) and operate in a reflective mode, many electrophoretic displays can be made to operate in a so-called "shutter mode" in which one display state is substantially opaque and one is light-transmissive. See, for example, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,130,774 and 6,172,798, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,872,552; 6,144,361; 6,271,823; 6,225,971; and 6,184,856. Dielectrophoretic displays, which are similar to electrophoretic displays but rely upon variations in electric field strength, can operate in a similar mode; see U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,346.
In addition to the layer of electro-optic material, an electro-optic display normally comprises at least two other layers disposed on opposed sides of the electro-optic material, one of these two layers being an electrode layer. In most such displays both the layers are electrode layers, and one or both of the electrode layers are patterned to define the pixels of the display. For example, one electrode layer may be patterned into elongate row electrodes and the other into elongate column electrodes running at right angles to the row electrodes, the pixels being defined by the intersections of the row and column electrodes. Alternatively, and more commonly, one electrode layer has the form of a single continuous electrode and the other electrode layer is patterned into a matrix of pixel electrodes, each of which defines one pixel of the display. In another type of electro-optic display, which is intended for use with a stylus, print head or similar movable electrode separate from the display, only one of the layers adjacent the electro-optic layer comprises an electrode, the layer on the opposed side of the electro-optic layer typically being a protective layer intended to prevent the movable electrode damaging the electro-optic layer.
The manufacture of a three-layer electro-optic display normally involves at least one lamination operation. For example, in several of the aforementioned MIT and E Ink patents and applications, there is described a process for manufacturing an encapsulated electrophoretic display in which an encapsulated electrophoretic medium comprising capsules in a binder is coated on to a flexible substrate comprising indium-tin-oxide or a similar conductive coating (which acts as an one electrode of the final display) on a plastic film, the capsules/binder coating being dried to form a coherent layer of the electrophoretic medium firmly adhered to the substrate. Separately, a backplane, containing an array of pixel electrodes and an appropriate arrangement of conductors to connect the pixel electrodes to drive circuitry, is prepared. To form the final display, the substrate having the capsule/binder layer thereon is laminated to the backplane using a lamination adhesive. (A very similar process can be used to prepare an electrophoretic display useable with a stylus or similar movable electrode by replacing the backplane with a simple protective layer, such as a plastic film, over which the stylus or other movable electrode can slide.) In one preferred form of such a process, the backplane is itself flexible and is prepared by printing the pixel electrodes and conductors on a plastic film or other flexible substrate. The obvious lamination technique for mass production of displays by this process is roll lamination using a lamination adhesive. Similar manufacturing techniques can be used with other types of electro-optic displays. For example, a microcell electrophoretic medium or a rotating bichromal member medium may be laminated to a backplane in substantially the same manner as an encapsulated electrophoretic medium.
In the processes described above, the lamination of the substrate carrying the electro-optic layer to the backplane may advantageously be carried out by vacuum lamination. Vacuum lamination is effective in expelling air from between the two materials being laminated, thus avoiding unwanted air bubbles in the final display; such air bubbles may introduce undesirable artifacts in the images produced on the display. However, vacuum lamination of the two parts of an electro-optic display in this manner imposes stringent requirements upon the lamination adhesive used, especially in the case of a display using an encapsulated electrophoretic medium. The lamination adhesive must have sufficient adhesive strength to bind the electro-optic layer to the layer (typically an electrode layer) to which it is to be laminated, and in the case of an encapsulated electrophoretic medium, the adhesive must also have sufficient adhesive strength to mechanically hold the capsules together. If the electro-optic display is to be of a flexible type (and one of the important advantages of rotating bichromal member and encapsulated electrophoretic displays is that they can be made flexible), the adhesive must have sufficient flexibility not to introduce defects into the display when the display is flexed. The lamination adhesive must have adequate flow properties at the lamination temperature to ensure high quality lamination, and in this regard, the demands of laminating encapsulated electrophoretic and some other types of electro-optic media are unusually difficult; the lamination has to be conducted at a temperature of not more than about 110° C. since the medium cannot be exposed to substantially higher temperatures without damage, but the flow of the adhesive must cope with the relatively uneven surface of the capsule-containing layer, the surface of which is rendered irregular by the underlying capsules. The lamination temperature should indeed be kept as low as possible, and room temperature lamination would be ideal, but no commercial adhesive has been found which permits such room temperature lamination. The lamination adhesive must be chemically compatible with all the other materials in the display. Solvent-based lamination adhesives should be avoided; it has been found (although this does not appear to have been described in the literature), that any solvent left behind in the adhesive after lamination has a strong tendency to introduce undesirable contaminants into the electro-optic medium.
As discussed in detail in the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 10/064,389, a lamination adhesive used in an electro-optic display must meet certain electrical criteria, and this introduces considerable problems in the selection of the lamination adhesive. Commercial manufacturers of lamination adhesives naturally devote considerable effort to ensuring that properties, such as strength of adhesion and lamination temperatures, of such adhesives are adjusted so that the adhesives perform well in their major applications, which typically involve laminating polymeric and similar films. However, in such applications, the electrical properties of the lamination adhesive are not relevant, and consequently the commercial manufacturers pay no heed to such electrical properties. Indeed, E Ink researchers have observed substantial variations (of up to several fold) in certain electrical properties between different batches of the same commercial lamination adhesive, presumably because the manufacturer was attempting to optimize non-electrical properties of the lamination adhesive (for example, resistance to bacterial growth) and was not at all concerned about resulting changes in electrical properties.
However, in electro-optic displays, in which the lamination adhesive is normally located between the electrodes which apply the electric field needed to change the electrical state of the electro-optic medium, the electrical properties of the adhesive become crucial. As will be apparent to electrical engineers, the volume resistivity of the lamination adhesive becomes important, since the voltage drop across the electro-optic medium is essentially equal to the voltage drop across the electrodes, minus the voltage drop across the lamination adhesive. If the resistivity of the adhesive layer is too high, a substantial voltage drop will occur within the adhesive layer, requiring an increase in voltage across the electrodes. Increasing the voltage across the electrodes in this manner is undesirable, since it increases the power consumption of the display, and may require the use of more complex and expensive control circuitry to handle the increased voltage involved. On the other hand, if the adhesive layer, which extends continuously across the display, is in contact with a matrix of electrodes, as in an active matrix display, the volume resistivity of the adhesive layer should not be too low, or lateral conduction of electric current through the continuous adhesive layer may cause undesirable cross-talk between adjacent electrodes.
In practice, a lamination adhesive layer having a uniform thickness of 10–50 μm and a conductivity of the order of 10−10 to 10−9 S/cm has been used in electro-optic displays. This conductivity range was chosen based upon electrical models for display performance, the known conductivities of various electro-optic materials and the pixel sizes typically used in such displays. This target conductivity range actually represents a compromise. More conductive lamination adhesives are desirable because higher conductivity means the electro-optic material layer sees a larger voltage gradient. However, as the conductivity of the lamination adhesive is increased at constant pixel resolution and storage capacitance, charge supplied to a pixel is leaked to neighboring pixels; this decreases the voltage gradient across the ink and counteracts the effect of increasing the lamination adhesive conductivity. In addition, as already mentioned this lateral charge leakage may cause a change in the optical state of neighboring pixels. It is desirable that the lamination adhesive be designed to provide good lateral voltage holding capability and that the gradient in voltage across the ink layer be maximized; therefore, development performance requirements for high resolution (100 to 200 lines per inch, 4 to 8 lines per mm) active-matrix displays require that isotropically conductive adhesives have conductivities in the range specified above.
Furthermore, in considering the choice of a lamination adhesive for use in an electro-optic display, attention must be paid to the process by which the display is to be assembled. Most prior art methods for final lamination of electrophoretic displays are essentially batch methods in which the electro-optic medium, the lamination adhesive and the backplane are only brought together immediately prior to final assembly, and it is desirable to provide methods better adapted for mass production. However, the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 10/249,957 describes a method of assembling a solid electro-optic display (including a particle-based electrophoretic display) which is well adapted for mass production. Essentially, this copending application describes a so-called "front plane laminate" ("FPL") which comprises, in order, a light-transmissive electrically-conductive layer; a layer of a solid electro-optic medium in electrical contact with the electrically-conductive layer; an adhesive layer; and a release sheet. Typically, the light-transmissive electrically-conductive layer will be carried on a light-transmissive substrate, which is preferably flexible, in the sense that the substrate can be manually wrapped around a drum (say) 10 inches (254 mm) in diameter without permanent deformation. The term "light-transmissive" is used in this copending application and herein to mean that the layer thus designated transmits sufficient light to enable an observer, looking through that layer, to observe the change in display states of the electro-optic medium, which will be normally be viewed through the electrically-conductive layer and adjacent substrate (if present). The substrate will be typically be a polymeric film, and will normally have a thickness in the range of about 1 to about 25 mil (25 to 634 μm), preferably about 2 to about 10 mil (51 to 254 μm). The electrically-conductive layer is conveniently a thin metal layer of, for example, aluminum or indium-tin-oxide (ITO), or may be a conductive polymer. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films coated with aluminum or ITO are available commercially, for example as "aluminized Mylar" ("Mylar" is a Registered Trade Mark) from E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington Del., and such commercial materials may be used with good results in the front plane laminate.
Assembly of an electro-optic display using such a front plane laminate may be effected by removing the release sheet from the front plane laminate and contacting the adhesive layer with the backplane under conditions effective to cause the adhesive layer to adhere to the backplane, thereby securing the adhesive layer, layer of electro-optic medium and electrically-conductive layer to the backplane. This process is well-adapted to mass production since the front plane laminate may be mass produced, typically using roll-to-roll coating techniques, and then cut into pieces of any size needed for use with specific backplanes.
The aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 10/249,957 also describes a method for testing the electro-optic medium in a front plane laminate prior to incorporation of the front plane laminate into a display. In this testing method, the release sheet is provided with an electrically conductive layer, and a voltage sufficient to change the optical state of the electro-optic medium is applied between this electrically conductive layer and the electrically conductive layer on the opposed side of the electro-optic medium. Observation of the electro-optic medium will then reveal any faults in the medium, thus avoiding laminating faulty electro-optic medium into a display, with the resultant cost of scrapping the entire display, not merely the faulty front plane laminate.
The aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 10/249,957 also describes a second method for testing the electro-optic medium in a front plane laminate by placing an electrostatic charge on the release sheet, thus forming an image on the electro-optic medium. This image is then observed in the same way as before to detect any faults in the electro-optic medium.
The aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 10/605,024 describes a so-called "double release film" which is essentially a simplified version of the front plane laminate previously described. One form of the double release sheet comprises a layer of a solid electro-optic medium sandwiched between two adhesive layers, one or both of the adhesive layers being covered by a release sheet. Another form of the double release sheet comprises a layer of a solid electro-optic medium sandwiched between two release sheets. Both forms of the double release film are intended for use in a process generally similar to the process for assembling an electro-optic display from a front plane laminate already described, but involving two separate laminations; typically, in a first lamination the double release sheet is laminated to a front electrode to form a front sub-assembly, and then in a second lamination the front sub-assembly is laminated to a back-plane to form the final display.
In view of the advantages of the assembly method using a front plane laminate described in the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 10/249,957, it is desirable that a lamination adhesive be capable of being incorporated into such a front plane laminate. It is also desirable that a lamination adhesive be capable of being incorporated into a double release film as previously described.
This invention relates to materials and processes which are useful in the lamination of electro-optic displays. In particular, it has now been found that the performance of solid electro-optic displays can be improved by using a lamination adhesive having anisotropic conductivity, and this invention relates to electro-optic displays comprising such an adhesive, to processes for forming layers of such adhesives and incorporating them into electro-optic displays, and to front plane laminates comprising such an adhesive. Since the materials and processes of the invention are especially, but not exclusively, intended for the lamination of encapsulated electrophoretic displays, they will primarily be described in connection with such displays, since any modifications and variations of the materials and processes of the present invention needed for use with other types of electro-optic displays will readily be apparent to those skilled in the manufacture of such displays.

Electro-optic display and lamination adhesive for use therein


A diversity receiving device includes receiving circuits, a diversity combining unit, and an oscillation controller. The receiving circuit performs frequency conversion of an analog received signal obtained at a first receiving system, by using a plurality of lower-side oscillation-frequency signals supplied from a first local oscillator, to generate a plurality of lower-side low-frequency signals, adds up the plurality of lower-side low-frequency signals to generate a first addition signal. The receiving circuit performs frequency conversion of an analog received signal obtained at a second receiving system, by using a plurality of higher-side oscillation-frequency signals supplied from a second local oscillator, to generate a plurality of higher-side low-frequency signals, and adds up the plurality of higher-side low-frequency signals to generate a second addition signal. The oscillation controller controls lower-side oscillation-frequencies so that frequency bands of the plurality of lower-side low-frequency signals become adjacent to one another and controls higher-side oscillation-frequencies so that frequency bands of the plurality of higher-side low-frequency signals become adjacent to one another.

Diversity receiving techniques are techniques for improving the quality of communication by combining a plurality of received signals received by a plurality of receiving systems respectively. By the diversity receiving techniques, time-selective, space-selective, or frequency-selective fading (waveform distortion) can be compensated.
As combining methods in the diversity receiving techniques, for example, the following methods are known: a selection combining method in which a received signal having the highest signal level or SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) is selected among a plurality of received signals; an equal-gain combining method in which phases of a plurality of received signals are adjusted so as to make all of them the same phase and then the sum total of the received signals is outputted; and a maximal-ratio combining method in which phases and amplitudes of a plurality of received signals are adjusted and then the sum total of the received signals is outputted. In the maximal-ratio combining method, amplitude adjustment is executed by weighting the received signals so as to maximize the SNR of the combined output. These combining methods are disclosed in non-patent reference 1 indicated below, for example. Non-patent reference 1 discloses a technique for reducing thermal noise by the diversity effect obtained by combining the signals, by using the characteristic that thermal noise at different receiving antenna systems are mutually uncorrelated. Non-patent reference 1 also shows the diversity effect quantitatively.
In various nations of the world, digitization of broadcasting has been developed widely, and in parallel, it has become common for various receivers such as home television receivers, vehicle-mounted broadcast receivers, and mobile information terminals, to have a digital broadcast reception function. As reception styles have been diversified, in addition to a television broadcasting service and a radio broadcasting service, a new type of broadcasting services which is a combination of features of those two services have been started actually. This trend is expected to cause a surge in the number of digital broadcast channels.
Further, broadcast reception techniques have been increasingly sophisticated in recent years, and highly functional digital broadcast receivers have been spreading in a large scale. Some functions have already been put to practical use: an automatic selection function to select broadcast programs that match preferences of viewers, and functions of simultaneous multiple-channel reception and recording, for example. On the other hand, vehicle-mounted broadcast receivers have begun to utilize automatic reception-area switching techniques for seamless reception and techniques for stable broadcast reception in environments where reception is difficult. The sophistication of digital broadcast receivers for higher functions is expected in any form of reception.
In particular, the simultaneous multiple-channel reception function is one of indispensable techniques for sophisticating the reception function to keep up with diversifying both broadcasting and reception styles. Accordingly, a variety of reception schemes have been studied in recent years in relation to the simultaneous multiple-channel reception function.
Simultaneous multiple-channel reception can be implemented easily by incorporating tuners, the number of which is the same as the number of channels needed for simultaneous reception, in a digital broadcast receiver. Each of the tuners has an analog front-end unit that converts an RF (radio frequency) signal in a high-frequency band to a low-frequency signal in a lower frequency band (such as an IF signal in an intermediate frequency band) by using an oscillation signal generated by a local oscillator. The plurality of tuners concurrently output a plurality of low-frequency signals corresponding to the multiple channels. It is, however, uneconomical to incorporate the plurality of tuners into the digital broadcast receiver for the simultaneous multiple channel reception, since the number of analog components required in the analog front-end unit increases as the number of channels increases.
It has been suggested to incorporate a plurality of frequency converters, the number of which is the same as the number of channels needed for simultaneous reception, and a signal adder into a single tuner. Such type of tuner is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-007780 (patent reference 1), for example.
In the tuner disclosed in patent reference 1, the plurality of frequency converters convert an RF signal to a plurality of IF (intermediate-frequency) signals corresponding to the plurality of channels, by using a plurality of oscillation signals having oscillation-frequencies which are different from one another. A signal adder adds the plurality of IF signals together to output them. Here, the oscillation-frequencies are adjusted so that the channels (frequency bands) of IF signal components do not overlap one another in the output frequency spectrum of the signal adder. Thus, the tuner can then process the plurality of IF signals obtained by frequency conversion as signals of a single channel, and the number of analog components can be reduced. Since the analog output of the signal adder can be converted to a digital signal by a single A/D converter, a cost advantage can be gained, for example.

Diversity receiving device and diversity receiving method


The present invention relates to a cutting tool insert for metal machining comprising tungsten carbide in a binder phase of tungsten or a tungsten alloy. The insert contains, in addition, W2C in an amount such that in the x-ray diffraction pattern the peak ratio W2C(101)/W(110) is <0.3. This particular microstructure is obtained by an additional heat treatment at about 1200° C. after the sintering.

The present invention relates to a cutting tool for metal machining with excellent hot hardness, wear resistance and toughness in which the binder phase is metallic tungsten or a tungsten alloy, a method of making the same and the use thereof. It is particularly useful for the machining of work materials with high hardness such as hardened steel.
Cemented carbide is a well known cutting tool material for metal machining and includes a large number of alloys of a binder phase and a hard phase, where the binder mainly comprises cobalt and the hard phase mainly comprises WC, possibly with additions of cubic carbides such as TiC, TaC, NbC etc or mixtures thereof. The manufacture of cutting tools from cemented carbide involves pressing of specially prepared powder followed by sintering at a temperature where the cobalt melts. The properties of the sintered material can be varied widely in terms of toughness and hardness depending on the amount of cobalt and hard phase. In use, the hot hardness of the material determines which temperature it can be subjected to without being plastically deformed.
This can be a serious limitation especially in the area of metal cutting, making the use of more exclusive and expensive materials such as ceramics, CBN and diamond necessary.
In attempts to improve the hot hardness, the obvious way is to substitute cobalt with a metal of high melting point. However, this creates new problems, since sintering temperatures need to be very high in order to melt the binder phase and is therefore not realistic for large scale production.
GB 504 522 discloses a method of manufacturing an alloy consisting of W or Mo with additions of Co, Si and B plus WC. Sintering is performed at a temperature below the melting point of W. A mixture according to the patent consisting of between 15 and 35% W is subjected to a pressure of 16.5 MPa at a temperature between 1750° C. and 1900° C. for 15 minutes. It is contended that the process produces an alloy with metallic W as binder.
GB 503 397 relates to a method for producing an alloy consisting of the same type of binder, i.e. W or Mo with additions like cobalt, silica and boron, but in this case cubic carbides TiC, MoC and TaC as hard phase. In this case, the suggested pressure was 23.4 MPa and the temperature 2500° C.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,631 disclose a material consisting of different nitrides as the hard phase using Mo, W, Rh or mixtures thereof as binder. The ratio between the thermal coefficient of expansion of the binder and the nitrides should be less than 2 and as a special case up to 50% of the nitride phase may be replaced by oxides, silicates and carbides of Ti, Nb, Zr and Ta. WC is not included as hard phase. Manufacture is by hot pressing at 1800° C.
SE 8406461-7 describes pros and cons for different ways to manufacture alloys consisting of carbides, nitrides or oxides of Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Cr, Mo or W and a binder consisting of one or more of the elements Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Cr, Mo or W. An example of a manufacturing method involves powder pressing, pre-sintering, final sintering and isostatic pressing. The binder phase content is relatively high, at least 25% by volume and as high as 70% by volume. It is also stated that performance in metal cutting is about five times better than the corresponding commercially available cemented carbide grade.
In an attempt to produce an alloy with 18% WC in a binder phase of W, it was proceeded according to the invention disclosed in the above mentioned GB 504 522. However, it was found that the process conditions suggested in the patent actually produced a brittle material with low hardness. It was specifically found that the process conditions suggested in the patent will actually produce an alloy where most of the W is transformed into W2C. This is not mentioned in the patent and it is reasonable to assume that limitations in the laboratory equipment at the time of invention failed to indicate this.


An artificial insemination device and process for animals and mammals having an elongated, hollow catheter tube adapted for attachment in a bonded manner at one end with an annular, bulbous tip, the tip having a axial passage formed therethrough and with a balloon having perforations formed therein at one closed end and having an opposite, open end affixed in a bonded manner with the tip, whereby fluid may flow from the tube through the tip and into the balloon for ejection through the perforations caused by uterine contractions of an animal being artificially inseminated, the combination acting upon the inflated balloon. The balloon is capable of being tucked within the tip passage prior to and during insertion into the animal. A semen container is attachable to an opposite end of the catheter tube, with a device associated with the tube opposite end for allowing the flow of semen only from the container toward the balloon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a device adapted to be used in the practice of artificial insemination of animals and mammals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Artificial insemination of animals and humans rather than natural propagation is well known in the art and has many advantages which accrue from the use of this method. U.S. Pat. No. 3,256,884 entitled "Injection Device for Artificial Insemination Having a Disposable Dispensing Capsule with Detachable Actuator" issued on Jun. 21, 1966 to Harold J. Hill sets out the conventional procedure of that time period. A more contemporary treatise is provided by the publication The Swine Al Book, Copyright 1994, U.S. Copyright Office No. ISBN0-964 0737-0-6, publisher Morgan Morrow BVScMSPhD, Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-7621, USA.

Device and process for artificial insemination of animals


A solid firelighter is provided, which comprises a carboxylic acid and/or an alkyl ester derivative thereof and a curable resin. The firelighter specifically comprise methyl, ethyl, propyl, or buthanoyl esters of a C6-C10 carboxylic acid or mixtures thereof in an amount of at least 20% by weight. Moreover, a method of manufacturing said firelighter is provided, as well as compositions for use in the manufacture of said firelighter.

The present invention relates to firelighters for solid fuel fires.
Lighting solid fuel fires constructed of coal, charcoal, peat and the like presents a number of practical difficulties since most solid fuels are slow burning and difficult to light but release appreciable amounts of energy when lit. The ignition of coal fires can be assisted by the use of commercially available firelighters. These are used by placing the firelighter block in the hearth where the fire is to be made, lighting the block and then placing coal on top of the firelighter block in an attempt to light the coal from the block.
In general, firelighters consist of a solid generally cubic firelighter block containing a petroleum-based fuel, typically paraffin/kerosene. In a typical firelighter, urea-formaldehyde is utilized as a curable resin, which is combined with the petroleum-based fuel. Petroleum-based firelighters typically have a bad odor before burning, and a sooty flame. Moreover, kerosene/paraffin fuels suffer from the major drawback that they are highly toxic, especially upon ingestion. Even the slightest quantities of these dangerous fuels are sufficient to give heavy lung damages, for example chemical pneumonia, which in worst cases may be mortal.
In the present invention, the petrol-based fuel in a firelighter has been replaced with a fatty acid ester fuel, typically C6 to C12 fatty acid esters. Firelighters based on C6 to C12 fatty acid ester fuel are non-toxic, have no significant odor, and provide a stable, long-lasting flame.


Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to server provisioning in a heterogeneous computing environment and provide a method, system and computer program product for secure and verified distributed orchestration and provisioning. In one embodiment of the invention, a server provisioning method can be provided. The server provisioning method can include establishing grouping criteria, grouping different target computing nodes into different groups of target computing nodes according to the established grouping criteria, server provisioning a root node in each of the different groups of target computing nodes, and relying upon the root node in each of the different groups to peer-to-peer server provision remaining nodes in each of the different groups.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of server provisioning and more particularly to server provisioning to heterogeneous target platforms and/or heterogeneous tasks.
Description of the Related Art
The enterprise has evolved over the past two decades from the smallest of peer to peer networks running multi-user applications without coordination, to massive distributed computing systems involving dozens of servers and thousands of clients across a vast geographical expanse. In the earlier days of enterprise class computing, deploying multi-user applications often involved nothing more than installing an application in a centralized location and providing communicative access to the different users over a small, computer communications network. Evolved configurations involved client-server computing where the power of the client computers could be exploited to support the execution of the application logic and the application data could be served from a central location.
The demands of modern enterprise class computing require more than simplistic client-server arrangements and involve the distributed deployment of multiple applications and application components across multiple different servers in different local networks banded together over a wide area utilizing high speed broadband communicative links. Creating an enterprise environment for single installation can be treated as a laboratory experiment and trial-and-error tactics rule the day. Where the installation must be repeated with consistency across installations, however, a more coordinated approach must be followed. A coordinated approach particularly can be important where customers receive the installation or the application itself as a product or service. In this circumstance, customers cannot tolerate an imperfect installation or an installation that appears to be more of a laboratory experiment than a coordinated effort.
Generally speaking, within the enterprise class environment, the coordinated installation of an application across one or more server computing platforms in a repeatable fashion has come to be known as "server provisioning" borrowing a term from the field of telecommunications. Server provisioning literally implies the deployment of an application onto a host computing platform in a coordinated and repeatable fashion. In the simplified provisioning exercise, an operator installs and configures the various applications in the host computing platform according to a pre-defined installation plan ordinarily specified by an application manufacturer or a systems integrator.
In as much as only a single host computing platform and host operating systems are to be considered in the course of the simplified provisioning exercise, the process can be relatively straightforward. In the larger enterprise, however, the process can be quite complex. So complex has server provisioning become, several manufacturers have developed automated tools for managing the server provisioning process. In conventional server provisioning tools, a set of applications and applications can be configured in a master arrangement and the master arrangement can be replicated to a target platform. Unfortunately, conventional server provisioning tools rely heavily on the nature of the target platform and are hardwired to a specified platform. To that end, conventional server provisioning tools are ill-equipped to handle heterogeneous computing environments including multiple different target platform types.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Orchestrated peer-to-peer server provisioning


A control for a modeled plant is provided. The modeled plant is represented by a model expression that is based on an input into the plant, an output from the plant, model parameters, and an estimated value for disturbance that is applied to the plant. The model expression includes a term in which the estimated disturbance value is multiplied by at least one of the model parameters. The model parameters are identified. The estimated disturbance value is calculated so that an error between a model output that is calculated based on the model expression and an actual output of the plant is minimized. The input into the plant is calculated based on the model expression so as to control the plant. Thus, the estimated disturbance value is directly reflected in the input into the plant without being calculated by any of the model parameters.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a plant.
Several techniques for controlling an object modeled using a model parameter (such an object is also called a plant) have been proposed. Considering disturbance that may be applied to the plant, an estimated value of the disturbance (which will be hereinafter referred to as an estimated disturbance value) can be included in the model expression for the plant.
According to a control technique described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-5804, reference values for the model parameters, including the above estimated disturbance value, are scheduled in accordance with an engine condition parameter (for example, a throttle valve opening) that is in a correlation with the model parameters. An identifier, which is introduced in a control apparatus, recursively identifies the model parameters and the estimated disturbance value based on the scheduled model parameters. A control input into the plant is calculated based on the identified model parameters and estimated disturbance value. Such a control technique has an advantage that the model parameters can be caused to converge to their optimum values while minimizing a delay even when the engine condition parameter changes.
Depending on the type of the plant, some model parameters need to be changed by a relative large amount so as to cause an actual output of the plant to appropriately converge to a desired value when the engine condition parameter changes. The estimated disturbance value may largely vary due to such a large change of the model parameters.
For example, in the case where the model parameters and the estimated disturbance value are recursively identified, the estimated disturbance value may largely change due to changes of the model parameters if the identification speed for the model parameters is different from the identification speed for the estimated disturbance value. Further, in the case where model parameters are recursively identified based on the scheduled parameters, the estimated disturbance value may largely change if the values of the scheduled parameters change in accordance with a change of the engine condition parameter.
Such a large change of the estimated disturbance value may change a term associated with the estimated disturbance value in the control input equation. As a result, a steady state error may occur between an output of the model and an actual output of the plant. In order to suppress such a steady state error, the amount of change of the model parameters needs to be minimized. However, such minimization may impair the above-described advantages.
Therefore, there is a need for a control that can suppress such a steady state error that may be caused by change of an estimated disturbance value while minimizing the time required for causing model parameters to converge to their optimum values.

Apparatus and method for controlling a plant


The steel drill string attached to a drilling bit during typical rotary drilling operations used to drill oil and gas wells is used for a second purpose as the casing that is cemented in place during typical oil and gas well completions. Methods of operation are described that provide for the efficient installation a cemented steel cased well wherein the drill string and the drill bit are cemented into place during one single drilling pass down into the earth. The normal mud passages or watercourses present in the rotary drill bit are used for the second independent purpose of passing cement into the annulus between the casing and the well while cementing the drill string into place during one single pass into the earth. A one-way cement valve is installed near the drill bit of the drill string that allows the cement to set up efficiently under ambiently hydrostatic conditions while the drill string and drill bit are cemented into place during one single drilling pass into the earth.

1. Field of Invention
The field of invention relates to apparatus that uses the steel drill string attached to a drilling bit during drilling operations used to drill oil and gas wells for a second purpose as the casing that is cemented in place during typical oil and gas well completions. The field of invention further relates to methods of operation of said apparatus that provides for the efficient installation a cemented steel cased well during one single pass down into the earth of the steel drill string. The field of invention further relates to methods of operation of the apparatus that uses the typical mud passages already present in a typical drill bit, including any watercourses in a "regular bit", or mud jets in a "jet bit", that allow mud to circulate during typical drilling operations for the second independent, and the distinctly separate, purpose of passing cement into the annulus between the casing and the well while cementing the drill string into place during one single drilling pass into the earth. The field of invention further relates to apparatus and methods of operation that provides the pumping of cement down the drill string, through the mud passages in the drill bit, and into the annulus between the formation and the drill string for the purpose of cementing the drill string and the drill bit into place during one single drilling pass into the formation. The field of invention further relates to a one-way cement valve and related devices installed near the drill bit of the drill string that allows the cement to set up efficiently while the drill string and drill bit are cemented into place during one single drilling pass into the formation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
From an historical perspective, completing oil and gas wells using rotary drilling techniques has in recent times comprised the following typical steps. With a pile driver or rotary rig, install any necessary conductor pipe on the surface for attachment of the blowout preventer and for mechanical support at the wellhead. Install and cement into place any surface casing necessary to prevent washouts and cave-ins near the surface, and to prevent the contamination of freshwater sands as directed by state and federal regulations. Choose the dimensions of the drill bit to result in the desired sized production well. Begin rotary drilling of the production well with a first drill bit. Simultaneously circulate drilling mud into the well while drilling. Drilling mud is circulated downhole to carry rock chips to the surface, to prevent blowouts, to prevent excessive mud loss into formation, to cool the bit, and to clean the bit. After the first bit wears out, pull the drill string out, change bits, lower the drill string into the well and continue drilling. It should be noted here that each "trip" of the drill bit typically requires many hours of rig time to accomplish the disassembly and reassembly of the drill string, pipe segment by pipe segment.
Drill the production well using a succession of rotary drill bits attached to the drill string until the hole is drilled to its final depth. After the final depth is reached, pull out the drill string and its attached drill bit. Assemble and lower the production casing into the well while back filling each section of casing with mud as it enters the well to overcome the buoyancy effects of the air filled casing (caused by the presence of the float collar valve), to help avoid sticking problems with the casing, and to prevent the possible collapse of the casing due to accumulated build-up of hydrostatic pressure.
To "cure the cement under ambient hydrostatic conditions", typically execute a two-plug cementing procedure involving a first Bottom Wiper Plug before and a second Top Wiper Plug behind the cement that also minimizes cement contamination problems comprised of the following individual steps. Introduce the Bottom Wiper Plug into the interior of the steel casing assembled in the well and pump down with cement that cleans the mud off the walls and separates the mud and cement. Introduce the Top Wiper Plug into the interior of the steel casing assembled into the well and pump down with water under pump pressure thereby forcing the cement through the float collar valve and any other one-way valves present. Allow the cement to cure.

Method and apparatus for cementing drill strings in place for one pass drilling and completion of oil and gas wells