The invention relates to a method for producing a torsional vibration damper housing, especially the housing for a viscosity torsional vibration damper, whereby the damper housing is manufactured from an existing plate circular blank and the shaping of the damper housing occurs in an impact extrusion machine during a non-cutting impact extrusion shaping method. In successive impact extrusion shaping steps, all parts of the damper housing protruding from the plane of the plate circular blank, which forms the housing rear wall, are impact extruded while reducing the wall thickness of said parts to form a one-piece damper housing. Said damper housing is structured such that the area of the fastening flange has the largest thickness.

The invention relates to a method for producing a torsional vibration damper housing and, in particular, a housing for a viscosity torsional vibration damper having a working chamber, which is constructed in the damper housing, can be filled with a viscous damping medium and in which a seismic ring is disposed, as well as having a fastening flange for fastening to a rotating machine part to be damped. The damper housing is produced from an existing thick circular plate blank and formed in an impact extrusion machine by a non-cutting impact extrusion shaping method.
Viscosity torsional vibration dampers of the above-mentioned construction are known having multiple constructive designs. Likewise, various manufacturing methods are known according to which such dampers and damper housings, respectively, are manufactured. When producing the above-mentioned viscosity torsional vibration dampers (in the following abbreviated to "visco-dampers"), a housing body is generally formed, which comprises a working chamber for accommodating a seismic inertia ring and a viscous damping medium. The seismic inertia ring is disposed to be sliding with a limited amount of play in the working chamber. The remaining gap spaces between the seismic ring and the working chamber are filled with a highly viscous silicone oil as the damping medium. By means of a radially interior flange, the ring-shaped damper housing is screwed to a rotating machine part which is to be damped, as a rule, to the shaft to be damped. In most applications, this is the crankshaft of a piston engine, mainly a diesel engine, on whose opposite face the visco damper is mounted.
Originally, to the extent that they were to be closed-off by means of a welded-on or rolled-in lid, the housings of the visco-dampers were "worked" or manufactured out of a solid material, of preformed pressed parts and of ductile cast iron in a cutting manner, as known, for example, from FIG. 6 of German Patent Document DE 951 965. For economical considerations, the so-called thin-sheet housing was later developed. The thin-sheet housing was joined together from two deep-drawn sheet metal caps by means of electron-beam welding. International Patent Document WO 96/41974 describes such a two-part housing.
In order to reduce the working or manufacturing steps, early attention was also given to producing one-piece thin sheet metal housings produced by high-expenditure hydroforming, pressing and burnishing. This, however, resulted in a sparsely dimensioned flange thickness only when the lid was added. This operation is described by the state of the art disclosed in European Patent Document EP 0 423 243 B1. European Patent Document EP 0 503 424 B1 describes a damper with at least one molded-on ribbed V-belt track.
All of the above-mentioned production methods known from the prior art require high expenditures with respect to the machines and tools required for the forming of the above-mentioned thin-sheet metal housings. As such, the variety of visco-damper types that can be produced is extremely disadvantageously limited by the required high expenditures. The desire remains, therefore, to produce multiple housing shapes from simple circular plate blanks at reasonable cost. One step in this direction is described in the state of the art disclosed in European Patent Document 0 512 295, which describes the splitting of housing blanks in the form of circular plate blanks.
Based on the disadvantages indicated in the prior art with respect to the high expenditures for machines and tools for implementing a plurality of damper types, it is an object of the invention to produce, in a novel manner, a thick circular metal plate blank in a non-cutting manner in a damper housing with arbitrary dimensions and wall thicknesses differentiated according to the corresponding stress for a plurality of damper types.
In particular, it is an object of the invention to produce, by means of simple process steps and without a high-expenditure tool change, a housing body which does not have only one working chamber, but in a simple manner with the same process steps has additional pulleys or supporting collars and coupling elements.
According to the present invention, this and other objects are achieved by a method for producing a torsional vibration damper housing, in which, in successive impact extrusion forming steps, all parts of the damper housing projecting out of the plane of a circular plate blank, which forms the rear wall of the housing, are impact-extruded from the circular plate blank while reducing its wall thickness in a non-cutting manner to form a one-piece damper housing.
Advantageous developments and further developments of the invention are described herein.
By means of successive impact extrusion forming steps, using an impact extrusion roller and a mandrel body, the material of a thick circular plate blank is impact-extruded on both sides of the circular plate blank. In this case, the walls of the working chamber as well as additional pulleys, supporting collars and coupling seats are shaped-out by reducing the wall thickness of the circular plate blank due to the impact extruding. In a first working step, the fixing of the circular plate blank takes place on an impact extrusion machine. In a next working step, the pressing of the radially interior wall partially forming the working chamber, of the bearing block, from the circular plate blank takes place, beginning at a defined distance from its radial circumference by means of the impact extrusion roller acting against a mandrel body radially toward the inside. The elevation which is formed radially on the outside on the circumference of the circular plate blank is pressed by means of an impact extrusion roller against a cylinder sleeve and, while forming out the radially exterior wall extending at a right angle away from the circular plate blank, the outer jacket of the working chamber is constructed. On the surface of the outer jacket oriented toward the outside, by pressing the outer jacket against a pressing mandrel body, a profiled running track is constructed, particularly a so-called poly-V track for receiving a profiled traction device, and here particularly a ribbed V-belt.
By means of additional process steps, by impact extruding the rear wall of the housing on the side of the circular plate blank opposite the working chamber against an impact extrusion mandrel body from a radially outward to inward direction, a rearward pulley is constructed. As a function of the desired damper type, the displacement of the material volume on the rear wall of the housing of the circular plate blank takes place by means of the impact extrusion roller. This additional pulley, which is provided for receiving a traction device, is also profiled with a profiled surface, particularly a running track, while impact extruding the surface of the pulley.
In a further process step, by further impact extruding on the side of the circular plate blank situated opposite the outer jacket and the bearing block, a supporting collar and a coupling seat for receiving a torsionally elastically uncoupled pulley are constructed in a non-cutting manner, by impact extruding against an impact extrusion mandrel body. During the various process steps of the impact extruding, the wall thickness of the circular plate blank, which forms the rear wall of the damper housing, is reduced by displacing the material volumes into the housing elements of the various damper housing types respectively, which extend from the rear wall of the housing or the circular plate blank, as a rule, at a right angle.
The construction of the supporting collars by impact extruding the circular plate blank takes place from the radially outward to inward direction by impact extruding against an impact extrusion mandrel body. In this case, in a further process step, the coupling seat is thrown up against an impact extrusion mandrel body, in that an impact extrusion roller impact extrudes from a radially outward direction, starting after the supporting collar, radially inwardly in the direction of the center bore. This has the advantage that, in the area of the coupling seat (thus radially around the center bore), the rear wall of the housing has a larger wall thickness than in the other areas.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method for producing a torsional vibration damper housing, especially a housing for a viscosity torsional vibration damper

WF Maschinenbau- und Blechformtechnik GmbH & Co. KG


Disclosed is a space-time coding apparatus and method to flexibly adjust diversity/multiplexing orders in a multiple-antenna system. The transmitting apparatus for the multiple-antenna system includes a space-time code controller, an encoder, a demultiplexer, and a space-time encoder. The space-time code controller generates space-time codes by determining bases according to a multiplexing order required by a receiver. The encoder modulates and encodes data destined for the receiver in accordance with a predetermined modulation level. The demultiplexer demultiplexes data received from the encoder in order to transmit the data through at least one antenna. The space-time encoder space-time-codes the demultiplexed data using the space-time codes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for space-time coding in a multiple-antenna system, and, in particular, to a space-time coding apparatus and method for flexibly adjusting diversity/multiplexing orders in a multiple-antenna system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of multimedia services for a wireless environment are demanded as the wireless mobile communication market continues its rapid growth. In addition, large-capacity data must be transmitted at a high speed in order to provide these multimedia services in wireless communication systems. Therefore, increasing attention is being drawn to a multiple-antenna system (e.g., a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system) for increasing a data transmission rate using limited radio resources.
Compared to a single-antenna system, the multiple-antenna system can increase transmission reliability and a transmission rate without allocating additional frequencies or transmission power. That is, the multiple-antenna system can increase transmission reliability by achieving a diversity gain according to the number of transmitter/receiver (TX/RX) antennas, or can increase a transmission rate by simultaneously transmitting a plurality of signal sequences. Also, the multiple-antenna system can increase both the transmission reliability and the transmission rate using the hybrid scheme.
In order to achieve a lower error rate, the multiple-antenna system uses a space-time coding scheme that extends coding of the time domain to the space domain. In this context, the multiple-antenna system uses Alamouti space-time codes for obtaining a diversity effect and Bell Labs Layered Space-Time (BLAST) codes for obtaining a multiplexing effect. Also, the multiple-antenna system may use hybrid space-time codes for a trade-off between the diversity effect and the multiplexing effect.
A transmitter of the multiple-antenna system generates and stores space-time codes suitable for channel environments applicable to the multiple-antenna system. Based on channel information received from a corresponding receiver, the transmitter selects a space-time code, which is suitable for channel environments for providing a service to a receiver, in order to perform space-time coding.
This, however, complicates feedback information transmitted from the receiver to the transmitter and also wastes memory in the transmitter.

Apparatus and method for space-time coding in multiple-antenna system


A new Capsicum annuum plant named ‘SLP2B322’ distinguished by its combination of seedless fruits, a glossy and medium-dark red mature fruit colour, fruit diameter of about 3 to 3.5 cm, fruit weight of about 20 to 30 grams, and ability to set fruit under relatively hot conditions.

The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of Capsicum annuum, designated 'SLP2B322'.
The new C. annuum 'SLP2B322' was discovered and selected as a single plant in Gedera, Israel in 2010, from the progeny of a cross between SC09-F4-33-b as the female parent (not patented) and AJ06-F3-378-19 as the male parent (not patented).
The new cultivar was first asexually propagated by root cuttings in Bet Dagan, Israel in February, 2010 and has been asexually propagated since that time by cutting and rooting in Gedera, Israel and Almeria, Spain. The distinctive characteristics of this new C. annuum are stable and reproduce true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.


A high molecular weight, water-soluble polymer comprising pendant salicylic acid groups and having a weight average molecular weight of at least about 2,000,000 daltons and use of the polymer for clarifying red mud-containing liquors generated in the Bayer process for the recovery of alumina from bauxite.

The Bayer process is almost universally used for the production of alumina from bauxite ore. The process involves pulverizing a bauxite ore, slurring it in caustic soda solution and digesting it at elevated temperatures and pressures. The caustic soda solution dissolves oxides of aluminum to form an aqueous sodium aluminate solution. The caustic-insoluble constituents of bauxite ore (referred to as "red mud") are then separated from the aqueous phase containing the dissolved sodium aluminate. This separation typically occurs through sedimentation, which is often aided by a flocculent, and filtration. Once separated, alumina trihydrate is precipitated from the aqueous sodium hydroxide and collected as product.
In more detail, the pulverized bauxite ore is fed to a slurry mixer where a caustic slurry is prepared. The slurry makeup caustic soda solution is typically spent liquor (described below) and additional caustic soda. The bauxite ore slurry is diluted and passed through a digester or a series of digesters where, under high pressure and temperature, about 98% of the total available alumina is released from the ore as caustic-soluble sodium aluminate. After digestion, the slurry passes through several flash tanks wherein the pressure of the digested slurry is reduced from several atmospheres to one atmosphere and the temperature of the slurry is reduced from about 200° C. to about 105° C.
The aluminate slurry leaving the flashing operation contains about 1 to 20 weight percent solids, which solid consists of the insoluble residue that remains after, or is precipitated during, digestion. The coarser solids may be removed from the aluminate liquor with "sand trap" cyclones. The finer solids are generally separated from the liquor first by gravity settling aided by a flocculant and then filtration, if necessary. In some cases, the slurry of aluminate liquor leaving the flash tanks is diluted by a stream of recycled washer overflow liquor. Any Bayer process slurry taken from the digesters through a subsequent dilution of the slurry, including the flash tanks, but before the primary settler, is referred to hereinafter as the primary settler feed.
Normally, the primary settler feed is thereafter fed to the primary settler (or decanter) where it is treated with a flocculant. As the mud settles, the clarified sodium aluminate solution (referred to as "green" or "pregnant" liquor) overflows to a weir at the top of the vessel and is collected. This overflow from the primary settling tank is then passed to subsequent process steps.
The clarity of the primary settler overflow is crucial to efficient processing of alumina trihydrate. If the aluminate liquor overflowing the settler contains an unacceptable concentration of suspended solids (at times from about 10 to about 500 mg suspended solids per liter), it must be further clarified by filtration to give a filtrate with no more than 10 mg suspended solids per liter of liquor. The treatment of the liquor collected after the primary settlement to remove any residual suspended solids before alumina trihydrate is recovered is referred to as a secondary clarification stage.
The clarified sodium aluminate liquor is cooled and seeded with alumina trihydrate crystals to induce precipitation of alumina in the form of alumina trihydrate, Al(OH)3. The alumina trihydrate particles or crystals are then classified by particle size and separated from the concentrated caustic liquor. A flocculant is used to aid in this classification and separation process. The very fine particles of alumina trihydrate are returned as the seed crystals and the coarser particles are collected as product. The remaining liquid phase, referred to as "spent liquor," is then returned to the initial bauxite slurry make up and digestion step and employed as a digestant after reconstitution with caustic.
The settled solids of the primary settler are withdrawn from the bottom of the settler or decanter (and referred to as "underflow") and then passed through a countercurrent washing circuit for the recovery of sodium aluminate and soda. Overflow liquor from the first washing vessel (or "thickener") is recycled either as primary settler feed, diluting the slurry as it leaves the flash tanks, and/or it may be passed to filtration along with the overflow from the primary settler.
The partial separation of the red mud solids from the pregnant liquor in the primary settler (or decanter) is expedited by the use of a flocculent. This initial clarification of the pregnant liquor is referred to as the primary settler stage. Flocculating agents, such as liquid emulsion polymers, dry polymers and polysaccharides including starch, are commonly used to improve the separation of the insoluble red mud solids by increasing the rate at which these solids settle, by reducing the amount of residual solids suspended in the liquor, and by decreasing the amount of liquor in the settled solids phase, or underflow. Flocculation performance is critically important in the primary settling stages. Red mud solids comprised mostly of iron oxides (typically at least about 50 weight percent of the red mud solids), together with silicon oxides, calcium titanates, calcium phosphate, aluminum hydroxide, sodium alumino-silicates and other materials, commonly represent from about 5 to about 50 weight percent of the materials of the bauxite ore. Generally, these red muds are composed of very fine particles, which hinder the desired rapid and clean separation of the red mud particles from the solubilized alumina liquor. Improving the rate of separation improves the overall process efficiency and increases the output of alumina production. Improving the clarification of the process liquors reduces the need for filtration and further purification and can also increase alumina production. If the separation of the red mud particles is not clean, the resultant solubilized aluminate liquor will require a more extensive treatment to remove residual solids, and/or the alumina trihydrate recovered will contain levels of impurities that are undesirably high for many end-uses of the alumina.
Relatively low molecular weight polymers containing pendant O-acetylsalicylic acid groups for use in biomedical devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,320. An acrylamide/4acrylamidosalicylic acid solution polymer is disclosed in Intern. J. Polymeric Mater., 1992, 18, 165–177.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

High molecular weight polymers containing pendant salicylic acid groups for clarifying bayer process liquors


An insulation panel comprises an insulation board of glass fibers and a partially evacuated gas-tight envelope encapsulating the board, where, prior to the evacuation of the envelope, the board has been subjected to a heat setting process in which the board is raised to a heat setting temperature above the strain temperature of the glass but below the softening temperature of the glass and to a pressure applied by opposed platens followed by a quick release of the board from the platens prior to substantial cooling of the board.

Traditional insulation materials for appliances, transportation vehicles and industrial equipment include mineral fibers and foamed materials. For the insulation of refrigerators, freezers, or water heaters, mineral fiber insulation can provide an R-value of about four R's per inch, where an R-value equals one HrFt.sup.2 .degree. F./Btu. Foamed materials containing chlorinated fluorocarbons in the foam cells can provide an R-value of 8 R's per inch. Due to desires to eliminate the fluorocarbons from the environment, and desires to provide more efficient insulation products to save energy, manufacturers of appliances, transportation equipment and industrial equipment, are seeking more efficient insulation products. One possible solution is to merely increase the thickness of the insulation product, thereby increasing the overall R-value. This is an undesirable solution because it makes the insulated object rather bulky.
In order to provide a very efficient insulation product ("super insulation"), some sophisticated insulation systems have been developed. Some of these systems have been developed for space applications for NASA and other governmental bodies.
One of the known super insulation products is that of finely divided inorganic particulate material compressed into a board-like structure, and encapsulated in order to contain the material. It is known that these products can be compressed into boards having an R-value of 20 R's per inch. The particulate material does a good job of stopping the gas conduction component of thermal heat transfer but does not do a good job of stopping the radiation component of thermal heat transfer. Also, the greater the vacuum (i.e., the lower the gauge pressure) the more the particulate material is compressed, thereby providing more particle-to-particle contact and a better path for solid conduction heat transfer. Thus, an upper limit to R-value is reached dependent on the substantial solid conduction heat transfer of the compacted particulate material. Further increases of vacuum do not improve the R-value of wholly particulate material insulations because of solid conduction. In addition, non-opacified powders are relatively inefficient in blocking the radiative heat transfer.
Another sophisticated super insulation product involves the use of layers of highly reflective material to stop the radiant component of heat transfer. The reflective layers are typically foils, and these must be separated by thermally efficient spacers, such as thin glass fiber mats, or glass beads. The product must be encapsulated and evacuated to prevent gas conduction heat transfer. The drawback with these foil systems is that the foils are difficult to work with, and the product has high material costs. Further, an inherent problem with any evacuated insulation system is that the system must be able to withstand the atmospheric pressure pressing on the sides of the panel. The greater the vacuum, the greater the pressure produced from outside the panel. The thin layers of foil, even though kept separated by spacers, are subject to deformation by the atmospheric pressure. In the event layers of foil touch each other, a path of solid thermal conduction will result, thereby providing a thermal bridge.
Another super insulation product includes a board formed from a predominant amount of mineral fibers and a particulate filler material. This product is encapsulated and evacuated. The mineral fibers provide a good barrier to radiant energy heat transfer, and the particulate material provides a good barrier to heat transfer by gas conduction. The drawback with this product is that the use of such finely divided particulate material creates processing problems.
The use of encapsulated glass fiber insulation boards has been proposed for insulating the walls of appliances. As explained in U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,173 the glass fiber insulation board can be pressed during the application of heat in order to produce a compressed fiberglass board, and to substantially reduce the likelihood of loose glass fibers extending beyond the side wall of the board. It is known that if glass fibers intrude into the joint or seal of the encapsulating envelope, these stray fibers can cause defects in the seal, thereby preventing the development of a good vacuum. The problem with previously known heat setting processes is that the amount of time required to produce the compressed fiber board exceeds commercial practicality. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,173 the temperature of the glass fiber board must be reduced to substantially below the strain temperature before the compression of the board is released.
It can be seen that the prior art super insulation products lack many of the desirable features of an ideal product. These features include resistance to compressibility, ease of manufacture, relatively low cost of materials, avoidance of high vacuums, and maintenance of a high R-value during a long life of the product.
Also, there is a need for a suitable super insulation product which is easy to manufacture, and which can be manufactured in a relatively short time.


A process which subjects a body of polymer to deformation to produce strain hardened polymeric products including blending a polymer and a nanoparticle material to produce a polymeric composition, forming a film from the polymeric composition, and subjecting the composition to strain hardening. The resulting product has improved clarity, dimensional stability, uniform thickness, due to the “self-leveling” properties of the polymeric composition.

The present invention is related to a process for making strain-hardened polymer products using polymer-nanoparticle compositions.
Strain hardening is the most important characteristic in the production and usability of polymeric films in such processes as Tenter frame biaxial film stretching, blow molding, film blowing, thermoforming, and the like. This property affects structural characteristics such as crystallization as well as thickness uniformity of polymers. It is at this point that many polymers are known to crystallize due to orientation from deformation, with a consequential affect on optical, physical and mechanical properties.
The reasoning for controlling strain hardening is due to its effect on structural development in materials. The net effect of this behavior translates into "self-leveling" that allows thinned portions of a material to sustain higher forces while transferring the deformation to other undeformed regions, resulting in achieving greater uniformity in the thickness of the products. For this reason, it is of critical importance to find an efficient means of selectively controlling the strain hardening behavior of polymers. As an example, in film production for such industries as information recording (audio and video cassettes, etc.), film uniformity and lack of surface roughness are of paramount importance for acceptable products.
There have been many attempts to control the strain hardening behavior of polymeric films through the addition of additives, by blending, or by co-polymerization. But, adding fillers does not necessarily improve mechanical and physical properties of polymers, and studies indicate that they may not have desired effect on the deformation behavior. For example, the work of Taniguchi et al (Atsushi Taniguchi and Miko Cakmak, "The effect of titanium dioxide particles on the deformation behavior and orientation development in PET films", Annual Technical Conference—Society of Plastics Engineers (2000), 58th (Vol. 2), 1786-1790) showed that adding submicron sized particles retards the strain hardening process to higher strain levels. Tanaguchi et al. reported that the effect of submicron size TiO2 particles at varying concentrations on the stress-strain behavior of uniaxially deformed PET films from the amorphous state. The TiO2 particles act as nucleation agents and enhance the thermally induced crystallization of PET. When stretched from the amorphous state, TiO2 particles at concentrations as low as 0.35 percent reduce the overall stress and delay strain hardening, thereby hindering orientation induced crystallization. Consequently, films stretched under the same conditions, but containing higher levels of TiO2 have both lower crystallinity and orientation. They attribute this behavior to the reductions in the number of chain entanglements due to the presence of small amounts of TiO2 particles.
Iwakura, et al. (Iwakura, K.; Wang, Y. D.; and Cakmak, M., "Effect of biaxial stretching on thickness uniformity and surface roughness of PET and PPS films," Int. Polym. Process. (1992), 7(4), 327-333) in their publication performed biaxial film-stretching studies with poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(p-phenylene sulfide) (PPS) to observe the effects of stretching conditions on film properties; particularly surface smoothness and thickness uniformity. They found that by decreasing the stretching temperature and increasing the stretch ratio, they could improve these properties in PET, but not in PPS. They also observed that the most important factor in controlling these properties was the strain hardening mechanism. If this could be controlled, so too would the thickness uniformity and surface smoothness. Under the conditions used in these experiments, strain hardening occurred for PET, but not for PPS, and once strain hardening was attained, properties improved drastically, especially the thickness uniformity. They attributed the problems in PPS to branching of the polymer chains.
It would be a very easy to process films to have desirable properties if all that one had to do was find the strain hardening point, and just stretch beyond this. However, this is not always possible. Sometimes the strain hardening point occurs at too high of a strain to be feasible, or in some other cases, strain hardening is just not possible under normal processing conditions. In addition, there are other side issues in processing and properties. Characteristics, such as miscibility and domain size, have great effect on polymer properties. In the instance where strain hardening can be improved, other properties may suffer. A modification that works very well in one case can yield a very poor result in another, or too much modification may actually be detrimental to some properties. In other cases, a modification may work very well, but the strain hardening behavior still might not be very well controlled, as the modification might work only to a certain extent.

Process for making strain-hardened polymer products


A novel method for manufacturing a semiconductor device and a semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a trench capacitor, a contact pad, an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer and contact elements. The trench capacitor includes a doped region, a first dielectric layer, a bottom electrode, a second dielectric layer and a top electrode, in which the contact pad is positioned on the doped region. The ILD layer has contact windows, and the contact elements are disposed therein. Because of the presence of the contact pad positioned on the doped region, the thickness of the ILD layer over the top electrode is increased but still satisfying the requirement of the maximum depth limit to the contact windows of etching the ILD layer.

A memory cell of a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is composed of a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor and a capacitor. The capacitor is generally designed as either a stack capacitor stacked on a substrate or a deep trench capacitor buried within a substrate.
A common deep trench capacitor is a small three-dimensional device formed by etching a trench into a semiconductor substrate of the device. After trench etching, a doped region may be formed in the lower portion around and below the trench, which serves as a buried plate electrode of a trench capacitor. A dielectric layer may be formed over the buried plate electrode in the trench. The dielectric layer serves as an insulating layer between the electrodes of the trench capacitor. The trench is filled, for example, with conductive polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), which serves as an upper electrode of the trench capacitor.
In order to increase capacitance of the trench capacitor, a dual deep trench capacitor is provided. The dual deep trench capacitor has four layers composed of a lower conductive layer, an upper conductive layer, and two dielectric layers which are respectively disposed beneath the lower conductive layer and between the lower conductive layer and the upper conductive layer. After forming the four layers, an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer is formed covering the dual deep trench capacitor. However, topology variations from the formation of the four layers in the trench and on the top of the semiconductor substrate result in an uneven surface of the ILD layer. Therefore, semiconductor planarization techniques, such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), have been utilized in smoothing the topology variations of the ILD layer. Nevertheless, the ILD layer has a relatively low thickness that may be polished over during the polishing process and short the upper conductive layer and any electronic component disposed on the ILD layer. Accordingly, improvements in structures and methods of forming the dual trench capacitor continue to be sought.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor device and semiconductor device

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


The invention relates to an operating state circuit for driving an inverter with half-bridges having respective switching devices, which inverter supplies an n-phase supply voltage to an n-phase electrical machine via phase connections associated with the respective half-bridges, where n≧1. The operating state circuit comprises an evaluation device, which is connected to the phase connections of the inverter and to input connections of the inverter and is designed to detect an input voltage of the inverter and phase currents at the phase connections of the inverter, and a drive device which is coupled to the evaluation device and is designed to switch the inverter from a short-circuit state to a freewheeling mode on the basis of the detected input voltage, wherein the evaluation device is designed to generate a freewheeling trigger signal and to output said signal to the drive device if the detected input voltage is lower than an adjustable freewheeling threshold value, and wherein the drive device is designed to change the respective switching devices of the half-bridges to an open state after receiving the freewheeling trigger signal only when the particular phase current detected at the associated phase connection has a zero crossing or a current direction coming from the inverter.

The present invention relates to an operating state circuit for an inverter and a method for setting operating states of an inverter, in particular for an inverter for supplying power to a synchronous machine.
Electric drives of hybrid or electric vehicles may include permanently excited electric machines, in particular synchronous machines, which are supplied with AC voltage by means of a pulse-controlled inverter. In the event of fault states on the low-voltage side, for example, in the event of a failure of the electronic control, the energy supply, various sensors, the data communication, or a fuse, it may be necessary to set a safe state in the inverter i.e., a switching state of the inverter in which safety remains ensured for persons accessing the vehicle such as first responders in the event of an accident, and for the integrity of the electrical system.
Generally, a control device of the inverter is supplied by the low-voltage system of the vehicle. In the event of a failure of the low-voltage supply, a control device of the inverter may switch the inverter independently to a safe state in order to prevent possible damage to electrical components, for example, as a result of an uncontrolled energy input into the DC voltage intermediate circuit from which the inverter is fed. Various circuit states may be achieved in conventional methods.
For example, all switches connected to the low potential, so-called low-side switches, may be closed, and all switches connected to the high potential, so-called high-side switches, may be opened. This operating mode is also referred to as a short-circuit state to low potential. Alternatively, all high-side switches may be closed, and all low-side switches may be opened, so that a short-circuit state to high potential is created. In another shutdown method, all switches of the pulse-controlled inverter are opened. This is also referred to as freewheeling mode.
For example, a combination of shutdown methods is known from publication DE 10 2006 003 254 A1. For example, since the phase current may still rise for a short time after switching to the short-circuit state, it is provided there to use both known shutdown operating modes sequentially and to switch the electric machine initially to freewheeling mode and subsequently to the short-circuit state.
Publication DE 10 2009 047 616 A1 describes an inverter circuit for an electric machine which is able to be transferred in the event of a fault from an active short circuit operating state to a freewheeling operating state.
Publication WO 2012/000710 A2 describes a method for operating an at least three-phase electric machine used as a drive assembly in a motor vehicle, which is actuated via an inverter, in particular a pulse-controlled inverter, the inverter including switching elements in the form of half bridges, and in each case a half bridge being electrically connected to a phase of the electric machine. If a first switching element of a first half bridge connected to a first phase is permanently closed on account of failure, then, according to the present invention, a second switching element of the first half bridge is permanently opened and, in a first angular range of an electrical rotation, which is uninfluenced by the first phase, all switching elements of the additional half bridges are actuated in the usual manner.
In a short-circuit state, a braking torque forms which is generated by the generator operation of the synchronous machine. For example, if the car is towed, the braking torque is a hindrance. In particular at low rotational speeds, the braking torque of the electric machine caused by the short-circuit state is relatively high. Publication JP 60005791 A1, for example, provides for using a torque limiter which is controllable as a function of the intermediate circuit voltage to limit the braking torque, in order to prevent overloading of the intermediate-circuit capacitor.
There is therefore a need for solutions for controlling an inverter in an electric drive system including an electric machine, in which operating states of the inverter may be set in a safe and efficient manner even in the event of a failure of the low-voltage supply of the controller.

Operating state circuit for an inverter and method for setting operating states of an inverter


A method estimates a nonlinearity profile of a material. The method includes providing a magnitude of a transform of a measured nonlinearity profile measured from the material. The method further includes providing an estimated phase term of the transform of the measured nonlinearity profile. The method further includes multiplying the magnitude and the estimated phase term to generate an estimated transform. The method further includes calculating an inverse transform of the estimated transform. The method further includes calculating a real component of the inverse transform to generate an estimated nonlinearity profile.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to methods of estimating the optical nonlinearity profile of a material.
2. Description of the Related Art
In thermal poling of silica, a silica wafer is heated (e.g., to approximately 270 degrees Celsius) while an external voltage (e.g., approximately 5 kilovolts) is applied to the wafer. This process induces a second-order nonlinear region under the anode electrode, and this nonlinear region does not decay upon cooling the wafer to room temperature and removing the applied voltage. The depth profile of this induced nonlinear region is often non-uniform and can have a variety of functional forms. The depth profile is a key parameter for understanding the theory of poling, improving the strength and/or width of the induced nonlinear region, and for the design of poled electro-optics devices.
The Maker fringe technique, as described by P. D. Maker et al. in "Effects of dispersion and focusing on the production of optical harmonics," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 8, pp. 21-22 (1962), is a method for obtaining information regarding the nonlinearity profile of a material. It involves focusing a laser beam onto the material (e.g., an optically nonlinear wafer) and measuring the generated second-harmonic (SH) power as a function of the laser incidence angle (θ). The dependence of the SH power on θ is known as the Maker fringe (MF) curve, and is proportional to the square of the Fourier transform magnitude of the nonlinearity profile d(z). For thin films under study, z is in the direction perpendicular to the thin film. Consequently, in principle, d(z) is retrievable by inverting this Fourier transform. However, d(z) cannot be retrieved without the knowledge of the phase of this Fourier transform, which is not provided by the measurement of the MF curve. In the past, this limitation has been mitigated by assuming that d(z) has a given shape (e.g., Gaussian) and using a fitting process, but this approach fails to provide the actual nonlinearity profile d(z).
Recently, this problem was solved by introducing a new family of inverse Fourier Transform (IFT) techniques that involve measuring the MF curves of sandwich structures formed by mating two optically nonlinear samples. As a result of interference between the samples, these MF curves contain the phase of the Fourier transform of the nonlinearity profiles, and the profiles can be recovered uniquely. Examples of these IFT techniques are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/357,275, filed Jan. 31, 2003, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/378,591, filed Mar. 3, 2003, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/645,331, filed Aug. 21, 2003. These IFT techniques are further described by A. Ozcan, M. J. F. Digonnet, and G. S. Kino, "Inverse Fourier Transform technique to determine second-order optical nonlinearity spatial profiles," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 82, pp. 1362-1364 (2003) [Ozcan I]; A. Ozcan, M. J. F. Digonnet, and G. S. Kino, "Erratum: Inverse Fourier Transform technique to determine second-order optical nonlinearity spatial profiles," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 83, p. 1679 (2003) [Ozcan II]; A. Ozcan, M. J. F. Digonnet, and G. S. Kino, "Improved technique to determine second-order optical nonlinearity profiles using two different samples," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, No. 5, pp. 681-683 (Feb. 2, 2004) [Ozcan III]; A. Ozcan, M. J. F. Digonnet, and G. S. Kino, "Simplified inverse Fourier transform technique to measure optical nonlinearity profiles using a reference sample," Electronics Letters, Vol. 40, No. 9, pp. 551-552 (Apr. 29, 2004) [Ozcan IV].

Method for estimating the optical nonlinearity of a material

The Board of Trustess of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A rigidity checking method and apparatus is presented. A composite feature vector is first generated by combining three pairs of coordinates obtained for a feature point of a target object from three pictures of the target object. A covariance matrix of the compound feature vector is calculated by finding a product of a variance matrix comprising a variance of each element of the compound feature vector and the transposed matrix of the variance matrix. The rigidity of the target object is calculated by using the element of the covariance matrix and compared with a predetermined threshold to determine whether the target object is a rigid body. Thus, a rigidity checking is directly achieved from the joint distribution of feature points in the three pictures without assuming the coefficients of a set of constraint equations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rigidity checking method and apparatus for effectively checking the rigidity of an object perceived by a automated robot of vehicle, or of an object indruding into the sensing field of monitor camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The distance between two arbitrary points on a rigid body remains unchanged even when the rigid body takes a force or moves. This property of the rigid body permits a decision to be made from an image sequence including a target body as to whether the target body is a rigid body or not.
A rigidity checking technique is described in detail by S. Ullman and R. Basri, Object Recognition by Liner Combination of the Model, IEEE Trans. PAMI (Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence). In this technique, assuming three pairs of coordinates of a feature point of the target object in three pictures taken at different times to be (X.sub.1, Y.sub.1), (X.sub.2, Y.sub.2) and (X.sub.3, Y.sub.3), tests are made to see to what extent the coordinates (X.sub.1, Y.sub.1), (X.sub.2, Y.sub.2) and (X.sub.3, Y.sub.3) satisfy the following linear constraint equations: EQU .alpha..sub.1.sup.1 S.sub.1 +.beta..sub.1.sup.1 Y.sub.1 +.gamma..sub.1.sup.1 X.sub.2 +.omega..sub.1.sup.1 X.sub.3 =0, (1) EQU .alpha..sub.1.sup.2 X.sub.1 +.beta..sub.1.sup.2 Y.sub.1 +.gamma..sub.1.sup.2 Y.sub.2 +.omega..sub.1.sup.2 Y.sub.3 =0, (2) EQU .alpha..sub.2.sup.1 X.sub.1 +.beta..sub.2.sup.1 X.sub.2 +.gamma..sub.2.sup.1 Y.sub.2 +.omega..sub.2.sup.1 X.sub.3 =0, (3) EQU .alpha..sub.2.sup.2 X.sub.1 +.beta..sub.2.sup.2 X.sub.2 +.gamma..sub.2.sup.2 Y.sub.2 +.omega..sub.2.sup.2 X.sub.3 =0, (4) EQU .alpha..sub.3.sup.1 X.sub.1 +.beta..sub.3.sup.1 X.sub.2 +.gamma..sub.3.sup.1 Y.sub.3 +.omega..sub.3.sup.1 X.sub.3 =0, and (5) EQU .alpha..sub.3.sup.2 X.sub.1 +.beta..sub.3.sup.2 X.sub.2 +.gamma..sub.3.sup.2 Y.sub.3 +.omega..sub.3.sup.2 X.sub.3 =0, (6)
where .alpha..sub.i.sup.j, .beta..sub.i.sup.j, .gamma..sub.i.sup.j and .kappa..sub.i.sup.j are appropriate coefficients. Since a rigid body satisfies these constraint equations, the rigidity of the target object can be estimated by the extent to which the three pairs of coordinates satisfies the above constraint equations, that is, a satisfaction degree of the constraint equation.
In order to estimate the satisfaction degree, the optimum values are conventionally found for the coefficients of the constraint equations by means of least square error estimate by using a sufficient number of feature points. Then, the residue of each constraint equation is calculated as a satisfaction degree. It is determined that the smaller the residues or the satisfaction degrees are, the more rigidity the target object has.
However, the values of the constraint equations changes with a change in the resolutions of the three pictures. Since the resolutions of the pictures which have essentially nothing to do with the rigidity of the target object have effects on a judgement of the rigidity of the target object, the conventional rigid checking technique is not suitable for a general purpose tool.
Further, the conventional rigid checking technique requires calculations of the coefficients of the constraint equations which have no direct relationships with the rigidity of the target object, and accordingly is not effective.

Rigidity checking method and apparatus with the result freed from the influence of picture resolutions

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A method is disclosed of folding a honeycomb panel, the panel preferably comprising a honeycomb core having opposing face sheets. A slit is preferably cut through one face sheet and the underlying honeycomb core and a wedge is driven into the honeycomb panel at the location of the slit. The wedge crushes the honeycomb core to a preselected depth with a preselected angle whereby the crushed honeycomb core forms a hinge. The honeycomb panel can then be folded along the hinge in a direction opposite the intact face sheet.

Honeycomb panels have been employed for many years because of their great strength and durability combined with light weight. Generally, honeycomb panels comprise a series of abutting hexagonal cells. The walls of the cells are typically a kraft paper, sometimes resin-impregnated for water resistance. Of course, other materials such as plastic films can also be employed if desired. As will be appreciated, the width of the cells, the height of the cells or the material can all be varied to impart desired characteristics to the honeycomb material.
Typically, face sheets cover the open ends of the cells. Such face sheets are also generally kraft paper though other materials such as plastic films, aluminum foil and the like have been employed.
It is often desirable to fold the honeycomb panel. For example, inserting three ninety degree bends which quarter a honeycomb panel will form the walls of a square box. By varying the location and number of such folds, other polygonally-shaped boxes may be produced. Further, intersecting folds combined with complete cuts of honeycomb panels can yield various corner and edge protectors.
The corners and edges of any product are the most likely to come into unwanted contact with other objects. Such contact can result in damage such as scratches, dents, chipped paint and the like. If severe enough, such damage can result in an unsalable product and resulting loss. Even minor damage results in a loss of aesthetics and often results in lowered prices.
As a consequence, many edge and corner protector products are available to manufacturers and shippers to guard against such losses. Some competitive products are manufactured of expanded foam, corrugated paper or even composite materials such as a corrugated corner protector with one or more honeycomb panels glued to it to provide additional protection. However, many edge and corner protector products use honeycomb panels to take advantage of its properties.
Specifically, honeycomb provides thicker protective material with higher strength while using less paper than a comparable corrugated panel. Further, paper honeycomb is a recyclable product as opposed to expanded foam.
To use honeycomb panels for edge and corner protection, the honeycomb panels must fold properly. There are three methods currently in use today to fold honeycomb panels: pressure scoring, slit scoring and V-cut scoring.
The pressure score is formed by pressing a cylinder into the honeycomb panel. The cylinder forms an arced depression in the panel which does not cut either of the two face sheets. If pressure scored from both sides, the resulting double scored honeycomb panel section will act as a two-way hinge.
However, such a pressure-scored honeycomb panel often does not fold predictably along the chosen line. In addition, the effort required to bend the honeycomb panel into the desired angle toward the depression is high. It should be understood that a high folding effort may be undesirable in some applications.
Lastly, two such pressure scores cannot be situated in close proximity to each other on the same side of the panel without special arrangements. Each pressure score competes for the face sheet which results in tearing of the face sheet if two pressure scores are proximate to one another. To overcome this obstacle, special spring movable wedge pairs have been employed that allow the proximate wedges to move towards each other to relieve the face sheet stress. However, the resulting scored panel will actually be shorter than the unscored panel by the distance so moved.
Another common method of folding honeycomb panels is a slit score. A knife or razor simply slits the honeycomb panel completely through one face sheet and the honeycomb core, leaving only the second face sheet intact to act as the hinge. The panel is then folded away from the slit. This method is quick, accurate and results in a very low folding effort. The slit score lends itself to long-length slitting for edge protection or interior reinforcement of long packages. In addition, die-cut slit scoring can produce elaborately configured corner protectors.
However, the slit score does not protect well in direct corner impacts. Only the second face sheet covers an exposed edge or corner and thus the corner impact strength is low. In addition, the exposed honeycomb core often detracts from package aesthetics.
The last method is the V-cut score. A V-shaped trough is sawn completely through one face sheet and the honeycomb core. The vertex of the "V" is just above the second face sheet. By folding the "V" cut closed, the honeycomb panel will form a clean looking corner having an angle dependent upon the angle of the V-cut.
However, this method is limited by the complexity of the equipment needed to saw a number of V-shaped troughs in parallel. In addition, such cuts cannot be performed via a die-cut process, so products with intersecting fold lines such as corner protectors have not been produced using this method.
What is needed is a process for producing folds in a honeycomb panel which has the ease and simplicity of slit scoring yet produces the aesthetics of V-cut scoring. The method should also be usable in a die cut process as well as a continuous process so that polygonal containers, edge protectors and corner protectors are easily manufactured. The resultant honeycomb panel should fold predictably and should have a low folding effort with good corner impact strength.
The present invention meets these desires.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing articles employing folded honeycomb panels


A process for preparing isocyanates comprising (a) contacting carbon dioxide and a primary amine in the presence of an aprotic organic solvent and a phosphazene compound or a mixture of a phosphazene compound and an organic, nitrogenous base selected from the group consisting of guanidine compounds, amidine compounds, tertiary amines, pyridine and mixtures thereof to produce the corresponding ammonium carbamate salt, and (b) reacting the ammonium carbamate salt with an electrophilic or oxophilic dehydrating agent to produce the corresponding isocyanate. A second embodiment comprises recovering the ammonium carbamate salt of step (a) prior to reacting the ammonium carbamate salt with an electrophilic or oxophilic dehydrating agent in the presence of an aprotic organic solvent and a phosphazene compound or a mixture of a phosphazene compound and an organic, nitrogenous base selected from the group consisting of guanidine compounds, amidine compounds, tertiary amines, pyridine and mixtures thereof.

The invention relates to a process for preparing isocyanates. In one aspect, the invention relates to a new and useful process for preparing isocyanates from primary amines, carbon dioxide and an electrophilic or oxophilic dehydrating agent.
Isocyanates, especially diisocyanates, are important commodity chemicals for use in applications such as preparation of urethane foam, urethane elastomers, coatings, insecticides, herbicides, and the like.
Commercially, the phosgenation of primary amines is by far the most widely used method for producing isocyanates. The use of phosgene, however, has several disadvantages. The phosgenation route is long, energy intensive and requires handling highly corrosive materials, e.g. hydrogen chloride, chlorine, sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and highly toxic reagents and intermediates, e.g. phosgene and chlorine. Furthermore, the phosgenation route requires use of process equipment which can withstand high temperatures and highly corrosive conditions resulting in increased capital costs.
One non-phosgene method for the preparation of isocyanates involves reaction of primary amines and CO.sub.2 with a cobalt or manganese compound to produce metal carbamate complexes followed by reaction with an acyl halide in the presence of a solvent as is disclosed by A. Belforte et al., "Incorporation and Deoxygenation of Carbon Dioxide: A Metal-assisted Facile Conversion of Carbon Dioxide and Primary Amines To Isocyanates", Chem. Ber., 121, 1891-1897 (1988). However, the process described therein requires long reaction times and gives unsatisfactory yield of isocyanate for a commercially viable process.
Another non-phosgene route to isocyanates is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,815 (Sheludyakov et al.) which discloses preparation of isocyanates by reacting a primary amine with CO.sub.2 and hexamethyldisilazane in the presence of an acidic catalyst, e.g. H.sub.2 SO.sub.4, followed by decomposition of the resulting silyl esters of carbamic acid in the presence of a dehydration agent. However, the process described therein requires long reaction times and is not commercially practicable.
A non-phosgene process for preparing isocyanates which is economical, commercially viable, and can produce isocyanates with high yield under mild reaction conditions and short reaction times is highly desirable.

Process for preparing isocyanates using phosphazine catalysts


A signal receiving apparatus includes: a communication part which communicates with a plurality of display apparatuses, and a controller which determines whether at least one of the plurality of display apparatuses is connected to the signal receiving apparatus, and, if it is determined that the at least one display apparatus is connected to the signal receiving apparatus, controls connection information related to a connection state of the display apparatus to be provided to at least one of the plurality of display apparatuses.

1. Technological Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to signal receiving apparatuses, display apparatuses and control methods thereof, and more particularly, to a signal receiving apparatus and a display apparatus, which are capable of communicating with each other wirelessly and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a display apparatus, such as a monitor, a TV, etc., is used for various fields. The display apparatus processes an image signal provided from an external apparatus, such as a computer, a digital versatile disk (DVD) player or the like, or provided by a broadcasting signal provided from a broadcasting station or the like, and displays an image on a screen.
In addition, the display apparatus may be connected to a set-top box that receives a broadcasting signal via wires, a cable TV or a satellite broadcasting, and processes the broadcasting signal provided from the set-top box for display of an image on the screen.
In recent years, there has been suggested a wireless TV system in which a display apparatus is connected to a set-top box wirelessly. The wireless TV system includes a display apparatus having a wireless receiver (hereinafter referred to as an "Rx module") and a set-top box having a wireless transmitter (hereinafter referred to as a "Tx module"). The set-top box receives an image signal from a broadcasting station or the like, and the display apparatus receives the image signal from the set-top box and then displays the image signal on a screen.
At this time, in order for the display apparatus to communicate with the set-top box wirelessly, a media access control (MAC) address of the Rx module must be equal to that of the Tx module. That is, when the display apparatus is powered on, and then, power is applied to the Rx module, the Rx module searches the Tx module having the same MAC address as the MAC address of the Rx module. When communication between the Rx module and the Tx module is successful and the display apparatus is wirelessly connected to the set-top box, the set-top box informs a user that wireless communication is established between the display apparatus and the set-top box, by using an LED or the like provided at the front of the set-top box.
In such a conventional TV system, the display apparatus is connected to the set-top box in a one-to-one correspondence. However, if a plurality of display apparatuses are connected to one set-top box, it is very difficult to indicate which of the display apparatuses communicates with the set-top box wirelessly.
For example, assuming that wireless communication is established between a plurality of display apparatuses, which are provided in separate areas, and one set-top box, if the set-top box indicates that one of the display apparatuses is connected to the set-top box by using an LED, a user may not know which of display apparatuses is connected to the set-top box.
In addition, if the display apparatus is not placed in the same area as the set-top box, a user has to directly confirm whether or not the display apparatus is wirelessly connected to the set-top box.

Signal receiving apparatus, display apparatus and control method thereof


A system for alleviating leakage or weepage from a pressure relief valve found on conventional hot water heater tanks due to water pressure build-up in residential water lines caused by the application of intense heat with fast recovery type hot water heaters wherein a water pressure relief valve is easily and quickly connected between a washing machine water supply outlet faucet and a flexible washing machine water inlet hose and water vented from this pressure relief valve is vented through a flexible hose to an appropriate drain.

The present invention relates generally to an improved apparatus and method for relieving excessive water pressure build-up in internal residential water lines, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for venting water under excessive pressure from such internal residential water lines to an appropriate drain, thereby preventing unwanted weepage of water from the pressure release valve found on conventional hot water heater tanks.
The newer residential hot water heaters of the fast or quick recovery type tank heaters which are generally gas fired, require intense application of heat to the tank in order to provide quick recovery of hot water within the tank. In applying this intense heat, the water pressure within the hot water tank can raise the water line pressure within the water line system of the residence to a point where the water tank relief valve vents and leaks water from the overflow, usually in an unwanted manner onto the floor.
The water pressure relief valve commonly found on most hot water tanks is set to vent water under pressure typically at a pressure of 120 p.s.i. Even though this pressure is relatively high, the intense application of heat to the hot water tank, nevertheless, can quickly create pressure within the tank that exceeds this limit causing the pressure relief valve on the hot water tank to leak, weep or vent water onto the floor thereby creating and unwanted mess.
This situation is created because water expands in volume as its temperature rises. For example, in a 40 gallon water heater, the water will expand to a volume of about 40.53 gallons when recovery is completed and this increase in pressure is retained in the residential water lines as water meters with check valves, and/or pressure reducing valves, prevent the expanded water from returning to the city supply.
This leakage of hot water onto the floor at the water heater pressure relief valve is not only wasteful but it can also be dangerous. In addition, this constant operation of the pressure relief valve at the water heater tank can readily cause the relief valve to become defective. These high internal pressures occurring repeatedly can also shorten the life of the water heater.
One device presently on the market for alleviating this problem is a device that consists of a water pressure relief valve that is adapted to be connected within the water storage tank of a water closet or toilet and this pressure relief valve is preset to exhaust water into the water closet tank when the water pressure in the cold water line exceeds a predetermined pressure, which is normally set to be from between 80 to 90 p.s.i. or less. Accordingly, the pressure is relieved in the residential water line system by venting some of the water off into the water closet tank at a pressure which is lower than the 120 p.s.i. pressure relief limit set for the pressure relief valve on the hot water heater tank thereby alleviating the high pressure problem at a pressure lower than that set at the hot water tank relief valve which prevents this relief valve at the hot water tank from weeping or leaking excess water onto the floor next to the tank.
The problem with this existing system is that the mechanism is relatively expensive as this special pressure relief valve must be adapted for a unique coupling or connection situation within the water closet storage tank. In addition, this device cannot be readily and easily connected by the homeowner who is generally unskilled in such plumbing techniques. Accordingly, the average home owner is required to retain a plumber to connect the device within the water closet tank which adds considerable expense to the installation.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a water pressure relief system and method which is inexpensive to manufacture and which is further very simple to install by even the most mechanically unskilled homeowner.

Water pressure relief method and system for water heaters


A rotatable handle arrangement for a torque-adjustable wrench including a hollow sleeve fixed at a distal end of the moment arm by a fixing element. An internal toothed portion is formed in a stepped hole of the hollow sleeve and positioned adjacent to one side of the in-place-rotatable handle. In the normal state, the internal toothed portion is engaged with an external toothed portion of the in-place-rotatable handle by means of an elastic element. The torque-adjustable rod of a torque adjusting mechanism is driven by the in-place-rotatable handle for adjusting the torque value when the in-place-rotatable handle is pushed in the direction of the hollow sleeve so as to disengage the internal and external toothed portions from each other. In this way, an expected adjustment is achieved. After the adjustment, the external force is released and the internal and external toothed portions are automatically restored in an engaged and locked position (of the normal state) by means of the self-resilience of the elastic element.

1. Fields of the Invention
The invention relates to a rotatable handle arrangement for a torque-adjustable wrench, and more particularly, to a structure that ensures a more easy operation and a more practical use.
2. Description of the Related Art
A torque-adjustable wrench refers to a special ratchet wrench capable of adjusting the torque value. The ratchet mechanism will be turned into idle state when the force applied exceeds a preset value. In this way, the workpiece is protected from damage due to the application of an excessive force. The ratchet and the torque setting mechanism are conventional components and well known to the public so that no further descriptions thereto are given hereinafter.
As shown in FIG. 6, a conventional torque-adjustable wrench 10 includes a ratchet drive portion 12 with an insertion member 11, a moment arm 13, and a twist handle 14. In adjusting the torque value, a locking element 15 at the tail of the twist handle 14 has to be loosened first. In this way, the twist handle 14 can be twisted for adjusting or setting the torque adjusting mechanism (not shown). After the adjustment, the locking element 15 has to be tightened in place so as not to change the originally set value due to an unexpected twist of the twist handle 14.
No matter if it refers to the above-mentioned conventional torque-adjustable wrench 10 or an electronically torque-adjustable wrench (not shown), it is necessary to unlock and lock a locking mechanism for adjusting the torque value, thereby causing much trouble and inconvenience for the operators.

Rotatable handle arrangement for a torque-adjustable wrench


A control method and an image forming apparatus. The apparatus includes a latent image carrier; a development apparatus for developing a liquid developer containing a toner, a carrier liquid and a dispersant soluble in the carrier liquid therein on the latent image carrier; an intermediate transfer medium to which a developer image developed on the latent image carrier is transferred; a transfer apparatus for transferring the developer image on the intermediate transfer medium to a transfer material; and a dispersant collecting liquid application unit for applying a dispersant collecting liquid on the intermediate transfer medium. The method includes performing the control such that after finishing of transfer of the developer image onto intermediate transfer medium, application of the dispersant collecting liquid on the intermediate transfer medium is started by the dispersant collecting liquid application unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control method of a development apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on a latent image carrier such as photoconductors with a liquid developer composed of a toner, a carrier liquid and a dispersant and to an image forming apparatus. In more detail, the invention relates to a control method of an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer and a facsimile by transferring a developed liquid developer image on a latent image carrier onto a transfer material such as paper to obtain an image and to an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
In an image forming apparatus using a liquid developer, there is proposed an image forming apparatus for recovering chiefly a toner by cleaning for the purpose of recovering an excessive toner by an excessive toner collecting unit and making a liquid carrier remain on a photoconductor (see, for example, JP-A-2002-268394).
Also, for the purpose of suppressing the generation of an excessive toner, there is proposed a method for cleaning a liquid developer by a polyurethane-made cleaning blade or the like (see, for example, JP-A-2002-287517).
However, in the case where a toner is recovered by cleaning at the finishing time of printing to make a carrier liquid remain on a latent image carrier, since wettability of the surface of the latent image carrier is affected by a dispersant remaining in the carrier liquid on a photoconductor, there is caused unevenness in concentration of a developing solution on the latent image carrier at the time of subsequent development.
Also, in the case when printing is finished in a state that the carrier liquid is made to remain on the latent image carrier, the carrier liquid flowed downward due to gravity, thereby causing a fault of contaminating the inside of the apparatus. Also, in the case where cleaning is performed using a cleaning blade, the dispersant remained on the latent image carrier together with a part of the carrier liquid, and characteristics of the developing solution changed at the time of subsequent development, thereby possibly causing unevenness in concentration.

Control method of image forming apparatus and image forming apparatus


A first receiver receives an activation signal from a first network and gives the activation signal to an input side of a second transmitter via a first connection line; thereby, the activation signal is sent out via the second transmitter to a second network. Thus, the activation signal is not directly transmitted from the first network to the second network; instead, the activation signal is transmitted by using conversion functions of the first receiver and the second transmitter. This configuration can prevent occurrence of distortion or attenuation in the activation signal. The activation signal from the first network thus enables ECUs belonging to the second network to be activated certainly without delay.

[Patent Literature 1] JP 2005-86692 A
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a gateway apparatus that permits an in-vehicle instrument connected to a first network to activate in-vehicle instruments, which are connected to a different second network, from sleep state without delay. This gateway apparatus connects the first network and the second network to each other using a signal line having a switch; the signal line connects (i) a signal transmission route between the bus of the first network and a transceiver and (ii) a signal transmission route between the bus of the second network and a transceiver. When the gateway apparatus is in the sleep state, the switch of the signal line is closed to connect the buses of the different first and second networks via the signal line. Therefore, a wake-up signal is transmitted in the first network, the wake-up signal can be transferred to the different second network, without waiting for activation of the gateway apparatus.
In a general communication system, the increase of the number of communication nodes connected to a single network causes the increase in stray capacitance, or the reflection of signals due to impedance mismatching; this distorts or declines the waveforms of signals in the network bus, tending to cause a transmission error. Such issue eventually limits the number of communication nodes connected to a single network. If the number of communication nodes intended to be networked exceeds the limit number of a single network, a different second network is additionally prepared and connected to the first network via a gateway apparatus.
Patent Literature 1 describes the configuration of the gateway apparatus in which the different networks are mutually connected directly using a switch as if a new temporal single network is produced by connecting all the different networks. This new temporal single network apparently contains the whole of the communication nodes belonging to all the different networks. This may cause a transmission error of a wake-up signal in the new temporal single network having a great number of communication nodes to lead to the possibility that a communication node belong to a first network cannot activate certainly communication nodes belonging to a different second network.


A stator includes an insulator, a wire, a stator core, a cylindrical hollow terminal through which the stator is to be electrically connected, and a resinous molding material covering the stator core and an outer face of the hollow terminal. An inner face of the hollow terminal is exposed from the molding material, and a first end of the hollow terminal is open to the outside of the molding material.

A stator taught in Patent Literature 1 includes a stator core, a wire wound around the stator core, a protruding portion that protrudes from the outer circumference of the stator core outward in the radial direction of the stator core, and a conductive material fixed to the protruding portion and electrically connected with the wire. Some of stators of the related art having such a structure as described above are so-called molded stators in which a stator core, a wire, a terminal, and the like are covered with a molding material by injection of resin after containing the stator core, the wire, the terminal, and the like in a die. In this type of stator, for electrical connection between wiring extending from a device outside the stator and a terminal provided in the stator, a structure in which an end of the terminal of the stator is exposed to the outside of the molding material and the wiring is connected with the terminal exposed from the molding material is adopted.

Stator, motor, and stator manufacturing method


The present invention provides a method to repair a void in an aluminum alloy, particularly a void resulting from an exit hole left from friction stir welding (FSW). The method includes machining the void to provide a tapered bore (34) through a parent metal, i.e., the aluminum alloy (30), providing grooves and ridges (36) on a sidewall of the tapered bore, inserting into the bore a consumable tapered plug (38) having an included angle less than, or equal to, that of the tapered bore, and rotating the plug inside the bore under an applied load to plasticize both its surface and the ridges on the parent metal tapered bore. The tapered plug is preferably attached at its proximal end to a nonconsumable heat sink (40) to remove excessive heat generated during rotation of the plug. Also, a support bracket is temporarily attached to the aluminum alloy adjacent the tapered bore to receive a distal end of the plug (38) and to react to the applied load. The plasticized material (48) at the interface between the plug and the tapered bore, upon hardening, produces a strong bond consisting of refined and recrystallized fine metal. The heat sink and the support bracket can be later trimmed away.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new welding process for joining parts of materials such as metals, plastics, and other materials that will soften and commingle under applied frictional heat to become integrally connected. A detailed description of an FSW apparatus and process may be found in Patent Publications WO 93/10935 and WO 95/26254; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,317, all of which are herein fully incorporated by reference. One useful apparatus for FSW is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B and includes a shoulder 14' at its distal end, and a nonconsumable welding pin 16' extending downward centrally from the shoulder. As shown, two parts to be welded together, exemplified by plates 10A' and 10B' on backing plate 12', are aligned so that edges of the plates along the weld joint are in direct contact. As the rotating tool W' is brought into contact with the weld interface between plates 10A' and 10B', the rotating pin 16' is forced into contact with the material of both plates, as shown. The rotation of the pin in the material and rubbing of the shoulder against the upper surface of the material produce a large amount of frictional heating of both the welding tool and the plate interface. This heat softens the material of the plates in the vicinity of the rotating pin and shoulder, and in concert with deformation created by the rotating pin, causes commingling of material, which, upon hardening, forms a weld. The tool is moved longitudinally along the interface between plates 10A' and 10B', thereby forming an elongate weld along the interface between the plates. When the weld is completed, the welding tool is retracted.
FSW has been successfully used for welding aluminum alloys. For welding together flat workpieces, suitable run-on and run-off extensions can be utilized. These extensions, or end-tabs, provide starting and stopping points along a weld seam that may be later trimmed away. The end-tabs serve to transition a FSW tool to and from the workpieces without causing undue disturbance to the weld. A problem arises when welding workpieces that cannot have end-tabs, for example, workpieces with a circumferential geometry such as domes and cylinders, or workpieces with any continuous curved surface. In these situations, the FSW tool must be retracted from the weld at one point. The retraction leaves an exit hole behind on the weld, which remains unfilled and creates a discontinuity in the weld path.
To repair holes in steel, friction hydro pillar processing (FHPP) has been developed. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a prior art FHPP for steel. The process involves rotating a consumable rod 20 coaxially in a generally cylindrical hole 22 to be filled, while under an applied load to generate continuously a plasticized layer 24. The rotating rod 20 heats with friction to generate plasticized layer 24 in an almost hydrostatic condition. Plasticized layer 24 develops at a rate faster than the feed rate of rod 20, causing plasticized layer 24 to rise along hole 22 while leaving beneath a dynamically recrystallized deposit material 26. FHPP, which was developed specifically for steel, however, is not directly applicable to aluminum alloys due to aluminum's reduced high-temperature strength and high oxidation rate behavior. Specifically, while a certain amount of heat is necessary to cause softening of aluminum to fill a void, excessive frictional heat generated during FHPP tends to degrade the structural and metallurgical properties of aluminum alloys. A need exists to provide a method for repairing voids in aluminum alloys, in particular, filling exit holes left from FSW process, with material the same as, or similar in composition to, the parent material in such a manner that the repaired section has structural and metallurgical properties that are the same as, or better than, the parent metal.

Method to repair voids in aluminum alloys


A method for operating a horizontal drilling device includes the steps of fixing a rod assembly section within a through-opening formed by a rotational drive of the horizontal drilling device, and connecting the rod assembly section to a rear end of a drill rod assembly of the horizontal drilling device or releasing the rod assembly section from the drill rod assembly by a linear and/or rotational movement of the rotational drive, wherein force transmission means for transmitting compressive and/or pulling forces and/or a rotational torque to the drill rod assembly are provided in the through-opening, wherein the rotational drive is displaceable by a linear drive of the horizontal drilling device, and wherein the drill rod assembly is configured as rod assembly string and is composed of a plurality of interconnected rod assembly sections.

The invention relates to a method for operating a horizontal drilling device and a horizontal drilling device.
Horizontal drilling devices are used to introduce supply and disposal lines into the ground in trenchless construction or to exchange already installed old lines in a trenchless manner.
There are many different horizontal drilling devices. Common are horizontal drilling devices in which a drill head is initially advanced angled into the ground by means of a drill rod assembly and starting from a drill boom positioned above ground until the drill head has reached the desired drilling depth. Then, the drill head is redirected into the horizontal position in order to carry out the horizontal drilling. The target point of such a horizontal drilling can for example be located in a target excavation pit which is excavated for this particular purpose or in a basement room or it can also be located above ground i.e., like the starting point, so that the drill head after a defined drilling progress is redirected into a diagonally upwards pointing direction, to let the drill head reemerge above ground.
After the drill head has reached the target point, it is often replaced for a widening device for example a conical widening body, to widen the previously generated (pilot) bore by means of the drill boom when retracting the drill rod assembly. This may involve attaching a new line to be drawn into the widening device, to draw the new line into the ground simultaneous with the widening of the pilot bore.
Horizontal drilling devices are also used to replace old lines in the ground in a trenchless manner. For this, in a first step the drill rod assembly is pushed by the drill boom along the old line (and in particular through an old line) and after reaching a target point, which can be located in a maintenance shaft of the sewage system, the front end of the drill rod assembly is connected with a widening device by which the old line is cut or burst when retracting the drill rod assembly, wherein the fragments of the destroyed old line are radially displaced into the soil. At the same time, a new pipe can be drawn into the old pipe. Destroying the old pipe an displacing the fragments of the old pipe allows the new pipe to have an outer diameter which corresponds to the outer diameter of the old pipe or even exceeds this diameter.
As an alternative, an adapter can be connected to the front end of the rod assembly which adapter engages on the rear side end of the old line and pulls the old line out of the ground when retracting the drill rod assembly. This allows avoiding that fragments of a destroyed old line remain in the ground which may otherwise cause damage to the new pipe due to sharp-edged brakeage edges and the pressure exerted by the surrounding soil.
Horizontal drilling devices usually have a linear drive with which the drill rod assembly can be advanced and retracted within the ground. Further, a rotational drive is usually provided with which the drill rod assembly (and with this the drill head and widening head connected thereto) can be rotated. The rotation of the drill head or the widening device allows improving the advance in the soil.
Further, most of the steerable horizontal drilling devices require a rotation of the drill head to steer the drill head into a desired drilling direction. The drill heads of such horizontal drilling devices have an asymmetrically formed (for example slanted) drill head front, which leads to a lateral deflection of the drill head during movement through the soil. When the drill head is simultaneously rotatingly driven when being advanced in the soil, the asymmetric configuration of the drill head has no influence on the straight drilling course, because the lateral deflection evens out over a rotation. On the other hand, when the rotation of the drill head is stopped and the drill head is exclusively advanced by pushing—optionally supported by strokes of a stroke device which is integrated in the drill head or in the drill boom—the asymmetric configuration of the drill head leads to a (constant) lateral deflection. This achieves an arched drilling course and as a result a change of the drilling direction.
Horizontal drilling devices which are exclusively intended for replacing old pipes which are already installed in the ground often have no additional rotational drive.
Horizontal drilling devices in which the drill boom is intended for positioning above ground often can only be used in non-urban areas because the horizontal drilling devices have to be positioned at a considerable distance to the region in which the bore or the new line is to be introduced into the ground or in which an already existing old pipe is to be exchanged, due to the drilling distance required to reach the desired drilling depth. Oftentimes, corresponding special requirements are not available in built-up areas. A further disadvantage of such horizontal drilling devices is that these drilling devices which are commonly configured as self-propelled drill boom, cause significant crop damage which has to be remedied by a corresponding financial effort.
Because of these disadvantages, the trenchless line construction in built-up areas is still largely limited to the trenchless replacement of old pipes because the old pipes always extend between subterranean hollow spaces (in particular supply shafts and basement rooms) which are already present and which can be used for the positioning of the horizontal drilling device. Excavation work and as a result, crop damage can thus mostly be prevented. Horizontal drilling devices have been developed which are configured so that they can be positioned in a supply shaft. Because new supply lines often are not to be installed along existing supply routes these horizontal drilling devices are often not available for newly installing supply lines.
From DE 196 33 934 A1 a horizontal drilling device is known which is configured for use in small excavation pits with a square cross section of about 70 cm×40 cm and a depth of about 1 m to 1.5 m. These horizontal drilling devices include a frame whose dimensions roughly correspond to the cross sectional dimensions of the excavation pit and are lowered into the excavation pit. A part of the frame protrudes over the upper edge of the excavation pit. In the section of the frame which is located inside the excavation pit, a combined linear/rotary drive is provided via which a drill rod assembly which is composed of individual rod assembly sections is advanced into the soil. The linear/rotational drive includes a rotational drive which can be moved within the frame in horizontal direction by means of the linear drive which is formed by two hydraulic cylinders. For advancing the drill rod assembly, the last rod assembly section is force fittingly fixed in the rotational drive for which the rotational drive has clamp jaws. The rod assembly sections which are successively screwed to the rear end of the already drilled drill rod assembly are supplied to the linear/rotational drive via a rod assembly lift which transports the rod assembly sections from a rod assembly magazine which is arranged in the upper section of the frame which protrudes over the edge of the excavation pit. The rod assembly lift includes a changer motor whose motor shaft is provided with a threaded pin. The threaded pin is screwed into the rear end of a rod assembly section which is provided for the transport to the linear/rotational drive. By displacing the changer motor along the rod assembly lift, the rod assembly section can then be transported to a position which is axial to the drilling axis.
The horizontal drilling device known from DE 196 33 934 A1 enables introducing bores into the ground starting from any desired starting positions. Because only a relatively small excavation pit is required for the positioning of the horizontal drilling device, and the horizontal drilling device can also be transported easily due to the compact design, its use is associated with relatively minor crop damages.
A disadvantage of the horizontal drilling device known from DE 196 33 934 A1 is that due to the coaxial orientation of the changer motor, the new rod assembly section and the drill rod assembly, only relatively (compared to the length of the frame) short rod assembly sections can be used. The shorter the individual rod assembly sections, the more frequently new rod assembly sections have to be attached to the rod assembly in order to introduce the bore with the desired length into the ground. The attachment or release of the rod assembly section is associated with significant time consumption.
Because of the force fitting fixation of the rod assembly in the rotational drive, the amount of the forces which are transferable to the rod assembly is limited. In addition, the force fitting connection of the rod assembly necessitates the use of high powered and expensive hydraulic cylinders which increases the costs for the drilling device.

Method for operating a horizontal drilling device and horizontal drilling device


A pen transcription system and method for using the same are disclosed. The pen transcription system includes a receiver having first and second acoustical sensors mounted on a planar base and separated from one another, an EM detector, and a controller. The first and second acoustical sensors detect an acoustical signal at a first wavelength emitted by a moveable signal source. The EM detector detects an EM signal that is synchronized with the acoustical signal. The controller measures the difference in time of detection between the EM signal and the acoustical signals detected by the first and second acoustical sensors. The acoustical sensors include a detector and a housing surrounding the detector, the housing having an aperture having a maximum dimension that is less than the first wavelength divided by 6.28.

Acoustic-based distance measuring systems have been used to compute the position of a data entry object in a writing field for some time. For example, schemes that track and record the position of a pen on a white board are commercially available. As the user writes on the white board, the transcription system determines the location of the pen on the board and records the location for later use.
In such systems, a conventional marking pen of the type used with white boards is inserted into a housing that includes an acoustical transmitter and an infrared transmitter. As the user writes on the white board in the conventional manner, the transmitter sends a combination of acoustical and infrared pulses. Two receivers that are separated in space receive the signals generated by the housing. Each receiver measures the time difference between the time of arrival of the infrared pulse and the acoustical pulse to determine the distance of the housing from that receiver. These distance measurements are then combined to determine the position of the housing relative to the receivers.
Infrared is used for the light signals to avoid problems with background light in the area of use. The acoustical signals are typically in the ultrasound range so that the signals are beyond the human audible range. In addition, the higher frequencies provide better spatial resolution. Each acoustical receiver is typically constructed from a microphone such as ceramic piezo microphones, PVDF films, condenser microphones, electrets condenser microphones (ECMs), moving coil microphones, etc.
Unfortunately, the sensitivity of these devices as utilized in prior art systems is not completely omni-directional at ultrasound frequencies. The variation in angle with respect to each sensor over the range of positions of the pen on the surface can be relatively large. Hence, angular variation in the gain of the ultrasound receivers can lead to increased errors due to noise and variation in the trigger point on the ultrasound pulse as a function of angle. The latter type of error results in an error in the perceived delay time of the ultrasound signal, and hence, an error in the calculated distance from the sensor to the pen. In the extreme case, the microphone can have insufficient gain to detect the pen in some regions of a large writing surface. These gain problems can limit the size of the work surface that can be transcribed.
In addition to an omni-directional detection profile, the frequency response of the sensor is also important. Even at ultrasound frequencies, there are narrow band background ultrasound sources that can interfere with the reception of the ultrasound pulse from the pen. For example, some motion detectors utilize an ultrasound signal to detect an object moving within the field of view of the motion detector. These narrow band sources can have a signal strength that is sufficient to mask the ultrasound signal from the pen in the transcription system. The transcription system pen is typically battery powered, and hence, cannot compete with a motion detector that is powered from an AC power source and generates a signal having an amplitude that is sufficient to detect the change in frequency of the signal after the signal has been reflected from a moving object.

Digital transcription system utilizing small aperture acoustical sensors