An internal combustion engine and its method of operation which is designed to operate on a six-stroke cycle and which may include at least one but preferably a plurality of piston and cylinder assemblies each of which are characterized by a cylinder having a piston reciprocally mounted therein and intake an exhaust valves cooperatively mounted to regulate fluid flow into and out of the cylinder. An injection assembly is connected to each of the piston and cylinder assemblies and structured to inject water into the cylinder during a predetermined portion of the six-stroke cycle. A central processor is at least partially responsive to data received from a sensor assembly associated with on the internal combustion engine at strategic locations so as to determine the energy content within the one or more cylinders and thereby regulate and control the timing and quantity of the injected water. The injected water gradually converts to steam without first exhausting the ignited air fuel mixture, thereby generating an additional power stroke.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer controlled, internal combustion engine designed to operate on a six-stroke cycle, wherein water is injected into each of the one or more cylinders during a predetermined portion of the six-stroke cycle depending upon the energy content within the cylinder subsequent to ignition of the conventional air-fuel mixture. The residual heat from the ignited air-fuel mixture serves to convert the injected water into steam on a controlled basis, thereby creating an auxiliary power stroke.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that for over a hundred years the internal combustion (IC) engine was and is the dominating source of power for motorized vehicles. Other than rotary engines, the typical IC engine incorporates a plurality of piston and cylinder assemblies each of which includes a cylinder having a piston reciprocally mounted therein and wherein a combustible fluid, such as an air-fuel gaseous mixture, is forced into the interior of the cylinder, compressed and subsequently ignited. The ignition of the combustible fluid causes a significant expansion of gases within the cylinder, resulting in the piston being forced downwardly within the cylinder and thereby, defining what is commonly known as a xe2x80x9cpower strokexe2x80x9d. The piston is drivingly connected to a crank shaft which is drivingly connected to the remainder of the drive train associated with the motorized vehicle.
Over the years, numerous attempts have been made to increase the efficiency of IC engines, while at the same time protecting the environment by eliminating or significantly reducing the exhausting of pollutants into the surrounding atmosphere. Attempts to protect the environment, have resulted in significant improvements in exhaust systems, fuel compositions and other operational components of modern IC engines, which sometimes derogatorily affect the efficiency or performance characteristics of such engines. Other attempts to improve the performance of IC engines, without harming the environment, have the included the design of an IC engine which operates on a six-stroke cycle. In such designs, the first four strokes function as a conventional internal combustion engine and include an intake stroke, compression stroke, power stroke and exhaust stroke. The last two strokes of the six-stroke cycle include the injection of water into the combustion chamber for purposes of converting the water to steam by using the residual heat remaining therein. The expansion of the steam is intended to provide an additional power stroke, without additional fuel or combustible fluid being supplied. However, for the most part, such known attempts have failed to provide an internal combustion engine capable of operating on a six-stroke cycle, which is sufficiently efficient and effective for wide spread commercial use.
In order to understand the problems associated with the effective development of an IC engine of the type set forth above, it is important to understand the relationship between water, steam, temperature and pressure, all of which are governed by the laws of thermodynamics, and more specifically, by what are commonly referred to as the xe2x80x9cSteam Tablesxe2x80x9d. Accordingly, and based on these laws, it is well recognized that in a closed container or system, for example, heated water will be maintained in a liquid state at a temperature of 297 degrees Fahrenheit, only as long as the pressure is maintained at a minimum of 50 PSI. However, if the heated water were suddenly to be released from the closed container into atmosphere it would immediately xe2x80x9cflashxe2x80x9d into steam due to the significant drop in pressure. The reason for this instant conversion into steam is because the water has sufficient latent heat for the steam conversion and no longer has to absorb heat from an exterior source.
Prior attempts to take advantage of the force generated when the water converts to steam in the combustion chamber or cylinder an IC engine have, for the most part, failed due to the fact that the water was injected and allowed to convert or xe2x80x9cflashxe2x80x9d into steam at the wrong time during the six-stroke cycle. Allowing all of the water injected into a cylinder to simultaneously flash into steam would most probably result in damage to the engine due to the xe2x80x9cinstantxe2x80x9d expansion force created. Rather than developing a power stroke in the engine, such an expansive force would have a tendency to crack the engine block or cause a failure in the seals between the piston and the interior surface of the cylinder. Accordingly, it is believed by the inventor hereof that in order to develop an efficient IC engine incorporating the conversion of injected water into steam, the conversion should be controlled and take place continuously or gradually over the duration of a specific predetermined portion of the six-stroke cycle, rather than instantaneously upon injection of the water into the cylinder.
The failure of previous attempts at water to steam conversion is further evidenced by an explanation of the ignition of a conventional air-fuel mixture in a conventional IC engine. More specifically, after the air-fuel mixture is compressed and ignited, the mixture burns and expands, thereby supplying a continuous force which drives the piston the length of the cylinder resulting in a xe2x80x9cpower strokexe2x80x9d. This happens because the combustion of the air-fuel mixture occurs on a substantially continuous basis as the piston travels the length of the cylinder during the power stroke. All of the force or power resulting from the ignition of the air-fuel mixture is not released or exerted on the piston at one point in time. Therefore, it is believed by the inventor hereof that the control of the conversion of water into steam should similarly occur on a continuous rather than an instantaneous basis in order for such conversion to produce an effective and efficient additional power stroke in a six-stroke cycle.
Another characteristic common to known attempts to develop a six-stroke cycle IC engine is the premature exhausting of the conventional air-fuel mixture after it has been ignited. It is generally accepted that approximately 30% of the energy (heat) of the fuel charge is lost in the exhaust gases due to inherent designs of known or substantially conventional IC engines. However, if the exhaust gases can be maintained within the cylinder and properly mixed with a quantity of water being injected, the heat energy still remaining in the previously ignited fuel charge can be utilized to add another power stroke, occurring upon the conversion of water into steam within the cylinder.
Based on the above, there is a significant and recognized need for the development of an improved internal combustion engine which is capable of efficiently operating on a six-stroke cycle which includes the development of an additional power stroke through the injection of water into the cylinder or combustion chamber and the conversion of water into steam. The water to steam conversion should occur on a controlled basis and be at least partially dependent on the energy content within the cylinder, subsequent to ignition of a conventional air-fuel mixture and prior to the ignited air-fuel mixture being exhausted. Any such improved internal combustion engine should preferably have the injection of water and its conversion into steam controlled by a computer assembly or central processor, properly programmed in accordance with the related laws of thermodynamics and the conversion of water to steam in accordance with the xe2x80x9cSteam Tablesxe2x80x9d.
The present invention is directed towards a computer controlled internal combustion (IC) engine, and its method of operation, designed to operate on a six-stroke cycle and specifically includes the injection of water into the combustion chamber or cylinder of each of a plurality of piston and cylinder assemblies, during a predetermined portion of the six-stroke cycle. More specifically, the quantity and timing of the water injection is controlled and regulated to the extent that the injected water is prevented from turning into steam even after reaching sufficiently high temperatures because of the continuously increasing pressure within the cylinder, due to the compression of gases therein, to the extent that the water is maintained in a liquid state until the beginning of an intended xe2x80x9cauxiliaryxe2x80x9d power stroke.
More specifically, the IC engine of the present invention comprises at least one, but preferably a plurality of piston and cylinder assemblies. Each such piston and cylinder assembly includes a cylinder which serves as a combustion chamber having a piston reciprocally mounted therein, and further including intake and exhaust valves associated therewith so as to regulate the flow of fluid into an out of the cylinder. A source of ignition is also connected to each chamber and may be in the form of a spark plug, glow plug or any other applicable and/or conventional means of igniting a combustible fluid, such as a gaseous mixture of fuel and air.
In addition to the above, the improved IC engine of the present invention includes an injection assembly comprising one or more injector structures associated with each of the cylinders and disposed and structured to inject predetermined quantities of water at predetermined rates and times into the individual cylinders under the control and regulation of a central processor. A central processor or computer of the general type referred to is known in the automobile and/or internal combustion engine industry for the control and regulation of a variety of operating conditions of the IC engine. The central processor of the present invention is responsive to a plurality of sensors, all of which serve to define a sensor assembly, which sense and/or determine certain predetermined physical characteristics relating to the operation and performance of the engine.
As will be explained in greater detail hereinafter a variety of physical characteristics determined by the plurality of sensors may be used to determine the xe2x80x9cenergy contentxe2x80x9d within the cylinder during a predetermined portion of the six-stroke cycle. In turn, the energy content of a cylinder is used in determining the quantity and duration of water injection into the cylinder. Such physical characteristics may include, but are not limited to, the pressure and temperature of the interior of each cylinder at a first predetermined portion of the six-stroke cycle. The determination of the pressure and temperature may be used in the calculation of the energy content within the cylinder during a portion of the six-stroke cycle and is subject of U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,651 by the inventor hereof, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
In addition, one or more of the plurality of sensors are mounted on the engine to determine the engine speed as well as the temperature of the water being injected into the cylinder prior to its injection. The determination of the engine speed by the sensor assembly will, in turn, inform the central processor of the rate of travel of the pistons within respective ones of the cylinders. Since it is important that water, when injected into the cylinder absorb the maximum amount of heat without turning into steam, the determination of the central processor of the rate of travel of the piston within the cylinder will allow the central processor to determine the length of time a predetermined stroke exists. This in turn will allow the central processor to inject water into the cylinder at a time during a predetermined stroke that will allow the injected water to spend the maximum amount of time in the cylinder and thereby absorb the maximum amount of heat, without turning into steam. Informing the central processor of the amount of time the various quantities of injected water spend in the cylinder, absorbing heat, better assures that maximum heat energy is extracted, thereby resulting in a more efficient auxiliary power stroke being subsequently produced. The temperature of the water prior to it being injected into the cylinder will also be communicated to the central processor so as to aid in the calculation of the amount of heat required to convert the water into steam specifically during the second predetermined portion of the sixth stroke cycle.
The central processor will thereby be informed of the operating and performance characteristics of the IC engine under varying speed and load conditions. Such operating conditions will, of course, have a direct effect on the physical conditions within each of the cylinders during the operation of the IC engine. As a result the xe2x80x9cenergy contentxe2x80x9d of each cylinder, immediately prior to and during the injection of water into the cylinder will be determined at least partially by the central processor in order to determine the quantity of water to be injected into the cylinder as well as the time and duration of such injection.
More specifically, the quantity of water to be injected can be calculated based on the amount of heat required to convert it to steam. Also, the amount of water to be injected will be determined by the temperature of the water before its injection into the cylinder. It should be apparent that the higher the temperature of water being injected into the cylinder the greater the quantity of water that can be injected, in that less heat will have to be absorbed from the xe2x80x9cenergy contentxe2x80x9d of the interior of the cylinder into which the water is to be injected, to convert the injected water into steam.
Another directly related responsibility of the central processor is to calculate when or over what duration of the six-stroke cycle is the water to be injected. The timing of the water injection is important in order to prevent the water from being converted into steam during the compression stroke upon its injection into the cylinder. More specifically, as the water is injected, its temperature significantly and rapidly increases. Accordingly, the pressure exerted on the injected water must also significantly and proportionally increase in order to prevent the formation of steam.
As set forth above, the inventor herein described in detail in the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,651 that the xe2x80x9cenergy contentxe2x80x9d was capable of being determined by the on-board processor using physical parameters of the engine which included the temperature, pressure and volume of the cylinder. However, as an alternate and preferred embodiment to the invention described in the aforementioned patent, energy content or xe2x80x9cremnant energyxe2x80x9d may be determined in a different manner with minimal or no significant modification to the software of the on-board processor.
Accordingly, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the determination of the energy content or remant energy within a given cylinder is derived by what may be generally referred to as a xe2x80x9cdefaultxe2x80x9d determination or computation. As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, a key element in this default determination is the recognition of a predetermined value of the thermal efficiency of a particular IC engine operating under various load conditions. It is universally recognized that the thermal efficiency is the quantity of heat that is converted to motive force at the wheels of the vehicle. Further, the average thermal efficiency of an internal combustion engine is generally recognized as being generally in the range of 40%. A more precise thermal efficiency value can of course be provided, such as by the manufacturer of the engine. Accepting this 40% value for purpose of clarity, leads to the conclusion that generally 60% of the heat or energy goes to waste. In turn, the waste heat is distributed between exhaust gasses, heat detracted by the cooling system and a certain amount of loss due to friction.
Therefore, as part of the aforementioned default computation, it is understood that a predetermined amount of heat energy created by the fuel injected into a cylinder is exhausted, in a conventional four stroke cycle engine, in the fourth or exhaust stroke. As a result, the energy content can be determined, by xe2x80x9cdefaultxe2x80x9d once it is recognized that the thermal efficiency of the engine has a predetermined recognized value as well as the fact that generally half of the heat energy lost is in the gasses that are exhausted. Accordingly, the energy content during the third stroke of the six-stroke cycle engine, of the present invention, can be accurately and simply determined by xe2x80x9cdefaultxe2x80x9d, after ignition and expansion of the substantially standard fuel/air mixture.
Further, in this preferred embodiment of the present invention, the end of the third stroke represents the beginning of the second predetermined portion of the cycle of the sixth stroke cycle engine, during which the injection of water begins. This of course differs from the injection of water only during the fourth stroke, as described in detail in the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,651 by the inventor herein.
During the fourth stroke or subsequent compression stroke, the piston is rising through the cylinder so as to compress its contents, including both the combustible fluid, which had already been ignited, and the water being injected. Therefore, as the water is continuously and/or periodically being injected, in an amount based on the aforementioned xe2x80x9cenergy contentxe2x80x9d of the cylinder, during a portion or at least a majority of this compression stroke, the pressure thereon is continuously increasing. The injection of the water in a regulated and controlled manner by the central processor, as set forth above, will force the water to be maintained in a liquid state and prevent its conversion into steam until the beginning of the following power stroke. This following stroke will define an xe2x80x9cauxiliaryxe2x80x9d power stroke because of a forced travel of the piston upon the conversion of the water into steam. The result will be a gradual decrease in pressure as the piston moves towards its bottom dead center (BDC) position during this auxiliary power stroke. Therefore, subsequent to the compression of the ignited combustible fluid and the injected water, the piston will began its travel from its top dead center (TDC) position to the BDC position with the resulting gradual decrease in pressure on the injected water. Accordingly, there will be a continuous or gradual conversion of the water into steam because of the pressure reduction thereon and the fact that the water has absorbed sufficient heat from the xe2x80x9cenergy contentxe2x80x9d within the cylinder into which it is being injected to accomplish the water to steam conversion. As set forth above, this conversion will generate an auxiliary power stroke as the piston is forced to travel from its TDC position to its BDC position.
Therefore, the improved IC engine of the present invention will allow the development of significantly more power from relatively smaller size engines while operating at an increased efficiency level. The increase in efficiency will be due to the development of two power strokes using the same amount of combustible fluid or air-fuel mixture. The admission of pollutants into the atmosphere will also be reduced since the exhausting of the previously ignited combustible fluid only occurs at the end of the six-stroke cycle, along with the steam. Further, the resulting IC engine can operate on a lower compression ratio, thereby eliminating the necessity of using more expensive, high octane fuels. In addition to the above, the computer controlled IC engine of the present invention will be environmentally friendly by enabling the use of less combustible or fossil fuel, while allowing the engine to do a greater amount of work.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more clear when the drawings as well as the detailed description are taken into consideration.

Computer controlled six-stroke cycle internal combustion engine and its method of operation


An intravenous delivery system may have a liquid source containing a liquid, tubing, and a vent cap. The tubing may be connected to the liquid source and the vent cap to convey liquid from the liquid source to the vent cap. The vent cap may have a vent that is substantially impermeable to the liquid and permeable to air, and therefore releases air from the liquid from the vent cap. The vent cap may also have a chamber in communication with the vent. The chamber may have a volume selected to enable the chamber to receive a quantity of liquid from the tubing in which the air, if entrained in the liquid, is likely to reside after the tubing has been primed with the liquid.

The present invention is generally directed to systems and methods for intravenous ("IV") delivery, by which fluids can be administered directly to the vascular system of a patient. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a vent cap that can be included within an intravenous delivery system set to facilitate venting of air from the intravenous delivery system. An intravenous delivery system according to the invention is used broadly herein to describe components used to deliver the fluid to the patient, for use in arterial, intravenous, intravascular, peritoneal, and/or non-vascular administration of fluid. Of course, one of skill in the art may use an intravenous delivery system to administer fluids to other locations within a patient's body.
One common method of administering fluids into a patient's blood flow is through an intravenous delivery system. In many common implementations, an intravenous delivery system may include a liquid source such as a liquid bag, a drip chamber used to determine the flow rate of fluid from the liquid bag, tubing for providing a connection between the liquid bag and the patient, and an intravenous access unit, such as a catheter that may be positioned intravenously in a patient. An intravenous delivery system may also include a Y-connector that allows for the piggybacking of intravenous delivery systems and for the administration of medicine from a syringe into the tubing of the intravenous delivery system.
It is a generally good practice to remove air from intravenous delivery systems that access a patient's blood flow. While this concern is critical when accessing arterial blood, it is also a concern when accessing the venous side. Specifically, if air bubbles are allowed to enter a patient's blood stream while receiving the intravenous administration of fluids, the air bubbles can form an air embolism and cause serious injury to a patient.
Normally, in a majority of adults, the right atrium and the left atrium are completely separated from each other so that the blood and air bubbles are moved from the right atrium, to the right ventricle, and then to the lungs where the air bubbles may be safely vented. The bubble free blood is then returned to the left atrium, where the blood is moved to the left ventricle and then sent throughout the body.
However, in infants and in a small portion of the adult population, the right atrium and left atrium are not completely separated. Consequently, air bubbles can move directly from the right atrium into the left atrium and then be dispersed throughout the body. As a result, these air bubbles may cause strokes, tissue damage, and/or death. Therefore, it is important to prevent air bubbles from entering a patient's blood stream.
In spite of the importance of removing air bubbles while priming an intravenous delivery system for use in the intravenous administration of fluids, the complete removal of air bubbles can be a time consuming process. The process may also lead to contamination of the intravenous delivery system by inadvertently touching a sterile end of the intravenous delivery system. Typically, when an intravenous delivery system is primed, a clamp is closed to prevent fluid from moving from a drip chamber through the tubing. The intravenous delivery system may then be attached to an IV bag or bottle. Once attached, the drip chamber, which is typically made of a clear flexible plastic, may be squeezed to draw the fluid out of the IV bag or bottle and into the drip chamber. The drip chamber may be allowed to fill about ¼ to ½ full when the clamp is opened to allow fluid to flow through the tube to an end of the intravenous delivery system.
This initial process, however, typically traps air in tubing which must be removed. For example, the flow of the fluid through the tubing of the intravenous delivery system may be turbulent and can entrap air within the tube as the boundary layer between the fluid and the tubing is sheared. The flow rate out of the drip chamber may be higher than the flow rate of fluid entering the drip chamber. This can cause a bubble ladder to form as air is sucked from the drip chamber into the tubing.
Additionally, air bubbles may be generated as drops of fluid strike the surface of the pool of fluid within the drip chamber. These air bubbles can be pulled into the tubing of the IV set from the drip chamber. This problem may be aggravated in pediatric applications where the drip orifice may be smaller, which may result in increased turbulence.
To remove air bubbles from the intravenous delivery system, fluid from the IV bag or bottle may be allowed to flow through the tubing while an attendant taps the tubing to encourage the air bubbles out the end of the intravenous delivery system. As the fluid is allowed to flow out of the intravenous delivery system to clear air bubbles from the tubing, the fluid may be allowed to flow into a waste basket or other receptacle. During this procedure, the end of the tubing may contact the waste basket or be touched by the attendant and thus, become contaminated. An additional shortcoming of this debubbling process is that it requires attention and time that could have been used to perform other tasks that may be valuable to the patient.
Another debubbling method is to directly remove air bubbles from the intravenous delivery system. More specifically, if the intravenous delivery system includes a Y-connector, air bubbles may be removed at the Y-connector by a syringe. This method still requires additional time and attention, and may also carry risk of contamination of the liquid to be delivered.
To address the difficulties of removing bubbles from an intravenous delivery system, various prior art intravenous delivery systems have employed a membrane for filtering air from the fluid as it flows through the intravenous delivery system. For example, oftentimes a membrane may be placed in the bottom of the drip chamber so that fluid flowing out of the drip chamber must pass through the membrane. The membrane can be configured to allow the passage of fluid while blocking the passage of air. In this way, bubbles are prevented from passing into the tubing leading to the patient. Similarly, a membrane can be included in the connector that couples the tubing to a catheter to block any air present in the tubing from passing into the patient's vasculature.
Additionally or alternatively, some known intravenous delivery systems utilize a vent cap, which may be coupled to the free end of the tubing prior to attachment of the catheter. Such vent caps are generally intended to vent air out of the intravenous delivery system. However, known vent caps generally accommodate only a very small quantity of the liquid. Air may be entrained in the liquid, and may remain trapped in the tubing when the intravenous delivery system is fully primed.
Thus, such vent caps are not always effective at venting air. In some instances, the clinician must take steps to manually release the air, which requires additional time and attention, and may also carry risk of contamination of the liquid, as detailed above.
Further, some known vent caps have valves that help retain liquid within the vent cap after detachment of the vent cap from the tubing. Such valves are often complex structures, and in many instances, such valves require the presence of corresponding hardware on the tubing to open the valve when the vent cap is attached to the tubing. Accordingly, such valves add to the complexity and cost of known intravenous delivery systems, and may also add failure points that can cause unexpected leakage in the event of improper attachment, manufacturing defects, and/or the like.


A mild liquid skin cleanser composition with improved lathering and rinsing characteristics, comprising: an alkyl ethoxylated sulfate anionic surfactant having an average degree of ethoxylation of at least about 2.0; an amphoteric surfactant selected from the group consisting of betaine surfactants, imidazoline surfactants, aminoalkanoate surfactants, and iminodialkanoate surfactants, and mixtures thereof; an N-acylamino acid surfactant, or salt thereof; a cationic cellulose ether derivative; from 0.2 parts to 2.0 parts by weight of a C8 to C20 fatty alcohol; and from 0.1 parts to 5 parts by weight of a water insoluble salt of C14-C22 fatty acid.

The cleaning of skin with surface-active cleansing preparations is the basis for the personal cleansing consumer market world-wide. Many people wash their skin with various surface-active preparations several times a day, with frequent whole body exposure to these compositions (e.g. bathing or showering). Traditionally, consumers were offered these cleansing compositions in the form of a solid "bar" comprised of either alkali earth salts of fatty acids (soap) or mixed synthetic surfactant/soap systems. While these products provide acceptable cleansing of skin and performance properties (e.g. lather), they possess certain properties which give rise to specific consumer negatives in terms of product messiness during use and irritation to skin (e.g. drying). These specific consumer negatives have been partially addressed through the introduction of liquid personal cleanser compositions in the form of shower gels. However, these shower gel products while addressing messiness and mildness needs of the consumer, often fail to meet other consumer performance needs, specifically high lather and soap-like rinse feel. A shower gel composition delivering high mildness, high lather, and rinsing properties more soap-like would be very desirable.
Skin cleansing compositions should lather and rinse, cleanse the skin gently, causing little or no irritation, without drying the skin after frequent routine use. Certain synthetic surfactants and surfactant systems formulated for skin cleansing are particularly mild, however, they possess poor lather performance and slick rinse-feel attributes. Other surfactants and surfactant systems (for example, soap-based system) provide good lather and rinsing performance, but are not exceptionally mild to the skin. Additionally, these formulations require a thickening agent, often some polymeric component, along with high levels of salt to produce consumer acceptable product viscosities. This thickening approach can cause the product to exhibit dramatic viscoelastic properties during use and impact other product performance attributes (e.g. ease of lathering). In addition, polymeric thickeners can be costly and exhibit base odors.
Optimization of any single product attribute (e.g. lather, mildness, rinse feel, viscosity), is a relatively straightforward process. There are numerous combinations of surfactants and other components which can be utilized to generate a product which delivers against any of the aforementioned attributes. The use of known high sudsing anionic surfactants with lather boosters yields acceptable lather volume. Unfortunately, highest sudsing anionic surfactants are, generally, also highest in skin irritation and, hence, worst in clinical mildness. Surfactants that are among the mildest with minimal skin irritation, such as ammonium lauryl ether (12EO) sulfate (NH4AE12S) are extremely poor in lather. These two facts alone make the selection of surfactants for optimization of lather performance, in and of itself, a delicate balancing act and becomes even more complex when the other product attributes must be optimized as well. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No.: 4,338,211, Stiros, issued Jul. 6, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,433, Stiros, issued Jan. 12, 1982; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,850, Vu, issued Jun. 27, 1989, all of said patents being incorporated herein by reference.
In short, mildness is often obtained at the expense of effective cleansing and lathering. In addition, these mild formulations often come at the expense of other consumer preferred product performance attribute, such as bar soap-like rinse feel. Finally, the thickening of these mild formulations also results in product viscoelastic properties which are non-ideal.

Mild shower gel composition comprising unique thickener system which imparts improved lathering properties and modified rinse feel


An apparatus for automatically calculating the fall height of the ram of a pile driver is disclosed. The apparatus includes a device for converting the sound created by each blow of the pile driver ram into an electrical signal, a first circuit for converting signal into a pulse and a second circuit for converting the time elapsed between the pulses for consecutive blows into a digital output representing the fall height of the ram for the blow corresponding to the latter pulse. The digital electronic circuit may also include circuitry for counting the number of blows in a sequence of blows and circuitry for determining the average fall height for the blows occurring during the sequence.

A pile driver is used to drive long slender columns, referred to as "piles", into the ground so that the pile can be used to support a vertical load. Such driving is accomplished by repeatedly striking the top of the pile with a downwardly-moving device, referred to as a "ram". Each time the ram strikes the pile, a substantial portion of the energy of the ram is imparted to the pile whereby the pile moves downwardly into the ground. Knowledge of the energy possessed by the ram at the time it strikes the pile provides substantial useful information regarding the dynamics of the pile in the ground and the ability of the pile to support a load. For example, as set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,498,388, issued to Jovis on Mar. 3, 1970, and 2,580,299, issued to Hunicke on Dec. 25, 1951, the knowledge of such energy is useful in determining the safe bearing capacity of the pile in accordance with the partly empirical Engineering News formula.
The energy delivered by a hammer for each blow, i.e., for each time the ram of the hammer strikes the pile, is a function of various parameters such as piston weight, blow rate, i.e., the number of blows per unit time, and stroke, i.e., the distance through which the piston falls for each blow. For some types of hammers, the stroke and the piston weight is constant for a particular hammer model of a manufacturer. For such hammer types, the energy delivered on each blow can be determined from the blow rate in accordance with a table prepared by the manufacturer. See Jovis, col. 3, lines 6-33. For open-ended diesel hammers, however, the stroke is not constant. Therefore, in order to determine the energy delivered for each blow by an open-ended diesel hammer, the stroke of the blow must be determined.
In the prior art, devices used for measuring the variable parameters related to the dynamics of pile driving hammers, such as blow rate and stroke, have included mechanisms attached to the hammer itself or to the site being driven by the hammer. In view of the substantial force delivered by the hammer, such devices are subject to rapid wear and tear and to damage. Furthermore, such devices are costly to install and may interfere with the pile driving operation by requiring attachment to and detachment from each pile prior to and after driving and by requiring cables running to and from the hammer and/or pile. In addition, such devices do not provide information by which the stroke is determined for open-end diesel hammers and the blow rate is determinable for other types of hammers.

Apparatus for measuring the fall height of a pile driver ram


A method for monitoring a tire during running includes acquiring and storing, at least temporarily, a first curve representing an acceleration profile of a first point of a tread area of the tire; acquiring and storing, at least temporarily, at least one second curve representing an acceleration profile of a second point of the tread area; and comparing the first curve and the at least one second curve, or parameters derived from the first curve and the at least one second curve, so as to determine a dynamic behavior of the tire. The first and second points are located substantially on a same meridian plane of the tire. A related tire, wheel for a vehicle, system for monitoring a tire during running, and method for controlling a vehicle are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to a method and system for monitoring the behavior of a tyre during the running of a motor vehicle equipped with tyres. The present invention relates also to a method for controlling a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Tyre monitoring systems using accelerometers disposed within tyres have already been proposed.
EP patent application no. 887,211 describes a tyre monitoring system for a tyre on a vehicle comprising: a sensor device operatively arranged with respect to the tyre to create an electrical pulse during the footprint pass corresponding to a deformation of the tyre; means for calculating a ratio of the duration of said electrical pulse to the duration of one tyre revolution; means for transmitting said ratio to an evaluating unit placed in the vehicle. The sensor device is placed within the tread area of said tyre in order that said electrical pulse presents a first maximum at the entrance and a second maximum at the leaving of said footprint pass. The sensor device can be an accelerometer that measures the intensity of the acceleration supported by the tread. The aim of the solution disclosed in the '211 patent application is the monitoring of the tyre deflection in order to obtain an optimum performance, particularly for truck tyres.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,758 describes a tyre monitor for use in a remote tyre monitor system including an accelerometer for detecting acceleration of the tyre monitor. Position information for the tyre monitor is determined in response to the acceleration. In this manner, tyre position information is determined automatically to allow the system to display tyre characteristic data such as air pressure in conjunction with tyre position. More particularly, the tyre monitor includes a housing and a valve stem and is configured for mounting on a wheel of a vehicle. The valve stem opens to admit air for filling the tyre and for manual checks of the tyre pressure. Otherwise, the valve stem generally remains closed to seal the tyre. The tyre monitor includes a radial accelerometer, a tangential accelerometer, a yaw accelerometer, and a pressure sensor.
PCT patent application no. 98/56606 discloses a method for monitoring a running motor vehicle tyre, and, in particular, a device comprising: a sensor mounted on the wheel, coupling means transmitting to the vehicle indications obtained from the sensor and power supply means. The sensor is a miniature sensor sensitive to acceleration, implanted in the tyre running tread or in proximity thereof. The coupling means, mounted on the wheel, transmit the indications relative to the measurements carried out when the running tread is in contact with the ground. More particularly, the authors consider a tyre having a radius R traveling at a speed V. A tyre portion BC, having a length L, is in contact with ground, under load. In a point A, outside the portion BC, the centrifugal radial acceleration is V2/R. On the other hand, between the points B and C the centrifugal radial acceleration is substantially zero, in that the differential speed of the tyre with respect to the ground is substantially zero. By implanting an accelerometer within the tyre, the portion BC can be detected. The aim disclosed by the authors for such kind of measurement is to detect a possible under-inflation of a tyre.

Tyre and system for monitoring the tyre during the running of a vehicle


An apparatus for safety-compliant emptying and filling of a reagent container (24, 40) for a tissue processor (20) comprises a suction line (30, 42) for aspirating a reagent out of the reagent container (24, 40) and a delivery line (32, 44) for filling the reagent container (24, 40) with the reagent, a terminating opening (31, 43) of the suction line (30, 42) being spaced away from a terminating opening (33, 45) of the delivery line (32, 44).

A tissue processor is suitable for processing tissue specimens so that the latter can subsequently be prepared for investigation using a microscope. The tissue specimens are, in particular, embedded with the aid of the tissue processor, for example in paraffin, so that the paraffin block resulting therefrom can be cut with the aid of a microtome into extremely thin sections that can then be investigated using a microscope. Before being embedded in paraffin, the tissue specimens are usually subjected to multiple process steps, for example one or more clearing steps and/or one or more dehydration steps. A variety of reagents, for example formalin, xylene, or alcohol, are required in order to carry out the individual process steps. These reagents are stocked in reagent containers that are arranged, for example, replaceably in the tissue processor.
In the context of automatic processing of tissue specimens using the tissue processor, the reagents are pumped out of the reagent containers into a retort, which is also referred to as a "process chamber" or "bioreactor," and the tissue specimens are exposed to the reagent in the process chamber. Once the individual process steps are complete, the reagents are pumped back into the reagent containers. The reagents can be stocked in reagent containers of various shapes; in particular, the openings of the reagent containers for emptying and filling the reagent containers can be differently configured. The reagents can furthermore encompass ingredients that are hazardous to health, which should not splash out of the reagent containers or evaporate from them into the surroundings of the tissue processor.
The document DE 20 2007 013 815 U1 discloses an apparatus for metered filling of vessels, which apparatus encompasses a suction line and a delivery line that are spaced apart from one another. The suction device and the delivery device are separated from one another and do not open directly into the same vessel. The apparatus is used for filling operations involving powdered material.
The document WO 2003/012025 A2 describes a bioreactor for cultivating cells, in which bioreactor two lines are provided, of which one opens above the liquid level and one in the liquid. The line ending above the liquid level serves to convey in a gas and/or a liquid, and the line ending in the liquid serves for venting.
The document DE 91 07 077 U1 discloses a disposal unit for filling and emptying small containers in underground mining, in which unit two lines are provided whose openings have a spacing from one another. The liquid is conveyed in and aspirated through the first line, while the second line serves as a static tube with which complete filling of the small container can be ascertained.
The document DE 28 48 434 A1 describes a filling adapter for filling a vessel with liquids, which adapter comprises a line for conveying in and aspirating the liquid, the opening of which is adjustable as to height.
The document DE 20 2010 004 275 U1 discloses an apparatus for fuel delivery that encompasses a connector piece for connection to at least one fuel line of an engine.
The document DE 10 2008 027 486 A1 discloses an apparatus for separating tissue cells from a liquid, in which a suction line is used to aspirate the liquid. A bypass line is also provided.

Method and apparatus for safety-compliant emptying and filling of a reagent container


An apparatus for destroying pathogens includes a platform and an LED matrix panel. The platform has a portion configured to permit passage of ultraviolet light therethrough. The LED matrix panel is disposed below the portion of the platform and includes a grid and a plurality of discreetly-controlled, ultraviolet light LEDs (UV LEDs). The grid defines a plurality of cells. Each UV LED is associated with one cell such that the cells direct the ultraviolet light emitted by the UV LEDs upwardly through the portion of the platform to sanitize an object supported on the portion of the platform.

The soles of people's footwear are a primary vehicle for pathogens entering homes and healthcare facilities. The pathogens can cause sickness, disease, and possible death. Door mats, the primary means for cleaning shoe bottoms, remove dirt but not pathogens, and can quickly become an incubator for germs. Other solutions such as liquid dips are not practical for high traffic areas and require frequent maintenance to stay effective. Disposable booties or shoe covers are used in professional environments, but do not work well in public areas, as people tend to be self-conscience about wearing them, and there are safety concerns over people tripping while wearing such covers.
Other technologies used to sanitize footwear include devices that incorporate light bulbs that emit short-wavelength ultraviolet ("UV-C") light directed at the bottom of footwear to destroy pathogens that may be associated therewith. These devices, however, are typically bulky due to the large size of the UV-C light bulbs, they may be ineffective at preventing or limiting unintended exposure to the UV-C light, and are oftentimes difficult to operate.

System and apparatus thereof for destroying pathogens associated with footwear


The invention relates to a display operating either in a reflective mode or a transmissive mode and having a high brightness. The display comprises pixel elements (20) having a switchable layer (3), which is switched between a reflecting, a transmissive and an absorbing state by changing a hydrogen content of the switchable layer. Applying a DC voltage on electroconductive layers (11, 13) changes the hydrogen content. These electroconductive layers sandwich a stack of layers comprising the switchable layer (3), which stack has been deposited on a transparent substrate.

The invention relates to a display device being operated in a reflective mode or in a transmissive mode and having pixel elements for modulating light.
Display devices operated in a reflective mode or in a transmissive mode are known. For example, transflective LCD displays are operated in two different modes, i.e. a transmissive mode when the display is lit by a backlight placed behind the display, and a reflective mode when the ambient light lights the display. Transflective LCD displays have the drawback that the display has a limited brightness. This is because the pixel elements of the LCD display are generally divided into reflective and transmissive sections, both of which consequently have a small aperture. At best, a transflective LCD display will only have half the reflectivity of a reflective LCD and half the brightness of a transmissive LCD. Furthermore, a cell gap of the display cannot be simultaneously optimized for both the reflective and the transmissive mode, which further reduces the brightness. In addition, conventional LCD displays use a polarizer, which reduces the intensity of the transmitted light by a factor of two.
It is an object of the invention to provide a display device, which has an improved brightness. To this end, the invention provides a display device as defined in claim 1.
Due to the construction of transflective LCDs, at best only half the pixel surface area of each pixel is involved in reflecting light and the other half is capable of transmitting light. Since use is made of the full pixel surface, a switching display device is inherently two times brighter than a transflective LCD. Such a switching display has an even higher brightness, because no polarizer is required.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.
Switching mirror displays are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,590. Such a display comprises a switching mirror film including hydrides of gadolinium or other trivalent metals. By exchange of hydrogen, the switching film can be reversibly switched from a transparent state to a mirror-like state with zero transmission via an intermediate black absorbing state. The switching film is comprised in a stack of layers, which is deposited on a transparent substrate. By making a pattern in the switching film and providing the patterned switching film with transparent electrodes, a thin display can be manufactured.
However, U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,590 does not disclose that a transflective display with improved brightness can be provided by applying specific surface charge densities to the switching film.
These and other aspects of the invention will be elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.


A method of preparation of catalyst supports is disclosed as well as supports made by the method. Natural diatomite, bentonite clay, silica, cellulose fiber, corn meal and water are mixed, extruded, pelleted, dried and calcined to form porous catalyst supports pellets comprising fused natural diatomite, bentonite clay and silica.

Catalyst supports are widely used in the various chemical industries. Such supports are normally highly porous pellets composed primarily of silica or mixtures of silica and alumina. The porous nature of the pellets give them considerable surface area. On the surfaces are deposited small amounts of catalytically active materials, such as metals or acids. Use of the support with a catalytically active material greatly increases the efficiency of use of the latter, for by spreading the material over a large support surface area much more of its catalytically active surface is exposed to the chemicals whose reaction it is to catalyze.
The precise nature of the catalyst support will depend on the particular catalytic reaction for which it is to be used. Thus there are many significant differences in the preparation processes with different catalyst supports so that parameters such as pore size and effective surface area can be controlled.

Preparation method for catalyst supports and materials produced thereby


A drive assembly for a freight elevator or a stair climber for the handicapped is guided on at least one supporting waling or spar. A driving strip is disposed on the supporting waling or spar. According to one embodiment, the driving strip has recesses formed therein at equal intervals. A load-receiving configuration has a motor-driven drive wheel and drive elements are adapted to the recesses for form-lockingly engaging the drive wheel with the recesses. According to another embodiment, squared blocks of constant length are secured to the supporting waling or spar at equal spacings. A load-receiving configuration has a motor-driven drive wheel and drive elements are adapted to the spacings of the blocks for form-lockingly engaging the squared blocks with the drive wheel.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a drive for a freight elevator, particularly for a stair climber for the handicapped, being guided on at least one supporting waling or spar.
Known stair climbers as a rule have two supporting walings, on which the load-receiving configuration or the elevator or lift for the handicapped is guided through the use of rollers. The drive of the load-receiving configuration is carried out, for instance, in force-locking fashion (German Patent DE-PS 29 14 350) through a special drive waling or spar or through rollers that rest in stationary fashion on the supporting walings and are driven, or are disposed in form-locking fashion (German Patent DE-PS 31 03 162) in stationary fashion on or in the supporting walings. A form-locking connection is one which connects two elements together due to the shape of the elements themselves, as opposed to a force-locking connection, which locks the elements together by force external to the elements. The force-locking drive using paired opposed rollers that engage the supporting spars or walings requires considerable contact pressure and a corresponding load capacity of the bearing, as well as wear-resistant material, and is therefore correspondingly expensive.

Drive for a freight elevator, in particular for a stair climber for the handicapped


New epoxide resins have the formula ##STR1## where R represents a phenylene or naphthylene group, or two or three phenylene groups linked by carbon-carbon bonds, oxygen or sulfur atoms, sulfonyl or sulfoxide groups, or alkylene groups of 1 to 5 carbon atoms, the phenylene or naphthylene group(s) being optionally substituted by chlorine or bromine atoms or lower alkyl groups, and. R.sup.1 represents an alkyl group of up to 16 carbon atoms; an alkenyl group of up to 6 carbon atoms; a phenyl, naphthyl, phenylalkyl, or naphthylalkyl group, all optionally substituted by chlorine or bromine atoms, and the phenyl and naphthyl groups in addition optionally by lower alkyl groups; or a cycloalkyl or cycloalkylalkyl group.. The products, typical examples of which are 2,2-bis(p-(3-butoxy-2-glycidyloxypropyloxy)phenyl)propane and bis(p-(3-butoxy-2-glycidyloxypropyloxy)phenyl) sulfone, are generally of low viscosity and useful as casting resins.

British Patent No. 909,567 refers to the formation of mono(hydroxyaliphatic) ethers of dihydric phenols by reaction of 1 mol. of the dihydric phenol with 1 mol. of a suitable mono-1,2-epoxide. Thus, with glycidol, a mono(2,3-dihydroxypropyl) ether is produced, while with phenyl glycidyl ether a mono(2-hydroxy-3-phenoxypropyl) ether is obtained. Reaction of the product (1 mol.), i.e., the mono(hydroxyaliphatic) ether of the dihydric phenol, with epichlorohydrin (1 mol.) in the presence of a suitable condensation catalyst (a boron trifluoride complex) is said to lead primarily to formation of the monochlorohydrin ether, leaving the phenolic hydroxyl group largely unreacted. Thus, the reaction with, for example, phenyl glycidyl ether and a dihydric phenol HO--X--OH and subsequent treatment with epichlorohydrin is indicated to proceed as follows: ##STR2##
Such a mono(chlorohydrin ether) as that of formula V is then mixed with up to an equimolar amount of a bis(chlorohydrin ether) of a polyhydric phenol, and subjected to dehydrochlorination. The materials obtained, described as synthetic high molecular weight products of resinous character, are of a complex nature and generally solids of melting point 43.degree. C. or more. Presumably, if, e.g., phenyl glycidyl ether were used, the product obtained on dehydrochlorination would contain, amongst other compounds, a glycidyl ether of a mono-secondary alcohol formed in the following manner ##STR3##
The products are said to be useful as, or in, casting compositions.
There is no suggestion that the dihydric phenol of formula I may, under the conditions employed, react with 2 molar proportions of a mono-1,2-epoxide such as that of formula II to form the corresponding bis-adduct, of formula ##STR4## a proportion of which might, on treatment with epichlorohydrin, react to form the bis(chlorohydrin ether), which, in turn, on dehydrochlorination in the presence of the bis(chlorohydrin) ether of a polyhydric phenol, might form a corresponding diglycidyl compound.
In subsequent British Patent Specifications (Nos. 1,056,384 and 1,056,385) the same patentees reiterate that reaction of 1 mol. of a dihydric phenol with 1 mol. of a monoepoxide results in formation of a mono(hydroxyaliphatic ether of the dihydric phenol: on treatment with an excess of epichlorohydrin in the presence of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, the epichlorohydrin is said, however, to react with the phenolic hydroxyl group exclusively, leaving the aliphatic hydroxyl group unreacted. If, for example, the reaction product, (of formula III), of phenyl glycidyl ether and a bisphenol is treated with epichlorohydrin in the presence of alkali, the reaction may be represented as follows: ##STR5## i.e., the secondary alcoholic hydroxyl group remains unchanged.
In British Patent No. 1,512,814 there are described resins containing at least two photopolymerisable groups and at least two 1,2-epoxide groups, one or more of which epoxide groups are contained in 2-(glycidyloxy)propylene units. These resins are prepared by converting hydroxy groups of 2-hydroxypropylene units into glycidyl ether groups by known methods. These resins are said to be useful as coatings, particularly in the preparation of printed circuits.
We have now found that certain new diglycidyl ethers of di(hydroxyaliphatic) ethers of dihydric phenols are curable resins, many of which are of low viscosity and are particularly suitable for use in castings. The epoxide resins most commonly employed for casting have a viscosity of 10 Pa s or more at room temperature. While compositions of lower viscosity may be made by adding a non-reactive plasticiser or solvent, or by adding various monoepoxides ("reactive diluents"), this is not always desirable, because the mechanical and thermal properties of the cured resin are often deleteriously affected.

Diglycidyl ethers of di-secondary alcohols, their preparation, and curable compositions containing them


An apparatus (105, 301) for enclosing a microfabricated component (225) includes a package base (120, 405, 910), a package lid (110, 510, 950) and a seal (215) coupled to the package base (120, 405, 910) and to the package lid (110, 510, 950). The apparatus (105, 301) further includes a conductive loop (210, 610, 920) thermally coupled to the seal (215). Electrical energy is supplied to the conductive loop (210, 610, 920) to heat the conductive loop (210, 610, 920) and seal (215) to melt the seal (215) and thereby to seal the package base (120, 405, 910) to the package lid (110, 510, 950), providing a sealed environment for the microfabricated component (225).

Hermetic sealing is important for many microfabricated devices and/or components requiring contamination-free surfaces in order to operate as intended. Examples of such devices include surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters and other types of acoustic devices as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,465, entitled "Surface Acoustic Wave Device With Reflection Suppression", by B. J. Hunsinger and K. Hanma, acoustic charge transport (ACT) devices as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,285, entitled "Acoustic Charge Transport Device and Method", by B. J. Hunsinger and M. J. Hoskins, heterostructure ACT devices as described, by way of example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,161, entitled "Quantum-Well Acoustic Charge Transport Device" by W. J. Tanski et al., integrated optical components as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,800, entitled "Low Stress Mounting of Integrated Optic Chips", by J. T. Fournier et al. and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,226, entitled "Mounting of Optical Fibers to Integrated Optical Chips", by D. P. Courtney et al. as well as other devices wherein the conditions of surfaces of the microfabricated device are crucial to device performance. The above-noted patents and patent applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Such devices are manufactured by well-known photolithographic techniques and often have the property that they are no longer functional or operable if heated above a Curie temperature or a melting temperature of one or more constituent portions. As such, these devices often cannot be subjected to the temperature extremes required in order to provide a hermetic seal, for example by welding.
Conventional packaging techniques for such devices (e.g., seam welding of metallic lids to flat packages or flatpacks) often require labor-intensive manual procedures which do not lend themselves to automated production techniques. It has been especially uneconomical and impractical to provide automated mass production techniques for localized heating to the seal area itself without heating the package and the device contained therein.
What are needed are methods and apparatus for providing sealed packages for microfabricated components which packages can be sealed en masse and which do not require heating of the entire microfabricated device and package to the temperatures required in order to form a seal. A further need is for packages which can be repeatedly sealed and unsealed without exposing the components contained therein to temperature extremes.

Resistance heated, sealed microfabricated device package method and apparatus


A disc cartridge including a recording disc, a cartridge case in which the recording disc is housed rotatably and a head inserting opening is formed at a predetermined location, and a synthetic resin-made shutter adapted to open and close the head inserting opening in the cartridge case, wherein the cartridge case and the shutter contain an ester compound of glycerin and optionally an amine type organic compound.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disc cartridges such as a magnetic disc cartridge, photodisc cartridge and photo-magnetic disc cartridge. More particularly, the invention pertains to the material of the cartridge case and the shutter adapted to slidably engage therewith so as to open and close the head insertion opening in the cartridge case.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A magnetic disc cartridge consists principally of a cartridge case in which a head insertion opening and an opening for accommodating a drive shaft are formed, a flexible magnetic disc housed rotatably in the cartridge case, a cleaning sheet secured to the inside of the cartridge case, and a shutter designed to open and close the head insertion opening in said cartridge case.
As material of the cartridge case, synthetic resins such as ABS resin, styrene resin, acrylic resin and the like have been used.
Use of a metallic shutter has the problem that as the shutter repeats its reciprocating motion, the surfaces of the cartridge case are scratched by the edges of the shutter to produce wear material, and when this wear material gets into the inside of the cartridge case and adheres to the magnetic disc surface or the magnetic head, it produces a bad effect on the recording and reproduction and become the cause of errors. For avoiding this problem, a synthetic resin-made shutter is generally used to eliminate or minimize the risk of generating wear material.
The cartridge case and the shutter which are made of synthetic resin tend to adsorb dust and contaminants in the air, and such adsorbed dust and contaminants often enter the cartridge case to become the cause of errors. It has therefore been attempted in various ways to add an antistatic agent to the cartridge case and the shutter.
Amine type organic compounds have been generally used as this type of antistatic agent, but the addition of such conventional antistatic agents to the cartridge case and the shutter would adversely affect their printability.
Usually, certain indications, such as front side and flip side, type of disc cartridge, trade marks and other commercial designs are printed on the surfaces of the cartridge case and the shutter, but when their printability is deteriorated, as mentioned above, the printing ink does not spread well and the printed indications could become blurred or disappear from the cartridge and/or shutter surfaces.

Resinous disc cartridge containing an ester compound of glycerin


An information processing system, a computer program product, and methods for modeling multi-party dialog interactions. A method includes learning, directly from data obtained from a multi-party conversational channel, to identify particular multi-party dialog threads as well as participants in one or more conversations. Each participant utterance being converted to a continuous vector representation updated in a model of the multi-party dialog relative to each participant utterance and according to each participant's role selected from the set of: sender, addressee, or observer. The method trains the model to choose a correct addressee and a correct response for each participant utterance, using a joint selection criterion. The method learns directly from the data obtained from the multi-party conversational channel, which dialog turns belong to each particular multi-party dialog thread.

The present invention generally relates to learning systems used in modeling multi-party conversations, and more particularly relates to a deep learning method to select a response and an addressee of the response to respond to a speaker utterance in a multi-party conversation.
Understanding multi-party conversations is challenging because of complex speaker interactions: multiple speakers exchange messages with each other, playing different roles (sender, addressee, observer), and these roles vary across turns. Real-world conversations often involve more than two speakers.
In an UBUNTU Internet Relay Chat channel (IRC), for example, one user can initiate a discussion about an Ubuntu-related technical issue, and many other users can work together to solve the problem. Dialogs can have complex speaker interactions: at each turn, users can play one of three roles (sender, addressee, observer), and those roles vary across turns. To detect an addressee of an utterance and to predict a response utterance in multi-party conversations has been a very difficult technical problem to solve. For example, consider a case where a responding speaker is talking to two other speakers in separate conversation (also referred to as dialog) threads. The choice of addressee is likely to be either of the two other speakers. In the past, inconsistent selection of addressee-response pairs has often caused confusion and inaccuracy in tracking multi-party conversations.

Modeling multiparty conversation dynamics: speaker, response, addressee selection using a novel deep learning approach

International Business Machines Corporation


A disk drive includes a disk, a latch assembly including a magnet and a head stack assembly for reading and writing to the disk. The head stack assembly includes a body portion defining a through bore that defines a pivot axis; an actuator arm cantilevered from the body portion; a head gimbal assembly coupled to the actuator arm; a coil portion cantilevered from the body portion in an opposite direction from the actuator arm, the coil portion defining first and second actuator fork members, one of the first and second actuator fork members defining a tang-supporting surface, the tang-supporting surface defining at least one cleating feature configured to increase a surface area of the tang-supporting surface, and a tang configured to interact with the magnet, the tang being attached to the tang-supporting surface by a layer of adhesive disposed on the tang-supporting surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to magnetic disk drives. In particular, embodiments of the present invention relate to disk drives, head stack assemblies and actuator arm assemblies that include a tang supporting surface that includes one or more cleating features that increase the surface area thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
A typical hard disk drive includes a head disk assembly ("HDA") and a printed circuit board assembly ("PCBA"). The HDA includes at least one magnetic disk ("disk"), a spindle motor for rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly ("HSA") that includes a slider with at least one transducer or read/write element for reading and writing data. The HSA is controllably positioned by a servo system in order to read or write information from or to particular tracks on the disk. The typical HSA has three primary portions: (1) an actuator assembly that moves in response to the servo control system; (2) a head gimbal assembly ("HGA") that extends from the actuator assembly and biases the slider toward the disk; and (3) a flex cable assembly that provides an electrical interconnect with minimal constraint on movement.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional actuator assembly 10. As shown therein, the conventional actuator assembly 10 includes a body portion 12 from which are cantilevered one or more actuator arms 14. Also cantilevered from the actuator body portion 12 is a coil portion that includes first and second actuator fork members 16 and 18. The actuator fork members 16 and 18 support the wound coil 22 that forms a portion of actuator coil portion. The wound coil 22 is also at least partially encased by a plastic overmold 20, which serves to further support and add rigidity to the coil 22 and actuator assembly 10. As shown, the actuator assembly 10 may also include a bobbin 25 that is secured to the wound coil 22 by an adhesive and that increases the rigidity of the coil 22 and that of the actuator assembly 10.
A typical HGA includes a load beam, a gimbal attached to an end of the load beam, and a slider attached to the gimbal. The load beam has a spring function that provides a "gram load" biasing force and a hinge function that permits the slider to follow the surface contour of the spinning disk. The load beam has an actuator end that connects to the actuator arm and a gimbal end that connects to the gimbal that supports the slider and transmits the gram load biasing force to the slider to "load" the slider against the disk. A rapidly spinning disk develops a laminar airflow above its surface that lifts the slider away from the disk in opposition to the gram load biasing force. The slider is said to be "flying" over the disk when in this state.
Understandably, such drives may be relatively sensitive to shocks occasioned by mishandling, excessive vibrations, drops and other events causing a rapid acceleration of the disk drive. Indeed, should the head crash into a spinning disk because of a rotational shock, for example, the high stiction (a contraction of the phrase "static friction") of the disk may prevent the disk from spinning and developing the laminar airflow necessary for the head to lift away from the disk. This problem is particularly acute when the disk includes an outermost layer of glass. As the glass surface is highly polished, there is then a great amount of contact surface area between the head and the disk, increasing the friction therebetween. Should the head contact the disk, it may then literally stick thereto, potentially ruining the entire drive.
In an effort to mitigate the effects of such shocks (e.g., rapid accelerations), a number of latches have been developed to latch the HSA and prevent the head(s) from contacting the disk(s). The operative mechanism of such latches may be mechanical, electromechanical or magnetic in nature. The first function of a latch is typically to limit the travel of the HSA both toward the inner diameter (hereafter "ID") and toward the outer diameter of the disk. The second function typically discharged by such latches is to prevent the heads of the HSA from leaving the ramp load (if a ramp load is present) or a landing zone on the disk (if a landing zone is present around, for example, the ID of the disk) during shock events that might otherwise jolt the heads from the ramp or landing zone and onto the data-carrying portion of the disk during non-operative conditions of the drive.
Electromechanical and magnetic latches conventionally rely on a metallic tang or similar structure (shown at reference numeral 24 in FIG. 1) protruding from the overmolded voice coil portion or attached to an actuator fork member of the HSA. Either a permanent magnet or an electromagnet is then typically used to attract the tang 24 and to latch the HSA when the drive is not in operation. To ensure that adequate shock protection (especially in small form factor drives suitable for mobile computing applications), the latching force (the force with which the latch holds the tang to the permanent or electro-magnet) must be great. In the case of a permanent magnet, however, a high magnitude latching force requires a correspondingly great de-latching force to free the tang from the attractive force of the magnet. Such de-latching force is typically achieved by so-called resonance de-latching, wherein alternating current is applied to the voice coil portion of the HSA at a predetermined resonant frequency to cause the HSA to break free of the attractive force of the permanent magnet. The stronger the magnet, however, the greater the current is necessary to de-latch the HSA when the drive is called into active operation. Such high latching and de-latching forces place a great strain on the interface between the surface of the actuator assembly that supports the tang and the tang. FIG. 1A shows a top view of the tang and the tang 24 and the tang supporting surface (which may be a portion of the fork member 16 or 18). As shown, the tang-supporting surface 27 conventionally is smooth and flat over its entire surface. Between the tang 24 and the tang-supporting surface 27 is a layer of adhesive 26. The structure of such interfaces is not believed to be optimal in view of the large latching and de-latching forces occurring in the latch assemblies of conventional disk drives. From the foregoing, therefore, it may be appreciated that strengthening the bond between the tang-supporting surface of the actuator assembly and the tang is desirable.

Cleating features to improve adhesive interface between an actuator tang and a tang-supporting surface of an actuator assembly of a hard disk drive


Recoil mitigating devices and methods for use with projectile firing systems such as a disrupter mounted to a robotic arm. A pair of parallel spring provides dampening of axial recoil movement of the disrupter relative to the robotic arm. Forward ends of the springs are attachable to the barrel of the disrupter while rearward portions of the springs are attachable to the robotic arm by a robot mount block. The robot mount block at least partially encloses the barrel of the disrupter in connecting the parallel springs and permits axial movement of the disrupter along or through the mount during firing.

Ballistic weapons or other projectile firing systems, typically generate recoil forces proportionate to the discharge forces or the mass and acceleration of the projectile. The resulting recoil impulse or "kick" corresponds to the recoil force integrated over time. A recoil mitigation device serves to attenuate or dampen the force-time profile during discharge, for example, to create a longer, lower amplitude recoil impulse.
Various mechanical means have been proposed for mitigating recoil of projectile firing systems. Known devices may be integrated into a firing system and may include hydraulics, pneumatics and friction brakes. Such systems are often complex, expensive, and applicable to a single firing system into which it is integrated. Many such systems position the mitigation device entirely to one side of the firing system and may thus cause binding of the mitigation device or firing system or pitching of the firing device due to the presence of resistance to recoil only from one side.
Recoil affects the targeting accuracy of the firing system and excessive recoil may injure an operator or damage the system or system support structure, Certain ballistic applications such as rocket launchers and Percussion Actuated Non-electric ("PAN") disrupters require both high discharge forces and a high degree of accuracy. These factors are particularly significant in the context of smaller (e.g., 80 lbs or less) EOD robotic platforms, such as the iRobot PackBot EODs, which are designed to be relatively lightweight, Disrupters are explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tools designed to remotely disable and render-safe improvised explosive devices (IEDs) without initiating the IEDs. Conventional disrupters use blank shotgun shells and special modified toads or projectiles (i.e., liquid, solid shot or frangible loads) depending on the application or scenario. The disrupter can include a breech for loading the shell, a barrel, and a blasting cap, detonating cord, electrical shock tube initiator or other initiating device. For example, a water load may be used to open explosive packages and disrupt the explosives and firing train.
Certain disrupters have become commonplace in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) communities, including the PAN Disrupter noted above (one version manufactured by Ideal Products of Lexington, Ky. under license from Sandia National Laboratory) and the RE 12-12 disrupter. These disrupters are often used on a static mount or more recently on dynamic platforms such as on robot arms. In ordinary use, is they are mounted on very stable, very robust mechanical platforms, which are not expected to move or otherwise articulate. Robotic arms can be articulated, electrically powered, not typically back-driveable, often light duty, and often not suited for use with standard disruptors.
Accordingly, there is a need for a recoil mitigation device for use with disrupters and various other ordnances mounted on robotic platforms. There is a need for a recoil mitigation device that minimizes binding or lateral pitching. There is also a need for a simple recoil mitigation device that is readily attachable to and detachable from various ordnances.


The invention relates to a data carrier into which, by a laser beam, identifiers (20, 22) are introduced in the form of patterns, letters, numbers and/or images that are visible due to local changes in the optical properties of the data carrier, effected by the laser beam and resulting from material transformations. According to the present invention, the data carrier comprises a laser-sensitive recording layer (26) that is transparent in the visible spectral range and that is provided with a surface relief in the form of a lens grid (28). The identifiers are introduced with the laser beam from different directions through the lens grid (28) into the recording layer (26) and are perceptible when later viewed from those same directions. The data carrier is transparent at least in the area of the introduced identifiers (20, 22).

Data carriers, such as identification cards, credit cards, bank cards and the like, are increasingly being used in different service sectors, as well as within companies. Normally, they must fulfill two opposing conditions. On one hand, due to their wide circulation, they constitute a mass-produced product that should be easy and economical to manufacture. On the other hand, due to their function in proving identity, they should offer the greatest possible security against counterfeiting or forgery. The multitude of kinds of identification cards available bears witness to the numerous efforts and the diverse proposals on how these opposing requirements can be suitably combined.
From German patent specification DE 31 51 407 C1, for example, a multilayer identification card is known that is furnished with a plastic foil as a recording medium. The plastic foil appears completely transparent in the visible wavelength range, but absorbs so strongly at the wavelength of an infrared laser used for inscribing information that a local blackening of the foil results from the effect of the laser beam. In this way, images and/or data can be inscribed in the plastic foil with good resolution.
Even if the identification card in DE 31 51 407 C1 offers a high degree of counterfeit security, there exists a need to expand the visual design options of such cards and to further impede the forgery or counterfeiting of the cards by introducing new or additional security features.
In this regard, it has been known for some time to provide identification cards with holographic or hologram-like diffraction patterns. Through such structures, the cards are furnished with optically variable effects and simultaneously provided with effective protection against photographic or xerographic reproduction. Due to the high manufacturing costs of holographic structures, they can be manufactured at an economically justifiable cost only when large lots are used. This normally requires that the information content of the holograms not differ from each other. For manufacturing, the information is usually embossed in a plastic foil with an embossing stamp. The plastic foil is provided with a reflecting layer and the surface is sealed with a protective layer. In manufacturing cards, the finished hologram is affixed to the card surface. For the above-cited reasons, the holograms are usually not provided with information that is coordinated with the respective card, such that it is possible, in principle, to transfer a hologram from an authentic card to a fake card.
A further difficulty consists in the fact that visually checking a hologram requires good lighting conditions. The holographic effects are often perceptible only with difficulty or not at all already under the diffuse room lighting predominant in banks, stores or companies. Metallically reflecting or slightly shimmering surfaces can also be produced with so-called decoration materials, such that, under unfavorable lighting conditions, the structures formed with such decoration materials can be mistaken for authentic holograms by laypersons.

Data support with identifications written thereon by means of a laser beam and method for production thereof


The present invention provides a composition for improving macular pigment optical density and preventing or treating age-related macular optical degeneration. The composition comprises lutein, zeaxanthin and tea extracts, wherein the weight ratio of zeaxanthin to lutein is more than or equal to 1. The composition may prevent formation of choroidal neovascularization to achieve effects on comprehensively preventing or treating age-related macular optical degeneration (AMD).

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major human blindness disease. It often leads to central vision loss during an attack, and even makes blindness seriously. The incidence of age-related macular degeneration associates with ages. The disease easily happens with getting older. The survey shows that 15 million people having more than 50 years old are suffering from this disease in North America, 1.2 million people of which are in serious condition. 30% of population over 75 years in the United States is suffering from macular degeneration in certain degree, and 23% of population over 75 years in the United States will suffer from macular degeneration in next five years. Some surveys show that the incidence of macular degeneration is respectively 16.8%, 25.6% and 42% for the age of 55-64, 65-74 and over the age of 75 of people.
There are two types of un-exudative (dry) and exudative (wet) macular degeneration. The two types of macular degeneration reflect different pathological processes, and usually occur on the two eyes of patients simultaneously, and it will develop deeply if without intervention.
Both of the dry and wet macular degeneration are accompanied with formation of drusen in eyes. Drusen is a kind of small spots from irregular round yellow to white frogspawn, transparent or translucent between retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch's membrane. The drusen always means pathological changes of retinal pigment epithelium function. The drusen has two of hard and soft forms. The hard drusen (tuberculiform) is due to accumulation of retinal epithelial cells metabolism fragment on the Bruch's membrane. The soft drusen is generally larger than the hard drusen and without clear boundary, and is usually formed by shed of retinal epithelial cells. The drusen will light after calcification. Dry macular degeneration often leads to atrophy and degeneration of external retinal, retinal epithelial cells, Bruch's membrane or choriocapillaris, to form drusen, color disorder and other eyes dysfunction. The wet macular degeneration is characterized in that pulpiness or hemorrhagic detachment of retina epithelial cells or sensory nerve layers, will lead to formation of choroidal neovascularization. These could cause visual distortion or blurred central vision in clinic, seriously may result in blindness.
As mentioned above, AMD is eye diseases resulting in blindness. This is because a fluorescent lipofuscin formed by lipid oxidation in eyes, leads to formation of drusen, Bruch's membrane and choroidal neovascularization. It is believed that eyes exposed to high energy blue light for long-term can accelerate lipofuscin formation. At present, the mechanism of AMD formation is unclear, no specific method of treatment or prevention is provided. However many researches show that formation and development of AMD closely relates to amounts of carotenoids in eyes, especially contents of lutein and zeaxanthin. Large amount of lutein and zeaxanthin can delay occurrence and formation of AMD. In addition, antioxidants of the body such as vitamin E, vitamin A, selenium, zinc and glutathione can also play an inhibitory effect on the development of AMD.
Lutein and zeaxanthin are merely two carotenoids in the human retina and are selectively deposited in macular region and the retina, have the highest density around the macular fovea center and a gradually decreased density around the retina. These macular pigments can effectively prevent from occurrence of oxidation reaction in retina. It could be assumed that an effective method of treating or preventing macular degeneration or injury is to supple for lutein and zeaxanthin. The good health effect on AMD made by lutein and zeaxanthin is mainly because lutein and zeaxanthin have the maximum absorption wavelength around 450 nm to be consistent with the blue light wavelength in visible light. Lutein and zeaxanthin in fundus macular can have a good filtering effect to absorb and filter destructive blue lights, in order to protect eyes and reduce lipid oxidation, delay occurrence and development of AMD. Furthermore, lutein and zeaxanthin can be used to improve visual efficacy such as juvenile myopia and senile blindness caused by muscle degeneration and eye damage caused by the ultraviolet radiation from sunlight and computer in the absence of AMD. Lots of clinical tests results show that the intake of lutein and zeaxanthin is 6 mg per dayin human body. It is thought that the carotenoid yellow dermatosis could not bring about if the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of lutein crystal is 25 mg/person/day.
More and more people are interested in special physiological functions of lutein and zeaxanthin. Currently, a large amount of healthy food and fortified food containing two natural pigments of lutein and zeaxanthin are present abroad. The FDA of USA approved uses of lutein and zeaxanthin as food supplement agents to improve nutritive values in 1995.
Lutein and zeaxanthin can't be synthesized in human body and must be ingested from outside. Currently lutein can only be extracted from plants mainly marigold flowers due to its asymmetry structure. Zeaxanthin is mainly derived from three sources such as extracting from matrimony vine plants, chemical synthesizing and obtaining by lutein isomerization transposition reaction. Zeaxanthin extracted from plants and by chemical synthesis is (3R, 3′R) stereoisomeric zeaxanthin. The one obtained from isomerization of lutein is (3R, 3′S) isomer. Both of (3R, 3′R)-zeaxanthin and (3R ,3′S, meso)-zeaxanthin are distributed in human eyes, in particular, the proportion of (3R , 3′S, meso)-zeaxanthin close to the visual center is higher.
More and more people are engaged in researches of lutein and zeaxanthin and many products of treating and preventing fundus macular degeneration (AMD) through lutein and zeaxanthin are present in the market, based on understanding on function and perfection of laws of lutein and zeaxanthin for visual health. These studies or products often focus on functions of lutein and zeaxanthin. However it hasn't reported that the complex use of lutein and zeaxanthin, especially lutein cooperating with large amount of zeaxanthin, and a certain amount of plant polyphenols antioxidants is used to treating or preventing AMD.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,282,225 B1 discloses a dietary supplement comprising various vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, antioxidants and plant extracts. The dietary supplement is beneficial to enhance visual function and acuity, and is helpful to treat or prevent macular degeneration. Wherein it uses a variety of plant extracts to be limited, and complex composition, and but it doesn't notice special efficacy of zeaxanthin.
US 2009/0155381 A1 describes a medication comprising lutein and/or zeaxanthin and many antioxidants for treating or preventing age-related macular degeneration. But this formula does not mention the important role of zeaxanthin in visual health.
US 2009/0181901 A1 introduces a substance containing—SH functional group or the mixer thereof with anthocyanin used for increasing the bioavailability of carotenoid including lutein in body.
US 2010/0330171A1 describes a nutritional supplement contributing to visual health, consisting of an anti-oxidant component, an anti-inflammatory component and an anti-angiogenic component, wherein the supplement comprises tocotrienol and green tea extract.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,887,847 B2 reveals a dietary component comprising vitamin E, minerals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, lutein and zeaxanthin. Wherein the weight ratio of lutein to zeaxanthin is around 20:1 and the amount of zeaxanthin is less.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,830 B2 presents a dietary supplement for delaying macular degeneration and improving visual health, comprising vitamin E, lutein and zeaxanthin, copper, zinc, DHA, rosemary extract and other vitamins and minerals, etc., the formula is complicated, and the weight ratio of lutein to zeaxanthin is around 2:1.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,432 B2 analyzes distribution of zeaxanthin stereoisomer in human eyes. It is considered that the content of zeaxanthin is higher close to the macular center relative to lutein, especially the content of meso-zeaxanthin in the visual macular reaches the highest concentration at the midpoint of macular center. It implies that they play an important role in visual health especially in delaying processes of AMD diseases. But it only emphasizes effects of meso-zeaxanthin of preventing or treating AMD in the patent, neither reminds synergistic effects of zeaxanthin and lutein, nor reminds synergistic effects of other substances.
All of the above applications or patents are to provide dietary supplements mixing one or several vitamins, antioxidants, plant extracts with lutein and zeaxanthin, to act as effects of delaying or treating macular recession. But it just emphasizes functions of lutein in these formulas, no deeply researches on eyes' function of zeaxanthin is provided. In fact, zeaxanthin has one conjugated double bond more than lutein in molecular structure, it makes zeaxanthin have stronger antioxidant activity than lutein, and plays an important role in human visual health. Some researches in 1980's also proved that substances in the eye macular center is mainly zeaxanthin, the amount of zeaxanthin gradually reduces, the amount of lutein subsequently increases when concentrically away from recess and close to the outer peripheral of the macular, and lutein is the major yellow pigment in the periphery of the macular.
It can also be seen from changes of proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in nature and different parts of body tissues that the proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in marigold flowers of lutein raw materials is around 10˜12:1, this proportion in human blood is around 3˜5:1, the proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in the macular periphery is 3:1, but, the proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in the macular center is completely reversed and is 1:3, The change of the proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in the different parts of the eyes shows that the zeaxanthin especially meso-zeaxanthin plays an important and unique role in human visual health. If the proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in dietary supplement  would be determined by the proportion of lutein to zeaxanthin in macular center, it would strengthen the concentration of zeaxanthin in eyes and would play better effects of delaying AMD.
In addition, it would play unexpected effects when moderately adding some plant extracts in order to prevent or delay formation of choroidal neovascularization caused by pulpiness or hemorrhagic detachment of the retina epithelial cells or sensory nerve layers before and after AMD disease. Green tea extracts among these plant extracts would be worth watching. Green tea polyphenols mainly comprises four components such as GC (gallocatechin), CG (catechin gallate), GCG (gallocatechin gallate). The epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has the highest activity in the green tea polyphenols. Epidemiological studies revealed that EGCG has the ability of resisting formation of blood vessels and reduces the incidence of diabetes proliferative vascular hyperplastic lesions. Angiogenesis in ocular neovascularization is of great significance for damage of structure and function of the eyes. It is further found that green tea polyphenols can significantly inhibit proliferation of endothelial cells in a dose-dependent manner, and can lead to cell arrest in G1 phase. So green tea polyphenol is one of effective and prospective drugs of anti-angiogenesis.

Composition for improving macular pigment density and preventing or treating age-related macular degeneration

Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd. Xinchang Pharmaceutical Factory


A laboratory gas scrubber for removing soluble contaminant gases from the exit air from laboratory extractor hoods comprises a cabinet which is assigned to a laboratory extractor hood and is placed close beside the latter to form a closed subassembly and which contains in its lower part a scrubbing liquid tank, an immersion pump immersed in the latter, and a switchbox with the electrical control devices for operating the laboratory gas scrubber, while its upper part contains an inner housing with inlet connectors for the exit air which is emerging from the laboratory extractor hood and is to be purified, and an outlet connector for the purified exit air, and this inner housing contains a packing zone, above this a spraying zone and above this an agglomeration zone. It is possible for two or three laboratory extractor hoods to be arranged beside the laboratory gas scrubber and to be connected to the latter.

The invention relates to a laboratory gas scrubber for removing soluble contaminant gases from the exit air from laboratory extractor hoods.
The exit air is driven through the zones of the laboratory gas scrubber by a fan which is arranged at a suitable point and is not the subject of the protection.
A laboratory gas scrubber of this kind has already been disclosed by the DE-U 88 16 043 of the same proprietor. This known laboratory gas scrubber is further developed hereby. The object on which the invention is based is to construct the laboratory gas scrubber and arrange its components in such a way that a reduction in the dimensions, especially the height, of the laboratory gas scrubber is made possible, and it can be assigned to a laboratory extractor hood in such a way that it stands directly next to the extractor hood.