A continuous liquid drop emission apparatus is disclosed comprising a liquid drop emitter containing a positively pressurized liquid in flow communication with a plurality of nozzles formed in a common nozzle member for emitting a plurality of continuous streams of liquid. A jet stimulation apparatus is provided comprising a plurality of transducers corresponding to the plurality of nozzles and adapted to transfer energy to the liquid in corresponding flow communication with the plurality of nozzles sufficient to cause the break-off of the plurality of continuous streams of liquid at a plurality of predetermined break-off times into a plurality of streams of drops of predetermined volumes. Sensing apparatus is provided adapted to measure a characteristic value for each of the plurality of streams of drops of predetermined volumes; and control apparatus is adapted to provide a plurality of break-off time setting signals to the jet stimulation apparatus to cause the plurality of predetermined break-off times determined, at least, by the characteristic value of each of the plurality of streams of drops of predetermined volumes. Alternately, a sensing apparatus is used in an off-line calibration set-up and characteristic values are measured for the plurality of streams and stored in a stream memory that is included in the continuous liquid drop apparatus. The present inventions are also configured to provide a plurality of the break-off times for a plurality of liquid streams in a continuous liquid drop emission apparatus that is further adapted to inductively charge at least one drop in a each of a plurality of streams and having electric field deflection apparatus adapted to generate a Coulomb force on an inductively charged drop. Methods of operating a continuous liquid drop emission apparatus utilizing a plurality of predetermined break-off times are disclosed.

Ink jet printing has become recognized as a prominent contender in the digitally controlled, electronic printing arena because, e.g. of its non-impact, low-noise characteristics, its use of plain paper and its avoidance of toner transfer and fixing. Ink jet printing mechanisms can be categorized by technology as either drop on demand ink jet or continuous ink jet.
The first technology, "drop-on-demand" ink jet printing, provides ink droplets that impact upon a recording surface by using a pressurization actuator (thermal, piezoelectric, etc.). Many commonly practiced drop-on-demand technologies use thermal actuation to eject ink droplets from a nozzle. A heater, located at or near the nozzle, heats the ink sufficiently to boil, forming a vapor bubble that creates enough internal pressure to eject an ink droplet. This form of ink jet is commonly termed "thermal ink jet (TIJ)." Other known drop-on-demand droplet ejection mechanisms include piezoelectric actuators, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,843, issued to van Lintel, on Jul. 6, 1993; thermo-mechanical actuators, such as those disclosed by Jarrold et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,627, issued May 13, 2003; and electrostatic actuators, as described by Fujii et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,784, issued Nov. 5, 2002.
The second technology, commonly referred to as "continuous" ink jet printing, uses a pressurized ink source that produces a continuous stream of ink droplets from a nozzle. The stream is perturbed in some fashion causing it to break up into uniformly sized drops at a nominally constant distance, the break-off length, from the nozzle. A charging electrode structure is positioned at the nominally constant break-off point so as to induce a data-dependent amount of electrical charge on the drop at the moment of break-off. The charged droplets are directed through a fixed electrostatic field region causing each droplet to deflect proportionately to its charge. The charge levels established at the break-off point thereby cause drops to travel to a specific location on a recording medium or to a gutter for collection and recirculation.
Continuous ink jet (CIJ) drop generators rely on the physics of an unconstrained fluid jet, first analyzed in two dimensions by F. R. S. (Lord) Rayleigh, "Instability of jets," Proc. London Math. Soc. 10 (4), published in 1878. Lord Rayleigh's analysis showed that liquid under pressure, P, will stream out of a hole, the nozzle, forming a jet of diameter, dj, moving at a velocity, vj. The jet diameter, dj, is approximately equal to the effective nozzle diameter, dn, and the jet velocity is proportional to the square root of the reservoir pressure, P. Rayleigh's analysis showed that the jet will naturally break up into drops of varying sizes based on surface waves that have wavelengths, λ, longer than πdj, i.e. λ≧πdj. Rayleigh's analysis also showed that particular surface wavelengths would become dominate if initiated at a large enough magnitude, thereby "synchronizing" the jet to produce mono-sized drops. Continuous ink jet (CIJ) drop generators employ some periodic physical process, a so-called "perturbation" or "stimulation", that has the effect of establishing a particular, dominate surface wave on the jet. This results in the break-off of the jet into mono-sized drops synchronized to the frequency of the perturbation.
The drop stream that results from applying a Rayleigh stimulation will be referred to herein as creating a stream of drops of predetermined volume. While in prior art CIJ systems, the drops of interest for printing or patterned layer deposition were invariably of unitary volume, it will be explained that for the present inventions, the stimulation signal may be manipulated to produce drops of predetermined multiples of the unitary volume. Hence the phrase, "streams of drops of predetermined volumes" is inclusive of drop streams that are broken up into drops all having one size or streams broken up into drops of planned different volumes.
In a CIJ system, some drops, usually termed "satellites" much smaller in volume than the predetermined unit volume, may be formed as the stream necks down into a fine ligament of fluid. Such satellites may not be totally predictable or may not always merge with another drop in a predictable fashion, thereby slightly altering the volume of drops intended for printing or patterning. The presence of small, unpredictable satellite drops is, however, inconsequential to the present inventions and is not considered to obviate the fact that the drop sizes have been predetermined by the synchronizing energy signals used in the present inventions. Thus the phrase "predetermined volume" as used to describe the present inventions should be understood to comprehend that some small variation in drop volume about a planned target value may occur due to unpredictable satellite drop formation.
Commercially practiced CIJ printheads use a piezoelectric device, acoustically coupled to the printhead, to initiate a dominant surface wave on the jet. The coupled piezoelectric device superimposes periodic pressure variations on the base reservoir pressure, causing velocity or flow perturbations that in turn launch synchronizing surface waves. A pioneering disclosure of a piezoelectrically-stimulated CIJ apparatus was made by R. Sweet in U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,275, issued Jul. 27, 1971, Sweet '275 hereinafter. The CIJ apparatus disclosed by Sweet '275 consisted of a single jet, i.e. a single drop generation liquid chamber and a single nozzle structure.
Sweet '275 disclosed several approaches to providing the needed periodic perturbation to the jet to synchronize drop break-off to the perturbation frequency. Sweet '275 discloses a magnetostrictive material affixed to a capillary nozzle enclosed by an electrical coil that is electrically driven at the desired drop generation frequency, vibrating the nozzle, thereby introducing a dominant surface wave perturbation to the jet via the jet velocity. Sweet '275 also discloses a thin ring-electrode positioned to surround but not touch the unbroken fluid jet, just downstream of the nozzle. If the jetted fluid is conductive, and a periodic electric field is applied between the fluid filament and the ring-electrode, the fluid jet may be caused to expand periodically, thereby directly introducing a surface wave perturbation that can synchronize the jet break-off. This CIJ technique is commonly called electrohydrodynamic (EHD) stimulation.
Sweet '275 further disclosed several techniques for applying a synchronizing perturbation by superimposing a pressure variation on the base liquid reservoir pressure that forms the jet. Sweet '275 disclosed a pressurized fluid chamber, the drop generator chamber, having a wall that can be vibrated mechanically at the desired stimulation frequency. Mechanical vibration means disclosed included use of magnetostrictive or piezoelectric transducer drivers or an electromagnetic moving coil. Such mechanical vibration methods are often termed "acoustic stimulation" in the CIJ literature.
The several CIJ stimulation approaches disclosed by Sweet '275 may all be practical in the context of a single jet system However, the selection of a practical stimulation mechanism for a CIJ system having many jets is far more complex. A pioneering disclosure of a multi-jet CIJ printhead has been made by Sweet et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,437, issued Mar. 12, 1968, Sweet '437 hereinafter. Sweet '437 discloses a CIJ printhead having a common drop generator chamber that communicates with a row (an array) of drop emitting nozzles. A rear wall of the common drop generator chamber is vibrated by means of a magnetostrictive device, thereby modulating the chamber pressure and causing a jet velocity perturbation on every jet of the array of jets.
Since the pioneering CIJ disclosures of Sweet '275 and Sweet '437, most disclosed multi-jet CIJ printheads have employed some variation of the jet break-off perturbation means described therein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,641 issued Feb. 2, 1971 to Taylor et al. discloses a CIJ printing apparatus having multiple, multi-jet arrays wherein the drop break-off stimulation is introduced by means of a vibration device affixed to a high pressure ink supply line that supplies the multiple CIJ printheads. U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,393 issued Jun. 12, 1973 to Lyon et al. discloses a multi-jet CIJ array wherein the multiple nozzles are formed as orifices in a single thin nozzle plate and the drop break-off perturbation is provided by vibrating the nozzle plate, an approach akin to the single nozzle vibrator disclosed by Sweet '275. U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,036 issued Apr. 8, 1975 to Loeffler et al. discloses a multi-jet CIJ printhead wherein a piezoelectric transducer is bonded to an internal wall of a common drop generator chamber, a combination of the stimulation concepts disclosed by Sweet '437 and '275
Unfortunately, all of the stimulation methods employing a vibration some component of the printhead structure or a modulation of the common supply pressure result is some amount of non-uniformity of the magnitude of the perturbation applied to each individual jet of a multi-jet CIJ array. Non-uniform stimulation leads to a variability in the break-off length and timing among the jets of the array. This variability in break-off characteristics, in turn, leads to an inability to position a common drop charging assembly or to use a data timing scheme that can serve all of the jets of the array. As the array becomes physically larger, for example long enough to span one dimension of a typical paper size (herein termed a "page wide array"), the problem of non-uniformity of jet stimulation becomes more severe.
The construction of large arrays of CIJ jets also involves some form of drop selection and deflection apparatus that acts to differentiate among drops used for printing or patterning and drops discarded (guttered) to a liquid fluid supply recirculation system. The difficulty of creating drop selection and deflection apparatus that perfectly operates on all drops of all liquid streams in a consistent and equal fashion adds additional sources of drop placement error to those caused by non-uniform jet stimulation. Drop stimulation apparatus that has the capability of adjustment in the parameters of jet break-off on an individual jet basis may be able to provide some compensation for non-uniformities in the drop selection and deflection apparatus in addition to providing for predictable drop break-off characteristics.
Many attempts to achieve uniform CIJ stimulation using vibrating devices may be found in the U.S. patent literature. However, it appears that the structures that are strong and durable enough to be operated at high ink reservoir pressures contribute confounding acoustic responses that cannot be totally eliminated in the range of frequencies of interest. Commercial CIJ systems employ designs that carefully manage the acoustic behavior of the printhead structure and also limit the magnitude of the applied acoustic energy to the least necessary to achieve acceptable drop break-off across the array. A means of CIJ stimulation that does not significantly couple to the printhead structure itself would be an advantage, especially for the construction of page wide arrays (PWA's) and for reliable operation in the face of drifting ink and environmental parameters.
The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet stimulation concept disclosed by Sweet '275 operates on the emitted liquid jet filament directly, causing minimal acoustic excitation of the printhead structure itself, thereby avoiding the above noted confounding contributions of printhead and mounting structure resonances. U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,958 issued Sep. 2, 1980 to Crowley discloses a CIJ printer wherein the perturbation is accomplished an EHD exciter composed of pump electrodes of a length equal to about one-half the droplet spacing. The multiple pump electrodes are spaced at intervals of multiples of about one-half the droplet spacing or wavelength downstream from the nozzles. This arrangement greatly reduces the voltage needed to achieve drop break-off over the configuration disclosed by Sweet '275.
While EHD stimulation has been pursued as an alternative to acoustic stimulation, it has not been applied commercially because of the difficulty in fabricating printhead structures having the very close jet-to-electrode spacing and alignment required and, then, operating reliably without electrostatic breakdown occurring. Also, due to the relatively long range of electric field effects, EHD is not amenable to providing individual stimulation signals to individual jets in an array of closely spaced jets.
An alternate jet perturbation concept that overcomes all of the drawbacks of acoustic or EHD stimulation was disclosed for a single jet CIJ system in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,519 issued Apr. 15, 1975 to J. Eaton (Eaton hereinafter). Eaton discloses the thermal stimulation of a jet fluid filament by means of localized light energy or by means of a resistive heater located at the nozzle, the point of formation of the fluid jet. Eaton explains that the fluid properties, especially the surface tension, of a heated portion of a jet may be sufficiently changed with respect to an unheated portion to cause a localized change in the diameter of the jet, thereby launching a dominant surface wave if applied at an appropriate frequency.
Eaton mentions that thermal stimulation is beneficial for use in a printhead having a plurality of closely spaced ink streams because the thermal stimulation of one stream does not affect any adjacent nozzle. However, Eaton does not teach or disclose any multi-jet printhead configurations, nor any practical methods of implementing a thermally-stimulated multi-jet CIJ device, especially one amenable to page wide array construction. Eaton teaches his invention using calculational examples and parameters relevant to a state-of-the-art ink jet printing application circa the early 1970's, i.e. a drop frequency of 100 KHz and a nozzle diameter of ˜25 microns leading to drop volumes of ˜60 picoLiters (pL). Eaton does not teach or disclose how to configure or operate a thermally-stimulated CIJ printhead that would be needed to print drops an order of magnitude smaller and at substantially higher drop frequencies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,328 issued Jan. 20, 1987 to Drake, et al. (Drake hereinafter) discloses a thermally-stimulated multi-jet CIJ drop generator fabricated in an analogous fashion to a thermal ink jet device. That is, Drake discloses the operation of a traditional thermal ink jet (TIJ) edgeshooter or roofshooter device in CIJ mode by supplying high pressure ink and applying energy pulses to the heaters sufficient to cause synchronized break-off but not so as to generate vapor bubbles. Drake mentions that the power applied to each individual stimulation resistor may be tailored to eliminate non-uniformities due to cross talk. However, the inventions claimed and taught by Drake are specific to CIJ devices fabricated using two substrates that are bonded together, one substrate being planar and having heater electrodes and the other having topographical features that form individual ink channels and a common ink supply manifold.
Also recently, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), have been disclosed that utilize electromechanical and thermomechanical transducers to generate mechanical energy for performing work. For example, thin film piezoelectric, ferroelectric or electrostrictive materials such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT), or lead magnesium niobate titanate (PMNT) may be deposited by sputtering or sol gel techniques to serve as a layer that will expand or contract in response to an applied electric field. See, for example Shimada, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,225, issued May 14, 2002; Sumi, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,511,161, issued Jan. 28, 2003; and Miyashita, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,107, issued Apr. 8, 2003. Thermomechanical devices utilizing electroresistive materials that have large coefficients of thermal expansion, such as titanium aluminide, have been disclosed as thermal actuators constructed on semiconductor substrates. See, for example, Jarrold et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,627, issued May 13, 2003. Therefore electromechanical devices may also be configured and fabricated using microelectronic processes to provide stimulation energy on a jet-by-jet basis.
Consequently there is a need for a liquid stream break-off control system that is generally applicable to a liquid drop emission system having jet stimulation apparatus capable of individually adjusting stimulation, hence break-off, parameters on an individual jet basis. There is an opportunity to effectively employ the extraordinary capability of thermal or other microelectromechanical stimulation to change the break-up process jets individually, without causing undesirable jet-to-jet crosstalk, and to change the break-up process within an individual jet in ways that compensate for anomalies in the drop selection, deflection and guttering subsystem hardware, thereby achieving higher drop placement precision, i.e. higher liquid pattern quality, and overall system reliability. Further there is a need for an approach that may be economically applied to a liquid drop emitter having a very large number of jets.

Continuous ink jet apparatus and method using a plurality of break-off times


An optical sight includes: an outer barrel having opposite ends; ocular and objective lens units mounted respectively to the ends of the outer barrel; a magnification unit disposed tiltably in the outer barrel, and extending between the ocular and objective lens units; an adjustment units mounted on the outer barrel, and operable independently and respectively to adjust position of the magnification unit inside the outer barrel in first and second directions that are perpendicular to each other; a biasing member interposed between the magnification unit and the outer barrel to provide an urging force on the magnification unit to abut against the adjustment units; and a force-adjusting unit disposed to connect the biasing member to the outer barrel, and operable to adjust the urging force exerted by the biasing member on the magnification unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an optical sight, more particularly to an optical sight that facilitates reticle adjustment.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a conventional optical sight 1 includes an outer barrel 11, an ocular lens 12 mounted to one end 111 of the outer barrel 11, an objective lens 13 mounted to the other end 112 of the outer barrel 11, and a magnification unit 14 including an inner barrel 141 that is disposed tiltably in the outer barrel 11, and that extends between the ocular and objective lens units 12, 13. The conventional optical sight 1 further includes two adjustment units 16, and an elastic plate 17. The magnification unit 14 is provided with a reticle 15 visible through the ocular lens unit 12. The adjustment units 16 are mounted on the outer barrel 11. The elastic plate 17 is interposed between the inner and outer barrels 141, 11 to provide an urging force on the inner barrel 141 to abut against the adjustment units 16, and is disposed equiangularly from the adjustment units 16. Each of the adjustment units 16 includes a bolt 161 extending radially through and engaging threadedly the outer barrel 11, and abutting against the inner barrel 141, and a removable protective casing 162 for concealing the bolt 161.
When a user rotates the bolts 161 of the adjustment units 16 relative to the outer barrel 11, the bolts 161 respectively adjust position of the inner barrel 141 inside the outer barrel 11 in first and second directions (X1), (Y1) that are perpendicular to each other. The urging force exerted by the elastic plate 17 on the inner barrel 141 helps secure the inner barrel 141 in place after the adjustments has been made. In this manner, position of the reticle 15, which corresponds to aiming position of the optical sight, is adjusted. Although the elastic plate 17 is capable of exerting the urging force on the inner barrel 141, it has several drawbacks that require improvement during actual use.
Since the elastic plate 17 experiences fatigue after it has been in use for a period of time, the urging force exerted by the elastic plate 17 on the inner barrel 141 diminishes with time. Therefore, the position of the inner barrel 141 inside the outer barrel 11 often requires re-adjustments after the conventional optical sight 1, which is usually attached to a firearm (not shown), experiences recoil or intense vibration due to gunfire by the firearm. This re-adjustment of the position of the inner barrel 141 is inconvenient and troublesome.
Another type of conventional optical sight includes a fastening component (not shown) for securing the inner barrel 141 in place after the adjustment of the position of the inner barrel 141 in the outer barrel 11 by the adjustment units 16 is completed. Although the fastening component is capable of maintaining the position of the inner barrel 141 in the outer barrel 11, it is required to loosen the fastening component before each adjustment of the position of the inner barrel 141, and to tighten the fastening component after each adjustment is completed. The inconvenience aspect of the previous conventional optical sight 1 is obviously not improved with the use of the fastening component.


A binder for electrode of lithium ion secondary battery, comprised of a copolymer composed of 15 to 80 weight % of units from ethylenically unsaturated monomer (A) whose homopolymerization yields a polymer soluble in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and 20 to 85 weight % of units from ethylenically unsaturated monomer (B) whose homopolymerization yields a polymer insoluble in NMP, which copolymer exhibits a swelling degree of 4 or below, in an electrolyte obtained by dissolving LiPF6 in the concentration of 1 mol/liter into a solvent of 1:2 (volume ratio at 20° C.) mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC). This binder for electrode of lithium ion secondary battery enables obtaining an electrode having a flexible electrode layer excelling in binding properties with industrial advantage.

Secondary batteries such as a lithium ion secondary battery are widely used as power sources of portable terminals, such as laptop computers, cellular phones and PDAs, which have remarkably spread in recent years. Recently, desires for extension of the operation time of portable terminals, and for shortening of the charging time thereof and the like have been increasing. Accordingly, an improvement in the performance of batteries, in particular, getting high capacity thereof and an improvement in the charging and discharging rate (rate characteristic) thereof have been intensely desired.
A lithium ion secondary battery has a structure wherein a positive electrode and a negative electrode are arranged in such a manner that a separator is interposed therebetween and the resultant is put, together with an electrolyte, into a container. The electrodes (positive electrode and negative electrode) are those that an active material for an electrode (hereinafter referred to merely as an "active material" according to the circumstances) and an optional electroconductivity supplying agent or the like are bonded to a current collector made of aluminum, copper or the like through a binder for electrode of lithium ion secondary battery (hereinafter referred to merely as a "binder" according to the circumstances). Usually, the electrodes are formed by dissolving or dispersing a binder into a liquid medium such as water or N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), mixing an active material and so on therewith, applying the resultant slurry composition for electrode of lithium ion secondary battery (hereinafter referred to merely as a "slurry" according to the circumstances) onto a current collector, and then removing the liquid medium by drying or the like to bond the resultant as an electrode layer thereto.
The battery capacity thereof is intensely affected by the amount of the active material. The rate characteristic thereof is affected by the easiness of electron transfer. In order to improve the rate characteristic, it is effective to increase the amount of the electroconductivity supplying agent, such as carbon. In order to increase the amounts of the active material and the electroconductivity supplying agent inside a restricted space of the battery, it is necessary to decrease the amount of the binder. However, if the amount of the binder is made small, there is caused a problem that the bonding force of the electrode layer is reduced.
As a binder excellent in bonding power, there is known a copolymer made from an acrylic acid or methacrylic acid ester, acrylonitrile, and a vinyl monomer having an acid component (see JP-A-8-287915). This copolymer is insoluble in water and NMP; therefore, when a slurry is produced therefrom, the copolymer is used in the state that the viscosity thereof is adjusted to a viscosity suitable for the application thereof onto a current collector, using a thickener together.
However, the concentration of solid contents in the slurry is usually as high as 70% or more, thereby resulting in a problem that mixing of the slurry becomes insufficient or the components thereof aggregate so that the active material or the electroconductivity supplying agent are unevenly dispersed in the slurry. If the uneven slurry is used to form an electrode, the following problems arise: the ion conductivity thereof deteriorates so that the battery capacity lowers; and the bonding force of the active material is reduced so that the active material falls off from the current collector.
As a method for obtaining a slurry wherein an active material and an electroconductivity supplying agent are highly dispersed, suggested a method of mixing a paste A obtained by kneading an active material and a binder, with a paste B, obtained by kneading an electroconductivity supplying agent and a thickener, so as to yield a slurry (see JP-A-2003-45432). However, according to this method, the process therefor is complicated. Moreover, producing facilities become necessary for each of the pastes A and B and the slurry, and other large restrictions about facilities are also imposed.
There is also known a method for using, as a binder, a polymer soluble in NMP, such as polyvinylidene fluoride or polyacrylonitrile. However, the electrode produced by use of the binder is insufficient in flexibility; accordingly, its electrode layer may be cracked or fallen off when the electrode is folded or wounded and then put into a battery container.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Binder for electrode of lithium ion secondary battery


A luminaire that includes a housing having a downlight geometry and containing a light engine including light emitting diodes (LEDs), in which the light engine is positioned to emit light through a light emission end of the housing. The housing contains driver electronics for controlling power received by the luminaire for powering the light engine. An access opening on a back surface of the housing exposes the driver electronics. A junction box supporting at least a portion of a wireless control module. The junction box having an electrical pathway opening is engaged to the back surface of the housing. The wireless control module is contained in the knockout of the junction box. Electrical communication between the wireless control module and the driver circuit is across a physical electrically conductive pathway that extends through the electrical pathway opening of the junction box.

One of the most common light fixtures is the recessed can downlight (RCD) or Non-IC type fixtures, which is an open bottom can that contains a light bulb, most commonly an incandescent bulb or a fluorescent bulb. The fixture is typically connected to the power mains at 120 to 277 volts, 50/60 Hz. RCDs or Non-IC are generally installed during the construction of a building before the ceiling material (such as plaster or gypsum board) is applied. Therefore, they are not easily removed or substantially reconfigured during their lifetime. Recently, lighting devices have been developed that make use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) for a variety of lighting applications. Owing to their long lifetime and high energy efficiency, integrated LED luminaires are now also designed for replacing traditional incandescent and fluorescent luminaires, i.e., for retrofit applications and/or new construction features. For retrofit applications, the LED fixture is adapted to fit into existing fixture in ceiling. For new construction, the LED luminaire can be directly installed into the ceiling or installed with a new non-IC fixture.


A thick-film composition comprising:                (a) conductive metal;        (b) crystallized glass;        (c) amorphous glass; and        (d) organic medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention in general relates to a thick film conductor paste, and in particular to a thick film conductor composition with superior wear resistance that is used to prevent the fogging of windows in an automobile.
2. Description of Related Art
An important application of patterned electrically-conductive layers is in the automobile manufacturing industry, and particularly in the manufacture of windows which can be defrosted and/or demisted by an electrically-conductive grid permanently attached to the window and capable of producing heat when powered by a voltage source. In order for the window to defrost quickly, the circuit must be capable of supplying large amounts of power from a low voltage power source, typically 12 volts. For such power sources the resistivity requirement of the conductive pattern is generally in the range of from about 2 to about 5 μΩ cm (5 mΩ/square at 10 μm after firing). This requirement is readily met by conductors containing noble metals, particularly silver which is the most commonly-used material for this application.
The substances used in the production of grids for defogging windows include primarily, thick-film silver conductors which are manufactured from a paste composed of fine particles of silver powder and glass frit dispersed in an organic medium. In a typical application, a paste containing 70 wt % of silver powder, 5 wt % of glass frit and 25 wt % of organic medium is screen-printed through a 180 standard mesh screen onto flat, un-formed rear window glass. The printed composition is dried at about 150° C. for at least 2 minutes, following which the entire element is fired in air at 650° C. for 2 to 5 minutes. After firing, the softened window glass is shaped by compression in a mold, then quenched by rapid cooling. The organic medium is removed by vaporization and pyrolysis in the firing cycle. A continuous electrically conductive path is formed by sintering the glass and silver, and having the glass act as a binder for the silver particles.
The prior art relating to such thick-film conductor pastes for automotive glass includes the thick-film paste composition for use in conductive patterns on automotive window glass disclosed in JP 05009623 A, which discloses a composition including a mixture of fine particles containing (a) metallic silver, (b) glass frit having a softening point of 350 to 620° C., and (c) 0.01 to 10 wt %, based on the base paste, of the oxides of transition metals selected from among vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt and mixtures thereof; wherein components (a), (b) and (c) are dispersed in (d) an organic medium, and the transition metals have a valence of 2+ or higher.
Other art of of interest includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,638 to Fukada et al. that teaches a thick film paste that may be used in forming a conductor, resistor, insulator, or protector or the like in a ceramic wiring substrate by a screen printing process. However, the Fukada et al. thick film paste requires the use of a resin and a solvent containing 2-tetradecanol or a mixture of 2-tetradecanol with another solvent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,173 to Okamoto et. al. teaches a thick film composition used to apply a conductive pattern that contains fine particle metallic silver and fine particle glass frit having a softening point of 350–620° C. The glass frit is characterized in Okamoto et al. as an amorphous glass. Its composition is not of importance so long as the transition metal oxide is contained in the glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,059 to Eustice et. al. teaches a conductor composition comprising an admixture of finely divided conductive metal, an amorphous glass binder, and a colorant which is a mixture of B2O3, copper oxide, and/or a precursor of copper oxide. Again, the composition of the glass binder is not critical to its function.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,413 to Carroll et. al teaches a thick film composition for applying conductive patterns comprising finely divided metallic silver particles, glass frit, selected transitional metal oxides, and organic medium. Again the nature of the amorphous glass binders is not critical to the invention.
Typically in this art, the "hot wire" for defogging is formed on the rear window glass and plated to provide the desired weather resistance and resistivity. The "hot wire" is composed primarily of sintered silver and, in the absence of problems relating to resistivity and weatherability, is used without plating. In car models in which the rear windows can be raised and lowered, the hot wire may be subject to wear due to rubbing during raising and lowering of the window. A plating must be applied to the silver conductor to prevent such wear.
In cases where a composition containing a large amount of inorganic material or the like has been employed to enable the hot wire material to withstand wear without having to be plated, the resulting hot wire has often been unable to satisfy other required properties, particularly resistivity, and has thus been unfit for use. However, because of environmental concerns and the need to reduce costs by doing away with plating, there remains a strong desire for a material which has sufficient wear resistance and is capable of satisfying the performance requirements of "hot wires."
Accordingly, the object of the invention is to provide a material which has sufficient wear resistance even when not plated, and can satisfy the performance requirements for hot wires. "Performance requirements," as used herein, refers to such characteristics as resistivity, percent change in resistivity, weather resistance, coloration and printability.
The resistance of the conductive pattern of the present invention is required to be on the order of 2 to 30 millions per square. This requirement is readily compatible with precious metal conductors, especially silver, as noted above. Furthermore, the present invention requires a volume resistivity that is 12 μΩ cm or less and a durability (meaning an absence of breaks in the conductor) of at least 100 rubbing cycles. Additionally, the conductive grid wires, which are contained in the window, must be small enough to maintain visibility through the window.

Thick-film conductor paste for automotive glass


A multimode circuit that is configured to operate in one of multiple operating modes is disclosed. In particular, an exemplary multimode circuit may be configured to operating in one of a full-swing mode, a limited-swing mode, a full-swing to limited-swing converter mode, and a limited-swing to full-swing converter mode. The operating modes of the multimode circuit may be dynamically selectable. One or more multimode circuits may be part of a configurable distribution path for controlling the performance of a signal distribution path or tree of an integrated circuit.

Very high speed signals must be distributed across an integrated circuit (IC) chip and, with advances in semiconductor technology, the variation in the total delay of a digital signal path is becoming a larger and larger problem in submicron technologies. One approach to addressing this variability is to employ current-mode logic (CML) circuits for high speed signal distribution. CML is a CMOS analog logic family that works by diverting current from one path to another, rather than by switching transistors on and off. CML is characterized by very fast operating speeds and high power dissipation. In order to achieve the speed requirements of today's IC designs, large CML circuits that operate at very high power may be utilized. Alternatively, a signal distribution path may include a mix of high-power signal distribution blocks, such as CML circuits, and low-power signal distribution blocks, such as digital complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. Digital CMOS is a MOS logic family that uses both p-type and n-type material for the channels and is characterized by having lower power consumption per gate.
It is favorable to transmit high speed signals while expending very low power. Because the fabrication process is widely variable it may be possible to operate at a certain desired frequency using a string of low-power signal distribution blocks, such as digital CMOS circuits, in the signal distribution path that is located in a fast IC chip (i.e., fast due to certain fabrication process conditions that result in certain circuit characteristics). By contrast, a slow IC chip (i.e., slow due to different fabrication process conditions that result in different circuit characteristics), the low-power signal distribution blocks may not be capable of transmitting the signal at the desired frequency. Because circuit designers are required to design for a certain performance under the worst possible semiconductor process conditions, they may be required to design entirely with high-power signal distribution blocks, which is inefficient and wasteful in an IC chip that is capable of transmitting high speed signals with low-power signal distribution blocks.
A need exists for a flexible multimode logic element that is suitable for use in a configurable mixed-logic signal distribution path, in order to provide a digital signal path that is programmable to include combinations of high-power and/or low-power signal distribution blocks, while maintaining a certain desired performance level.

Flexible multimode logic element for use in a configurable mixed-logic signal distribution path

International Business Machines Corporation


A toner including toner particles including a binder resin, and a modified layered inorganic material in which at least part of interlayer ions is replaced with an organic ion, and a fatty acid metal compound located on a surface of the toner particles; and an external additive located on the fatty acid metal compound, wherein the external additive is a material different from the fatty acid metal compound. An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member; a developing device configured to develop the electrostatic latent image with a developer including the toner; a transfer device; and a fixing device. A method for preparing the toner including dispersing or emulsifying a toner composition including a modified layered inorganic material to prepare toner particles; mixing a fatty acid metal compound with the toner particles; and second mixing the toner particles with an external additive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for developing electrostatic images, and more particularly to a toner for use in direct or indirect electrophotographic developing methods. In addition, the present invention also relates to a toner container containing the toner, a developer including the toner, a method for preparing the toner, and a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus using the toner.
2. Discussion of the Background
Electrophotographic image forming methods have been used for various fields. Electrophotographic image forming methods typically include the following processes.    (1) charging the surface of an image bearing member such as photoreceptors (charging process):    (2) irradiating the charged image bearing member with light to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member (light irradiation process);    (3) developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer including a toner to form a toner image on the image bearing member (development process);    (4) transferring the toner image onto a receiving material fed from a sheet feeding device optionally via an intermediate transfer medium (transfer process);    (5) fixing the toner image to the receiving material upon application of heat and pressure thereto (fixing process); and    (6) removing toner particles remaining on the image bearing member and intermediate transfer medium without being transferred so that the image bearing member and intermediate transfer medium are ready for the next image forming processes (cleaning process).
Pulverization methods are well known as toner preparation methods. Pulverization methods typically include the following processes:    (1) melting and kneading a toner composition including a thermoplastic resin serving as a binder resin, a colorant, an optional additive, etc. upon application of heat thereto (kneading process);    (2) cooling the kneaded toner composition (cooling process);    (3) pulverizing the cooled toner composition (pulverization process); and    (4) classifying the pulverized toner composition to prepare toner particles (classification process).
Toners prepared by such pulverization methods typically have a large average particle diameter, and therefore it is difficult for the toners to produce high quality images.
In attempting to produce high quality images, polymerization methods and emulsifying/dispersing methods have been proposed. Specific examples of the polymerization methods include suspension polymerization methods in which toner components such as monomers, polymerization initiators, colorants and charge controlling agents are dispersed in an aqueous medium including a dispersant to form drops of an oil phase, and then the oil drops are polymerized to prepare toner particles in the aqueous medium; and association methods in which particles obtained by an emulsion or suspension polymerization method are agglomerated and fused to prepare agglomerated and fused particles, resulting in formation of toner particles.
Although toners prepared by such polymerization methods have a relatively small average particle diameter, the polymerization toners have a drawback in that the binder resin is limited to resins obtained by a radical polymerization method. Namely, resins such as polyester resins and epoxy resins which are preferably used as binder resins of color toners cannot be used therefore.
In attempting to remedy the drawback, emulsifying/dispersing methods in which a mixture of toner constituents such as binder resins and colorants is dispersed in an aqueous medium and emulsified to prepare toner particles have been proposed, for example, in published unexamined Japanese patent applications Nos. (hereinafter referred to as JP-As) 05-66600 and 08-211655. By using these emulsifying/dispersing methods, toner particles with a small average particle diameter can be prepared and various resins can be used for the binder resin of the toner particles. However, the emulsifying/dispersing methods have a drawback in that particles with too small particle diameters are produced, resulting in increase of emulsification loss (i.e., increase of the manufacturing costs).
In attempting to remedy the drawback, JP-As 10-020552 and 11-007156 have disclosed emulsion association methods in which particles prepared by an emulsion method using a polyester resin are agglomerated and fused to prepare agglomerated and fused particles, resulting in formation of toner particles. By using these methods, formation of particles with too small particle diameters can be prevented, and thereby emulsification loss can be reduced.
However, toners prepared by the polymerization methods and emulsifying/dispersing methods tend to have spherical forms due to the interfacial tension of the drops prepared in the dispersing process. Spherical toners cause a cleaning problem in that toner particles remaining on the surface of an image bearing member even after an image transfer process cannot be well removed with a cleaning blade because such spherical toner particles tend to enter the gap between the tip of a cleaning blade and the surface of the image bearing member.
In attempting to solve the cleaning problem, JP-A 62-266550 discloses a technique in that high speed agitation is performed on a dispersion before completion of the polymerization reaction of the dispersion to apply a mechanical force to the particles, so that the resultant toner particles have irregular forms. However, by using this technique, another problem such that the dispersion becomes unstable and thereby particles are united tends to occur.
In addition, JP-A 02-51164 discloses a technique in that particles are agglomerated using a polyvinyl alcohol having a specific saponification value as a dispersant to prepare agglomerated particles (i.e., toner particles) having particle diameters of from 5 to 25 μm. However, the toner particles have large particle diameters.
Further, JP-A 2005-49858 also discloses a technique in that a toner composition liquid including a toner composition, and a filler are added to an organic solvent to form toner particles having irregular forms. However, toners including a filler therein have a high viscoelasticity, and thereby the minimum fixable temperature of the toners increases. When a filler is added to a toner so as to be present on the surface of the toner particles, the viscoelasticity of the toner hardly increases. However, when a filler is present on the surface of the toner particles, problems in that a wax (serving as a release agent) included in the toner particles can hardly exude from the toner particles and the binder resin in the toner particles is prevented from melting away at a fixing process, resulting in deterioration of the low temperature fixability of the toner and occurrence of a hot offset phenomenon.
Further, PCT patent application publications Nos. 2003-515795 (WO01/040878), 2006-500605 (WO2004/019138), and 2006-503313 (WO2004/019137), and JP-A 2003-202708 have disclosed to use layered inorganic materials, in which interlayer ions (such as metal cations) are modified with an organic cation, as charge controlling agents of toner. However, toners including such a modified layered inorganic material have a drawback in that the charge stability thereof deteriorates particularly when environmental conditions largely changed, and thereby the image density of the images produced by the toners is seriously varied.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for a toner which can produce high quality images with good fine-dot reproducibility and good color reproducibility and which has a good combination of fixability, transferability, cleanability, transparency and environmental stability.

Toner, method for preparing the toner, and image forming apparatus using the toner


As described herein, a system, method, and computer program are provided for preventing user mistakes when making database changes. In use, a user command to modify a database is received. The user command is validated against a plurality of predefined business rules. One or more actions are conditionally performed before executing the user command, based on a result of the validating.

Oftentimes, databases are managed by users, and as a result are subject to manual changes which can introduce errors or other unwanted/unintended effects. For example, when a user desires to make a change to a database in a production environment, the user must type a Structured Query Language (SQL) statement or other database language statement. If the statement, which may otherwise be a valid statement, contains an error with regard to the desired change the user is trying to make, a resulting change to the database will reflect that error. As another example, even though a user may correctly enter the statement, the user may not understand an actual impact of the statement on the database. In this case where the user's desired impact differs from the actual impact, the resulting change to the database will reflect an unwanted effect.
To date, while database statements may be checked for validity, such as whether the statements use a correct syntax, there is currently no tool to verify that the actual changes being made to a database are the changes intended by the user. There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

System, method, and computer program for preventing user mistakes when making database changes


A light detecting device is fabricated to have the following structure: a light receiving element having a protective layer, in which a transparent conductive electrode, a semiconductor layer, an electrode and the protective layer are successively formed on a transparent substrate, is arranged on a first face of an insulating substrate having a terminal electrode formed to be exposed to first and second faces of the insulating substrate in such a manner that the protective layer is opposed to the first face of the insulating substrate; and further the transparent conductive electrode and the electrode are connected electrically to the terminal electrode exposed to the first face of the insulating substrate. The light detecting device having this structure is surface-mounted on a circuit board to connect the terminal electrode exposed to the second face of the insulating substrate to an external terminal of the circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light detecting device such as an ultraviolet ray detecting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, industrial instruments using ultraviolet rays have been spread in many devices such as color image outputting devices, ozone generating devices and semiconductor fabricating devices, and many fields such as printing, painting and optical shaping fields. In order to measure ultraviolet rays, a semiconductor light receiving element is used.
As the semiconductor light receiving element, an element made of a semiconductor which absorbs no visible light, such as an element made of a gallium nitride type semiconductor or an oxide type semiconductor, is suggested. About the nitride type semiconductor, an ultraviolet ray receiving element made of polycrystal gallium nitride and formed on a transparent conductive glass substrate has been made practicable. Generally, when semiconductor elements, which are initially fabricated as semiconductor chips, are used as light receiving elements, the semiconductor elements are integrated into a plastic or ceramic package, or a protective layer is formed on the elements.
These light receiving elements have, as output terminals from the elements, pins made of a metal line or plate-form terminal electrodes, and the output terminals are used to mount the light receiving elements on a circuit or an amplifier. Thus, under the present situation, surface mounting technique cannot be applied to these light receiving elements.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2001-210856 proposes a thin ultraviolet ray detecting device in which a light receiving element is fixed onto a protecting member with an epoxy adhesive agent. However, as its output terminals, terminals having lines or rod-like electrodes are used. Thus, surface mounting technique cannot be applied to the detecting device.
In order to use a greater number of these light receiving elements in automatic machines as electronic instruments have been made smaller in recent years, it has been desired that the light receiving elements are in an element form which can cope with surface mounting technique. Improvement for attaining such a desire has been expected.
Accordingly, the invention overcomes the above-mentioned problems in the prior art and attains the following object. That is, an object of the invention is to provide a light detecting device which can stably be surface-mounted on, for example, a circuit board. Another object of the invention is to provide a method for mounting the same.

Light detecting device and method for mounting the same


A detachable handle mounting structure includes a handle, a sleeve fixedly provided at one end of the handle for receiving a tool, a socket, which is fixedly provided at a recessed portion on the periphery of the sleeve and has an accommodation open chamber and a bottom center hole cut through the periphery wall of the sleeve, a plug partially inserted into the bottom center hole of the socket and vertically movable in the bottom center hole of the socket between a locking position where the plug is partially projecting into the inside of the sleeve to lock a tool to the sleeve and an unlocking position where the plug is moved away from the inside of the sleeve to unlock the tool that is inserted into the sleeve, and a rotary knob, which has a coupling member coupled to the plug and is rotatable to move the plug vertically in the bottom center hole of the socket between the locking position and the unlocking position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to garden tools and more particularly, to a detachable handle mounting structure for garden tool that detachably connects a handle to a tool. The handle can be made in the form of a long shaft for the holding of the both hands, or a short grip for the holding of one single hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
Draw hoe, pruning saw, trowel, and other garden tools may be selectively used for cultivation of the soil. These garden tools commonly have a fixed handle. It is inconvenient to carry a set of garden tools. Further, because conventional garden tools do not have a detachable handle, they require a big amount of packing materials and occupy much space during delivery. Further, the supplier or distributor must provide a big place to display or store garden tools.


A process for depositing an adherent polycrystalline diamond thin film on a glass substrate, by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at 1 to 15 torr and low temperatures of the substrate of between about 350 to 600.degree. C. using hydrogen and methane and optionally carbon dioxide. The substrate has diamond particles deposited on it or is polished with diamond particles prior to CVD. The process produces films which are clear and adherent.

(2) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process for the preparation of an adherent polycrystalline diamond thin film on a substrate, preferably silicon or glass, using relatively low temperatures (less than 600.degree. C.). In particular, the process relates to particular conditions for producing the adherent diamond thin film.
(2) Description of Related Art
Diamond has an exceptionally wide optical transmission window, is resistant to chemical attack at ordinary temperatures, and is expected to be highly resistant to abrasion and erosion (Harris, D. C., Proc. SPIE, 2286, pp. 218-228 (1994)). Consequently it is of interest as a coating material for other optical materials which are less resistant to hostile environments. The most common optical material is glass; however, diamond film deposition on glass can be problematic. Adhesive diamond films deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have been reported on quartz, which has a low thermal expansion coefficient (Ong, T. P., et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 55 2063-2065 (1989); Pickrell, D. J., et al., J. Mater. Res. 6 1264-1276 (1991); Muranaka, Y., et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 9 76-84 (1991); and Joseph, A., et al., 2nd International Conference on the Applications of Diamond Films and Related Materials, Eds. M. Yoshikawa, et al., 429-432, MYU, Tokyo (1993)). For glasses with lower softening point temperatures and larger thermal expansion coefficients than pure silica, such as borosilicate glasses, adhesion of CVD diamond films has been reported to be a problem (Nariman, K. E., et al., Chem. Mater. 3 391-394 (1991)).
Diamond is of interest for electronic packaging because of its combination of thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. Diamond is already being used as a substrate material onto which heat producing electronic components are attached (Harris, D. C., Proc. SPIE 2286 218-228 (1994); and Ong, T. P., et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 55 2063-2065 (1989)). In such cases, the high thermal conductivity of diamond combines with its high electrical resistivity and low dielectric constant to provide high-performance heat sinks for microwave integrated circuits, power device modules, and multichip modules (Pickrell, D. J., et al., J. Mater. Res. 6 1264-1276 (1991); and Muranaka, Y., et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A. 9 76-84 (1991)). However, diamond is also under consideration as an over-coating layer on microelectronic components. One potential advantage of diamond films on integrated circuits is as a superior passivation layer. In previous work, for example, hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was used to deposit a 2 .mu.m thick diamond film on a silicon wafer containing circuitry including linear amplifiers and resistor elements used for thermal transfer printing devices (Joseph A., et al., 2nd International Conference on the Applications of Diamond Films and Related Materials, Eds., M. Yoshikawa, et al., 429-432, MYU, Tokyo (1993)). It was noted that the resulting devices exhibited superior lifetime in that the diamond coated circuits did not exhibit failure due to abrasion of the resistor elements by the paper.
However, the diamond deposition temperature of 850.degree. C. for this example is too high for conventional microelectronics which use aluminum metallization. overlay diamond films have also been proposed for improved thermal management of local hot spots in which, for example, diamond would be used as the dielectric material to fill the gap between source-gate and gate-drain regions of high electron mobility transistors (Nariman, K. E., et al., Chem. Mater. 3 391-394 (1991)). In order to implement such a device, low temperature deposition of diamond is required.
The prior art in chemical vapor deposition of polycrystalline diamond on various substrates is extensive. U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,701 to Jansen et al describes a process wherein diamond particles are used for seeding a surface to be coated to produce an adherent film on the surface as tested by the adhesive tape method. The films are particularly useful for protecting electronic circuitry on silicon wafers (IC chips) from heat and mechanical damage. Relatively high temperatures above 650.degree. C. were used by Jansen et al which can affect the circuitry on the IC chips. Patents which describe related processes are: U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,103 to Asmussen et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,231 to Bovenkerk et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,286 to Yang et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,524 to Slutz et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,077 to Knemeyer et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,106 to Kawarada et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,170 to Maruvama et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,711 to DeNatale et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,749 to Chow; U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,231 to Bachmann et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,931 to Yamazaki et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,144 to Cann et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,862 to Itatani et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,179 to Yamazaki et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,685 to Yamazaki; U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,571 to Hosova et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,711 to Yamazaki et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,451 to Ito et al.
It has been found that the films have relatively poor adhesion to a glass containing substrate either as a result of stresses developed between the film and the substrate in thermal cycling or because the film does not bond well to this substrate. The optical transmission properties of the prior art films are relatively difficult to control. There is a need for improvements in plasma assisted CVD of diamond on silicon containing substrates.

Process for depositing adherent diamond thin films

Board of Trustees operating Michigan State University


An item holder primarily containing two parts: a ball shaped element and a clip. The clip can be seated neatly into a cutout in the ball shaped element. The clip can also be designed as a divot tool or a spike and contains a clamp that can be used to hold a cigar or cigarette, support a golf club or have other uses. The ball shaped element is sized to fit neatly into the ball bracket on any pull cart or motorized cart equipped with such a bracket.

The smoking golfer will always be faced with the following dilemma: where do I put my smoke while I'm swinging the club? The item holder of the present invention solves this problem while leveraging the ball bracket equipped on every golf cart on every golf course in the world. Additionally, the invention addresses secondary issues of keeping a club dry in wet conditions and repairing ball marks on the green.
The novel feature can be described by how the invention is secured on the golf cart: the ball fits neatly in the golf cart's ball bracket, and the clip can be removed from the ball to be carried with the golfer when the golfer is inevitably separated from the cart. And in the event the cart's ball bracket doesn't secure the ball tightly, or simply at the golfer's discretion, the clip can be inserted securely into the cart's tee holder in one alternative embodiment.