Apparatus for extending the battery life of a seasonal-use battery. The apparatus is an improvement in a seasonal-use device having a battery charging system, wherein the battery charging system includes a voltage step-down device coupled to the charging system. The improvement includes a mechanism integral the battery charging system for providing a maintenance current to the battery proximate the battery's self-discharge rate. A mechanism is provided for coupling the battery charging system to an external power source. The apparatus for extending the battery life may also be coupled to the seasonal-use device system controller.

Seasonal-use devices include recreational vehicles and seasonal equipment, such as lawn mowers, yard tractors, personal watercraft, boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles, construction and agricultural equipment. Seasonal-use devices utilize batteries as an electric power source to provide electric start and control power to the device. During operation of the seasonal-use device, the internal battery charging system maintains the charge on the battery.
Because these devices are only used seasonally, the battery is normally stored for a number of months, which results in self-discharging of the battery. Internally, the battery is undergoing a process called plate sulfation, which creates an insulating coating on the plates preventing subsequent full performance from the battery. Once plate sulfation has occurred, even if the battery is fully charged, it will no longer operate at optimum efficiency and full battery capacity.
The type of battery most commonly used in seasonal-use vehicles is a lead-acid battery. Typically, lead-acid batteries will self-discharge at an approximate rate of 1 percent per day, yielding a battery which is approximately 80 percent discharged after just six months. The discharge condition of the battery causes the battery's plates to sulfate, resulting in a shortened battery life. It has been found that batteries allowed to self-discharge for six month periods usually have a life of about two years or about 1/3 the normal life expectancy and then must be replaced.
Diesel engines are popular since diesel engines can extract up to 50 percent greater energy from the same cost of fuel as compared to gasoline engines. Due to the high compression ratios of the diesel engines, they require very large battery packs for starting. These large battery packs are very costly, making it important to extend the battery life as long as possible.
Known battery charging system devices and methods include such apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,031 to Eberts (Vehicle Power Supply for Battery Charging and Load Supply); U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,855 to Edlund et al. (Electric Heating and Battery Charging System for Motor Vehicle); U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,547 to Poole (Electric Vehicle Charger Shut-Off Interlock System); U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,856 to Johnson, Jr. (Battery Charging System); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,431 to Nee (Automatic Power Connector for Recharging Electric Vehicles).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,688 to Mystry et al. suggest that over time, the common lead-acid battery cell corrodes at the positive cell electrode due to the oxidizing conditions resulting from the repeated application of charging current to the cell. Mystry et al. No. '688 suggests minimizing the oxidization of the plates of electrolytic battery cells during flow charge by the application of a small additional current.
Other known mechanisms include "Off-Season Automatic Battery Maintainers" which suggest a wall-mount mechanism for maintaining full charge in a battery during long storage periods. The battery maintainer is wall mounted and plugs into a 120 volt outlet. Battery clamps are provided for coupling the maintainer to the vehicle battery. The battery maintainer provides a 1/2 amp to 1 amp charge as needed to the battery.
The disadvantage of present off-the-shelf battery maintainers is that they are not application specific. They have a preset maintenance current, which may result in maintaining small motorcycle batteries at far too high a current level, thereby destroying the motorcycle battery in a single off season. Likewise, the same battery maintainer may be unable to maintain large battery packs found in large agricultural tractors, resulting in discharge and battery sulfation. Further, no monitoring and control is built into the battery maintainers to prevent the above-stated problems from occurring.
Due to the high replacement cost of batteries and the environmental sensitivity to lead-based and other types of batteries, it is desirable to extend the life of these batteries. It is desirable to have an apparatus for providing a seasonal-use battery with a small amount of current equal to the battery's self-discharge current during storage, extending the battery life and preventing battery sulfation. Further, it is desirable to provide a battery life extender and control apparatus which is integrated into the existing battery charging system of the seasonal-use device, including the seasonal-use device control and display system, and which is application specific.


Methods and systems are provided for maintaining fluid pressure control of a well bore 30 drilled through a subterranean formation using a drilling rig 25 and a drill string 50, whereby a kick may be circulated out of the well bore and/or a kill fluid may be circulated into the well bore, at a kill rate that may be varied. A programmable controller 100 may be included to control execution of a circulation/kill procedure whereby a mud pump 90 and/or a well bore choke 70 may be regulated by the controller. One or more sensors may be interconnected with the controller to sense well bore pressure conditions and/or pumping conditions. Statistical process control techniques may also be employed to enhance process control by the controller. The controller 100 may further execute routine determinations of circulating kill pressures at selected kill rates. The controller may control components utilized in the circulation/kill procedure so as to maintain a substantially constant bottom hole pressure on the formation while executing the circulation/kill procedure.

The present invention relates to drilling subterranean well bores of the type commonly used for oil or gas wells. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved method and system for regaining hydrostatic fluid pressure control of a well bore after the well bore receives an influx of fluid from the formation. The methods and system of this invention may facilitate more timely circulation of the fluid influx out of the wellbore while circulating a more dense fluid into the well bore to regain hydrostatic control of the well bore.
Drilling subterranean wells typically includes circulating a drilling fluid (xe2x80x9cmudxe2x80x9d) through a drilling fluid circulation system (xe2x80x9csystemxe2x80x9d). The circulation system may include a drilling rig and mud treating equipment located substantially at the surface. The drilling fluid may be pumped by a mud pump through the interior passage of a drill string, through a drill bit and back to the surface of the well bore through the annulus between the well bore and the drill pipe.
A primary function of drilling mud is to maintain hydrostatic fluid pressure control of fluids in the formations penetrated by the well bore. Weighting agents may be added to a mud to achieve the desired mud density. Traditional overbalanced drilling techniques typically practice maintaining a hydrostatic fluid pressure on the formation equal to or slightly overbalanced with respect to formation fluid pressure (xe2x80x9cpore pressurexe2x80x9d), both when circulating and when not circulating the mud. In underbalanced drilling techniques, hydrostatic pressure in the well bore is maintained at least slightly lower than formation pore pressure by the mud, supplemented with surface well control equipment. If the wellbore encounters a zone having a higher pore pressure than the hydrostatic fluid pressure in the mud, an influx of formation fluid may be introduced into the wellbore. Such occurrence is known as taking a xe2x80x9ckick.xe2x80x9d
In the well bore drilling industry, it is common practice to frequently during the course of drilling the wellbore, measure and record slow mud pump rates and corresponding pump circulation pressures required to circulate the mud at the reduced rate with the mud pumps. Such measurements may be made at such rates as may be used in circulating a kick out of the well bore, e.g., one-half to one-third of the normal circulation rate. Additional determinations may also be performed, including the cumulative number of pump strokes required to circulate the hole.
When a kick is taken, the invading formation liquid and/or gas may xe2x80x9ccutxe2x80x9d the density of the drilling fluid in the well bore annulus, such that as more formation fluid enters the wellbore, hydrostatic control of the wellbore may be lost. Such occurrence may be noted at the drilling rig in the form of a change in pressure in the wellbore annulus, changes in mud density, and/or a gain in drilling fluid volume in the mud system tanks (xe2x80x9cpit volumexe2x80x9d).
Typically when a kick is detected or suspected, mud circulation is halted and the well bore closed in/shut in to measure the pressure buildup in the well bore annulus, pit gain and shut-in drill pipe pressure. Appropriate well-killing calculations may also be performed while the well is closed in. Thereafter, a known well killing procedure may be followed to circulate the kick out of the well bore, circulate an appropriately weighed mud (xe2x80x9ckill mudxe2x80x9d) into the well bore, and ensure that well control has been safely regained.
One of the most common techniques for killing the well and circulating an appropriate kill fluid is the xe2x80x9cconstant bottom hole pressurexe2x80x9d method, whereby bottom hole pressure may be maintained substantially at or above formation pore pressure. Two variations of this method exist. The first variation may be known commonly as the xe2x80x9cDriller""s method.xe2x80x9d The Driller""s method may be utilized when kill weight fluid is not yet available for circulation. In the Driller""s method, the original mud weight may be used to circulate the contaminating fluids from the well bore. Thereafter, kill weight mud (xe2x80x9cKWMxe2x80x9d) may be circulated into the drill pipe and the well bore. Although two circulations may be required to effectuate the driller""s method, the driller""s method variation may be quicker than the subsequently discussed variation.
The second variation of the Constant Drill Pipe Pressure method may be commonly known as the xe2x80x9cwait and weightxe2x80x9d method, or the xe2x80x9cEngineer""sxe2x80x9d method. In the xe2x80x9cwait and weightxe2x80x9d method, KWM is prepared and then circulated down the drill string and into the well bore to remove the contaminating fluids from the well bore and to kill the well, in one circulation. This method may be preferable in that this method may maintain the lowest casing pressure during circulating the kick from the well bore and may thereby minimize the risk of damaging the casing or fracturing the formation and creating an underground blowout.
A substantially constant bottom hole pressure may be maintained in both methods. In either method, pressure on the casing and/or drill pipe may be controlled by adjusting a choke conducting mud from the casing to a mud reservoir. In addition, to further control pressure the mud pump rate may be maintained at one of the previously measured rates and corresponding pressures. In the Driller""s method, a constant drill pipe pressure may be maintained during the first circulation, which may include the shut-in drill pipe pressure (xe2x80x9cSIDPPxe2x80x9d) plus the slow rate pump pressure, plus a nominal safety factor, e.g., fifty psig. During the second circulation, the casing pressure may be held constant while the KWM is circulated to the bit, and then the drill pipe pressure held constant while the KWM is circulated from the bit to the surface.
In the xe2x80x9cwait and weightxe2x80x9d method, a substantially constant bottom hole pressure may be maintained during the one circulation of KWM. KWM may be circulated down the drill string while maintaining drill pipe pressure at a calculated, pre-determined pressure schedule while the mud pump is maintained at a constant rate. The drill pipe pressure may gradually decrease as KWM is circulated to the bit. After KWM reaches the bit, the drill pipe pressure may be held constant until the KWM reaches the surface.
A combination method is known which may combine portions of each of the above two methods. After the well is shut-in and the pressures recorded, pumping of original weight mud may begin while the original weight mud is being weighted up to KWM, as the kick is being pumped out of the well bore.
Each of the aforementioned methods may be time consuming and may require extensive planning, calculations, monitoring, human intervention and/or coordinated regulation of components, rates and pressures during execution of the respective method. In addition, each method typically uses a substantially constant pump rate in order to maintain control of the process during execution of the respective method. The wait and weight method also may require constructing a graphical or tabular pumping schedule of pump pressure versus volume pumped, to follow during the procedure. Further, in the event it becomes necessary to change pumping rates and/or interrupt pumping during execution of the kill procedure, it frequently may be necessary to record new shut-in pressures, new circulating pressures, and recalculate a new pumping and/or pressure schedule. A key component of each method may be adhering to a substantially constant pump rate during the procedure and maintaining a substantially constant bottom hole pressure.
Typically, the intent of the operator is to hold pump rate constant, and only change the pump rate after circulation has started if some excessive or undesirable condition arises. For example, when a circulated kick enters long, narrow, and/or restrictive choke lines, such as may be encountered with a deepwater floating rig. In anticipation of this, the operator may collect slow circulation data at up to three discrete rates.
Following completion of the kill procedure, new pressure readings should be taken, wherein the well may be under hydrostatic control, such that the casing pressure may read substantially zero psig. In the event the shut-in casing pressure and/or drill pipe pressure may not be zero psig, it may be necessary to repeat the kill procedure. A kill procedure may be deficient at completely regaining well control due to inaccurate previous pressure readings, changes in pumping rate during execution resulting in an influx of additional contaminating fluids, and/or otherwise failing to maintain a substantially constant bottom hole pressure in excess of formation pore pressure. A failure to maintain a constant bottom hole pressure may result from miscommunication, erroneous operation of the choke, procedural miscalculations, and/or other inappropriate equipment operation during the procedure.
The amount of human intervention required, including the substantial gathering of rate and pressure information, calculating and scheduling a kill procedure, maintaining a constant pump rate, and coordinating the operation of equipment to maintain the appropriate surface pressures and constant bottom hole pressure are each disadvantages of the prior art.
An improved method is desired for conducting a well killing procedure in a more timely fashion and with greater precision and efficiency than may be possible under existing methods. A method is also desired which may provide for varying the pump rate during the kill procedure without having to shut down and determine a revised pressure and rate pumping schedule.
The disadvantages of prior art are overcome by the present invention. An improved method and system for more accurately controlling well bore hydrostatic pressure are described herein.
This invention has particular utility in controlling hydrostatic and formation pressures within a well bore. More particularly, this invention may facilitate improvements over prior art in facilitating regaining hydrostatic control of the well bore in a more timely fashion and with improved process control therein. This invention provides methods and systems for circulating a kick out of a well bore and regaining hydrostatic control of the well bore with the ability to vary the pump rate. Thereby, a kick may be circulated from within the well bore and KWM circulated, both in a more timely fashion and with improved process control, as compared to prior art.
A control system may be provided which may monitor and/or record one or more selected drilling parameters and which may also provide automated control of a kill procedure. During drilling the well bore, on a regularly scheduled basis, such as each day, or each crew change, or each particular footage drilled, the control system may obtain and record information pertaining to selected drilling parameters which may be useful in executing a well killing procedure. The control system may record selected pressures, pump rates, and pit volumes in the mud system. Thereby, when a kick is taken, the control system may be relied upon to effectively determine the procedure for circulating the kick from the hole and for circulating the KWM, and then to controllably execute the procedure.
In addition, the control system may facilitate selectively modifying the kill procedure in response to changes or interruptions in the pumping schedule. Thereby, the pump rate utilized during execution of the kill procedure may be selectively varied and/or interrupted while maintaining a substantially constant bottom hole pressure, at or above the formation pore pressure.
It is an object of this invention to provide methods and systems for regaining hydrostatic control of a well bore subsequent to taking a kick, by pumping at a variable pump rate.
It is a feature of this invention to provide methods and systems for regaining hydrostatic control of a well bore subsequent to taking a kick by closing in the well bore annulus with a BOP and a choke on a return fluid flow line, and use a programmable controller to operate at least the choke to maintain a substantially constant bottom hole pressure within the well bore while pumping a kill fluid.
It is a feature of this invention to routinely at selected intervals, automatically measure and record drill pipe circulation pressure for a range of mud pump circulation rates.
It is also a feature of this invention to thereby determine the appropriate drill pipe circulation pressure required to maintain a substantially constant bottom hole pressure, at any point in the kill procedure and at any circulation rate which may be in effect at the time.
It is a feature of this invention to selectively use any of a wide continuum of circulation rates while circulating a kick out of the wellbore, and to vary the rate as desired while pumping the kick out. Selection of pump rate may be made manually by an operator, or automatically by a control system, or both.
It is an advantage of this invention to utilize a control system and sensed measurements of one or more drilling parameters to monitor, control and execute the kill procedure.
It is also an advantage of this invention to expedite circulating a kick out of a well bore, thereby decreasing the time required to regain well control and decreasing well bore drilling costs.
It is further an advantage of this invention to improve control of operable equipment during the procedure by utilizing a control system to regulate pump rates and choke position.
Yet another advantage of this invention is to decrease the potential for creating too much hydrostatic pressure in the well bore and fracturing the formation.
It is an additional advantage of this invention to improve the safety of circulating a kick from a well bore and killing the well, by utilizing a programmable control system. The control system may consider sensed measurements of well bore and drill string pressures, circulation rates, mud weight, well bore dimensions, and thereby determine an optimum kill procedure and thereafter controllably execute the procedure with reduced potential for miscalculation or manual control errors.
These and further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, wherein reference is made to figure in the accompanying drawing.

Method and system for controlling well bore pressure


The present invention provides DNA molecules isolated from corn and sorghum plants that are useful for expressing transgenes in plants. The present invention also provides expression constructs containing the DNA molecules useful for expressing transgenes in plants. The present invention also provides transgenic plants and seeds containing the DNA molecules useful for expressing transgenes in plants.

While previous work has provided a number of regulatory elements useful to affect gene expression in transgenic plants, there is still a great need for novel regulatory elements with beneficial expression characteristics. In particular, there is a need for regulatory elements that are capable of directing expression of transgenes in transgenic crop plants at high levels and in particular tissues, organs, or during specific developmental stages of plant growth.
Useful regulatory elements can be isolated from genes having a desired pattern and/or level of expression of the gene. Silk of certain monocots such as maize plays an important role in many physiologically important processes such as determination of fertilization rate and susceptibility to insects or certain plant diseases. Regulatory elements from genes that are preferentially expressed in plant silk can be utilized for modifying plant phenotypes by expression transgene controlled by such elements. The hydroxyproline rich glycoprotein (HRGP) gene is one of many genes that is preferentially expressed in plant silk (Hood, E., Murphy, J. & Pendleton; Plant Molecular Biology; 23:685-695, 1993 and Raz, R., Cretin, C., Puigdomenech, P. & Martiez-Izquierdo, J.; Plant Molecular Biolgy; 16: 365-367, 1991). Corn and sorghum genes were used for isolating regulatory elements of the present invention to obtain a desired expression pattern of a transgene as presented here.


A rotary machine control apparatus controlling a drive of a rotary machine that has multiple winding groups is provided. The rotary machine control apparatus includes electric power converters in multiple systems, a failure detection portion, and a control portion. An electric power converter has switching elements in an upper arm and a lower arm and converts DC power. The failure detection portion detects a failure of an electric power converter or a winding group. The control portion calculates a current command value and a maximum current limit value, and controls an output to the electric power converter. The control portion stops the output to the electric power converter in a failure system, and the control portion increases the maximum current limit value with respect to the output to an electric power converter in a normal system.

Patent literature 1: JP 2013-048524 A
Conventionally, a control apparatus of a rotary machine is known. The control apparatus includes electric power converters in multiple systems and controls energization to corresponding multiple winding groups. When either of the systems gets out of order, the control apparatus drives the rotary machine only with an electric power converter and a winding group in a normal system is known.
For example, a control apparatus for a multiple-phase rotary machine described in patent literature 1 controls an output of electric power converter when a short circuit failure occurs in an electric power converter or a winding group in either one of two systems. In this case, the control apparatus in patent literature 1 stops an output to an electric power converter of a failure system and sets an output limit value of the output to an electric power converter of a normal system smaller as the rotation number of the rotary machine is greater. The processing is performed in order to prevent the electric power converter and the winding wire in the failure system from excessively generating heat due to a counter electromotive voltage generated in the failure system accompanied with a rotation of the rotary machine.
The inventors of the present disclosure have found the following.
When a shirt circuit failure occurs in one of systems, a braking torque against a driving may generate in the rotary machine due to the counter electromotive voltage, which is generated in the failure system accompanied with the rotation of the rotary machine. Thus, at the time of the driving only with the normal system, so that the rotary machine outputs a required torque similar to a normal driving condition, it may be necessary to send current to the electronic power converter in the normal system greater than the normal driving condition for compensating the lowering of the torque by the braking torque. Incidentally, the normal driving condition is a condition where the two systems function normally.
Patent literature 1 may focus on a prevention of heat generation in the failure system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A voltage conversion circuit includes: a first voltage conversion unit configured to perform voltage conversion on an input signal, the voltage conversion causing a predetermined delay time, and supply a resultant signal as a first converted signal; a second voltage conversion unit configured to perform voltage conversion on the input signal, the voltage conversion causing a delay time that is different from the predetermined delay time, and supply a resultant signal as a second converted signal; and an output unit configured to generate and output an output signal corresponding to the first and second converted signals in a matching period of time in which voltages of the first converted signal and the second converted signal are matched with each other, and continuously output the output signal in a period of time excluding the matching period of time, the output signal being output in the matching period of time.

The present disclosure relates to a voltage conversion circuit and an electronic circuit. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a voltage conversion circuit and an electronic circuit for voltage conversion causing a delay time.
In the past, semiconductor integrated circuits such as LSI (Large Scale Integration) have been managed in many cases by being divided into a plurality of regions (hereinafter, referred to as "power-supply domains") with different power-supply voltages in order to efficiently use power. In such semiconductor integrated circuits, a level converter that converts the voltage of a signal is provided between the power-supply domains in order to propagate the signal accurately. The level converter includes a plurality of logic inversion elements such as inverters. Those logic inversion elements may have differences in delay time between a rising edge and a falling edge. So, there is a risk that a period of time from the rising edge to the falling edge of the signal with the changed voltage varies as compared to the case before the conversion. Such a variation is desirably small in terms of preventing malfunction of the circuit.
In this regard, in order to reduce the variation in the period of time from the rising edge to the falling edge, a level shifter is proposed which includes two voltage shifter circuits connected to an input-side circuit in parallel (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-105277). Those two voltage shifter circuits convert voltages of input clock signals and generate output clock signals having different delay times of the rising edge and the falling edge. Those voltage shifter circuits have respective output terminals connected to an output-side circuit in common and output a clock signal of a logical value of a so-called wired OR (logical sum).

Voltage conversion circuit and electronic circuit


A personal computing device comprising: a processor, an onboard memory, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a display; a computer program to create an exercise analysis application comprising: a software module configured to receive data from the accelerometer and the gyroscope that are associated with the bodily motion of a user in three dimensions; a software module configured to place the device in a learning mode, the learning mode comprising recording the data of the user performing a defined exercise to generate a statistical model for the exercise; a software module configured to place the device in a normal mode, the normal mode comprising applying a probabilistic analysis to the bodily motion data to identify an exercise event, classify the exercise by comparison to a recorded model; and a software module configured to apply an analysis to the bodily motion data to score the user's exercise form.

Physical fitness is beneficial to a person in various aspects. As an example, physical fitness decreases risk of diseases, helps avoid injury, and improves life quality. Body flexibility, muscular strength, baseline metabolic rate, cardiovascular endurance, and body fat ratio are exemplary indexes of physical fitness. Physical exercises play a significant role in maintaining and improving a person's physical fitness. Physical exercises also work in alleviating work or life-related stress. As an example, weight training specifically provides many functional benefits; it strengths muscles to improve posture and provide better support for joints. Furthermore, weight training increases muscle mass, which in turn induces elevation in the baseline metabolism; a higher rate promotes long-term fat loss and lowering risk of chronic obesity-related diseases.

Portable computing device and analyses of personal data captured therefrom


An endless metal belt resistant to failure due to stress induced by bending contains an internal stress gradient of radially outward increasing compressive stress which opposes external stress applied to the belt. The belt can be made by an electroforming process. While electroforming, at least one operating parameter selected from bath temperature, current density, agitation, and stress reducer concentration is adjusted to cause the internal stress to gradually increase, compressively, from the radially inner surface of the belt to the radially outer surface of the belt. The internal stress preferably increases at a substantially constant rate and may range from about 160,000 psi tensile at the inner surface to about 120,000 psi compressive at the outer surface.

Endless belts are commonly used for applications wherein they are subjected to high stress. In particular, endless metal belts which are used to transmit force in a pulley system such as a continuously-variable transmission (CVT) system or which repeatedly pass over any other sets of rollers such as in a belt-based photocopier are commonly exposed to a high degree of tensile stress and compressive stress. For example, when a belt is flexed, the outside surface of the belt is subjected to tensile stress, while the inside surface of the belt is subjected to compressive stress. Thus, there is a need to design a belt which is sufficiently strong to withstand these tensile and compressive stresses during operation of a system wherein a large number of flexures of the belt occur.
Failure of a member such as a belt occurs if one exceeds the tensile strength or the compressive strength of that member. In particular, a member may fail if the member breaks from a given stress (i.e., exceeding the ultimate tensile strength) such as, for example, 65,000 to 150,000 psi for a nickel belt. A member may also fail if it becomes permanently deformed (i.e., when the yield strength is exceeded). In an endless belt which is flexed, e.g., around rollers, at the point of maximum flexure the belt is subjected to both tensile stress and compressive stress, which leads to relatively rapid failure in a conventional belt. In particular, the radially outer surface of the belt is tensilely stressed, while the radially inner surface of the belt is compressively stressed. This is expressed by the following mathematical relationship: EQU S=(Y.times.w)/r
wherein
S is the stress at any point in the belt;
Y is Young's modulus for the belt material;
w is the radial distance from the neutral plane of operational stress (i.e., the radially central plane of the belt) to the point of the belt (i.e., one-half the thickness of the belt) to a point on the outer surface of the belt) where tensile stress is at a maximum; and
r is the radius of the roller.
The value of w is positive moving radially outwardly from the neutral plane, leading to a positive (tensile) S; its value is negative moving radially inward from the neutral plane, leading to a negative (compressive) S.
To design a belt which is not prone to failure, it is necessary to keep the stress which develops in the belt (S) less than the yield stress which is known for that belt material. For example, the tensile yield stress of nickel may range from 50,000 to 85,000 psi. Therefore, the belt should have a maximum tensile stress of less than 50,000 psi in operation. However, the Young's modulus for nickel is 30,000,000, and thus to achieve a maximum tensile stress of, for example, 45,000 psi on the outer surface of a belt 0.003 inches thick, a roller with a 1 inch radius is required. This size roller is not advantageous for many of the intended uses of the belt of this invention. In a CVT application, for example, the belt may be required to carry an additional several thousand psi in use. Even in a copier, photoreceptor belts are typically tensilely stressed to about two thousand psi to insure that they run flat and grip the drive rollers, (e.g., a 0.001 inch thick belt which is 10 inches wide which is carrying a 50 pound load is under 5,000 psi tensile load before it is bent over a roller). These stresses are additive, thus causing one to use either thinner belts or bigger rollers. However, bigger rollers take up more space, weigh more and are more costly. Thinner belts are harder to handle without damage and are limited as to how much they can do. Thus, a method of forming a belt which can be used on a much smaller roller is desirable.
The use of a smaller roller is highly advantageous because it requires less material, weight and space, and thus lends itself to applications wherein miniaturization is desirable. A method of forming a thick belt for use on large radius rollers is also desirable, but such arrangements generally fail because of the large amount of tensile stress in the outer surface of a thick belt. Such a method is particularly useful in the design of photoreceptors which employ self stripping rollers. To self strip paper generally requires a 0.5 inch roller (0.25 radius); most paper will self strip off a 0.75 inch roller. Self-stripping is particularly useful because it eliminates stripper fingers which may cause premature failure of photoreceptors. However, this means that one is required to use belt photoreceptors which are very thin. One can just handle a 0.002 inch thick photoreceptor which is 3.3 inches in diameter, while 0.003 to 0.004 inches in thickness is required for a photoreceptor which is 10 inches in diameter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,458 to Herbert et al. discloses an electroforming process for forming a multilayer endless metal belt assembly which includes forming increasingly compressively stressed successive belts on a mandrel, and assembling the belts to form a multilayer belt assembly. As the belts are removed from the mandrel, the compressive stress is relaxed, creating a precisely controlled gap between adjacent belts. The belt assembly so formed is particularly useful as a driving member for a continuously-variable transmission.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,646 to Herbert discloses an electroforming process for forming hollow articles having a small cross-sectional area. This patent discloses an electroformed belt having a thickness of at least about 30.ANG. and stress-strain hysteresis of at least about 0.00015 in./in., and wherein a tensile stress of between about 40,000 psi and about 80,000 psi is imparted to a previously cooled coating to permanently deform the coating and to render the length of the inner perimeter of the coating incapable of contracting to less than 0.04% greater than the length of the outer perimeter of the core mandrel after cooling. Any suitable metal capable of being deposited by electroforming and having a coefficient of expansion between about 6.times.10.sup.-6 to 10.times.10.sup.-6 in./in./.degree.F. may be used in the process.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,587 to Kreckel discloses a method for electroforming relatively smooth seamless nickel, cobalt or nickel-cobalt alloy foil cylinders from an electrolyte for nickel or cobalt, the method comprising slowly increasing the current density from zero to its ultimate current density at the start up of the plating cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,204 to Sexton discloses an orifice plate for use in ink jet printing which includes a first elongated lamina composed of electroformed metal or metal-alloy having a tensile or compressive stress condition and a second elongated lamina composed of metal or metalalloy electroformed onto the first lamina and having a counterbalancing stress condition. The electroformed plate has the following characteristics: 1) it operates effectively in longer array formats with planar wave stimulation; 2) it provides a plate construction with an increased thickness while maintaining a high flatness for the array surface; and 3) it has enhanced acoustic stiffness.
When an electroforming process is used to produce compressively stressed belts, they will generally have an inherent increasingly compressive stress gradient. Examples of such uncontrolled internal stress gradients are depicted as curves A and B in the graph shown in FIG. 1, based on a nickel electroforming bath and a chromium mandrel. Curve A depicts the stress gradient formed in a deposit on a normal chromium tank-finished mandrel. Curve B depicts the stress gradient formed in a deposit on a ground-finished mandrel. As shown by the manner in which both curves descend quickly, in electroformed compressive belts of the prior art, the initial deposit is tensilely stressed, but very quickly and uncontrollably becomes compressively stressed. Shortly after the deposit becomes compressively stressed, the internal stress levels off, and the degree of internal compressive stress over time remains fairly constant after the first few minutes.

Process for preparing selectively stressed endless belts


An ink composition for ink jet recording is provided which can realize a good image even on plain paper, specifically an image having high print density and no significant feather or bleeding. A carbon black having on its surface a cationic group is utilized as a colorant. Further, use of this colorant in combination with a color ink containing an anionic material, for example, an anionic dye can realize a good color image free from color-to-color bleeding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink for ink jet recording and an ink set comprising the same.
2. Background Art
An ink jet recording system is a method wherein an ink is ejected as droplets through fine nozzles and deposited on a recording medium to record thereon letters, figures, and images.
Examples of the ink jet recording system include methods, which have been put to practical use, such as a method wherein an ink is ejected utilizing vibration of a piezoelectric element and a method wherein an ink is ejected utilizing foaming created by rapidly applying heat to the ink. In recent years, the ink jet recording method has rapidly spread because use of a thermal transfer, sublimation, or laser method has offered advantages including easy formation of color images, low cost, and low running cost.
Inks used in such ink jet recording are required to have the following various properties according to the nature of the recording methods.
(1) High-quality images should be yielded on specialty paper (coated paper, gloss paper, films, and clothes treated for use in ink jet recording), as well as on plain paper (paper not subjected to any special surface treatment and including copying paper, reporting paper, bond paper, and letter paper, generally used in offices, schools, households and the like).
(2) The ink should be rapidly fixed, making it possible to realize high-speed printing.
(3) The ink should be less likely to clog nozzles and hence should be stably ejected without droplet trajectory directionality and dropout problems.
(4) The ink should realize images possessing excellent lightfastness and waterproofness.
(5) The ink should have good long-term storage stability.
In particular, for the requirement (1), an ink composition is demanded which can realize an image having no significant feather or bleeding on plain paper. There are various types of plain paper which are different from one another in surface state (density, length, penetration and the like of paper fibers). Therefore, feathering or bleeding is created in paper having good ink penetration. On the other hand, in paper having poor ink penetration, the drying of the printed image is so slow that, at the time of color printing, inks create color to color bleeding at boundaries therebetween, resulting in deteriorated print quality.
For the requirement (4), utilization of a pigment, such as carbon black, has been attempted from the viewpoint of waterproofness and lightfastness of printed images. For ink compositions for ink jet recording, water is used as a main solvent from the viewpoint of safety. Therefore, in order to provide a good ink composition for ink jet recording, a pigment, which is essentially insoluble in water, should be stably dispersed in water.
On the other hand, International Patent Publications WO 96/18688, WO 96/18689 and WO 96/18696 disclose a modified carbon black which has been rendered stable water-dispersion. In the present specification, the modified carbon black described in the above publications will be hereinafter referred to simply as "modified carbon black." These publications do not disclose any advantage associated with the use of the modified carbon black as a colorant for an ink composition for ink jet recording.

Ink composition for ink jet recording and ink set


A selective hydrogenation catalyst composition comprises a support; a first metal component comprising rhodium; and a second metal component comprising a metal other than rhodium and selected from Groups 1 to 15 of the Periodic Table of Elements, wherein said first and second components are predominantly contained in an outer surface layer of the support having a depth of not more than 1000 microns.

Light olefins, such as ethylene, propylene and butylenes, can be produced using various processes such as steam cracking, fluid catalytic cracking, conversion of methanol to olefins, paraffin dehydrogenation, alcohol dehydration, methane coupling and Fischer Tropsch reactions. However, these processes often produce varying levels of acetylenic and/or diene by-products, such as acetylene, methyl acetylene (MA), propadiene (PD), butyne and butadiene. These by-products must be removed from the light olefin streams because they can act as poisons to the downstream processing catalysts, such as polymerization catalysts. The preferred method of removing these by-products is by selective hydrogenation in which, for example, acetylene is converted to ethylene, methyl acetylene and propadiene are converted to propylene, and butyne and butadiene are converted to butylenes.
Currently, the commercial catalysts used for this selective hydrogenation comprise nickel or palladium, such as palladium and silver, on an alumina support. However, in addition to producing the desired olefin products, these catalysts tend to generate significant quantities of saturates (for example, ethane, propane and butanes) as a result of over-hydrogenation and green oil (olefin oligomers) as a result of competing oligomerization reactions. Both of these by-products are undesirable in that they reduce the selectivity to the required light olefins. However, the green oil is particularly problematic in that it decreases the life of the hydrogenation catalyst.
There is therefore a need for an improved catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of alkynes and diolefins, wherein the catalyst exhibits increased olefin selectivity and reduced selectivity to saturates and oligomers, such as green oil, while retaining high hydrogenation activity.
U.S Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0068843 discloses a catalyst for selectively hydrogenating acetylenic and diolefinic compounds with low green oil formation, the catalyst comprising the following active components loaded on a porous inorganic support: (1) at least one of platinum, palladium, nickel, ruthenium, cobalt, and rhodium; (2) at least one of silver, copper, zinc, potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, beryllium, tin, lead, strontium, barium, radium, iron, manganese, zirconium, molybdenum, and germanium; (3) at least one rare earth metal selected from scandium, yttrium, and Lanthanides in Group IIIB of Periodic Table of Elements; and (4) bismuth. Preferably, component (1) is platinum or palladium; component (2) is silver, potassium, or sodium; and component (3) is lanthanum or neodymium.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,548 discloses a method for selectively hydrogenating a feed comprising an acetylenic compound and/or a diolefin in the presence of a catalyst comprising at least one support, at least one Group VIII metal selected from nickel, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium and iridium and at least one additional element M selected from germanium, tin, lead, rhenium, gallium, indium, thallium, gold, and silver, wherein the catalyst is formed by introducing said additional element M into an aqueous solvent in the form of at least one water-soluble organometallic compound comprising at least one carbon-M bond. The preferred Group VIII metals are nickel, palladium and platinum and the preferred additional elements M are germanium, tin, gold, and silver.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,356,851 and 5,364,998 disclose a catalyst and a process for the selective hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds, wherein the catalyst contains 0.1 to 10% of at least one Group VIII metal selected from nickel, palladium, platinum, rhodium and ruthenium and 0.01 to 10% of at least one Group IIIA metal selected from gallium and indium, the metals being deposited on a support. The preferred Group VIII metals are nickel, palladium and platinum.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/720,617, filed Nov. 24, 2003 filed concurrently herewith, describes a catalyst and process for selectively hydrogenating alkynes and/or diolefins, wherein the catalyst comprises support on which is deposited (a) a rhodium component present in an amount such that the catalyst composition comprises less than 3.0% of rhodium by weight of the total catalyst composition; and (b) an indium component present in an amount such that the catalyst composition comprises at least 0.4% and less than 5.0% of indium by weight of the total catalyst composition.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/720,558, filed Nov. 24, 2003, describes a catalyst and process for selectively hydrogenating alkynes and/or diolefins, wherein the catalyst comprises a support, at least two different metal components selected from Groups 8 to 10 of the Periodic Table of Elements, and at least one metal component selected from Group 13 of the Periodic Table of Elements. The metal components can be added to the support by impregnation or co-precipitation.
In addition to the types of metal used in the catalyst, the properties of supported catalysts such as those described above may vary significantly depending on the distribution of the metal(s) in the catalysts. For example, the metal(s) may be substantially uniformly distributed throughout the support, can be located within a thin layer at the support surface (commonly referred to as eggshell), can be located at the center of the support (commonly referred to as egg yolk), or can be concentrated between the outer edge and the center of the support (commonly referred to as egg white).
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,377 discloses a catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of butadiene that comprises 0.01 to 1 weight % palladium which is at least partially-through or deep-impregnated to a depth of at least 0.12 inch on a kieselguhr support.
In contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,933 discloses a supported hydrogenation catalyst composition which comprises a palladium component, at least one alkali metal iodide such as, for example, potassium iodide, and an inorganic support material such as alumina, wherein the palladium component is concentrated in an area within about 150 microns of the exterior surface of the composition.
In addition, a supported rhodium catalyst is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,420 in which active rhodium metal is provided on a silica type or titania type support such that the rhodium is present within a depth of about 0.4 mm of the surface of the support. The catalyst optionally contains one or more co-catalysts including alkaline earth metals, such as calcium, magnesium, barium and the like, noble metals, such as platinum, palladium, iridium, ruthenium, gold and the like, iron, nickel, cobalt, cerium and manganese.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,647 discloses a catalyst for selectively hydrogenating C4-acetylenes in a liquid hydrocarbon stream containing largely butadiene wherein the catalyst comprises an inorganic oxide support having dispersed thereon finely divided copper metal and an activator metal selected from nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, manganese, and a combination thereof where the copper metal and activator metal are dispersed on the support using impregnation where the volume of the impregnating solution is less than that required to fill the pore volume resulting in at least 50 weight % of the copper metal and the activator metal being dispersed on the outer 200 micron layer of the support.

Catalyst and process for selective hydrogenation


A system for use in a combined cycle or rankine cycle power plant using an air-cooled steam condenser is provided and includes a steam turbine from which first and second steam supplies are outputted at high and low respective pressures, an air-cooled condenser configured to fluidly receive and to air-cool at least the first steam supply via a supply of air, a cooling tower from which a first water supply is cycled, a chilling coil through which a second water supply water is cycled to thereby cool the supply of air, and a vapor-absorption-machine (VAM) configured to fluidly receive the second steam supply and the first water supply by which a refrigeration cycle is conducted to thereby cool the second water supply.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention are directed to a system and a method for use in a combined cycle or rankine cycle power plant and, more particularly, to a system and a method for use in a combined cycle or rankine cycle power plant with an air-cooled steam condenser to improve an efficiency thereof.
2. Description of the Background
For combined cycle power plants to be used in water scare regions of the world an air cooled condenser is installed due to unavailability of water. The air-cooled condenser having cooling limitation and imparts a penalty on the performance of the power plant.
This problem has been addressed in some cases, by using an auxiliary air cooled condenser on particularly hot days. In still other cases, air cooled condensers are installed in combined cycle power plants including an auxiliary fin fan cooler which will be operated during hot days to reduce extra load for the air cooled condenser.

System and method for use in a combined cycle or rankine cycle power plant using an air-cooled steam condenser


The invention relates to a moisture management sock and shoe. The sock includes a multi-layer moisture-wicking panel extending from a front ankle portion of the sock to a front toe portion of the sock. The moisture wicking panel is generally coextensive with an area of the foot covered by the tongue of a shoe. First and second single layer air circulation channels are formed in the sock, and extend along opposing sides of the moisture-wicking panel from the front ankle portion to the front toe portion of the sock. A moisture-management shoe includes a shoe tongue, a toe box area, and a moisture wicking inner liner residing adjacent the tongue and the toe box area for moving moisture from the foot and through the shoe for evaporation.

This invention relates to the creation of a moisture managing environment for the foot by providing a sock and shoe with moisture-management characteristics. The sock and shoe, when worn together, produce a relatively moisture-free environment for the foot by transporting a maximum amount of moisture away from the sock and shoe for eventual dissipation to the atmosphere. The invention is especially suited for athletic or sports dress, since the foot tends to perspire the most during periods of heavy activity. However, the sock and/or shoe of the present invention are likewise suited for those who naturally perspire heavily, or those who simply wish to maintain a drier environment for the foot.
Although it is preferred that the shoe and sock of the present invention be worn together for optimal wetness control, each garment can be worn separately for achieving a high degree of moisture-management. Accordingly, the moisture-management sock is designed to control the wetness of perspiration from the foot, regardless of the type shoe with which it is worn. Air circulation channels formed in the sock allow free passage of air into and out of the shoe to enhance moisture evaporation. Likewise, the moisture-management shoe is designed to remove wetness from the foot and sock, regardless of the sock with which it is worn. A moisture wicking liner in the shoe interior helps draw moisture from the sock, where it can be passed through the shoe and to the atmosphere.
By combining the features of the moisture-management sock and shoe, an environment is created which can provide significantly more effective moisture-management for the feet, beyond that created when either garment is worn separately. When the particular fabrics and components of the sock and shoe are in surface contact with each other, an integral system for moving moisture from the foot to the sock and through the shoe is developed. This overall system produces a novel "cover" for the foot which comprises a single moisture-moving composite.
In addition to the added comfort resulting from a relatively dry foot, the present invention helps retard the growth of harmful bacteria, fungus, and other related foot conditions. Athletes' foot is one such problem which can effect anyone, regardless of their exercise or recreation level. By providing a drier environment for the foot, this problem can be treated more effectively and cured much quicker.

Moisture-management sock and shoe for creating a moisture managing environment for the feet


Protective headwear having at least a hard-shell outer layer and a protective shock absorbing layer includes at least one LED illumination arrangement fitted into recesses in the protective layer and visible through an at least partially transparent area of the hardtop shell in any desired pattern or combination of lighting elements, the illumination arrangement including an optical member which serves to optically increase the viewing angle and at the same time deflect or distribute the force of impacts away from the LED and thereby decrease possible of LED penetration through the helmet and into the head of the wearer. A control circuit in the form of a multiple function integrated circuit controller in which the on/off times and sequences for individual LEDs is switchable, either by means of switches which can be operated by the wearer of the helmet, or during assembly by means of simple circuit components connected to appropriate input pins of the controller, so as to achieve any desired combination of special effects.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to protective headwear of the type designed to protect the head of the wearer by deflecting, distributing, or absorbing forces which would otherwise cause injury, and in particular to a helmet or hard hat illuminated by a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs).
2. Discussion of Related Art
The use of LEDs for illumination of protective headwear (including both helmets and hard hats) is known from a number of prior patents. However, while LEDs are relatively inexpensive in comparison with other types of lighting elements, such as electro-luminescent panels, conventional LED lighting arrangements present an number of problems in the context of protective headwear. These problems including difficulties in assembling the lighting arrangement to the headwear, making mass production at an acceptable cost impractical, and the potential for injuries caused by penetration of the LEDs into the head of the wearer during an impact. In addition, LEDs have a relatively narrow viewing angle in comparison with incandescent and electro-luminescent lighting elements, and thus are at present of limited utility for night time helmet applications where the goal is to make the wearer more visible to motorists and others.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,079, for example, discloses an illumination arrangement for a hard hat in which a plurality of LEDs are arranged in a single layer. The arrangement disclosed in this patent has a number of disadvantages common to all conventional lighting arrangements involving LEDs, including a relatively narrow viewing angle, limited display patterns, and relatively difficult assembly to the hard hat, particularly if area wide lighting is desired, such as might be the case if the lighting arrangement is used for advertising or promotional purposes. In addition, the LEDs present a serious risk of injury to the wearer of the hard hat because they could, during an impact, penetrate the head of the wearer, which could cause a terrible brain injury.
Another example of a prior art illuminated protective headwear arrangement, in this case a motorcycle helmet utilizing LEDs, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,210. Like the arrangement described in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,079, the arrangement described in this patent has the visibility disadvantages of conventional LED arrangements and also has the disadvantage of utilizing a relatively bulky housing construction which is exposed to breakage during impacts against the helmet and therefore presents a potential injury hazard to the wearer, only partially mitigated by the fact that the illumination housing is placed at the rear of the helmet.
More generally, non-protective headwear illumination arrangements are also disclosed in a number of prior patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,366, which discloses an area light for headwear. The illumination arrangement described in this patent utilizes the optical properties of a plastic panel to achieve a desired effect, but while the problem of narrow viewing angle is overcome by providing the optical panel, the structure of the illumination is complex and costly to assemble, and the safety problem is not even considered since this patent is not directed to protective headwear, but rather to a soft cap.
Another prior disclosure of a lighting arrangement for headwear in general is found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,572,210. This patent also does not involve protective headwear, and the lighting arrangement described therein would in fact not be suitable for protective headwear because it involves placement of incandescent glass bulbs on a visor, and therefore a serious risk of injury to the face, head, and brain. In addition, the use of incandescent lighting has the disadvantage of requiring a relatively large power supply.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,211 describes an illuminated visor structure using unspecified lighting means, but requiring a complicated housing structure which would be both impractical and hazardous to use in any type of headwear intended to serve a protective function.
Finally, British Patent Publication No. UK 0 166 534, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,327,587 and 5,426,792 describe lighting arrangements utilizing electro-luminescent lighting elements which, although possessing a number of advantages, are too expensive and use too much power at this time to be widely accepted by consumers in the type of protective headwear applications disclosed herein.

8F, No. 29, Alley 73, Lin-Shen Street, Shi-Chi Town


A power transmission belt has a body with a) a cushion rubber layer and b) a compression rubber layer disposed on the cushion rubber layer. The cushion rubber layer has load carrying cords embedded therein and a first rubber composition including a hydrogenated nitrile rubber, an unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt, silica, and inorganic peroxide. The compression rubber layer has a second rubber composition including a hydrogenated nitrile rubber, an unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt, and an organic peroxide.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to power transmission belts, and in particular, to power transmission belts having a laminar construction.
2. Background Art
It is known in the art to fabricate power transmission belts for automobile engines by embedding load carrying cords in a layer of chloroprene rubber. This method and these materials have been used to fabricate power transmission belts for use in the automobile industry for many years.
However, modem automobile engines are designed to operate at higher temperatures and at higher speeds than older automobile engines. As a consequence, demands are being put on the power transmission belts for these engines that cannot be met using the standard chloroprene rubber construction. Chloroprene rubber is known to cure easily in a high temperature environment, such as is found in a modern automobile engine compartment. This curing of the chloroprene rubber may lead to premature cracking in the belt, which may ultimately lead to premature belt failure.
Additionally, in such a high temperatures environment, chloroprene rubber has been known to fail to adequately adhere to the load carrying cords embedded therein. As a result, the chloroprene rubber may "peel" off the load carrying cords, causing the cords to "pop out", thereby potentially reducing the transmission belt life and leading to premature belt failure.
Moreover, transmission belts made from chloroprene rubber may not be able to withstand the side pressures exerted on the transmission belts by the pulleys into which the belt is fitted. The poor resistance to side pressure may result in a buckling deformation of the belt known as dishing. Dishing can make it impossible to effectively transmit power through the belt.
Many alternative materials have been tried in the art as alternatives to chloroprene rubber. For example, Japanese Laid Open Application No. 271,472/1993 discloses an alternative material formulated from a hydrogenated nitrile rubber and an unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt, such as zinc methylacrylate. Japanese Laid Open Application No. 311,158/1989 discloses a second, alternative material formulated from a hydrogenated nitrile rubber or a rubber composition obtained by mixing a hydrogenated nitrile rubber with an unsaturated carboxylic acid metal salt, such as zinc methacrylate, for example, and an organic peroxide.
The material disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Application No. 271,472/1993 may still experience a high degree of "pop out" because of the hardness of the rubber. Additionally, the material may not exhibit sufficient resistance to side pressure when the material is placed in compression.
The material disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Application No. 311,158/1989 may not permit the practical use of conventional reinforcing and strengthening materials, such as carbon black and short fibers. In fact, use of carbon block and short fibers may actually decrease the strength of the rubber. Moreover, without some type of reinforcement, the disclosed material may not exhibit sufficient resistance to side pressures, or to flexing fatigue.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.


An autocalibrating multichannel analyzer (MCA) for spectroscopy. The autocalibrating MCA includes a data collection unit, wherein is included a detector and a multichannel buffer (MCB). The detector produces an analog signal representing selected parameters of a radioactive sample. The MCB includes a signal conditioner for converting the analog signal into a digital signal and a processor for sorting and counting the signals received from the detector. The interface unit includes a processor for data analysis, at least one output device to display information, at least one input device to accept commands, at least one memory device for storing data, and an automatic calibration system to correct data for errors introduced by the data collection unit and the surroundings. The automatic calibration system compares parameters collected from a known calibration sample against parameters stored in the system with little intervention by the operator. The results of the automatic calibration system are applied to a sample to establish the relationship between channel number and signal strength.

A multichannel analyzer counts, stores, analyzes, and displays data measured from a sample source. It is necessary to calibrate the MCA to account for the effects related to differing source-detector geometries. Calibration of a MCA comparing the measured peak values of a known source to a standardized value for that source in order to determine the operating gain of the particular MCA configuration.
Calibration typically is a manual operation, wherein a sample of known composition, because of its nature, produces in the MCA a histogram with well-defined, isolated peaks and a small statistical uncertainty. The expected typical values of the peaks are well established physical data for the known sample. The operator then compares the locations and heights of the peaks collected from the known sample to the expected values for that known sample. This is accomplished by having the operator identify a peak at an appropriate channel and compare the measured value at that channel to the expected value. Next, the operator must set the measured values to correspond to the expected values for the known sample. This is accomplished by having the operator select the peak at the appropriate channel and enter the expected value for that channel. The calibration system then establishes the relationship between the measured value and the expected value and computes the necessary adjustment to correct for any inconsistency. This process is repeated for several peaks to establish the proper correlation between measured values and actual values. The larger the number of peaks for which the measured value and the expected value are available, the greater the accuracy of the correlation and the greater the time necessary to complete the calibration.
Next, the relationship between the measured data and the parameters corresponding to the matched element is determined. The calibration relationship is applied to subsequently measured data from samples of unknown composition to correct the measurements for errors introduced in the data collection process and convert the analysis results from peak position in channels to peak position in energy.
Further, calibration for the MCA must be set every time changes are made to the MCA, such as changing the parameters or the detector. Each new detector produces a signal of a different energy, resulting in a different channel to energy relationship. Moving the MCA alters the effects introduced by the surroundings of the MCA.
As a result, calibration of the MCA is a time consuming process which must often be repeated. The frequency of repetition increases the chance that errors will be made in the calibration process because of the amount of precise physical data which must be manually entered into the process.
Automatic calibration of the MCA is accomplished by having the MCA compare the data collected from a sample of known composition with an internal library of data containing the expected values. The calibration is performed by determining the closest possible match of the measured data to an element of the internal library.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to substantially reduce the time necessary to calibrate the MCA by automatic calibration.
An additional object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of precise information which must be entered by the operator to reduce the likelihood of operator error.
A further object of the present invention is to allow calibration results to be archived for future use.

Autocalibrating multichannel analyzer and method for use


Stolen or lost explosives are detected by fixing micro RF transmitters in the form of RFID tags to the explosive packaging or embedding them in the explosive material itself. Moreover, the subject microradio transponders may be contained in an adhesive binder or slurry. The identity of the explosive, its place of manufacture and ownership is detectable by RFID tag interrogators strategically located along commonly used roads or railways in which the RFID tags scavenge energy from interrogation beams, with the RFID tags indicating the identity of the explosive and its origin.

There is a worldwide problem of tracking and detection of explosives. Over two million metric tons of explosives are manufactured in the United States every year. Several tons are lost or stolen each year This puts into play the problem of being able to sense the movement and location of explosive material, whether stolen or not, and in the past the documentation for the explosives has been spotty at best. In general, shipping documents have been utilized to identify the explosives and their origin. However, shipping documents alone when generated may be improperly generated or may be fraudulent; and the explosives themselves may be separated from the shipping documents.
As illustrated in US Patent Publication 2005/0131655 by Moolman et al a method is provided for logging the use of non-electric detonators in which the identity data of a detonator is recorded at the time the detonator is being loaded into blast hole. Moreover, the consumption of the detonator is recorded and the system relates the identity data associated with the detonator to an inventory of non-electric detonators to allow inventory updating. However, it will be seen that providing inventories and inventory lists are not capable of monitoring and tracking explosives. Secondly, and most importantly, there is a class of explosive detonators which are electric. Providing electronic tracking apparatus for electric detonators was thought to be dangerous, as it was thought that transmissions could ignite the explosives.
Note that explosive materials can be in blasting caps, spooled energetics, boosters, PBX sheet, C4 explosives, and shock tubes to name just a few explosives.
Thus, a methodology needs to be developed which affords worldwide localization and identification of explosive materials without increasing the inherently dangerous. Specifically, the tracking system cannot result in inadvertent activation. Moreover, there needs to be a system to monitor the explosive materials entire life cycle from manufacture through storage to ultimate use, in which the explosives are to be logged and traced. Moreover, it is a requirement that the detected material be tracked back to the manufacturer of the explosive material or forward to the intended users of the material.
It is important not only to be able to be able to track the explosives themselves which are packaged and ready for use, it is also important to be able to track and identify the explosive material itself, such as for instance C4 explosive, or even ammonium nitrate used to make explosives. Therefore, it is a requirement to be able to detect the existence and location of explosive material and then to identify its source. As a result, one can then identify stolen explosives or identify what explosives have been used or are going to be used.
The use of so-called RFID tags that are microscopic in size has been proposed to identify objects. One patent that utilizes RFID tag technology is U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,367 which provides a method for identifying and returning an object by affixing to the object a passive two way communication circuit such as a frangible radio security tag or a smart label. RFID tags have been used in so-called smart cards as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,087. A system for providing container security by measuring various parameters of the material within the container is described in US Patent Publication 2005/0073406.
As to RFID tags and particularly smart dust, an article in Intelligent Enterprise of Jul. 18, 2003 describes RFID tagging of inventory, such as for instance razorblades, and has suggested an updatable RFID tag being embedded in high value currency or bank notes to combat counterfeiting and money laundering. As described in this article, smart dust takes the concept of a simple RFID circuit, replacing the barcode label, and extends it to embedding an entire computer in a microscopic package. Note, in Computer World on Mar. 24, 2003 in an article by Thomas Hoffman, the ability to scatter hundreds of tiny sensors around a building to monitor temperature or humidity is described. Also, a system for deploying pixie dust is said to involve a network of minuscule remote sensor chips to track enemy movements in a military operation.
The definition of smart dust according to this article are devices that are tiny wireless micro electromechanical sensors, MES, that can detect everything from light to vibrations. These devices, termed "motes", are said to be available in the size of a grain of sand and each could contain sensors, computing circuits, bi-directional communication technology and a power supply.
Moreover, the University of California Annual Financing Report of 2003 refers to the smart dust work of Professor Christopher Pister in which a defense contractor in San Diego has become a Dust Networks customer using the technology for perimeter security systems.
Additionally, in an article entitled "FutureTech" written by Bill Robinson for Gateway 2 Russia, he opines that smart dust is becoming something that will eventually end up as an RFID tag based distributed sensing smart dust system.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,074 relates to apparatus for energizing a remote station through the irradiation of a device by a remote energy source.
Note also in the Wall Street Journal of Thursday Jul. 7, 2005 Italian parmesan makers use technology to track authenticity and quality of their cheese using RFID tags embedded in the rind of many of the freshly made wheels of cheese that they sell.
More importantly, and incorporated herein by reference is Patent Publication 2007/0281657 entitled "Microradio Design, Manufacturing Method and Applications for the Use of Microradios" which is assigned to the assignee hereof.
In this Patent Publication a micro radio design is described which is small enough to be able to extend the RFID tag technology to smart dust applications. This patent Publication, as well as US Patent Publication 2007/0085689, also incorporated herein by reference, indicate the tagging of various objects. However monitoring of the manufacturer and travel history of explosives or explosive materials is not discussed. While US Patent Publication 2007/0281657 describes the use of the micro radios to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the manufacture and travel history of the IEDs is not discussed.
Thus, it will be appreciated that the aforementioned patent publications do not describe how to trace explosives and identify their origin during their whole life cycle.

Method and apparatus for tracking and locating explosives and explosive materials worldwide using micro RF transponders

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


A dimension measuring apparatus comprises a moving member adapted to move for dimension measurement, a grid device for moving with the moving member, an optical device for irradiating the grid device, a light receiving device for receiving the light radiated from the optical device and transmitted through the grid device and for generating a non-sinusoidal wave signal in accordance with the movement of the moving member, and a processing device for measuring the moving distance of the moving member based on the non-sinusoidal wave signal.

The present invention relates to a dimension measuring apparatus for optically detecting the movement of an optical scale (grid) or, in particular, to a configuration of an optical system and a signal processing system of a dimension measuring apparatus.
In a production line for precision members, demand is strong for in-line non-contact type measurement of the distance traveled by a machining head or the size of a workpiece. As a simple measuring instrument often used for this purpose, an optical scale formed with a multiplicity of fine grids having a binary light transmission distribution of black and white at a predetermined pitch is mounted on a probe, and the moving distance of the probe is optically read.
FIG. 21A shows an example of a configuration of a conventional dimension measuring apparatus 700. The light emitted from a light source 701 such as a white lamp or a light-emitting diode (LED) is radiated on an optical scale 710 through a collimating lens 702. The optical scale 710 is configured with three grids including a moving grid 703 and stationary grids 704A, 704B. The moving grid 703 is mounted on a probe (not shown), and is adapted to move in the directions A, B indicated by arrows with the movement of the probe. The stationary grids 704A, 704B are fixed at a specific position behind the moving grid 703.
The moving grid 703 and the stationary grids 704A, 704B each have a rectangular pattern of binary (black and white) light transmission distribution formed on a glass substrate, and have the same shape and the same pitch. FIG. 21B shows an example 715 of a light transmission distribution of a grid. A black pattern 716 transmitting a small amount of light and a white pattern 718 transmitting a large amount of light are both rectangular in shape and formed alternately. One pitch of the grid has a length of a, and the width of the black pattern and the white pattern are both a/2. Normally, a grid of a=10 xcexcm is used.
The stationary grid 704A is arranged so that it is shifted by one fourth of a pitch of the grid length with respect to the stationary grid 704B, and two photodetectors 705A, 705B are arranged behind the stationary grids 704A, 704B, respectively. The photodetector 705A outputs an A-phase signal 720, and the photodetector 705B outputs a B-phase signal 725. The A-phase signal 720 and the B-phase signal 725 (hereinafter collectively referred to as the two-phase signals) both have the transmitted light intensity changed sinusoidally with the movement of the moving grid 703. Since the grid positions of the stationary grids 704A and 704B are shifted by one fourth of a pitch, the phases of the A-phase signal 720 and the B-phase signal 725 are shifted by xcfx80n/2 from each other.
In the case where the grids having the configuration described above are irradiated with parallel light rays, the distance L between the moving grid 703 and the stationary grids 704A, 704B is required to be set to a specific value (Fourier image distance) determined by the relation between the wavelength of the light source 701 and the length a of one pitch of the grid. The Fourier image is defined as a light transmission distribution substantially equivalent to the geometric shape of the moving grid 703 irradiated with parallel light rays from the light source 701. In the case where the wavelength xcex of the light source is 0.7 xcexcm and the grid pitch length a is 10 xcexcm, L is about 140 xcexcm. The light transmission distribution at a position different from the Fourier image surface has a deteriorated contrast, and therefore the two-phase signals are required to be measured with high contrast by disposing the stationary grids 704A, 704B at the Fourier image distance of the moving grid 703.
The signal processing will be explained with reference to the waveform examples 720 and 725 shown in FIG. 21C. The A-phase signal 720 and the B-phase signal 725 are both a sinusoidal wave which moves one cycle when the moving grid 703 moves one pitch of its grid length. In FIG. 21C, the phase of the A-phase signal 720 is xcfx80/2 ahead of the phase of the B-phase signal 725. An example is the case in which the probe begins to move at a position 741 and stops at a position 742. The moving distance from position 741 to position 742 is the dimension to be measured, and for the measurement, the moving distance equal to an integral multiple of one pitch of the grids and the moving distance not longer than one pitch of the grids are both required to be detected.
A sinusoidal wave number counter 731 in FIG. 21A counts one signal for each cycle of the sinusoidal wave and thereby counts the number (integer) of pitches of the moving grid 703. For example, the number is counted for each period of the sinusoidal wave assuming the mesial intensity position (743, 745, 746, etc.) of the amplitude of the A-phase signal 720 as a trigger point. For detecting the number, it is necessary to determine the direction in which the moving grid 703 moves, and the direction of movement is determined from the lead and lag of the phase between the two-phase signals. In the case where the phase of the A-phase signal 720 is advanced, for example, the number is counted upward, while in the case where the B-phase signal 725 is advanced, the number is counted downward.
The moving distance not more than one pitch of the grid is the distance La between the movement start position 741 and the reference position 743, and the distance Lb between the reference position 746 and the stop position 742. The resolution and accuracy of the dimension measurement are determined by the accuracy of detection of the distances La, Lb. Therefore, it is important how finely one cycle of the sinusoidal wave is segmented for detecting the grid stop position. In view of this, the phase of the sinusoidal wave corresponding to the positions 741 and 742 is detected from the intensity of the sinusoidal wave. For attaining the resolution of 0.1 xcexcm in the case where the length a of one pitch of the grid is 10 xcexcm, for example, the phase is required to be detected by segmenting one pitch of the grid into 100 parts.
A phase quadrant determination unit 732 determines the phase quadrant (1 to 4) of the sinusoidal wave from the relation of the intensity of the two-phase signals between the grid stop positions 741 and 742. It is determined that the phase of the A-phase signal 720 is in the second quadrant (xcfx80n/2 to xcfx80) and the phase of the B-phase signal 725 is in the third quadrant (xcfx80 to 3/2xcfx80) at the position 741. The phase detector 733 standardizes the amplitude of both the A-phase signal 720 and the B-phase signal 725 as the magnitude of xc2x11 and, based on the standardized intensity (Va, Vb), detects the phase of the grid stop positions 741, 742 from the arc tangent (Va/Vb) equation, for example. In the process, a trigonometric function table 734 for storing the tangent values of the trigonometric function is prepared, and the phase is determined by referring to the values in the table.
In the case where the phase detected at the grid stop position 742 is xcfx86, for example, the distance not more than one grid pitch is Lb=axcfx86/(2xcfx80). The same applies to the distance La. In the case where the grid pitch a is segmented into 100 parts for detection, the phase is required to be detected with an error of not more than 3 degrees. The dimension calculation unit 735 calculates the dimension from the sum of the moving distance equal to an integer multiple of one grid pitch detected by the sinusoidal wave signal number counter 731 and the moving distance not more than one grid pitch detected by the phase detector 733. In this way, the conventional dimension measuring apparatus is based on the measurement of the intensity of the two-phase sinusoidal wave signals by generating the same signals.
As described above, the conventional dimension measuring apparatus is so configured that one grid pitch length and the grid shape of both the moving grid and the stationary grid are equalized, and two-phase sinusoidal wave signals of the phases different by xcfx80/2 are generated. For improving the resolution of the dimension measurement, one grid pitch is required to be segmented finely and the stop position of the moving grid is required to be accurately detected. For this purpose, the phase of the sinusoidal wave is detected. In the case where the intensity of the A-phase signal is Va and the intensity of the B-phase signal is Vb, the phase is detected from the arc tangent (Va/Vb). In the area where the intensity of the sinusoidal wave is substantially maximum or minimum, however, the intensity changes broadly (the intensity change is small as compared with the phase change) and therefore the problem is posed that the error of phase calculation increases and the dimension measurement accuracy is reduced.
When calculating the phase from the arc tangent (Va/Vb), the amplitude of the A-phase signal is required to be accurately coincident with that of the B-phase signal. For this purpose, fine adjustment of the gain of the photoelectric conversion and the standardization of the intensity of the two-phase signals are required. Also, when converting the arc tangent value into the phase, it is necessary to refer to a trigonometric function table and calculate a series development equation thereby to calculate the phase. The resulting problem is that both the hardware and the software are complicated. Another problem is that in the case where the interval between the moving grid and the stationary grid undergoes a change and the detected two-phase signals are modulated from the sinusoidal wave, the grating position fails to correspond to the phase, thereby causing an error of dimension measurement.
Further, in the conventional dimension measuring apparatus, the grid pitch is shortened (to 10 xcexcm, for example) to improve the measurement resolution. In the case where one grid pitch length is 10 xcexcm, the measurement with a high contrast of light intensity makes it necessary to maintain the gap between the moving grid and the stationary grid at about 140 xcexcm (Fourier image distance). In such a case, the tolerable clearance for setting the gap is not more than xc2x110 xcexcm. As a result, the problem is also posed that the conditions are severe for setting the grid interval for obtaining a light intensity signal high in contrast. This problem becomes more salient with the decrease in the grid pitch length. Still another problem is that the moving grid is required to be irradiated with parallel light rays using a lens to form a Fourier image, resulting in a bigger optical system.
In view of this, in order to solve the aforementioned various problems caused by the use of two-phase sinusoidal wave signal, an object of the present invention is to detect the position where the grid begins to move or stops with a simple signal processing system based on non-sinusoidal wave signal for an improved measurement accuracy and an improved measurement reliability.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the size of and simplify the optical system by a configuration in which only one-phase signal is generated using only one moving grid and one photodetector.
Still another object of the invention is to reduce the size of and simplify the optical system by a configuration in which only one-phase signal is generated using two-phase gratings including one moving grid, one stationary grid and only one photodetector.
Yet another object of the invention is to detect the moving distance of not more than one grid pitch and the direction of movement the grid is detected with a simple signal processing system based only on a one-phase signal for an improved measurement accuracy and an improved measurement reliability.
A further object of the invention is to differentiate the grid pitch length of the moving grid and the stationary grid, generate a non-sinusoidal wave signal so that its intensity changes substantially linearly and it has a effect of reducing the diffractive expansion of the light, and detect the position at which the grating begins to move or stop based on this signal for an improved measurement accuracy and an improved measurement reliability.
In order to solve the problems described above, a dimension measuring apparatus according to this invention comprises a moving member moved for dimension measurement, grid means for moving with the moving member, optical means for radiating the grid means, a light receiving means for receiving the light radiated from the optical means and transmitted through the grid means and generating a non-sinusoidal signal in accordance with the movement of the moving member, and a processing means for measuring the moving distance of the moving member based on the non-sinusoidal wave signal.
Also, a dimension measuring apparatus according to this invention comprises a moving member moved for dimension measurement, grid means for moving with the moving member and having such a pattern that the light transmission distribution continuously changes along the longitudinal direction, optical means for radiating the grid means, a light receiving unit for receiving the light radiated from the optical means and transmitted through the grating means and generating a one-phase signal in accordance with the movement of the moving member, and a processing means for measuring the moving distance of the moving member based on the one-phase signal.
Further, the one-phase signal is preferably a non-sinusoidal wave signal.
Furthermore, preferably, the apparatus comprises one moving grid having a pattern alternating at a predetermined pitch, and the optical means is a laser optical system for radiating a laser beam having a sheet-like spot shape which has a width smaller than the length of the predetermined pitch.
In addition, preferably, the grid means is configured with a first grid having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a predetermined pitch along the longitudinal direction, and a second grating having a pattern repeated at a predetermined pitch, wherein the first or second grid moves with the moving member while the other is fixed.
What is more, preferably, the grid means is configured with a moving grid moved with the moving member and having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a first pitch along the longitudinal direction, and a stationary grid having a pattern repeated at a pitch different from the first pitch.
Also, a dimension measuring apparatus according to this invention comprises a moving member moved for dimension measurement, grid means for moving with the moving member, optical means for radiating the grid means, a light receiving means for receiving the light radiated from the optical means and transmitted through the grating means and generating an output signal in accordance with the movement of the moving member, and a processing means for generating a temporally digitized signal by sampling the output signal and measuring the moving distance of the moving member by counting the number of the digitized signals.
Further, the output signal is preferably a non-sinusoidal wave signal.
Furthermore, preferably, the grid means is configured with a first grid having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a predetermined pitch along the longitudinal direction, and a second grid having a such a pattern repeated at a predetermined pitch that the light transmission distribution continuously changes along the longitudinal direction, wherein the first or second grid moves with the moving member while the other is fixed as a stationary grid, the output signal is a one-phase signal, and the processing means measures the moving distance of the moving grid not more than a predetermined pitch by counting the number of digitized signals.
In addition, preferably, the grid means is configured with a moving grid moved with the moving member and having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a first pitch along the longitudinal direction, two stationary grids having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a second pitch different from the first pitch along the longitudinal direction, the light receiving unit includes two photodetectors corresponding to the two stationary grids, respectively, the output signal is a two-phase signal, and the processing means generates two digitized signals corresponding to the two-phase signals, respectively.
Also, a dimension measuring apparatus according to this invention comprises a moving member moved for dimension measurement, a moving grid for moving with the moving member and having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a first pitch along the longitudinal direction, two stationary grids having a translucent portion and an opaque portion alternating at a second pitch different from the first pitch along the longitudinal direction and arranged one fourth of the second pitch apart from each other, optical means for radiating the moving grid and the stationary grids, two light receiving units for receiving the light radiated from the optical means and transmitted through the stationary grids and generating two-phase output signals in accordance with the movement of the moving member, and a processing means for measuring the moving distance of the moving member based on the two-phase output signals.
According to this invention, the positions where the grid begins to move and stops are detected by a simple signal processing system based on a non-sinusoidal wave signal without using two-phase sinusoidal wave signals so that the accuracy and reliability of measurement can be improved.
Also, according to this invention, only a non-sinusoidal wave one-phase signal is generated using one moving grid and one photodetector or one moving grid, one stationary grid and one photodetector, and therefore the apparatus can be reduced in size and simplified.
Further, the one-phase signal generated from the photodetector is an asymmetrical signal, and therefore the direction in which the grid moves can be easily detected by the one-phase signal alone.
Furthermore, according to this invention, the grid pitch of the moving grid can broadened as compared with the prior art. Therefore, the diffractive expansion due to the grid has a smaller effect, and it becomes possible to output a non-sinusoidal wave signal having a wider area linearly changing with the intensity of the transmitted light, thereby making it possible to detect the grid position easily with a non-sinusoidal wave signal. Further, the fact that the grid pitch of the moving grid can be increased as compared with the prior art permits the grid to be irradiated directly by the light radiated from the light source. Thus a collimator lens or the like is eliminated, and the apparatus can be reduced in size.
In addition, the invention is so configured that digitized signals are generated from the output signal of the photodetector and the number of the digitized signals is counted. Even in the case where the intensity of the output signal is varied or the output signal assumes a nonlinear form, therefore, the grid position can be detected without a reference table or a complicated calculation.
What is more, according to this invention, two-phase digitized signals generated from two-phase output signals can be selectively used. Therefore, the grid position can be easily detected using the linear area of the signal alone.