This invention relates to a device for joining piping materials such as a piping material and a pipe coupling.. The piping materials are joined together by inserting one end of a piping material into a pipe coupling having a tapered and expanded diameter portion, and by causing the joint of these piping materials where they are overlapped with each other to be plastically deformed with a pair of processing dies which are movable in a direction parallel to the axis of the piping materials.. The half-die members can be kept in parallel to each other when they are moved closer to each other, thereby to provide uniform and rigid junction therebetween.

In the prior art, joining of piping materials is usually achieved by means of press rolls rotatively driven to caulk the joint of the piping materials where they are overlapped with each other. However, the joining of piping materials by use of such rotatively driven press rolls unfavorably requires a complicated structure, leading to an expensive and large-sized device to make the handling of the piping materials in the site of piping operation quite troublesome.
Thus, the present applicant previously proposed a device for joining piping materials without using press rolls in the Japanese Provisional Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 109536/1982, which involves YOSEZUME (a plural number of dies movable in the radial direction) as the caulking means which can approach the piping materials in the orthogonal direction to the axis of the piping materials, but this device also suffers a problem of complicated cam mechanism for interlocking the YOSEZUME.
Furthermore, the present applicant proposed a device for joining piping materials in the Japanese Provisional Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 142729/1982, in which a pair of dies are allowed to approach relative to each other in a direction parallel to the axis of the piping materials by use of cams which are movable in the orthogonal direction to the axis of the piping materials to achieve joining of the piping materials. Nevertheless, there remains a problem that the dies fail to keep their parallel face-to-face relationship because of the structure in which the dies are only pushed at their back portions by the cams to receive greater resistance from the piping materials at their portions facing to the piping materials to break the parallel relationship therebetween, whereby said portions are slightly opened or lifted up from the surface of the piping material as compared with the back portions thereof, so that the joining of a piping material and a pipe coupling cannot be achieved properly.


The resinous filler port includes: a filler-port body including a nozzle insertion port through which a filler nozzle is insertable, a fuel supply port supplying a fuel supplied from the filler nozzle to a fuel tank by way of a filler tube, and a vapor inlet port letting flow in vapors arising from the fuel and passing through a breather tube from a side of the fuel tank; a joint formed to penetrate through from one of opposite ends thereof to another one of the opposite ends, fitted undetachably into and around the vapor inlet port at the one of the opposite ends, and connected with the breather tube at the other one of the opposite ends; and a flow control valve accommodated inside the joint, and controlling a flow volume of the vapors flowing into the filler-port body from the breather tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resinous filler port.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Gazette No. 3775656, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) Gazette No. 2006-234045, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) Gazette No. 2003-269267 set forth to provide a connector controlling a flow volume of vapors, which arise from a fuel, in a breather line, in which the vapors distribute from a fuel tank to a filler port in the fuel supply system of an automobile. The connectors set forth in Japanese Patent Gazette No. 3775656 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) Gazette No. 2006-234045 are connected at one of the opposite ends with a connector pipe disposed in the fuel tank, and are connected at another one of the opposite ends with an end of a breather tube that connects between the connectors and a filler port. The connectors comprise a connector body into which the connector pipe can be inserted from one of the opposite end sides and around which the breather tube can be fitted, a retainer for making the connector pipe detachable to and from the connector body, and a valve element disposed inside the connector body.
Moreover, the connector set forth in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) Gazette No. 2003-269267 is provided in the middle of a breather line, is connected at one of the opposite ends with a first breather tube that connects between the connector and a fuel tank, and is further connected at another one of the opposite ends with a second breather tube that connects between the connector and a filler port. The connector controls a flow volume of vapors resulting from a fuel.


A torque capstan is provided for use in an optical fiber cable manufacturing process which enables reverse oscillating lay (ROL) length to be maintained. The torque capstan comprises a first portion having at least two pulleys rotationally mounted thereon, a second portion having at least two pulleys rotationally mounted thereon, and first and second drive belts mounted on the pulleys of the first and second capstan portions, respectively. Rotational motion is imparted to the first and/or second drive belts through a drive system that is coupled to a drive pulley of at least one of the first and second capstan portions. Rotation of at least one of the drive pulley(s) causes the respective drive belt to rotate in a direction parallel to, or substantially parallel to, a direction in which an optical fiber cable being manufactured in the optical fiber cable manufacturing process is being pulled. Contact between the drive belts causes the drive belts to rotate in the same direction. At least one of the first and second drive belts has a longitudinal groove formed therein that is parallel to, or substantially parallel to, the direction in which the optical fiber cable is being pulled. The belts grip and pull/push the cable in such a way that the ROL length is maintained over a length of the optical fiber cable, thus improving the quality of the manufactured optical fiber cables.

The present invention generally relates to manufacturing optical fiber cables and, more particularly, to a torque capstan that improves the consistency of the reverse oscillating lay of the cables during the manufacturing process, thereby improving the quality of the manufactured cables.
It is known in the optical fiber cable manufacturing industry that reverse oscillating lay (ROL) inconsistency during the cable manufacturing process, particularly in regard to high-fiber-count (HFC) cables, results in non-uniform distribution of the mechanical load and stress on the cable throughout its entire length. This non-uniform distribution of mechanical load/stress on the cable during the manufacturing process often results in the cable exhibiting high optical loss during mechanical and environmental qualification tests, which is regarded as a failure in the cable.
FIG. 1 is a graphical representation illustrating the manner in which a HFC cable 1 twists during a typical HFC cable manufacturing process. A HFC cable 1 is a cable that comprises a plurality of subunits 2, typically three to twelve, each of which comprises a plurality of coated optical fibers (not shown). During the manufacturing process, a reverse oscillating lay (ROL) machine is used to create the proper amount of ROL in the HFC cable. A portion of an ROL machine used for this purpose is shown in FIG. 2. During the HFC cable manufacturing process, the subunits 2 of the HFC cable are pulled through holes 5 formed in a series of reverse oscillating plates 6 as adjacent reverse oscillating plates are rotated in the same direction, but at incrementally increasing angles of rotation. At a particular point during the rotations of any two adjacent plates 6, a predetermined amount of twist is added to the core of the HFC cable. At this point, the direction in which each of the plates is being rotated reverses, and the plates rotate oppositely until the same amount of twist has been added to the core of the HFC cable in the opposite direction. The twisting of the HFC cable in this manner as it is being pulled is intended to equalize the distribution of stress on the subunits over the length of the cable.
With reference again to FIG. 1, the lay length is a length of a complete 360xc2x0 turn of the cable core in either the clockwise 3 or counterclockwise 4 directions. Once the apex is reached in either direction, the adjacent plates 6 reverse their directions of rotation and a transition 5 occurs in the cable 1 when the twisting direction changes. The ROL value corresponds to the desired lay length that is typically programmed into a control system of the ROL machine. Ideally, the measured lay length at any point during the manufacturing process should be equal to the programmed ROL value.
In current HFC cable manufacturing processes, after the cable leaves the ROL machine, it is pulled through a powder machine (for certain cable types), a set of torsion rolls that helps to keep subunits 2 together, and an extruder (not shown), which extrudes a material over the sub-units to form the outer jacket of the cable. As the HFC cable leaves the extruder, it is pulled through, respectively, a water trough and a main capstan. The water trough cools and solidifies the extruded material to form the outer jacket of the HFC cable. The main capstan provides the pulling force and controls the speed at which the cable is pulled along the manufacturing line.
One of the problems associated with known HFC manufacturing techniques is that they often do not ensure that the ROL is consistently maintained (i.e., that the programmed ROL value=the measured lay length), which causes non-uniform stress distribution in the cable. This often results in the cable failing during testing or usage due to high optical loss.
Accordingly, a need exists for a way of ensuring that the ROL is consistently maintained during the manufacturing process, thereby decreasing or eliminating cable failures that often result from ROL inconsistency. The present invention provides a torque capstan for use in an optical fiber cable manufacturing process which enables reverse oscillating lay (ROL) length to be maintained. The torque capstan comprises a first portion having at least two pulleys rotationally mounted thereon, a second portion having at least two pulleys rotationally mounted thereon, and first and second drive belts mounted on the pulleys of the first and second capstan portions, respectively. Rotational motion is imparted to the first and/or second drive belts through a drive system that is coupled to a drive pulley of at least one of the first and second capstan portions. Rotation of the drive pulley(s) causes the respective drive belt to rotate in a direction parallel to, or substantially parallel to, a direction in which an optical fiber cable being manufactured in the optical fiber cable manufacturing process is being pulled. Contact between the drive belts causes the drive belts to rotate in the same direction. At least one of the first and second drive belts has a longitudinal groove formed therein that is parallel to, or substantially parallel to, the direction in which the optical fiber cable is being pulled. The belts grip the cable in such a way that the ROL length is maintained over a length of the optical fiber cable, thus improving the quality of the manufactured optical fiber cables.
In accordance with one embodiment, each of the upper and lower drive belts of the capstan have the grooves formed in them longitudinally with respect to the direction in which the cable is pulled during the cable manufacturing process. Each of the grooves has a cross-sectional shape designed such that, when vertical force is placed on each of the drive belts in opposite directions, the grooves of the drive belts are pushed towards each other and about the cable. The grooves together form an annulus opening that is adapted to grip the cable in such a way that the subunits are properly kept together and lay lengths in the cable, which are produced by the ROL machine, are maintained, or substantially maintained, before cable enters the extruder.
In accordance with one embodiment, the capstan is utilized in conjunction with a capstan feedback control system that controls the torque placed on the cable by the capstan in order to offset excessive back-tension produced by the ROL machine and by a subunits payoff machine. In accordance with the present invention, it has been determined through experimentation and analysis that the excessive back-tension placed on HFC cables during the manufacturing process, as well as significant periodical fluctuations of the tension force amplitude during the manufacturing process, result in ROL inconsistency and ineffectiveness in lay capturing. By offsetting the excessive back-tension produced by the ROL and payoff machines in accordance with feedback signals relating to the amount of tension being placed on the cable, excessive back-tension and significant periodical fluctuations of the tension force amplitude are reduced or eliminated, thus improving ROL consistency and lay capturing. These features of the present invention, alone and/or in combination, result in an overall improvement in the quality of the manufactured cables.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, drawings and claims.

Torque capstan that improves reverse oscillating lay (ROL) consistency during an optical fiber cable manufacturing process


An ultrasound imaging system and method includes accessing a graphical model of a representative patient, accessing a medical image of an anatomical structure, and registering the medical image with the graphical model to generate a composite image. The imaging system and method includes displaying the composite image and simultaneously displaying an unregistered medical image of the anatomical structure with the composite image. The unregistered medical image has at least one of a higher resolution and a larger form factor than the registered medical image.

In order to interpret and understand the information contained in a medical image, it is imperative that viewers of the image understand the anatomy represented in the image as well as the orientation from which the image was acquired. Properly recognizing and identifying the anatomy represented in a medical image can be difficult for many people including patients, family members of the patient, medical students and inexperienced doctors. It may be difficult to properly identify the anatomy shown in any type of medical image including computed tomography (CT) images, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images, x-ray images, positron emission tomography (PET) images, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images, and ultrasound images. However, the problem may be especially apparent with modalities such as ultrasound where images are acquired and shared with the others either very quickly after the acquisition or in real-time. When viewing a medical image it is desirable to quickly and accurately communicate the organ/anatomy displayed in the medical image as well as the relative orientation of the organ/anatomy with respect to the patient's body in a way that is easy to interpret even for people with either limited or no formal medical training.
For these and other reasons an improved method of medical imaging and ultrasound imaging system are desired.

Method and system for registering a medical image with a graphical model


The technology disclosed relates to a controller and a control method for a motorized vehicle, and in particular to the control of a motorized vehicle having at least a left wheel and a right wheel, the left wheel being driven by a left motor and the right wheel being driven by a right motor. In accordance with such motorized vehicles, linear motion of the vehicle is typically effected by driving the left motor and the right motor in the same direction, while spinning of the vehicle is typically effected by driving the left motor and the right motor in opposite directions. A typical example of such a motorized vehicle is an electric wheelchair.

1. Field of the Invention
The technology disclosed relates to a controller and a control method for a motorised vehicle, and in particular to the control of a motorised vehicle having at least a left wheel and a right wheel, the left wheel being driven by a left motor and the right wheel being driven by a right motor. In accordance with such motorised vehicles, linear motion of the vehicle is typically effected by driving the left motor and the right motor in the same direction, whilst spinning of the vehicle is typically effected by driving the left motor and the right motor in opposite directions. A typical example of such a motorised vehicle is an electric wheelchair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Motion of a motorised vehicle such as an electric wheelchair is typically effected by a left and right wheel which can be driven independently. Substantially forward and reverse motion of the vehicle is produced by driving the left and right wheel in the same direction, whilst turning of the vehicle is achieved by driving the left and right wheel at different speeds. Indeed the vehicle may even be caused to spin without substantial linear motion by driving the left and right wheel in opposite directions.
It is known to drive such left and right wheels of a motorised vehicle by means of a motor, such as an electric motor, connected to each wheel. Control circuitry is typically provided to respond to command signals from a user interface (such as a joystick) and to cause appropriate voltages to be applied to each motor to bring about the motion requested by the user.
It is further known that the performance of an electric motor, in particular the speed at which it causes an associated wheel to rotate, depends not only on the voltage applied to the motor, but also on the load which is experienced by that motor. When the load increases, for example when the vehicle is climbing a slope, the increased load will cause the motor to turn more slowly for a given supply voltage. In order to counteract such effects, it is known for motorised vehicles such as electric wheelchairs to comprise motor control circuitry which implements a technique known as IR compensation. According to this technique, the motor control circuitry monitors the left and right motor in terms of their instantaneous voltage and current consumption. From these the motor control circuitry can determine the motor speed (primarily determined by the applied armature voltage) and the motor torque (primarily determined by the armature current). The motor control circuitry can then identify situations in which the load on a motor increases (resulting in greater motor torque) by virtue of an increase in the armature current. The real motor speed can be estimated in accordance with the equation:Speed=kemf(Vm−(Im×Rm))
where kemf is the back e.m.f. constant, Vm is the voltage applied to the motor, Im is the current drawn by the motor and is the resistance of the motor windings (armature). A difference between this real motor speed and the requested motor speed is then calculated and a correction is applied, such that for example when the real motor speed drops due to an increase in load, the motor control circuitry compensates by increasing the voltage supplied to that motor to maintain the requested speed.
However, it has been found that such compensation based feedback mechanisms can make a motorised vehicle such as an electric wheelchair rather unstable when turning. This effect is particularly pronounced when the vehicle is a front wheel drive vehicle, as is often the case for an electric wheelchair. This turn instability for a front wheel drive vehicle results from the fact that the trailing centre of mass of a front wheel drive vehicle (consisting mainly of the weight of the user and the weight of the heavy-duty batteries which power the vehicle) causes the driving torque on the inside wheel to increase, and hence slow down. This has the effect that the radius of turn of the vehicle decreases, without the user having requested such a change in turn radius. The tighter turn radius leads to a higher centripetal force acting on the vehicle (since centripetal force is inversely proportional to turn radius) and this further increases the driving torque on the inside wheel, causing an even tighter turn radius. A true vicious circle thus results, which could have serious consequences for the user of the vehicle.
It should be noted that this turn instability problem in practice also affects straight line driving. Whilst a user of the vehicle may seek to drive in a straight line, small left or right deviations will always be present (corresponding to a very large turn radius) and any small offset in turning direction (also known as spin demand) will lead to an even tighter turn with positive feedback. The user has to manually compensate and is constantly fighting to keep the vehicle driving straight. The resulting "fish tailing" is an undesirable phenomenon for the user.
A related problem also arises for front wheel vehicles when driving on a camber. The position of the centre of mass of the vehicle behind the front wheels causes the uphill wheel load to increase, and hence slow down, turning the vehicle up the slope. This effect (known as "camber veer") can be particularly problematic for front wheel drive wheelchairs which implement a "gate shaping algorithm", since this tends to slow the wheelchair down as the spin demand increases, and thus only a small correction window is available to the user seeking to avoid this veering effect.
Some background technological information to the technology disclosed can be found in the "enAble40 Powerchair Control System" manual produced by Curtis Instruments, Inc. of New York, USA; in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,033,000 and 5,307,888; and in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0007299 A1.
Accordingly it would be desirable to provide an improved technique for controlling such motorised vehicles.

Controller and control method for a motorised vehicle


A composition having lubricity such as a low degree of friction and wear and capable of supplying a lubricant continuously to a surface of a slide surface is disclosed. Also, a slide bearing, a retainer for a rolling bearing, and a seismically isolated apparatus formed by molding the composition are disclosed. The composition is composed by adding a porous silica and a lubricant to a base material; adding the lubricant-impregnated porous silica to the base material; or adding the lubricant-impregnated porous silica and the lubricant to the base material.

The present invention relates to a composition having lubricity and a product comprising the composition (hereinafter referred to as slide product). Particularly, the present invention relates to a composition having lubricity such as a lubricating resinous composition, lubricating elastomer composition, and a lubricating coating film composition capable of continuously oozing a lubricant to a slide interface little by little; an additive imparting lubricity to a base material; and a slide product using these compositions. Representative slide products are a slide bearing, a retainer for a holding a roll of a rolling bearing, and a seismically isolated apparatus.
Among demands growing year by year for the composition having lubricity such as a resinous slide member obtained by molding the lubricating resinous composition, a material having rubber elasticity, and a lubricating coating film, the strong demands are that they have low degree of friction and wear in an initial time and they maintain their initial sliding property for a long time. For low degree of friction and wear, a solid lubricant such as graphite, polytetrafluoroethylene (hereinafter referred to as PTFE), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), boron nitride (BN) or the like is added to resin or a reinforcing material such as glass fiber and carbon fiber is added thereto to impart slide characteristic to the composition having lubricity. However, only the addition of the solid lubricant has a limitation in lowering the friction characteristic. Under these circumstances, a method of adding lubricating oil or the like has been carried out.
As the additive imparting lubricity to a base material, solid lubricants such as graphite, PTFE, molybdenum disulfide, boron nitride and the like are known. Base materials improve lubricity by adding the solid lubricants to the base materials such as resin, rubber, and the coating film. However, only the addition of the solid lubricant has a limitation in lowering a coefficient of friction and is incapable of allowing materials to have lower degree of friction. For achieving lower degree of friction, boundary lubrication by means of oil is generally adopted. For example, if a state in which the lubricating oil is always present on a slide interface can be maintained by adding the lubricating oil to a material, the material is allowed to have a lower degree of friction.
But the addition of only the lubricant to the resinous material or the like causes the following problems: In the case where only the lubricating oil is dispersed in the resinous material as the lubricant, the dispersion unit of the oil changes owing to kneading. Thus it is difficult to reliably manufacture a material having uniform slide characteristic.
To improve the slide characteristic of the resinous material such as the friction characteristic thereof, it is preferable that the addition amount of the lubricating oil is large. However, if the addition amount of the lubricating oil is large, a screw slip in a kneading time and metering time period is not uniform, which causes a cycle time to be long. Thus stable manufacturing is difficult. In addition, oil attaches to a die and a size accuracy is unstable. Further, if the lubricating oil and the base material are not compatible with each other, the lubricating oil cannot be dispersed into the base material, depending on the combination thereof.
In the lubricating oil-containing resinous material, a resinous layer of the base is worn little by little at a slide time and a lubricating oil layer appears on the slide portion. That is, the lubricating oil oozes on the surface of the slide portion. It is difficult to control the oozing condition of the lubricating oil. Thus there is a possibility that a pore from which the lubricating oil has oozed causes reduction of strength of the resinous layer.
In the case where a filler is added to the base material to improve the mechanical strength and wear resistance of the composition having lubricity, oil is locally present on the interface of the filler. Thus a sufficient reinforcing effect cannot be obtained.
The slide product obtained by molding the composition includes a slide bearing, a retainer for a rolling bearing, a seismically isolated apparatus, and the like.
The conventional retainer for a rolling bearing is made from metal, polyamide resin, polyacetal resin, polybutylene terephthalate resin, and the like. In molding synthetic resin, injection-moldable synthetic resin or a synthetic resinous composition reinforced with glass fiber, carbon fiber or organic fiber added to a molding material of the synthetic resin has been used. Semi-solid lubricant such as lubricating oil or grease has been used to lubricate the retainer-incorporated rolling bearing.
In the case where the semi-solid lubricant such as grease is used, resistance to stirring is generated by the consistency of the lubricant. Therefore, when a rotary shaft supported by the bearing rotates, a required torque is applied and a torque fluctuation is generated. In the conventional bearing incorporating the retainer owing to grease lubrication, when the rotational speed of the inner ring or the outer ring is as high as about 10,000 rpm, the resistance to stirring generated by the consistency of the grease causes a required torque for rotating the rotary shaft supported by the bearing to be high and a torque fluctuation to occur. Further, owing to the presence of the grease, a comparatively large amount of dust floats in the periphery of the bearing. Owing to such an increase and fluctuation of torque, generation of dust, and generation of noise caused by the rotation of the bearing, there is reduction of the performance of a bearing, especially a bearing having a diameter not more than 6 mm, which is incorporated in office appliances such as an HDD, a VTR, a DAT, a LBP and audio appliances, peripheral appliances, and the like.
To improve these problems, there are proposed a retainer, for a rolling bearing, composed of a material having a lubricating function. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.61-6429, there is disclosed the bearing containing polyamide-imide resin porously compression-molded and impregnated with fluorinated oil. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.1-93623, the retainer formed by molding oil-containing plastic consisting of the oil-containing binder and the matrix is impregnated with lubricating oil. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.8-21450, the mixture of polyolefin resin and the lubricating oil is molded into the configuration of the retainer. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.2000-97241, the mixture of synthetic resin and the inorganic porous particulate matter is molded into the configuration of the retainer.
However, the retainer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.61-6429 is inferior to a retainer composed of a precise porous material in its mechanical strength. Thus depending on a use condition, the retainer lacks strength. Further because interconnected pores are formed, powdery resin is compression-molded, sintered, and then machined. Thus a large number of manufacturing processes are required.
In the case of the retainer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.1-93623, to increase oil absorption capacity, it is necessary to immerse the retainer in the lubricating oil at a high temperature (120xc2x0 C.-130xc2x0 C.) for a long time (about seven days). Therefore, there is a possibility that the lubricating oil and the resin forming the retainer deteriorate and dimensions change greatly. That is, the method is inferior in the stability of products. Another disadvantage is that the lubricating oil oozes at a comparatively early time. Thus the retainer is incapable of maintaining stable lubricity for a long time.
In the case of the retainer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.8-21450, the lubricating oil is held by polyolefin resin because the polyolefin resin is highly absorbent of oil. Thus little oil oozes from the retainer. Even though the lubricating oil is uniformly dispersed in the polyolefin resin, the lubricating oil in the vicinity of the surface of the retainer oozes. However, it is technically difficult to ooze the lubricating oil from the inside of the retainer at a stable speed for a long time.
Another problem is that if much lubricating oil is added to the polyolefin resin, problems occur in the production of the retainer. For example, it is likely that a screw slip in a kneading time, metering is unstable, which causes a cycle time to be long, a size accuracy is unstable, and the lubricating oil attaches to the surface of a die, which causes the finish of a molded product to be poor.
In the case of the retainer disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.2000-97241, the lubricating oil is not held inside the resin and when oil supply is stopped, the lubricating oil is supplied to a slide interface owing to capillary action. Thus the lubricating oil does not ooze at a uniform speed from the inside for a long time.
A seismically isolated apparatus supports a multistory structure such as buildings and towers; a low structure such as single-family houses; a public structure such as bridges over roads and for railways, and the like and reduces the degree of a seism-caused force applied thereto. That is, escape from a seism means reduction of the degree of a seism-caused force applied to buildings or the like by using a method. Widely used is a seismically isolated apparatus or a seismically isolating method of base insulation type of reducing the degree of a seism-caused force applied to a building by inserting an apparatus between the base or footing and the building.
For example, a seismically isolated apparatus constructed of a combination of a slide support and a horizontal spring is hitherto used.
The seismically isolated apparatus is so constructed as to slide two plates on each other. One of the two plates is installed on a slide material such as a resinous slide plate bonded to a footing of the slide support. The other metal plate is installed on a pillar. That is, by sliding the building according to a seism-caused horizontal shaking of the ground, a force greater than a frictional force acting on a slide surface is applied to the building. The horizontal spring restricts the movable range of the building to prevent the location of the building from moving much. The lower the friction coefficient of the support material is, the higher seism escape effect is. Thus to display the seism escape effect securely, the support material is required to have a stable low friction coefficient.
Therefore, a fluorine-containing material such as PTFE resin having a low coefficient of friction is frequently used for the slide material.
However, although the PTFE resin has a low friction coefficient, it is inferior in wear resistance and compression characteristic. Thus the PTFE resin is used as a composite material containing a filler such as glass fiber. A favorable escape from a seism is realized by using the PTFE resin for the slide surface. But in designing a seismically isolated apparatus capable of withstanding a big seism and suitable for a large building, it is necessary to consider the increase of the slide speed. Therefore, the conventional material cannot comply with such a requirement. In a slide friction, the friction coefficient increases with the increase of the slide speed. Thus to allow the seismically isolated apparatus to display excellent effect of escape from a big seism, it is necessary to reduce the friction coefficient of the slide surface and reduce the dependency of the friction coefficient on the slide speed.
The larger the building is, the higher the surface pressure is. The PTFE resin is a soft resin. Thus even though resistance to creep is improved by adding a filler, there is a limit in a load-applying capability. Thus under a high load-applied state, a compression deformation amount increases with elapse of time and the contact area on the slide surface increases. Consequently, the friction coefficient increases. The increase of the slide speed and the surface pressure leads to the increase of wear.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a composition having lubricity capable of supplying a lubricant continuously to the surface of a slide surface and having a low degree of friction and wear, and an additive imparting lubricity to a base material.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a slide bearing formed by molding the composition.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a retainer for a rolling bearing formed by molding the composition. The retainer for the rolling bearing stabilizes the rotational torque of the rolling bearing at a low value, prevents generation of dust and noise, has preferable mechanical characteristic, and is durable.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a seismically isolated apparatus reducing the friction coefficient of a material composing a slide surface, having an improved wear resistance thereof, and improved resistance to load.
The composition having lubricity of the present invention comprises a base material, a porous silica, and a lubricant. The porous silica is impregnated with the lubricant. The porous silica has interconnected pores and is spherical and porous. The spherical porous silica is a true spherical silica particle which comprises an aggregation of primary silica particles whose average diameter is in the range of 3-8 nm. The average diameter of said true spherical silica particle is in the range of 0.5-100 xcexcm.
The other spherical porous silica is a precipitated silica particle that is an aggregation of primary particles whose diameters are not less than 15 nm.
The base material is synthetic resin, a material having rubber elasticity or a material that can be formed as a coating film. The lubricant is at least one lubricating substance selected from the group consisting essentially of lubricating oil, wax, and a greasy substance.
An additive imparting lubricity to a base material comprises porous silica and a lubricant to be impregnated into the porous silica.
The present inventor has found that in adding the lubricant to the base material to obtain a slide material having durable slide characteristic, it is possible to improve the friction and wear characteristics thereof and maintain the friction and wear characteristics by utilizing the porous silica having interconnected pores. The present invention is based on such knowledge.
By adding the porous silica to the base material, the following actions have been recognized:
(1) Because the lubricant can be supplied to a slide interface continuously, it is possible to allow excellent friction and wear characteristics to continue.
(2) The oil absorption capacity in the composition can be increased by adding the lubricant to resin or elastomer in a range in which moldability of the composition can be secured and adding the lubricant-impregnated porous silica to the base material. Thus the addition amount of the lubricant to the resin or the elastomer is larger than the conventional addition amount of the lubricant.
(3) Because the porous silica impregnated with the lubricant is added to the base material, the lubricant component is held by the porous silica. Therefore, compared with the method of adding a large amount of the lubricant to the resinous material, the following disadvantages do not occur: a screw slips in injection molding, metering is unstable, which makes a cycle time long, dimensional accuracy is unstable, the lubricant attaches to the surface of a die, which causes the surface of a molded product to have poor finish.
(4) It is possible to accomplish kneading of combinations of materials that has not been hitherto made, because of poor compatibility between the lubricating oil and the resin as well as the elastomer.
(5) Because the spherical porous silica, especially true spherical silica, is destroyed by a shearing force of a slide interface, it does not injure even a soft slide mating material.
(6) If the lubricant and the reinforcing material are added separately to the base material in using oil-containing resin and a reinforcing material, the lubricant is locally present on the interface between the reinforcing material and the resin. Thus there is a possibility that reinforcing effect cannot be obtained. However, if the lubricant and the reinforcing material are kneaded, with the spherical porous silica impregnated with the lubricant, the lubricant is not present on the interface between the reinforcing material and the resin. Thus the reinforcing effect can be obtained.
The slide product of the present invention is formed from the composition having lubricity. The slide product is a slide bearing and a retainer for holding a rolling element of the rolling bearing. Further the slide product is a seismically isolated apparatus having a slide support disposed between a lower body thereof and an upper body thereof.
In the slide bearing or the retainer for the rolling bearing, the oil-holding porous silica holds most of the lubricant. Thus the lubricant disperses uniformly inside the porous silica. The lubricant held by the porous silica oozes at a uniform speed for a long time on the contact portion between the retainer and the rolling element disposed on the slide surface of the slide bearing or on the surface of the retainer. That is, the lubricant displays preferable lubricating characteristic.
In the case where a lubricating oil-guiding fibrous filler is used in combination with other components, the lubricant contained in the spherical porous silica present inside passes the surface of oil-guiding fiber, namely, on the interface between the synthetic resin and the fiber and oozes to the surface of the retainer at a stable speed for a long time. Thus the lubricant displays preferable lubricating characteristic.
The rolling bearing incorporating the retainer composed of a molded material of the resinous composition has a small rotational torque and little fluctuation in torque. Further the rolling bearing is lubricated favorably for a long time, it is very durable.
The seismically isolated apparatus of the present invention is obtained as a result of research for reducing the coefficient of friction of the slide surface supposing that a big seism has occurred and for reducing the dependency of the coefficient of friction on speed. By using a molded product of a resinous composition containing the lubricant-impregnated porous silica as at least one of slide surfaces, it is possible to obtain the seismically isolated apparatus has a sufficient degree of strength and wear resistance and a low coefficient of friction having a low degree of dependency on speed is obtained owing to the lubrication.

Composition having lubricity and product comprising the composition


A motive power battery casing is blow molded in an oblong configuration of rectangular cross-section. The die is notched so as to create longitudinal ribs of relatively greater thickness of the molding material in a generally cylindrical parison. The casing mold is vented in the bottom at its corners to assure full development of the casing corners. The casing is formed with relatively thin side walls and a relatively thicker collar of the molding material near its top in order to provide sufficient strength for heat sealing at the top.

This invention relates to motive power battery casings and the use of blow molding procedures in their fabrication.
Motive power battery cases of the type described hereinafter tend to be fairly long (about 30 inches) and rectangular in cross-section (about 5.times.6 inches). For many applications, a plurality of motive power batteries are grouped together in order to provide sufficient electrical power and capacity. It is, therefore, important that reasonable dimensional tolerances are maintained as to outside dimensions and inside dimensions so that the grouping of batteries will be reasonably compact, so that the plates may be properly fit within the casings and so that the casings can be properly heat sealed at their tops. Furthermore, battery cases must be sufficiently tough and impact resistant since they are often used in moving vehicles where they might well be subjected to severe jostling and impact with one another and with the housing containing them.
Conventional practice has been to prepare motive power battery cases through the use of injection or rotational molding. These procedures permit tolerances to be maintained with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Blow molding, however, has not been used primarily because it has not been possible to maintain reasonably accurate tolerances with this process. As a result, blow molding techniques have been used primarily in applications where tolerances are not particularly important and those skilled in the art would not expect the blow molding process to be satisfactory for the purpose of preparing motive power battery cases. This has been unfortunate because there are several advantages associated with blow molding as compared with injection or rotational molding. For one thing, it is possible to use materials in the blow molding process which are much tougher. This would permit the thickness and hence the weight of the battery casings to be lighter and more suitable for transportation applications. Secondly, blow molding is a much less costly process than injection or rotational molding. Furthermore, blow molding is a low stress process while the other processes are relatively high stress in nature. Because of this and because of the differences in the materials used in the two processes, the products made in each exhibit dramatic difference in their resistance to stress cracking, the blow molded product being far superior in this regard. Finally, the blow molding process offers a much higher production rate.
The primary obstacle to the use of blow molding in the production of motive power battery cases relates to the rectangular shape which is optimal for this application. The parison formed in the blow molding process has a generally cylindrical shape and when it is blown into a rectangular shape, the corners of the product will be relatively thin and weak. As a result, it is necessary to either make the entire product overly thick or to find a way in which to avoid undue thinness in the corners and joints where the wall sections meet.
It is an object of this invention to produce a battery casing of great toughness and within close tolerances through the use of a blow molding process.
It is a further object of this invention to produce a battery casing having relatively thinner walls than has heretofore been possible in order to produce a relatively lightweight casing at low cost.
Briefly described, the invention is carried out by making extrusion notches in a die in order to produce a parison having longitudinal ribs of greater thickness than the walls of the parison in general. The parison is aligned so that these ribs will ultimately become the corners and joints where the walls and bottom meet so as to maintain sufficient thickness in these areas. The mold used is provided with a unique venting arrangement to assure the full and complete formation of the rectangularly shaped casing.
Also briefly described, the battery casing produced as a part of this invention is a blow molded rectangularly shaped container having minimum wall joint thickness of 0.025 inches while maintaining maximum overall wall thickness of 0.140 inches. A collar section for heat sealing is provided having wall joint thickness of at least 0.070 inches and overall wall thickness not exceeding 0.140 inches. Similarly, the bottom joints and the corners of the container have a minimum thickness of 0.025 inches.

Apparatus and method for blow molding motive power battery cases


An audio signal (X) is represented by a bitstream (B) segmented into frames. An audio processing system (500) comprises a buffer (510) and a decoding section (520). The buffer joins sets of audio data (D1; D2, . . . , DN) carried by N respective frames (F1, F2, . . . , FN) into one decodable set of audio data (D) corresponding to a first frame rate and to a first number of samples of the audio signal per frame. The frames have a second frame rate corresponding to a second number of samples of the audio signal per frame. The first number of samples is N times the second number of samples. The decoding section decodes the decodable set of audio data into a segment of the audio signal by at least employing signal synthesis, based on the decodable set of audio data, with a stride corresponding to the first number of samples of the audio signal.

Audio and video frame rates (or frame frequencies) used in most commercial applications available today follow separate established industry standards manifesting themselves both in recording and playback software products, hardware components as well as agreed formats for transmitting audio and video between communicating parties. Audio frame rates are typically specific to different coding algorithms and associated with specific audio sampling frequencies, such as 44.1 and 48 kHz, which are as notorious as the video frame rates 29.97 fps (NTSC) and 25 fps (PAL) in their respective geographical areas; further standard video frame rates include 23.98, 24 and 30 fps, or in a more generalized form 24, 25, 30 fps and (24, 25, 30)×1000/1001 fps. Attempts to unite or harmonize audio frame rates have not yet been successful despite the shift from analogue to digital distribution, which implies that an audio frame (e.g., a packet or a coding unit suitable for transmission over a network) in general does not correspond to an integer number of video frames in an audiovisual data stream.
The need to synchronize audiovisual data streams arises repeatedly, as a result of clock drift or when several streams are received from different sources for common processing, editing or splicing in a server, a situation frequently encountered in broadcast stations. An attempt to improve video-to-video synchronicity between two audiovisual data streams by duplicating or dropping video frames in one of the streams (e.g. to prepare the streams for splicing) typically leads to an audio-to-video lag within that audiovisual data stream in case the sizes of the audio frames and the video frames do not match. In general, a lag persists—at least of some non-zero duration—even if audio frames corresponding to the video editing are deleted or duplicated.
At the cost of more processing, a larger room for maneuver could be created by temporarily decoding the audio during synchronization into a low-level format that is independent of the division into frames, e.g., baseband format, or pulse-code modulation (PCM) resolved at the original sampling frequency. Such decoding however blurs the exact anchoring of metadata to specific audio segments and creates an information loss that cannot be remedied by decoding into a 'perfect' intermediate format. As one example, dynamic range control (DRC) is typically mode-dependent and equipment-dependent, and can therefore be consumed only at the moment of actual playback; a data structure governing the characteristics of DRC throughout an audio packet is difficult to restore faithfully after synchronization has taken place. Hence, the task of preserving metadata of this type past consecutive decoding, synchronization and encoding stages is no simple task if subjected to complexity constraints.
Even more serious difficulties may arise in connection with legacy infrastructure that is designed to carry two-channel PCM signals and is therefore capable of handling multi-channel content only in coded form.
It is certainly more convenient to encode audio and video data frame-synchronously in the sense that data in a given frame exactly correspond to the same time segment in the recorded and coded audiovisual signal. This preserves audio-to-video synchronicity under frame-wise manipulation of an audiovisual stream, i.e., duplication or rejection of one or more entire independent coding units in the stream. The frame lengths available in the Dolby E™ audio format match video frame lengths. With a typical bit rate of 448 kbps, however, this format was designed primarily for the purpose of professional production, with hard media like digital videocassettes as its preferred storage modality.
In the applicant's co-pending, not yet published application PCT/EP2014/056848, systems and methods are proposed which are compatible with an audio format suitable for distribution purposes as part of a frame-synchronous audiovisual format.
There is a need for an alternative audio format suitable for distribution purposes as part of a frame-synchronous audiovisual format, with improved scaling behaviour for high frame rates. There is also a need for coding and decoding equipment suitable for use therewith.
All the figures are schematic and generally only show parts which are necessary in order to elucidate the invention, whereas other parts may be omitted or merely suggested.


In order to provide a paper feeding apparatus which is miniaturized by inclining a conveying passage and can quickly feed a manuscript even if the manuscript is thick, there is provided a paper feeding apparatus in which a conveying passage for a manuscripts is formed so as to continuously connected with a hopper on which the manuscripts are placed, and the manuscripts placed on the hopper are picked up one by one from an uppermost one thereof and fed to the conveying passage, wherein the conveying passage is inclined in the height direction so that the hopper side thereof is downward, and the angle of the hopper can be set so as to be arranged in a straight line in accordance with the inclination of the conveying passage.

The present invention relates to a paper feeding apparatus used in an apparatus such as a manuscript moving type image scanner, and more particularly to a paper feeding apparatus which can stably feed a manuscript paper even if the paper is thick.
Conventionally, there has been widely used an image scanner in which a manuscript paper is fed and an image thereon is read and computerized. In this image scanner, the manuscript papers are placed on a hopper and fed one by one to a paper conveying passage by means of a paper feeding roller, and then the image on the paper is read by an image reader provided on the paper conveying passage.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the conveying structure for a manuscript paper in a conventional image scanner, in which manuscript papers P are placed on a hopper 51 and a paper feeding roller 52 is disposed above the hopper 51 so as to contact with the uppermost manuscript paper P. On the downstream side of the paper feeding roller 52, there are disposed a separating roller 53 for preventing overlapped feeding of the manuscript papers P, and a retard roller 54 with a torque limiter therein. Further, on the downstream side of those, a plurality of pairs of conveying rollers 55a and 55b are disposed for nipping and conveying the manuscript paper P. In the middle of a conveying passage provided with the conveying rollers 55a and 55b, image reader 56 and 57 are disposed for optically reading a manuscript image on the manuscript paper P.
In the case of the paper feeding structure shown in FIG. 3, the manuscript paper P on the hopper 51 and the conveying passage are arranged substantially on a straight line, and the conveying passage including the conveying rollers 55a and 55b is horizontally arranged, so that the length of the conveying passage in the right and left direction (horizontal direction) in the drawing is long. Thus, the total length of the apparatus also becomes long, and the miniaturization of the apparatus is limited.
Accordingly, by inclining the conveying passage so that the left end side thereof tends upward, the plane length of the conveying passage becomes short, so that the apparatus is miniaturized, and besides, it is possible to install equipment such as a power source in the space under the conveying passage, so that the design flexibility is improved.
In the case that the conveying passage is inclined, however, a bending portion is formed in the paper feeding passage between the paper feeding roller 52 on the manuscript paper P placed on the hopper 51, and the separating roller 53 and retard roller 54 provided on the downstream side of the paper feeding roller 52. In this case, although thin paper can pass thorough the bending portion without trouble since it follows the bend, thick paper may not pass along the bend, that is, the paper may not be fed. Accordingly, in an image scanner for reading a manuscript image on various kinds of manuscript papers, it is impossible to read an image on the thick paper if the conveying passage is inclined for the miniaturization of the apparatus.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a paper feeding apparatus which is miniaturized by inclining a conveying passage and can feed a manuscript paper quickly, even if the paper is thick.
According to the invention, there is provided a paper feeding apparatus comprising a hopper for holding a sheet thereon, a conveying passage connected with the hopper, and a feeding device for feeding the sheet from the hopper to the conveying passage, wherein the conveying passage is inclined in the height direction so that the hopper side thereof is downward.
Preferably, the hopper is inclined in the height direction so that the hopper is substantially aligned with the conveying passage. Alternately, the inclination angle of the hopper may be variable between the horizontal angle and an angle at which the hopper is substantially aligned with the conveying passage.
The apparatus may further comprise a first passage branching upward from the upper end of the conveying passage, a second passage extending straight from the upper end of the conveying passage at the same inclination angle, and a switching device provided at the branch point for switching the passages.
The hopper may hold a plurality of sheets thereon, and the feeding device may comprise a feeding roller pressed on the uppermost one of the sheets for feeding the sheet one by one from the hopper to the conveying passage.
According to the present invention, since the conveying passage is inclined, the plane length of the apparatus can be shortened. Further, since the inclination angle of the hopper can be varied in correspondence with that of the conveying passage so that the sheet conveying direction becomes straight, the apparatus can quickly feed the sheet even if the sheet is a thick manuscript.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A floating portable humidifier is configured to float partially submerged in an open tray of water. An internal cavity includes water entry apertures below the water line and air entry apertures above the water line. Water enters the cavity through the water entry apertures to establish a constant water level within the cavity. Humidifying apparatus installed within the cavity combines water and air to form humidified air that leaves the humidifier through air exit apertures. A motor-driven fan may assist circulation of humidified air. Sealed chambers or a porous closed cell body construction may provide the necessary buoyancy. Any humidifying apparatus may be used. The floating design eliminates the need for a water tank.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to appliances known as humidifiers and more particularly to a floating portable humidifier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a humidifier is a device for dispersing water vapor into the air for the purpose of raising the humidity in a given space. A wide variety of humidifiers are available for both commercial and residential use. Most humidifiers incorporate one of several known humidifying technologies, including evaporation, ultrasonic, heating, wicking, electrolysis or fine-mist dispersion. All of these technologies require a reliable source of water, which is typically provided by means of a water tank. Some larger scale home and industrial humidifiers are connected to the water supply of the facility, but this type of connection may be impractical for home use.
The water tank presents several potential drawbacks. First, the water tank is typically the largest component of the humidifier. The large size of the water tank tends to make the humidifier too large and bulky to be considered truly portable. Second, standing water in the water tank may become contaminated with algae, bacteria, or fungi. These growths present a potential health hazard and present the prospect of a foul smell from the humidifier. The water tanks are generally closed and may be difficult to fully clean and disinfect. Further, the procedures required for filling the water tank and/or cleaning the water tank are frequently awkward and complex. Filling the water tank may require lifting of the filled tank, which may be difficult for the elderly or infirm. Additionally, the manufacture of the sealed water tank and the tank/humidifier interface tend to be expensive, increasing the overall cost of the humidifier.
Individuals with respiratory ailments, skin disorders and other medical conditions may require moist air to treat or alleviate their condition. Others may simply find it desirable to have an elevated moisture content in the air they breathe. When traveling, such individuals have had difficulty transporting the necessary humidifying equipment because of the size and generally bulky configuration of prior art humidifiers. In sum, there is a need in the art for a compact, lightweight, fully portable humidifier that, for example, may be packed conveniently in carry-on size luggage.
One preferred embodiment of the floating portable humidifier comprises a compact floating body surrounding a cavity that contains humidifying components. The floating body includes openings permitting the entry of air and water and the exit of humidified air. The body is configured to float partially submerged in water. Since the weight and size of the humidifying components are known, the configuration of the floating body can be selected such that a known portion of the body is submerged (assuming the water is of sufficient depth).
Water enters the floating body through apertures below the waterline while air enters the floating body via apertures above the waterline. Regardless of the level of water in the tray, the floating portable humidifier will remain suspended in the water and retain a particular level of water inside the body (again, assuming sufficient depth). Water inside the floating body is accessible to humidifying apparati which may include, but are not limited to, a wick or other such evaporative element, a heating chamber to generate steam or an ultrasonic device to generate cool mist as is generally known in the art. The floating portable humidifier may also be provided with a motor-driven fan to assist in circulating the humidified air.
Buoyancy may be provided by constructing the floating body of a buoyant material, i.e., lightweight plastic, foam, closed-cell or hollow synthetic materials. Alternatively, buoyancy may be provided by sealed gas-filled chambers molded into or affixed to the inside or outside of the floating body. It is important that the floating body have a stable configuration, i.e., when placed in water will float upright with the water apertures below the waterline. The humidifying and air circulating components are preferably arranged within the cavity in such way as to improve the stability of the floating portable humidifier.
The floating portable humidifier can have a compact and relatively lightweight configuration because it does not include a water tank. The floating portable humidifier may be packed and taken on a trip, for example and, upon reaching a destination, the humidifier may be set up in a sink, an ice bucket or any convenient water-holding receptacle. The portable humidifier is preferably provided with a power cord for supplying power to components such as a fan, ultrasonic humidifying apparatus or heating elements as necessary. For some configurations of the portable humidifier, battery power may be sufficient. Preferably, a transformer is provided to supply the floating portable humidifier with low voltage direct current. The floating portable humidifier may be expediently provided with safety devices such as fuses, circuit breakers, switches or sensors to ensure that if powered portions of the unit become submerged, power is removed. More expediently, the power cord may be provided with a ground-fault sensor as is known in the art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved floating portable humidifier of compact and efficient design.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved floating portable humidifier that eliminates the water tank component typically incorporated into prior art humidifiers.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved floating portable humidifier that may be used in any convenient body of water.


Apparatus for securement of an automobile to a motor home and for carrying articles thereon has a tow bar (A) for attachment on one end to the motor home, a connecting frame (B) supporting a carrier platform member (C) with provision of a pair of transversely spaced retractable wheels (D) together with a towing connection (E) carried by the connecting frame adjacent a rear of said platform member so as to limit horizontal movement of the automobile in respect to the connecting frame but permitting pivotal movement in a vertical plane during towing.

This invention relates to apparatus for securing an automobile to a motor home, for carrying articles between the motor home and the automobile for towing behind the motor home, and for serving as a roadworthy trailer.
Tow bars in common use with motor homes for towing automobiles and the like have included a frame member having a suitable attachment means on one end for making a steering connection with the motor home about an upright axis. A variety of tow bars are in common use, some employing the usual ball hitch including a ball and socket connection while others use a variety of connecting means including those employing an upright pin such as a pintle hitch. Whether the frame member may be an A-frame or a single bar, a towing connection is provided at the rear of the tow bar for securing the automobile against substantial pivotal movement with respect to the rear end of the tow bar but permitting vertical pivotal movement about a horizontal axis. Such tow bars vary in complexity from those employing a simple rigid frame to those having a frame of the collapsible or extensible types. The transportation of the wide variety of articles used by motor home enthusiasts presents a problem because many bulky items are often included which the owners of motor homes would prefer not to store on top of or inside the motor home during transport. Such articles may include bicycles, motor bikes, mopeds, motorcycles, all terrain vehicles (ATV's), camping equipment, etc. It is also desirable to carry even more bulky items such as golf carts and the like.
Another problem in connection with the use of prior art tow bars results from instability of the towed vehicle impairing the stability of entire assemblage. Sometimes, due to the forward positioning of the rear wheels of the motor home for weight distribution purposes, a tow bar may result in the towed vehicle being swung too far out on the turning arc due to the distance between the wheels and the vehicle resulting in less than ideal tracking.
Moreover, it is necessary to lift the tow to elevated position manually to the proper levels for effecting sequential connections to the motor home and to the towed vehicle.
The following patents contain disclosures which are illustrative of the state of the art: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,523,210, 3,036,856, 3,214,047, 3,282,603, 3,348,859, 3,797,850, 4,109,811, 4,230,340, 5,137,297 and 5,256,024.

Motor home towing and carrying apparatus and method


An acoustic logging tool including an elongated body, one or more acoustic transmitters, one or more acoustic receivers, and a broadband acoustic absorption region. A substantial portion of the broadband acoustic absorption region is between the transmitter and the receiver. The acoustic energy absorber includes a first absorber for absorbing a first mode of acoustic energy and a second absorber for absorbing a second mode of acoustic energy. The acoustic absorption material used to make the acoustic absorbers has an acoustic impedance between 20% and 120% of the material used to construct the acoustic logging tool. The acoustic logging tool includes an elongated hollow tool body, an insert configured to be inserted into the tool body, and a ring configured to be inserted onto the insert. A first element is supported by the ring and exposed to a pressure field, and a second element is supported by the ring and exposed to a pressure field. The first element and the second element translate pressure from outside the tool body to the ring. The first element is supported on the opposite side of the ring from the second element, so that pressure translated to the ring by the first element substantially cancels the pressure translated to the ring by the second element. The ring substantially acoustically isolates the first and second element from the tool body and the insert.

This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus utilized in hydrocarbon exploration. More specifically the invention relates to the utilization of acoustic sources and receivers to determine acoustic properties of geologic formations as they are traversed by a logging tool, be it a wireline logging tool or a logging while drilling tool. More particularly the present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for providing acoustic isolation between an acoustic transmitter and an acoustic receiver.
Geologists and geophysicists are interested in the characteristics of the formations encountered by a drill bit as it is drilling a well for the production of hydrocarbons from the earth. Such information is useful in determining the correctness of the geophysical data used to choose the drilling location and in choosing subsequent drilling locations. In horizontal drilling, such information can be useful in determining the location of the drill bit and the direction that drilling should follow.
Such information can be derived in a number of ways. For example, cuttings from the mud returned from the drill bit location can be analyzed or a core can be bored along the entire length of the borehole. Alternatively, the drill bit can be withdrawn from the borehole and a xe2x80x9cwireline logging toolxe2x80x9d can be lowered into the borehole to take measurements. In still another approach, called xe2x80x9cmeasurement while drillingxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cMWDxe2x80x9d) or xe2x80x9clogging while drillingxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cLWDxe2x80x9d), tools make measurements in the borehole while the drill bit is working.
An acoustic logging tool collects acoustic data regarding underground formations. The purpose of such a tool is to measure the xe2x80x9cinterval transit timexe2x80x9d or the amount of time required for acoustic energy to travel a unit distance in a formation. In simple terms, this is accomplished by transmitting acoustic energy into the formation at one location and measuring the time that it takes for the acoustic energy to travel to a second location or past several locations. To improve the ability of an acoustic tool to detect the signal at the receiver, the detected signal should be effectively free of acoustic energy coupled from the transmitter to the tool body between the transmitter and the receiver and propagated to the receiver.
In general, in one aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated body, one or more acoustic transmitters, one or more acoustic receivers, and a broadband acoustic absorption region. A substantial portion of the broadband acoustic absorption region is between the transmitter and the receiver.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated body, an acoustic transmitter, an acoustic receiver, and an acoustic energy absorber. The acoustic energy absorber comprises a first absorber for absorbing a first mode of acoustic energy and a second absorber for absorbing a second mode of acoustic energy.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The first absorber may comprise one or more toroidal-shaped elements. The second absorber may comprise one or more elongated elements. The elongated elements may be inserted into the body. Each elongated element of the second absorber may be inserted into the body tangent to an arc centered on a longitudinal axis of the body, the arc having a radius smaller than an outside diameter of the body.
A projection of the elongated elements onto a plane perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the body may cover between 10 and 70 percent of the cross section of the body. A line drawn through the body parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body may intersect more than one elongated element.
The body may comprise an elongated hollow cylinder and an insert configured to be inserted into the cylinder. The acoustic transmitter may be mounted on a ring which substantially acoustically decouples the acoustic transmitter from the tool body and the insert by one or more air gaps. The acoustic transmitter may be mounted on a ring which substantially acoustically decouples the acoustic transmitter from the tool body and the insert by one or more elastomeric contacts. The acoustic receiver may be mounted on a ring which substantially acoustically decouples the acoustic receiver from the tool body and the insert by one or more air gaps. The acoustic receiver is mounted on a ring which substantially acoustically decouples the acoustic receiver from the tool body and the insert by one or more elastomeric contacts. The acoustic transmitter may be substantially acoustically decoupled from the body by one or more air gaps and the acoustic receiver may be substantially acoustically decoupled from the body by one or more air gaps. The acoustic transmitter may be substantially acoustically decoupled from the body by one or more elastomeric contacts, and the acoustic transmitter may be substantially acoustically decoupled from the body by one or more elastomeric contacts.
The acoustic noise energy absorption element may be bonded to the receiver portion of the insert. The acoustic noise energy absorption element may be located so as to absorb acoustic noise energy traveling from the electronics portion toward the acoustic receiver.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated body having a top (first end) and a bottom (second end), an acoustic transmitter, and an acoustic receiver at a distance from the bottom (second end) of the body less than the distance from the bottom (second end) to the acoustic transmitter. The acoustic logging tool further comprises an acoustic energy absorber configured to absorb acoustic energy traveling toward the acoustic receiver from the direction of the bottom (second end) of the body.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic energy absorption element for use in an acoustic logging tool comprising a material having an acoustic impedance between 20% and 120% of the material used to construct the acoustic logging tool.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The material may comprise a metallic particles/bonding material compound. The metallic particles/bonding material compound may have a specific gravity between 2 and 25. The metallic particles/bonding material compound may have a specific gravity between 8 and 15. The acoustic absorption element may have an elongated shape. The acoustic absorption element may have a toroidal shape. The acoustic absorption element may have a cylindrical shape.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated body, an acoustic transmitter, an acoustic receiver, and an acoustic energy absorption element conformed to the shape of the body.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The acoustic energy absorption element may be conformed to the shape of a cavity formed by the body. The acoustic energy absorption element may be the same size as the cavity. The acoustic energy absorption element may be larger than the cavity and may have to be compressed to fit in the cavity. A band may be configured to compress the acoustic absorption element. The band may be substantially not in contact with the body. The body may support the band if the band is struck. The band may comprise a key configured to fit in a notch in the body. The band may have a smaller diameter than the body. The band may have the same diameter as the body.
The acoustic energy absorption element may be elongated. The acoustic energy absorption element may be compressed along an axis of elongation.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated hollow tool body, an insert configured to be inserted into the tool body, and a ring configured to be inserted onto the insert. A first element is supported by the ring and exposed to a pressure field, and a second element is supported by the ring and exposed to a pressure field. The first element and the second element translate pressure from outside the tool body to the ring. The first element is supported on the opposite side of the ring from the second element, so that pressure translated to the ring by the first element substantially cancels the pressure translated to the ring by the second element.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated hollow tool body, an insert configured to be inserted onto the tool body, a ring configured to be inserted onto the insert, a first acoustic element supported by the ring, and a second acoustic element supported by the ring.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The ring may be substantially isolated from the insert through air gaps. The ring may be substantially isolated from the insert through elastomeric elements. The first element may be a transmitter. The second element may be a transmitter. The second element may be a plug. The first element may be a receiver. The second element may be a plug. The acoustic logging tool may comprise an insert configured to be inserted into the tool body, the ring configured to fit around the insert, and the insert, tool body and ring may be positioned to have substantially no metal contact between the ring and the tool body and between the ring and the insert.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an insert for use in an acoustic logging tool comprising a tool body, the insert being inserted in the tool body, the insert comprising a transmitter portion for supporting an acoustic transmitter, the acoustic transmitter being mounted on a ring, the ring substantially acoustically decoupling the acoustic transmitter from the insert.
An acoustic noise energy absorber may be supported by the insert. The insert may comprise an electronics portion for supporting an electronics package.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an insert for use in an acoustic logging tool comprising a tool body, the insert being inserted in the tool body. The insert comprises a receiver portion for supporting an acoustic receiver, the acoustic receiver being mounted on a ring, the ring substantially acoustically decoupling the acoustic receiver from the insert.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. An acoustic noise energy absorber may be supported by the insert.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for absorbing acoustic energy traveling through a body, the body being part of an acoustic logging tool, the method comprising conforming an acoustic energy absorption element to the body.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The method may include compressing the acoustic energy absorption element.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for acoustic logging comprising transmitting acoustic energy from an acoustic transmitter through a body. The method includes absorbing at least a portion of the acoustic energy traveling through the body in a first mode using a first absorber and absorbing at least a portion of the acoustic energy traveling through the body in a second mode using a second absorber.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for acoustic logging using an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated hollow tool body, an insert inserted into the tool body, an acoustic transmitter supported by the insert and an acoustic receiver supported by the insert. The method comprises acoustically decoupling the acoustic receiver from the insert by mounting the acoustic receiver on a receiver ring.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The decoupling may be accomplished by one or more air gaps. The decoupling may be accomplished by elastomeric elements. The method may comprise substantially acoustically decoupling the acoustic transmitter from the insert by mounting the acoustic transmitter on a ring, the ring having one or more air gaps. The method may comprise substantially acoustically decoupling the acoustic transmitter from the insert by mounting the acoustic transmitter on a ring, the ring having one or more elastomeric elements.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for acoustic logging using an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated hollow tool body comprising a tool body material, an insert inserted into the tool body, an acoustic transmitter supported by the insert and an acoustic receiver supported by the insert. The method comprises blending metallic particles and a bonding element into a compound having acoustic impedance between 10% and 120% of the acoustic impedance of the tool body material, and conforming the blended compound to the tool body.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. Conforming may comprise conforming the blended compound to a cavity formed by the tool body. The method may comprise compressing the blended compound.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for absorbing acoustic energy in a transmission medium comprising suspending particles of a first material having a first specific gravity in a matrix of a second material having a second specific gravity.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The method may further comprise adjusting the acoustic impedance of the combined first and second material to match the acoustic impedance of the transmission medium. The absorbing material may be used to absorb acoustic energy in a logging tool. The logging tool may be an acoustic logging tool.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated body, an acoustic transmitter, an acoustic receiver, and an acoustic energy absorber supported by the body. The acoustic logging tool comprises a first absorber for absorbing flexural acoustic energy, and a second absorber for absorbing compressional acoustic energy.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following. The first absorber may comprise one or more toroidal-shaped elements. The second absorber may comprise one or more elongated elements. The elongated elements are inserted into the body. Each elongated element of the second absorber may be inserted into the body tangent to an arc centered on a longitudinal axis of the body, the arc having a radius smaller than an outside diameter of the body. A projection of the elongated elements onto a plane perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the may cover between 10 and 70 percent of the cross section of the body. A line drawn through the body parallel to the longitudinal axis of the body may intersect more than one elongated element. The first absorber may be placed substantially at the region of the body where the flexural acoustic energy is prevalent. The first absorber may be placed substantially adjacent to the transmitter. The second absorber may be placed substantially at the region of the body where the compressional acoustic energy is prevalent. The first absorber may be placed substantially adjacent to the receiver. The second absorber may be placed next to or at a distance from the first absorber and between the transmitter and the receiver. The presence of the first absorber may enhance the effectiveness of the second absorber.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features an acoustic logging tool comprising an elongated body, an acoustic transmitter, an acoustic receiver, and an acoustic energy absorber. The acoustic energy absorber comprises a first absorber for absorbing a first mode of acoustic energy, and a second absorber for absorbing a second mode of acoustic energy.

Method and apparatus for absorbing acoustic energy


A power supply apparatus includes a battery cell, a voltage conversion circuit connected to the battery cell, a first housing that fixes the battery cell in a manner to enable heat transfer, a second housing that fixes the voltage conversion circuit in a manner to enable heat transfer, and a low thermal conductive layer interposed between mating surfaces of the first housing and the second housing having a thermal conductivity smaller than a thermal conductivity of the first housing. The battery cell and the voltage conversion circuit are accommodated in an internal space formed by the first housing and the second housing.

The present disclosure relates to a power supply apparatus.
Recently, a power supply apparatus for supplying power to a motor for making a vehicle travel has been developed. For example, in a power supply apparatus described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-181737, a battery case that accommodates a plurality of battery cells and an electronic component case that accommodates electronic components used for battery charge and discharge control are separately provided and coupled. In this power supply apparatus, the heat generated from the electronic components is actively transferred to the electronic component case via a thermal conductive sheet to dissipate the heat of the electronic components.


The fuel cell with excellent power generation performance and high reliability and a manufacturing method of a fuel cell electrode by which the flooding phenomenon is hard to be caused at a contact portion with a separator because of small contact resistance with the separator. According to the manufacturing method of the fuel cell electrode, a first application process for applying an electrically conductive water repellent material including electrically conductive particles and water repellent particles on one side of a gas diffusion substrate having the gas permeability, a first sintering process for sintering the applied electrically conductive water repellent material, and a catalyst support process for supporting a catalyst on the other side of the gas diffusion substrate are provided. The fuel cell manufacture in the foregoing manner is provided with a joint body of an electrolyte, an oxidant electrode, and a fuel electrode in which the electrolyte is sandwiched by the oxidant electrode and the fuel electrode. At least the oxidant electrode out of the oxidant electrode and the fuel electrode is the fuel cell electrode.

Although electric vehicles are used as a counter measurement of the automobile exhaust for reducing the air contamination, the electric vehicles have not been prevailed because of the drawbacks such as lack of battery charging facilities and insufficient mileage per charge. Thus, a vehicle applied with a fuel cell is considered to be the most environmentally benign automobile of great promise. Among the fuel cells, a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell is the most capable fuel cell for the automobile because the fuel cell is operated under the low temperature.
Generally, plural single cells are stacked to form a fuel cell. The single cell includes an electrolyte sandwiched by two electrodes (i.e., a fuel electrode and an oxidant electrode) and separators which sandwich the electrodes. A fuel gas and an oxidant gas are supplied to the fuel electrode and the oxidant electrode respectively via gas passages provided on respective separators for generating the electric power by the electrochemical reaction. Thus, the fuel cell is recognized as an environmentally benign power generation device without exhaust except the water.
The solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell includes a polymer ion exchange membrane (i.e., solid polymer electrolyte membrane) as an electrolyte. The fuel gas including the humidified hydrogen or the hydrogen reaches a catalyst layer via a gas diffusion layer of the fuel electrode which also serves as a current collector to cause the following reaction.2H2→4H++4e−  (1)
A proton H+ generated at the fuel electrode moves towards the oxidant electrode via the electrolyte accompanied with the water molecule. Simultaneously, the electron e− generated at the fuel electrode is moved towards the oxidant electrode through the gas diffusion layer and the catalyst layer (i.e., current collector) and through a resistance connected between the fuel electrode and the oxidant electrode via an external circuit.
On the other hand, at the oxidant electrode, the oxidant gas including the humidified oxygen reaches the catalyst layer through the gas diffusion layer of the oxidant electrode which is also the current collector. The oxygen receives the electron flowed from the external circuit via the gas diffusion layer (i.e., current collector) and via the catalyst layer to be deoxidized following the following reaction. Then oxygen is bonded to the proton H+ moved from the fuel electrode via the electrolyte membrane to become the water.4H++4e−+O2→2H2O  (2)
A part of the generated water is entered into the electrolyte membrane due to the higher concentration gradient of the electrolyte membrane, and is diffused to be moved towards the fuel electrode. A part of the generated water is evaporated to be diffused to the gas passage via the catalyst layer and the gas diffusion layer to be exhausted along with the non-reacting oxidant gas. Thus, when the gas diffusion layer of the fuel electrode and the oxidant electrode do not have sufficient water repellency, the water vapor is apt to be condensed to become the water, which may be the obstruction for the transportation of the reactant and the product.
Gas diffusion layers of the fuel electrode side and the oxidant electrode side construct an electric circuit by contacting convex portions of the respective separators. Thus, it is required to reduce the contact resistance between the gas diffusion layers and the separator to the minimum. Further, because the separator is generally made of metal or carbon which do not have high water repellency, the water is condensed at the contact portion to cause the flooding phenomenon to deteriorate the power generation performance unless the water repellency of the contact portion between the gas diffusion layer and the separator is high.
A known fuel cell electrode and the manufacturing method thereof is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H08-185867. In this known fuel cell electrode, a highly porous carbon paper with electric conduction is impregnated with the tetrafluoroethylene (i.e., hereinafter referred as PTFE) dispersion and is sintered to become a substrate having water repellency. A catalyst layer is formed on one side of the substrate.
Notwithstanding, in the known fuel cell electrode and the manufacturing method thereof disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open publication No. H08-185867, because the gas diffusion layer includes the structure in which the water repellent and the insulating PTFE particles are dispersedly attached to the substrate serving as the current collector, the contact resistance between the gas diffusion layer and the separator is large. In addition, because the water repellency of the contact portion between the gas diffusion layer and the separator is insufficient, the power generation performance is insufficient and the condensation of the water at the contact portion cannot be eradicated.
A need thus exists for a manufacturing method of a fuel cell electrode which includes small contact resistance with a separator and which is hard to cause the flooding phenomenon at a contact portion with the separator, and for a fuel cell with high power generation performance and high reliability.

Manufacturing method of fuel cell electrode and fuel cell using thereof


A convection and radiant heated oven has a cooking chamber and an air heating chamber below and spaced from the cooking chamber. Shield means above the heating chamber defines, with the oven bottom, a heat space in which an apertured duct receives heated air from the heating chamber and conducts it to a convection fan where it mixes with air from the cooking chamber and is ducted into the cooking chamber. Heated air is also passed upward from the heat space directly into the cooking chamber.

In the processing of food within an oven, it has long been the most important desideratum that there be a uniform distribution of heated air within the oven to insure uniform heating or cooking of the food. Because an oven contains a relatively large volume of air, it has proven to be quite difficult to minimize temperature gradients and hot spots within the oven, and, consequently, to avoid the uneven application of heat to the food. There have been numerous attempts at such minimization of uneven cooking through oven designs wherein forced convection heating is utilized in an effort to attain temperature uniformity. These ovens have, in general, a heat source, such as a gas or electric burner, and a blower which draws air to be heated across the heat source to heat it and discharges the air thus heated into the cooking chamber.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,663 of Nevin et al there is shown a forced convection oven wherein air heated in a combustion chamber is directed into a blower assembly, which also receives air from the oven chamber which is mixed with the heated air, and the mixture is forced out into the oven chamber. Thus, the blower assembly mixes currents or streams of air, one of which is introduced into the blower assembly from the front and the other of which is introduced through the rear, and centrifugally discharges the uniform temperature mixture into the oven chamber. This is in contrast to the more common arrangement where the two streams are mixed in the oven compartment where the food is located.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,606 of Himmel et al. the air is heated by a burner externally of the oven and delivered to a blower by means of a fire tube. The blower mixes the air so delivered with return air from the oven chamber and discharges the mixture into the oven chamber. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,738 of Jenn et al, the air is heated after it is blown into the oven chamber, thus the oven of this patent utilizes both radiant heating and convection heating, inasmuch as the burners or heaters are within the oven chamber, however, the use of heating units within the cooking chamber, as shown by Jenn et al. limits such use to electrical heating elements.
Another type of convection heating oven utilizes jets of heated air applied to the food being cooked. Such ovens are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,474,498 of Smith and 4,626,661 of Henke, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,509 of Erickson discloses an arrangement where heated air is swirled over the food, which is placed in close proximity to the blower. Another arrangement utilizing a swirling action is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,864 of Rijswijck. In some instances, the nature of the food being cooked, such as certain types of bread, for example, is such that jets of air or swirling air can adversely affect or disturb the food. Thus, it is desirable, in most cases, that there be a general circulation of uniform temperature air which does not disturb the food. The aforementioned Nevin et al patent is directed to such a heating arrangement.
In all of the foregoing, with the exception of the Jenn et al patent, radiant heating is not utilized, or it is not a serious factor in the cooking process. Thus, even though the prior art patents are aimed, in most cases, at achieving uniformity of temperature throughout the volume of the oven, they do not utilize radiant heating to supplement the convection heating with a consequent economy of operation of the oven. In addition, prior art arrangements utilizing forced convection heating, in general, apply the heated air directly to the blower from the rear, thus all of the heated air is under forced convection. Such ovens require somewhat elaborate ducting to distribute the heated air more or less evenly and to return the air to the burner or heater.