A dual pressure boiler system has a bottom furnace that operates as a low pressure natural circulation steam generating system and a top furnace that operates as a high pressure natural circulation steam generating system. The low pressure natural circulation steam generating system has a low pressure steam drum, a first pump for providing feed water to the low pressure steam drum, and a low pressure superheater fluidly connected to the low pressure steam drum. The high pressure natural circulation steam generating system has a high pressure steam drum, a second pump for providing feed water to the high pressure steam drum, and a high pressure superheater fluidly connected to the high pressure steam drum.

The present invention relates generally to large commercial boilers, and in particular to a new and useful dual pressure boiler which uses a separate low pressure natural circulation steam generating system in the bottom section of the boiler.
A conventional natural circulation boiler system has a single boiler drum, downcomers, supply tubes, furnace wall tubes, riser tubes and steam/water separators inside the drum. Typically, heated feedwater enters the drum via a feedwater distribution system whose task it is to thoroughly mix the feedwater with the saturated water separated from the steam-water mixture supplied to the separators via the riser tubes.
The resulting water mixture (usually subcooled, i.e., below saturation temperature) enters and flows through the downcomers and is distributed via a number of supply tubes to inlet headers of the furnace circuits, e.g. the wall tubes.
Circulation is established through the difference in fluid density between the downcomers and the heated furnace circuits. The fluid velocity in the furnace circuits (tubes) must be sufficient to cool the furnace tubes, typically exposed to combustion gases whose temperature readily reach the ambient flame temperature of the fired fuel.
The steam-water mixture eventually reaches the outlet headers of the furnace circuits, from where this mixture is led to and distributed along a baffle space and from there to the steam/water separators inside the steam drum.
As soon as the heated fluid reaches saturation conditions, steam is beginning to form and the fluid becomes a two-phase mixture. The fluid velocity must be sufficient to maintain nucleate boiling (bubble-type boiling), as this is the regime which generates the highest possible heat conductance, i.e., the best cooling between the fluid and the inside tube wall on the heated side. Insufficient fluid velocity in combination with high heat flux and excessive percentage of steam in the steam-water mixture leads to steam blanketing, equivalent to an insulating-type steam film along the heated, inside tube wall, which causes rapid tube failure. The danger of film boiling increases with increasing boiler pressure. The fluid temperature in the boiling (two-phase) regime is strictly dependent on the local internal pressure and is nearly constant from the point where boiling starts to the point where the saturated water leaves the separators.
The separators separate the saturated water from the saturated steam, usually through centrifugal force generated through either tangential entry of the two-phase fluid into cyclones or through stationary propeller-type devices. The centrifugal action literally "squeezes" the steam out of the steam-water mixture.
The saturated steam leaves the top of the drum through saturated connecting tubes which supply the steam to the superheater where the steam is further heated to the desired final temperature before being sent to a turbine or a process. The saturated water, as stated earlier, leaves the bottom of the separators and mixes with the continuously supplied feedwater.
Low pressure recovery boilers (generally less than 800 psig operating pressure) have been operating for years without significant material or corrosion problems in the bottom furnace. The bottom furnaces of these units have been designed with much lower level of corrosion protection, such as pin studs and refractory, which has been sufficient in combating corrosion for long periods of time. As the operating pressure of a recovery boiler and the furnace tube metal temperature increases, the corrosion rate increases significantly which has resulted in the need for more exotic corrosion protection in the bottom furnace. However, use of exotic materials has significant disadvantages. Such metals are prone to cracking and require extensive inspection and maintenance efforts.
A full disclosure of steam drums specifically and boilers in general can be found in Steam/Its Generation and Use, 40th Ed., Stultz and Kitto, Eds., © 1992 The Babcock & Wilcox Company.


A fuel cell system to be mounted on an electric vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle. Cooling water is supplied from a cooling water inlet of a stack manifold, flows through a fuel cell stack, and returns to the stack manifold. A groove is formed on the rear surface side of the stack manifold, constituting, together with a terminal, a cooling water channel. The cooling water flows through the cooling water channel, and is discharged to the outside from a cooling water outlet. The cooling water channel is formed extending from the rear side to the front side of the vehicle, and warms an end plate. A pipe length of the cooling water channel to a radiator mounted in a front part of the vehicle is reduced.

In a fuel cell that generates power through electrochemical reaction between fuel gas and oxidizing gas, an end plate is provided at an end part of a fuel cell stack in the cell stacking direction, and the temperature of the end plate increases due to the heat discharged from the end plate. This causes condensation in a cell due to difference in temperature, and thus water pooling in a cell, which leads to a problem of deterioration in power generation performance.
Patent Document 1 below describes formation of a cooling agent channel on at least one of the pressure plates that make a pair for fastening a plurality of cells sandwiched therebetween for allowing cooling agent to flow therein to thereby warm the pressure plate.


The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing foamed bitumen for a road construction machine, comprising at least one mixing device having a reaction chamber, in which hot bitumen and at least one reaction fluid can be mixed together via an inlet device comprising at least one inlet nozzle and can be discharged from the mixing device via an outlet device, with at least one compressed-air device being provided, via which the inlet device and/or the outlet device can be subjected to a compressed-air stream for testing and/or cleaning purposes. The present invention further also relates to a method for maintaining such an apparatus.

Such apparatuses are required in road construction machines, for example, and especially in recycling machines for road construction. Such a road construction machine has been described, for example, in WO 96/24725. It comprises a rotation chamber in which a revolving working roller is arranged, which is usually arranged in a height-adjustable and inclination-adjustable manner for adjustment to the surface to be processed. In this rotation chamber, an existing road surface is milled off, the milled material is crushed, bonding agents and especially foamed bitumen are added, and the material is mixed, distributed and supplied to an applying apparatus for forming a new road surface.
An apparatus for producing such a bonding agent and especially foamed bitumen for road construction machines is known from WO 95/22661. The apparatus comprises at least one reaction chamber in which a mixing device is provided in which hot bitumen at a temperature of 180° C. and water can be mixed together via injection nozzles under pressure. The apparatus comprises a heatable foam reactor and heatable feed and distributor lines, wherein the lines can additionally be insulated. Several nozzles are arranged next to one another along a distributor line. This distributor line is connected with a central foam reactor via a line network, in which the foamed bitumen is produced for all nozzles. An agitator is further arranged in this foam reactor. The disadvantage of this apparatus is that the foam reactor is disposed far away from the injection nozzles and the already mixed foamed bitumen will partly disintegrate on its way to the nozzles, so that, among other things, precise dosing of the foam is not possible.
In the production of foamed bitumen or similarly foamed bonding agents, hot bitumen, reaction water and optionally air are preferably injected into a mixing device or a reaction chamber of the road construction machine which is arranged therein and injected from there directly into the rotation chamber. The common injection leads to a mixing of the individual substances in the reaction chamber. During the injection and the contact with the hot bitumen the water will evaporate immediately and will lead to the formation of foamed bitumen and thus to the desired increase in the volume of the bonding agent. The distribution of the water is improved by the addition of air to the hot bitumen and the reaction water, so that the foam quality improves. The finished foamed bitumen can enter the rotation chamber of the road construction machine from the reaction chamber and the mixing device which is arranged therein, where it is then mixed with the raw road material. This finished material mixture is then applied to a substructure as a new road surface by way of respective application and smoothing devices.
The mixing device therefore comprises a reaction chamber, into which at least parts of an inlet device and an outlet device will open, for example, a plurality of separate inlet nozzles for each reaction material to be processed into foamed bitumen. Hence, usually at least one water nozzle, one bitumen nozzle and, in the case of separate introduction of air, also one air nozzle are therefore provided. The outlet device usually comprises a fluidic connection from the reaction chamber to the rotation chamber of the road construction machine, with an injection nozzle also being used in this case by means of which the readily mixed foamed bitumen is sprayed into the rotation chamber.
The entire reaction chamber, including the inlet and outlet devices, is in contact with bitumen during the production of the foamed bitumen. When the device is at a standstill, e.g., during breaks, after ending the work or during maneuvering processes of the machine, the danger therefore is that by cooling and hardening of the bitumen the inlet and outlet devices, and especially the provided injection nozzles, will get clogged and will no longer work upon re-start.
The danger of clogging is also given for the injection nozzle of the finished foamed bitumen or a similar component by means of which the foamed mixture is supplied to the rotation chamber of the road construction machine and comes into contact with the cold milling material.
In the case of low injection quantities, which are usually accompanied by a low injection pressure or partly deactivated nozzles, it can principally occur that the nozzles will be blocked by material from the outside and will be clogged. There are different consequences to this. For example, the finished foamed bitumen is not foamed or not sufficiently foamed by a lack of reaction water or a lack of reaction air, depending on which of the nozzles of the inlet device are clogged. The foam quality is consequently reduced. This has a direct influence on the finished road construction material, the quality of which is influenced negatively. In the region of the outlet device, the clogging of the outlet nozzle, for example can lead to bright strips in the mixing material or regions in which there is no bonding agent at all in the milling material.
Hitherto, the function of the devices can hardly be monitored because of the difficult accessibility to the inlet and outlet devices and especially to any nozzles within the rotation chamber or within the reaction chambers.
An apparatus is known from the prior art which intends to remedy this problem. DE 102 41 067 B3 describes an apparatus for producing foamed bitumen which comprises a stripping device on the respective inlet nozzles by means of which clogged nozzles can be "scraped free".
DE 297 02 162 U1 describes an apparatus for producing foamed bitumen, in which a pressure journal is provided for each nozzle for cleaning potentially clogged nozzles, which journal is able to punch through any possibly clogged nozzle. The disadvantageous aspect is that complex routing of lines is necessary in order to provide space for the cleaning cylinder. For this purpose, the foamed bitumen needs to be redirected at first to a kind of a secondary chamber before then exiting into the rotation chamber of the road construction machine. The foam may lose some of its quality already by this redirection.
The initially described apparatuses therefore come with the disadvantage that the cleaning apparatuses for the inlet and outlet devices, especially for clogged nozzles, require a very complex construction, with a preceding test for perfect functioning of the inlet and outlet devices not being possible at all. Malfunctions and lack of quality of the finished product are the consequence.

Apparatus for producing foamed bitumen and method for its maintenance


Method and apparatus for enabling resuspension wash and magnetic localization of sample components bound to particles with magnetic properties in reaction vessels during separation and wash for enhanced chemiluminescent signal generation in biomedical assays. The assays involve moving reaction vessels past magnetic arrays that partially localized the particles prior to passing a gap where washing occurs, with or without resuspension, after separating out the unbound components and liquid. The band of particles is further localized by a focusing magnet at the end of the array prior to dosing the vessel with acid for chemiluminescent purposes. A block of soft magnetic material is employed in place of a magnet in the gap to minimize magnetic strength at the gap. Trimmed magnets adjacent the gap cause left, then right, particle shifting that localizes the magnetizable particles. The gap enables improved resuspension by wash, whereas the localized particles enable more efficient resuspension by reagent.

Heterogeneous immunoassays typically require the separation of sought-for components bound to component-selective particles from unbound or free components of the assay. To increase the efficiency of this separation, many assays wash the solid phase (the bound component) of the assay after the initial separation (the removal or aspiration of the liquid phase). Some chemiluminescent immunoassays use magnetic separation to remove the unbound assay components from the reaction vessel prior to addition of a reagent used in producing chemiluminescence or the detectable signal indicative of the amount of bound component present. This is accomplished by using magnetizable particles including, but not restricted to, paramagnetic particles, superparamagnetic particles, ferromagnetic particles and ferrimagnetic particles. Tested-for assay components are bound to component-specific sites on magnetizable particles during the course of the assay. The associated magnetizable particles are attracted to magnets for retention in the reaction vessel while the liquid phase, containing unbound components, is aspirated from the reaction vessel.
Washing of the solid phase after the initial separation is accomplished by dispensing and then aspirating a wash buffer while the magnetizable particles are attracted to the magnet.
Greater efficiency in washing is accomplished by moving the reaction vessels along a magnet array having a gap in the array structure proximate a wash position, allowing the magnetizable particles to resuspend during the dispense of the wash buffer. This is known as resuspension wash. Subsequent positions in the array include magnets, allowing the magnetizable particles to recollect prior to aspiration of the wash buffer and introduction of reagent beyond the end of the magnet array.
One prior art wash block configuration provides an aluminum insert in the gap of the magnet array at the wash position. Rather than simply removing a magnet from the resuspension position, the insert prevents a reaction vessel from becoming misaligned and jammed in the magnet array. While functioning adequately for assays which employ resuspension wash, it is evident that the provision of an aluminum insert in place of a magnet at the wash position adversely effects assays which do not use the resuspension in washing but which proceed through the wash position without resuspension. A single band of magnetizable particles which is normally formed along the interior of the reaction vessel as it passes the magnet array, during the initial separation, is split into two smaller bands on either side of the reaction vessel due to attraction by the magnets on either side of the insert at the resuspension and wash position. Since the reagent is introduced into the reaction vessel in a stream directed toward where the magnetizable particles collected before splitting, the split in the banding of the magnetizable particles results in the stream missing the main concentration of magnetizable particles. Poor resuspension of the magnetizable particles during resuspension wash and upon addition of an acid reagent used to condition the bound component reagent in the generation of a chemiluminescent signal results.
Therefore, the prior art fails to provide a wash region which enables the efficient washing of magnetizable particles during the wash phase of a magnetic separation assay without adversely effecting assays not employing resuspension wash.

Method and apparatus for wash, resuspension, recollection and localization of magnetizable particles in assays using magnetic separation technology


A hearing aid uses multiple compression feedback loops to minimize sound distortion includes a preamplifier network having an input connected to an input receiver, an output, and an automatically adjustable gain. The preamplifier network measures an output signal which is preferably a voltage and automatically adjusts the gain in response to the output signal. The hearing aid also includes an output drive network having an input connected to the preamplifier network output and an output connected to a load, such as a transducer. The output drive network has an automatically adjustable gain which is responsive to a measured signal at the output of the network. A volume control circuit may also be connected between the output of the preamplifier network and the input of the output drive network to permit the person wearing the hearing aid to adjust the output volume.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for preventing sound distortion in hearing aids. More particularly, the present invention provides a hearing aid which utilizes gain control circuitry at both a preamplifier stage and an output stage to prevent saturation of input and output amplifiers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Distortion in the hearing aid art is defined as the generation of added undesired sounds in the output signal that are not present in the input signal. It is believed that such distortion, that is, these additional sounds, act as a type of masking noise for speech, both by direct masking of low-level speech cues that fill in the temporal structure of speech sounds, and by degrading important amplitude cues. Peak-clipping has been used as a technique for limiting the amplitude of the output stage of a standard hearing aid, however, the peak-clipping technique often creates distortions in the output stage of the hearing aid circuitry.
For the purposes of sound distortion analysis, a hearing aid can generally be considered to consist of two primary amplifying stages, a preamplifier stage and an output amplifier stage. FIG. 1 shows an exemplary configuration of a two stage hearing aid 10. As seen in FIG. 1, the preamplifier stage 12 of hearing aid 10 includes an amplifier 14 having one input 16 connected to a microphone 18 via coupling capacitor 20 and another input 22 connected to ground. The amplifier 14 has a fixed gain which is set by resistors 24 and 26. The output 28 of the preamplifier stage 12 is connected to a user adjustable volume control circuit 30 having an output 32 connected to the output stage 34 of the hearing aid 10. The volume control circuit 30 has a potentiometer 36 connected between the output 28 of the preamplifier stage 12 and an input 38 of the output stage 34 via coupling capacitor 40. The output stage 30 includes an amplifier 42 having one input 38 connected to the output 32 of the volume control circuit 30. The amplifier 42 has a fixed gain set by resistors 44 and 46 and has an output 48 connected to a transducer, for example, speaker 50.
In the preamplifier stage, the amount of undistorted amplification available is typically limited by the available battery supply voltage. In conventional ear-level hearing aids, the battery supply voltage is typically limited to 1.25 volts available from a zinc-air battery cell. If the input sound level (amplitude) increases dramatically, the resulting amplified signal at the output of the preamplifier stage tries to exceed the available battery voltage and thus the preamplifier saturates and the output signal becomes distorted (that is, it clips).
Various amplifiers, such as class A and class D amplifiers may be employed at the output stage. Such amplifiers are subject to an overload effect when the input sound level reaches certain thresholds. When using class A amplifiers in the output stage, a signal delivered to the output stage 34 from the preamplifier stage 12 increases as the amplitude of the input sound level into the preamplifier stage 12 increases. When the voltage at the output 28 of the preamplifier 12 reaches the limits of the battery supply voltage, no further amplification can take place. If the input sound level at microphone 18 continues to drive the preamplifier, the amplifier will saturate and distortion will occur.
A similar overload effect may also occur when using class D amplifiers in the output stage, though the saturation mechanism is different. Using a class D amplifier, the output stage 34 operates by producing a variable pulse-width modulated signal across the transducer 50, for example, the speaker coil. As either the input sound level or the amount of system amplification is increased, the pulses eventually merge into each other and the output signal reaches saturation, thus causing distortion, for example, in the form of peak-clipping. Typically, for a class D amplifier, distortion begins at about 3 dB below maximum acoustic output.
Peak-clipping may be unintentional, such as when the output amplifier is over driven, or peak-clipping may be intentional, such as when the saturated sound pressure level (SSPL) of a hearing aid is reduced by a peak-clipping circuit.
Saturation distortion that occurs due to over-driving or output clipping in an amplifier should be distinguished from low levels of distortion that can occur inside a hearing aid with low input levels. Saturation distortion occurs when the input level is so high that saturation is reached either in the pre-amplifier stage or in the output stage or in both stages. When this occurs, the waveform becomes highly distorted. Even in instances where a hearing aid is intentionally configured to produce low distortion at low input levels, saturation distortion will occur at some point as the input sound level is increased beyond the capability of the battery, the amplifier stage, and the output stage.
The high distortion effects of saturation can be seen graphically in FIG. 2 for a typical class D peak-clipping hearing aid used in the hearing aid circuit of FIG. 1. The peak acoustic gain of this hearing aid was 35 dB, the peak saturated sound pressure level (SSPL) was 107 dB, and the frequency response matrix slope (difference in acoustic gain between peak and 500 Hz) was 10 dB. As seen in FIG. 2 a plot of the harmonic distortion versus frequency for input sound levels of 60, 70, 80 and 90 dB is provided. These input sound levels correspond to soft speech, conversational speech, loud speech and shouted speech, respectively. The distortion performance graph shows that the level of distortion is low at low input sound levels, for example, 60 dB and 70 dB, and is in the area of 2 or 3 percent. When the input sound level is increased, for example, to 80 dB, the hearing aid goes rapidly into saturation and the level of distortion increases dramatically, with the percentage of distortion peaking at about 50 percent. At an input sound level of 90 dB, the percentage of distortion continues to increase and typically exceeds the 50 percent distortion plateau, especially in the mid-frequencies, for example between 900 Hz and 2000 Hz.
The use of a compression circuit at the preamplifier stage has been shown to slightly reduce the saturation distortion of conventional hearing aids. FIG. 3 illustrates conventional hearing aid circuitry with a compression circuit 52 connected to the preamplifier stage 12, and FIG. 4 is a distortion performance graph for the hearing aid shown in FIG. 3. As seen in FIG. 4, even with a compression circuit at the preamplifier stage, the percentage of distortion is still significantly high when the input sound level increases above the 80 dB level.
Therefore, a need exists for a hearing aid that responds to high as well as low input sound levels to substantially minimize the percentage of distortion in the output signal of the hearing aid so as to provide a person wearing the hearing aid with clear, audible sound.

Hearing aid having input and output gain compression circuits


A method of fabricating a flat type electrochemical device, which is constructed by placing in a case comprising first and second case half bodies a separator and first and second functional substances for an electrochemical device so arranged as to interpose the separator. Peripheral portions of the first and second case half bodies are overlapped with each other, the peripheral portions are welded by a welding process during the application of pressure whereby the peripheral portions are joined with substantially no gaps. The portions welded by the welding process with pressure are then further welded using a laser beam welding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of fabricating an electrochemical device such as an electric double layer capacitor or a battery, and more particularly, to a method of fabricating a flat type electrochemical device comprising a case having a flat shape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an IC card and a thin-type portable electronic apparatus, a thin, that is, a flat power supply device is used. For the power supply device to be constructed in a flat shape, an electric double layer capacitor and a lithium secondary battery are particularly suitable. However, the electric double layer capacitor and the lithium secondary battery use a nonaqueous electrolytic solution. If the moisture content in the inner portion of the power supply device is increased by the entrance of moisture from the exterior, degradation of characteristics such as a decrease in withstand voltage is liable to occur. Consequently, a case structure capable of maintaining a highly sealed state for a long period of time is required.
A flat type electrochemical device having a structure meeting the above described requirements is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 140553/1989. The structure disclosed in the prior art is shown in a cross sectional view and a plan view of in FIGS. 2 and 3.
In a flat type electrochemical device 1, a case half body 2a and a case half body 2b made of a thin metal plate or metal foil having a thickness of, for example, not more than 50 .mu.m, are welded in their peripheral portions, thereby constructing a case 2. More specifically, a space is formed in a region inside the peripheral portions of the case half bodies 2a and 2b. A separator 3 and first and second functional substances 4a and 4b for the electrochemical device are contained in the space, and arranged so as to interpose the separator 3 between the functional substances 4a and 4b.
Reference numeral 5 denotes a terminal plate, which is arranged on the first functional substance 4a so as to be electrically connected to the first functional substance 4a. The upper surface of the terminal plate 5 is bonded to an inner flat surface, which faces the containing space, of the first case half body 2a while being separated therefrom by an insulating layer 6.
The electrochemical device 1 has an opening 7 formed in the first case half body 2a, and the terminal plate 5 is exposed at the opening 7, so that the terminal plate 5 and, therefore, the first functional substance 4a can be electrically connected to the exterior.
In the electrochemical device 1, the peripheral portions of the case half bodies 2a and 2b are welded, and the lower periphery of the opening 7 is sealed with the insulating layer 6, thereby sealing the space in the case 2. Moreover, the opening for electrically connecting the functional substance 4a to the exterior is limited to the portion of the insulating layer 6 that faces the opening 7, so that the region from which moisture can enter is relatively small, thereby enhancing sealing performance.
However, the electrochemical device 1 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 has the following disadvantages.
The electrochemical device 1 has a disadvantage in that the members contained in the case 2, for example, the separator 3, the functional substances 4a and 4b. Moreover, the like do not have sufficient heat resistance, and the case 2 is easily deformed by distortion because it has an overall flat shape. Accordingly, the welding process that can be used in joining the case half bodies 2a and 2b is limited.

Method of fabricating flat type electrochemical device


A synthetic resin frame, having a single foot extending laterally from it, has a roller mounted for rotation about a bearing element that extends into holes in the sides of the frame. A combination line guard and bearing-retaining element is snapped over the frame. The ends of the line guard and bearing-retaining element hold the bearing in position, while openings in the line guard guide the line and substantially prevent it from contacting the synthetic resin. The line guard and bearing retainer is formed of material more wear resistant than that of the frame.

Roller guides and tips for fishing rods have, over a number of decades, become popular on fishing rods used for salt-water sport fishing for relatively large fish, especially game fish. Typically, such roller guides are relatively heavy and have metal frames that are in the great majority of cases supported by two feet. The rollers in the guides are usually held in place by bearings that are in turn secured by screws. The screws are often removed when it is desired to lubricate the bearings.
At least one attempt has been made to popularize roller guides on rods used for relatively small fish, including some fresh-water fish. These guides had frames made of synthetic resin. The guides were a commercial failure and were withdrawn from the market more than a decade ago.
There remains a need for roller guides that are extremely light and that can be used effectively with relatively light line, in the range of two-pound test to twenty-pound test. It is important that the guides do not inhibit to any substantial extent the high flexibility of, or increase substantially the weight of, the lightweight rods used for such fish. It is also important that the roller guides be very strong, be strongly connected to the rod blanks (shafts), be readily lubricated without need for disassembly, and be characterized by very low friction. It is, additionally, important that the roller guides in different sizes be capable of mass production with a minimum number of different component sizes, with minimum labor, etc.
The lightweight roller guide should be so low-friction, strong, economical and light, etc; that it will tend to supplant large numbers of the ring guides now commonly employed on lightweight fishing rods. Such ring guides have a metal or plastic frame in which is--typically--mounted a ring of aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, metal, or other substance believed to be relatively low friction. However, such a ring guide--especially when a fish is on the line--generates friction at the line which is much greater than that generated when roller guides are employed. Furthermore, ring guides tend to break, check, etc. Friction between line and ring guide tends to heat the line, which is undesirable, it being vastly preferred that the generated heat be in the guide itself and not transmitted to the line in any way.

Lightweight roller guide and tip for fishing rods


An integrated lead suspension or flexure having an integrated circuit (IC) mounting region on which an IC chip with an array of solder-covered terminals can be mounted. The suspension or flexure include a stainless steel layer, integrated conductive leads and an insulating layer between the conductive leads and the stainless steel layer. The stainless steel layer has an IC window for receiving an array of terminals of an IC. The integrated conductive leads extend along the stainless steel layer into the IC window, and include an array of bond pads in the IC window corresponding to the array of terminals of the IC to be mounted to the suspension or flexure. The insulating layer extends into the IC window and includes an array of solder mask holes corresponding to the array of conductive lead bond pads. The IC chip can thereby be mounted to the suspension or flexure in the IC window and its array of terminals soldered to the corresponding array of conductive lead bond pads through the array of solder mask holes.

The present invention relates generally to integrated lead head suspensions for magnetic disk drives. In particular, the invention is an integrated lead suspension or component having an integrated circuit (IC) chip mounted thereon, and a method for manufacturing the suspension or component.
Integrated lead or so-called xe2x80x9cwirelessxe2x80x9d suspensions and flexures for supporting read and/or write heads over the rotating recording media in magnetic disk drives are generally known and disclosed, for example, in the Bennin et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,844,751 and 5,864,445. Suspensions and flexures of these types include conductive leads or traces which are formed integrally on the stainless steel or other spring material layer of the device. A layer of insulating material such as polyimide separates the conductive leads from the stainless steel layer. The integrated lead suspensions and flexures described in the Bennin et al. patents referred to above are manufactured from laminated sheets of material using xe2x80x9csubtractivexe2x80x9d processes. During these processes, portions of the individual layers of the laminated sheet which are to form the load beam, insulators, leads or other suspension and flexure features are protectively masked, and the sheet exposed to chemical, plasma, or other etchants to remove the undesired and unmasked portions. Another known approach for manufacturing integrated lead suspensions involves additive processes. During additive manufacturing methods the insulating and conductive lead layers are sequentially deposited onto or built up on the stainless steel base layer.
Preamplifier or other integrated circuit (IC) chips are sometimes mounted on integrated lead suspensions, typically either on the rigid region of the load beam or on a chip supporting extension off the side of the suspension mounting region. IC chips configured as conventional flip chips are often used in these applications due to their relatively low height profile (approximately 12 mils thick). However, the IC chip mounting regions on the suspensions often require formed offsets to provide sufficient clearance between even these relatively thin ICs and the spinning disk media or adjacent suspensions. As a result of their non-planarity, offset forms of these types can increase the difficulty of positioning and welding the flexures to the suspension load beams.
The ICs are mounted to the surfaces of the suspensions having the conductive leads by soldering the IC electrical terminals to bond pads in the conductive leads. Solder masks are typically formed over the conductive lead bond pads to prevent solder from spreading between and electrically shorting the leads during the mounting process. Patterned layers of photoimageable material (a coverlay) formed over the bond pads have been used as solder masks. However, this approach has presented a number of problems. The coverlay occasionally lifts away from the conductive leads during the soldering process (solder reflow), thereby allowing the solder to wick under the coverlay and short adjacent leads. During the developing process coverlay residue can form in the holes and prevent good electrical solder contact between the conductive lead bond pads and the IC chip terminals. Conductive adhesive is used to electrically interconnect one of the IC leads to the stainless steel suspension for grounding purposes, necessitating an additional process step and the use of adhesive dispensing equipment.
It is evident that there is a need for improved structures and methods for mounting IC chips to integrated lead suspensions. In particular, there is a need for structures and methods that minimize the height profile of integrated lead suspensions with ICs. Methods which can achieve these features without the need for additional processing steps or materials (e.g., conductive adhesive) beyond those used to manufacture the integrated lead suspension itself would be desirable. To be commercially viable, the structure and method must be capable of enabling the ICs to be efficiently mounted to the suspension with high-quality electrical connections.
The present invention is an improved integrated lead suspension or component (e.g., a flexure) adapted for having an integrated circuit (IC) chip with an array of terminals mounted thereto. One embodiment of the suspension or suspension component includes a spring metal layer, integrated conductive leads extending along the spring metal layer, and an insulating layer between the conductive leads and the spring metal layer. The spring metal layer has an IC window for receiving an array of terminals of an IC chip. The conductive leads include an array of bond pads in the IC window positioned for electrical interconnection to an array of terminals of an IC chip. The insulating layer extends across at least portions of the IC window and includes an array of holes adjacent to the array of conductive lead bond pads to enable an array of terminals of an IC chip to be electrically interconnected to the array of bond pads. The IC window and array of bond pads can be at a location corresponding to the mounting region of a suspension or the rigid region of the suspension.

Integrated lead suspension with IC chip and method of manufacture


The semiconductor integrated circuit device includes memory cells the conductive state of which is changed in accordance with the data stored therein when selected, a sensing circuit having sense nodes for sensing the data stored in the memory cell. A constant current source according to the present invention supplies a current corresponding to the leak current to be detected on the sense node, as a load current in a leak current check where the memory cell is set in a non-selected state and the leak current flowing through the memory cell is detected. Accordingly, the device can ensure a large reading margin even in checking the leak current flowing through the memory cell, prevent the increase in total area of the integrated circuit, and prevent the alternate current characteristics in the ordinary data reading from being adversely affected.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit device for electrically erasing data in unit of a plurality of memory cells (blocks), more particularly to a flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) having a function of determining the presence of the overerased memory cells by monitoring the leek current from the column after the data erasing operation.
The memory cells constituting the flash EEPROM are each formed of a non-volatile transistor memory including a floating gate and a control gate forming a stack structure. In writing the data in the flash EEPROM, a write voltage is applied to the control gate and drain of the memory cell to generate hot electrons in a channel such that the hot electrons are injected into the floating gate.
While, in erasing the data written in the flash EEPROM, the source of the memory cell is applied with a high voltage to generate a high electric field between the source and the floating gate. With this high electric field, the electrons caught by the floating gate are discharged to the source by the tunnel effect, and the data stored in the flash EEPROM is erased.
In erasing the data written in the flash EEPROM, the overerasing, the phenomenon that the threshold voltage of the memory cell turned to have a negative polarity. The overerased memory cell (hereinafter referred to as "overerased cell") is constantly turned on even in the non-selected state. Accordingly, when the bit line to which the overerased cell is connected is connected to the memory cell which is turned off and stores "0" data, the "0" data cannot be read correctly even if the "0" data memory cell is selected.
In order to prevent the overerasing, the erasing method called as the intelligent erasing method wherein the erasing operation and the verifying operation are repeatedly performed to finish the erasing operation when the threshold voltage of the memory cell the data stored in which is erased latest is decreased lower than a predetermined voltage.
While, after the erasing operation, the threshold voltages of the memory cells in the flash EEPROM are distributed around a range wider than 2V, which is quite larger than 1V, the distribution range of the threshold voltages of the devices the data stored in which is erased with use of ultra violet ray. With such a large distribution range of the erasing threshold voltages, the lower limit of the reading voltage therein cannot be easily decreased. This is the bottleneck in decreasing the reading voltage. Further, the variation in the threshold voltages of the memory cells, which is generated in the manufacturing process, is thought to increase in future as a result of the reduction of the memory cell in size. In consideration of the above, the variation in the threshold voltages needs to be decreased.
In order to overcome the overerasing problem causing the variation in the threshold voltage, the process called as the compaction where it is checked whether of not any memory cell is overerased, and the threshold voltage of the overerased cell is turned to have a positive polarity needs to be performed. The compaction is performed by applying the write voltage to the drain of the overerased cell after erasing the data stored therein, to inject abalanche hot carriers into the overerased cell.
With this method, the threshold voltage of the overerased cell can be turned to have a positive polarity by applying the positive voltage to the overerased cell. It is no more than 100 ms enough to turn the threshold voltage of the overerased cell to have a positive polarity.
The above-mentioned compaction process is performed by simultaneously applying the control gates and the sources of the memory cells with a ground voltage (Vg=0V) and applying the drain with a positive voltage, and thus cannot be performed selectively for respective memory cells. Accordingly, the compaction process is usually performed simultaneously for a unit of memory cells connected to one or a plurality of columns (bit lines). In the compaction process, the overerased cell checking operation is performed by measuring the amount of the leak current from each columns in the state where all the word lines are grounded. The leak current amount of about 1.mu. to 5 .mu.A needs to be measured in this time, to find the overerased cell.
FIG. 1 schematically shows the conventional reading circuit in a flash EEPROM.
In this drawing, a plurality of memory cells MC in the same column are connected to a bit line BL at their drains. Each memory cell has a floating gate, a control gate, and source and drain. By injecting electrons into the floating gate, the threshold voltage of the memory cell is changed, thereby electrically writing (programming) data in the memory cell and electrically erasing data therefrom. In the writing operation, the data stores in the memory cells are electrically erased.
The bit line BL is connected, via a MOS transistor 91 for selecting a column, to a sense node N1 which is one of the sense nodes of a differential amplifier 92 for sensing data. The sense node N1 is connected to a load circuit 93 which is arranged between a power supply voltage V.sub.DD and the sense node N1.
A reference line RL is connected to a reference current source 94. The reference line RL is also connected, via a MOS transistor 95 arranged so as to correspond to the MOS transistor 91, to a sense node N2 which is the other one of the sense nodes of the differential amplifier 92. The sense node N2 is connected to a load circuit 96 which is arranged between a power supply voltage V.sub.DD and the sense node N2.
The memory cells MC is constituted such that only selected one of the control gates thereof is applied with a high level voltage in a read mode. The other memory cell are applied with a low level voltage. In a leak current check mode, all the memory cells are applied with the low level voltage.
Assume that the load circuit 96 as the load for the reference line is denoted as R1 and the load circuit 93 as a load for the bit line is denoted as R2, and the current flow from a reference current source 94 is denoted as I1, and the current flowing through the bit line BL is denoted as I2. Then, the potential (a sense potential) at the sense node N1 equals to the potential (a reference potential) at the sense node N2 when the relationship among them can be represented as R1.multidot.I1=R2.multidot.I2.
Accordingly, when the relationship is represented as I1<(R2/R1).multidot.I2, it is determined that no leak current flows from the bit line BL. When the relationship is represented as I1>(R2/R1).multidot.I2, it is determined that a leak current flows from the bit line BL.
According to the conventional device, the level of the current differs in a read mode and in a leak current check mode: when the current value in a read mode is set at 20 .mu.A and the that in a leak current check mode is set at 1 .mu.A, for example. In this time, the value of R1 is varied such that the relationship as R1 (in a read mode)>R1 (in a leak current check mode) can be obtained. By setting the ratio of the above-represented values of R1 as 20, the amounts of the currents differentiated by 20 times can be determined.
However, in case of adopting a method in which the value of the resistance value R1 is set to be small one in a leak current check mode in the conventional data reading circuit, the signal amplitude in the bit line BL is extremely decreased, with the result that the reading margin is also decreased.
In the above case, the resistance value R1 is set small in a leak current check mode. In contrast, the resistance value R2 may be increased by 20 times to differentiate the resistance value. In this case, the signal amplitude in the bit line BL can be sufficiently maintained in a leak current check mode as in a read mode. However, a load element is constituted of a MOS transistor, in general. The MOS transistor having a large resistance value has a large area. The increase in area in this portion will increase in total area of the circuit, and the parasitic capacitance of the reference line connected to the sense node of the differential amplifier will be increased thereby. As a result, the alternate current characteristics in a read mode may be adversely affected.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device with a constant current source


The present disclosure relates to an operation method for split-screen display. During split-screen display of an electronic device, the electronic device receives a first operation performed by a user in a display area that displays a first interface of a first application, and displays a second interface of the first application in the display area in response to the first operation, where the second interface is a previous-level interface of the first interface; or the electronic device receives a second operation performed by a user in a display area, and enables, in response to the second operation, a first application displayed in the display area to exit the split-screen display; or the electronic device receives a third operation performed by a user in a display area, and displays a multi-task interface in the display area in response to the third operation.

Nowadays, an electronic device such as a mobile phone has become an indispensable communication tool in people's daily life and work, and currently a touchscreen electronic device such as a touchscreen mobile phone is most widely applied. With continuous development of screen technologies, a touchscreen of the touchscreen mobile phone is increasingly enlarged in size, and is enlarged from the early popular 3 inches to 4 inches, 5 inches, 6 inches, or even a larger size. To make full use of the increasingly enlarged touchscreen, split-screen display currently becomes a relatively common use scenario of the touchscreen mobile phone. After a user triggers split-screen display, the mobile phone may divide the touchscreen into a plurality of display areas, and display interfaces of different applications in the display areas. For example, as shown in FIG. 1(a), the mobile phone may divide the touchscreen into two display areas, for example, a display area 101 and a display area 102 shown in FIG. 1(a). An interface 103 of a shopping application is displayed in the display area 101, and an interface 104 of a settings application (for example, a settings interface of a wireless local area network shown in FIG. 1(a)) is displayed in the display area 102.
During split-screen display, if the user wants to perform an operation such as going back to a previous interface of an application in the plurality of display areas, the application first needs to be in an active state. For example, the user may tap a display area in which the application is located to enable the application to be in the active state, and then perform an operation such as going back to a previous interface. For example, with reference to FIG. 1(a), FIG. 1(b), and FIG. 1(c), when the user wants to go back to a previous interface of the settings application, as shown in FIG. 1(a), the user may first tap the display area 102 in which the settings application is located to enable the settings application to be in an active state. Then, as shown in FIG. 1(b), the user may perform a tap operation on a back button 105 in a navigation bar. In response to the tap operation, as shown in FIG. 1(c), the mobile phone may display a main interface 106 of the settings application in the display area 102, that is, the mobile phone executes an event of going back to a previous-level display interface of the settings application.
It may be learned that during split-screen display, the user needs to perform a series of operations to implement an operation on an application in the plurality of display areas. Consequently, use efficiency of the electronic device is reduced.

Operation method for split-screen display and electronic device


A high performance switch fabric element and flexible link interconnection topologies and frame addressing techniques therefor are disclosed. The fabric element, which may be a 16 port ASIC with internal steerable interconnection among all ports. The fabric element ports each have a unique local routing table, thereby avoiding the need for a global routing table for ports as is provided in the prior art. This also permits addressing and routing from port to port within the fabric element without need for look-up references from off the fabric element, thereby contributing to speed. The fabric element can be used in multiples interconnected by unique link interconnection techniques including cascade, mesh, microstaging, and combinations thereof. These link interconnection techniques provide unique switch topologies that permit high performance switching chassis or network box having a significantly larger number of ports than is achievable with the prior art techniques.

The need for high performance switching solutions continues to grow in the fields of computing and data handling systems. Examples of such systems include interconnecting computers and high-performance storage devices, interconnecting computers in a multiple-computer operating environment, and anywhere else where multiple high-speed data interconnections must be established between designated nodes or groups of nodes in a data handling network. Higher bandwidth and greater switching flexibility are prime concerns for switches and devices to be used in such systems.
The Fibre Channel standard, ANSI X3.T11, is intended to address these concerns. The Fibre Channel standard itself broadly defines classes and standards of performance, but does not dictate the implementation technologies to be used in providing these functions. A particular design of a switch to implement Fibre Channel functions is referred to as the 'fabric' of the switch.
Most presently available switch fabrics do not implement all of the Fibre Channel functions. There are a number of reasons for this, some technological and some economic. For some applications only a subset of the Fibre Channel functions are needed. But in other cases, a larger set of Fibre Channel functions would be desirable, but the cost and technological complexity of implementation remain as formidable hurdles.
In commonly-owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/098,742 filed Sep. 1, 1998, entitled HIGH PERFORMANCE SWITCHING, certain methods and switch configurations for providing high performance Fibre Channel or other switching systems are described. Those systems are based on unique switch chassis, and unique methods of interconnecting the chassis to create larger networks. The method of interconnecting chassis in that patent application might be termed "multistaging", because it provides for the interconnecting of individual switch chassis in preferred ways to achieve larger networks.
The present invention provides further improvements in high performance switching networks and methodology, by improvements in switching modules and interconnections thereof within a switch chassis to achieve higher performance, reduced complexity and greater flexibility.
It is conventional in prior art high performance switch chassis try to make use of a number of similar switch modules, and to provide means for interconnecting them on a printed circuit board or otherwise within a chassis. Often the switch modules may consist of a custom switch modules with a given number of input or output ports, for example 2, 4 or 8. Ideally, most or all of the custom switch module is implemented in single ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), with additional supporting elements or chips as needed. Depending on which Fibre Channel functions are being implemented, it may be necessary in such prior art systems to provide a number of different custom switch module and ASIC types. to cover different types of Fibre Channel Ports. The custom switch module can generally handle requested switch connections within itself and involving its own ports. To create a switch chassis product with a more useful number of channels, for example 32, 48 or 64, it is desirable to somehow interconnect a number of such custom switch modules within the chassis.
The conventional way of doing this is to provide a high-speed bus, often referred to as a backplane, which interconnects all the custom switch modules. A fabric controller may also be programmed to direct traffic between custom switch modules according the particular requested switch connections. It is readily apparent that in such systems the bandwidth of the backplane and the operation of the fabric controller are critical. In practice, the backplane becomes the limiting factors in terms of chassis channel count, performance, and cost. In such prior art systems, attempts to increase the number of channels in a chassis quickly leads to high demands on the backplane and fabric controller, in terms of technological limitations, complexity and cost. These factors have effectively limited the number of channels in prior art switch chassis design, if any reasonably high data rates are to be maintained.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

High performance switch fabric element and switch systems


A filter element (10) is disclosed having a integral clamp (100) thereon. The adjustable clamp (100) is held against a sleeve (90) by attached tabs (91). The sleeve (90) covers a collar (70) with a plurality of fingers (72) thereon. A high head, e.g., the apex, formed by a bead (80) in the fingers (72) permits better sealing between the filter (10) and the filter's support housing.

Industrial facilities often discharge particle or dust laden exhaust. Consequently, government regulations and standards regulate such exhaust. As a result, particle/dust collection or recovery systems, such as baghouses and cyclone separators, are used for the removal of the particles and dust before further processing of the exhaust, if necessary, and release to the atmosphere. For example, while baghouses remove particulate from the gas stream, the exhaust may also need to be treated to remove other non-particulate dangers such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and carbon monoxide. The dust and gas conveyed to a baghouse or other similar air or gas filtering system are separated; the dust is separated and collected for disposal or later use while the cleaned gases are vented to the atmosphere or further processing.
Currently, baghouses are employed at many manufacturing facilities, stationary and portable, for cost effective compliance with emission requirements. The filters are generally two or more sided structures with a central opening. The baghouse operates by allowing the gas stream to pass through the walls of the filters, catching the particles on the bag's walls. Thus, if the flow of dirty air is from outside the filter (to the inside of the filter and out an outlet), particles will be caught on the outer surface of the filter. To the extent the filters have a mesh or screen size, particles larger than the mesh or screen size are caught on and in the exposed filter surface.
Other similar filtering processes such as fiber collectors and clean rooms operate in similar manners. These systems essentially collect particulate material and/or moisture from an incoming stream and separate the particulate or moisture from the cleaned gas stream. For example, fiber collectors are utilized in places such as cotton processing facilities to separate cotton fiber and dust from exhaust gas streams produced in the manufacturing facility. Clean rooms also utilize filtered gas streams, but instead of exhausting a cleaned gas stream to the ambient atmosphere, clean rooms often utilize filtered ambient atmosphere by removing particulate and moisture before exhausting the cleaned gas into the clean room.
As the above mentioned baghouses/filtering equipment operate, the particles begin to clog the filters and restrict, or choke, the flow of the gas stream. The phenomena occurs because particles will get captured in the filter's mesh and cling or hold to the mesh. As the particles collect/cling, they build up on the mesh structure itself and on other captured particles. The result of this build-up is the steady reduction of the mesh size or opening. This clinging process can continue until the mesh openings are totally blocked, preventing and choking the flow of any further gas (dirty air) through the filter walls. Accordingly filters must be properly cleaned or replaced regularly.


A substrate retaining device comprising: a support mechanism configured to change a pitch at which a plurality of substrate retaining units are arranged, urging mechanisms provided for the respective substrate retaining units and configured to urge the movable units to cause movable retaining members to press-hold substrates, and a push back mechanism configured to release the press-holding of the substrates by the movable retaining members. A push back portion of the push back mechanism is positioned at a standby position, at which the push back portion makes no contact with the movable units.

Conventionally, there are known substrate retaining devices that are capable of in semiconductor processing or the like, transferring a plurality of substrates from a cassette case, the cassette case storing substrates such as silicon wafers in such a manner that the substrates are arranged in their thickness direction at a predetermined pitch, to another cassette case at one time. In particular, there is a known substrate retaining device that is capable of, when transferring the substrates, changing the pitch between the substrates if such a pitch change becomes necessary in relation to the previous or following processing step (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
The substrate retaining device includes: a plurality of substrate retaining parts each including three or more claw portions configured to hold the edge of a substrate; a pitch-changing mechanism configured to change the pitch between the substrate retaining parts; steel tapes each having a bent middle portion and each having one end connected to a corresponding one of the claw portions; and drivers to which the other ends of the steel tapes are connected, the drivers being configured to make reciprocating movement in a direction from the edge toward the center of the substrate. When the pitch-changing mechanism changes the pitch between the substrate retaining parts, the straight-line distance between both ends of the steel tapes changes, accordingly. As a result, the steel tapes become warped. Even in such a case, elasticity generated by the bent portions of the steel tapes absorbs the warp of the steel tapes, and thereby substrate holding force is kept constant.

Substrate retaining device with push back portion


A baseplate for binding a foot to a board, particularly suitable for application as a snowboard binding baseplate, maybe tuned to provide a certain level and/or balance of one or more performance properties including, but not limited to power transmission, responsiveness, feel, and comfort. The binding baseplate may include localized regions of varying stiffness to provide a specific performance property. Consequently, the binding baseplate may include a specific stiffness characteristic at a location where the boot engagement members are mounted, providing a desired response of the binding baseplate to forces that may be generated by the rider during turns, landing jumps, and otherwise during riding.

The present invention relates generally to a binding baseplate for a gliding board and, more particularly, to a snowboard binding baseplate.
Specially configured boards for gliding along a terrain are known, such as snowboards, snow skis, water skis, wake boards, surf boards, skate boards and the like. For purposes of this patent, xe2x80x9cgliding boardxe2x80x9d will refer generally to any of the foregoing boards as well as to other board-type devices which allow a rider to traverse a surface. For ease of understanding, however, and without limiting the scope of the invention, the inventive binding baseplate for a gliding board to which this patent is addressed is discussed below particularly in connection with a snowboard. However, it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited in this respect, and that the aspects of the present invention described below can be used in association with other types of gliding boards.
Snowboard binding systems used with soft snowboard boots are typically one of two general types. A first type, known as a tray binding, typically includes a baseplate adapted to receive a snowboard boot, an upright member called a xe2x80x9chighbackxe2x80x9d (also known as a xe2x80x9clowbackxe2x80x9d and a xe2x80x9cSKYBACKxe2x80x9d) that is mounted at the rear of the binding and that acts as a lever to conduct forces induced by the rider through the baseplate and to the board, and a boot engagement system such as one or more straps for securing the boot in the binding. Another type of binding, known as a step-in binding, also includes a baseplate and a highback (or the highback may be provided on the step-in binding boot), but does not employ a strap system. Rather, a step-in binding is characterized by one or more strapless engagement members which lock the boot into the binding. In such step-in systems, a handle or lever may be actuated to move one of the engagement members into and out of engagement with the snowboard boot or, instead, the engagement member may be automatically actuated upon stepping of the rider stepping into the binding. With either the tray or the step-in bindings, flexing of a rider""s legs and a shifting in weight and balance, induces forces through the engagement members and/or the highback, through the baseplate and to the board, allowing the rider to control and maneuver the board along the terrain.
It is known that force transmission and the xe2x80x9cfeelxe2x80x9d of a ride are dependent, in part, on certain properties of the binding baseplate. The responsiveness of a binding to movement of the rider generally increases as the binding becomes stiffer. Certain riders interested in enhanced power transmission and fast board control may prefer such a stiffer baseplate. On the other hand, a more flexible baseplate may be desirable to enhance the feedback or feel of the rider as she courses down a slope. To such riders interested in feel and comfort, the ability to xe2x80x9crollxe2x80x9d her foot within the binding and against the straps or other boot engagement members, without immediately having the board shift on edge or otherwise respond, may be important. In addition, a stiff baseplate may more readily transmit shock from the board to the rider, while a more flexible baseplate tends to absorb shock and chatter for a more comfortable and, perhaps, more forgiving ride.
Binding baseplates are typically manufactured from a single material, dictating a particular performance property characterized by the stiffness of the baseplate. Some baseplates have been provided that include separate components with different stiffness properties, such as a metal or plastic base that is coupled to a stiffer metal heel hoop that supports a highback and an ankle strap. These baseplates, however, do not allow for selective adjustment of the stiffness of the binding and therefore do not allow a rider to vary the performance properties of the binding which may be desirable. Further, certain riders may desire a baseplate with a hybrid or a balance between these sometimes competing performance properties. That is, a binding that provides good power transmission and control yet also is characterized by a good feel and flexible response to rider induced forces.
The present invention is therefore directed to a snowboard binding apparatus which overcomes the above-noted and other disadvantages of prior snowboard binding apparatuses. The present invention results in a snowboard binding having a baseplate with a toe end, a heel end, a lateral sidewall, and a medial sidewall. The baseplate is constructed and arranged to support a snowboard boot. The baseplate includes at least one location along each of the lateral and medial sidewalls for mounting at least one boot engagement member. The flexibility, in response to forces generated by a rider against the boot engagement member, of at least one mounting location along at least one of the medial and the lateral sides is selectively adjustable by a rider.
In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a snowboard binding is disclosed. The snowboard binding includes a base which has a toe end, a heel end, a lateral side, and a medial side. The base is constructed and arranged to support a snowboard boot. The binding also includes at least one mount supported by the base. The mount is suitable for mounting at least one boot engagement member. At least one mount is subject to flexing in response to rider induced forces acting on the boot engagement member. The binding further includes a system supported by the binding for selectively adjusting the flex response of the mount to rider induced forces acting on the boot engagement member.
In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, a snowboard binding is disclosed. The snowboard includes a base having a toe end, a heel end, a lateral side, and a medial side. The base is formed from a material having a first stiffness. The binding also includes a mount for supporting a boot engagement member which holds down the front of a rider""s foot. The mount is formed of a second material having a second stiffness which is different from the first stiffness.
In still another illustrative embodiment of the invention, a snowboard binding is provided. The snowboard binding includes a baseplate having a toe end, a heel end, a lateral sidewall, and a medial sidewall. The baseplate is also constructed and arranged to receive a snowboard boot. The binding also includes a boot engagement member mount adapted to receive a boot engagement member fixed to at least one of the lateral and medial sidewalls at a location proximate to the toe end and a location proximate to the heel end of the baseplate. The binding further includes at least one stiffener insert. The stiffener insert is placed between the toe end and the heel end fixation locations. The stiffener inserts allow the rider to adjust the flexing of the boot engagement member mount to rider induced forces acting on the boot engagement member.
In one embodiment of the invention, a snowboard binding is provided. The snowboard binding includes a baseplate having a medial side and a lateral side. The binding also includes a mount which is attached to the baseplate on at least one of the medial side and the lateral side. The binding also includes means for adjusting the flexibility of the mount in response to rider induced forces acting on the mount.
In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, a snowboard binding is provided. The binding includes a baseplate constructed and arranged to secure a snowboard boot to the snowboard. The baseplate has a flexibility that is selectively adjustable between a first fixed stiffness and a second fixed stiffness. In addition, the first stiffness is different from the second stiffness.
In still another illustrative embodiment of the invention, a method for selectively adjusting the stiffness of a snowboard binding is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a binding adapted to attain one of a plurality of stiffnesses and reversibly adjusting the stiffness between the plurality of stiffnesses such that the stiffness may be changed from a first stiffness to a second stiffness and then to the first stiffness.
Various embodiments of the present invention provide certain advantages and overcome certain drawbacks of the conventional techniques. Not all embodiments of the invention share the same advantages and those that do may not share them under all circumstances. This being said, the present invention provides numerous advantages including the noted advantage of providing variable flexibility and cost of the baseplate and adjustability of the binding responsiveness.
Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in connection with reference to the accompanying drawings.


A solar cell floats over a body of saline water. A submerged fresh water collection system underlies the cell. A partial vacuum is created in the solar cell for drawing water vapor from the cell to the collection system. Water vapor is condensed in a condenser disposed between the cell and the collection system. Heat generated by the condensation of water vapor is utilized to heat the salt water, which rises upwardly to replace the salt water vaporized in the cell. The fresh water from the fresh water collection system is routed under the cell such that it becomes thermally enriched. The thermally enriched fresh water is provided to a power generator to improve efficiency.

Solar distillation systems are known that utilize solar energy stored in sea water to assist in the production of fresh water. These systems, however, are generally directed solely at the evaporation of sea water and the subsequent condensation of fresh water. Existing systems, although fulfilling their primary design purpose, often fail to fully utilize the thermal energy trapped within their confines. In many systems, this is a reflection on the inefficiency of design for solar distillation. In other systems, however, this inefficient approach represents a failure of designers to recognize the potential of the stored energy to improve the efficiency of energy generating systems.
The concept of utilizing the thermal properties of sea water in an effort to generate energy is not novel in and of itself. Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) systems have been designed to take advantage of the temperature differences between the warmer ocean surface and the colder ocean depths. Existing systems, however, carry with them several disadvantages. In order for significant temperature differences to be utilized, existing systems must often be located (or have access to) offshore and are therefore exposed to the ravages of nature. This contributes significant costs and inefficiencies to these systems and often requires their location at a position distant from the potential users of the generated energy. In addition, the temperature differences typically utilized by such systems are in the magnitude of 35–36 degrees Fahrenheit. This is usually representative of a temperate surface of 77–78 degrees and a chilled depth of 42 degrees. Although considerable effort has been expelled to extract as much energy as possible from this temperature range, the potential is limited.
In addition to the thermal inefficiencies, existing OTEC systems often suffer from other disadvantages such as biofouling. Biofouling and scaling often develop when ocean water filled with biomatter is raised to temperatures between 60 degrees and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This contributes both expense and additional inefficiencies to existing systems. Processes such as reverse osmosis can minimize the effects of biofouling, but contribute their own complexities to the systems. The problem of biofouling can exist for a wide variety of energy generating systems that attempt to utilize sea water as an active ingredient. Thus an approach to energy generation that reduced the impact of biofouling on an energy generation system utilizing sea water would be highly desirable.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cost effective energy efficient solar energy generation system that utilizes the potential for solar energy storage in sea water without the representative disadvantages associated with existing systems. In addition, there is a need for a solar energy generation system that utilizes the excess solar energy often ignored by solar distillation advances.


A bolt anchoring device for insertion into a bore in a concrete ceiling or the like material is provided. The bolt anchoring device comprises an anchor sleeve and a bolt. The anchor sleeve is first inserted in the bore for its provisional or temporary attachment. The bolt is then screwed into the anchor sleeve for permanent attachment of the anchor sleeve and the bolt. In one embodiment, the bolt is removable after permanent attachment of the anchor sleeve. The anchor sleeve has a self-retaining means for retaining itself in the bore at the time of its provisional or temporary attachment. The anchor sleeve has a first end portion having a threaded hole and a second end portion having a plurality axial slits. The bolt has an integral plug portion which is pushed into the second end portion to expand the second end portion and make it cut into an inner wall surface of the bore for thereby firmly securing the anchor sleeve in the bore. The plug portion is generally cylindrical and uniform in diameter so that it is hardly removed from the second end portion of the sleeve when once pushed into the second end portion. In one embodiment, the plug portion is twisted off from the bolt when the bolt is twisted by a torque larger than a predetermined value so that the bolt can be removed after permanent attachment of the anchor sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bolt anchoring devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bolt anchoring device including an anchor sleeve received in a pre-drilled bore in a wall of a building or the like and a bolt screwed into the anchor sleeve to expand an inner end of the anchor sleeve and make it engage the inner wall surface of the bore for thereby securing the bolt in the bore.
2. Description of the Related Art
A number of bolt anchoring devices of the kind which are attached to a wall or the like structure after the structure is completed have heretofore been proposed. An example of such a bolt anchoring device is disclosed in Japanese utility model provisional publication No. 62-18413 and includes an anchor sleeve or socket having a split end portion in which a plug having a truncated cone shape is disposed. The anchor sleeve is driven into a bore in a wall together with the plug by means of a special tool. As the plug goes near the bottom of the hole, it spreads or expands the split end portion of the anchor sleeve radially outward for thereby making the anchor sleeve be secured in the bore. A bolt is then screwed into the anchor sleeve to be held or supported thereby. Similar bolt anchoring devices are disclosed in Japanese patent provisional publication Nos. 6-330525 and 6-116953.
Another example of a bolt anchoring device is disclosed in Japanese patent provisional publication No. 59-147110 and includes an anchor sleeve having a split end portion, i.e., an end portion formed with expanding slots or slits. The split end portion has a conical or tapered inner wall surface. An insert or plug is pushed into the anchor sleeve and driven toward the bottom of a bore in which the anchor sleeve is received. By this, the split end portion is spread or expanded so that the anchor sleeve is held fast or secured in the bore. A similar bolt anchoring device is disclosed in Japanese utility model provisional publication No. 5-94333.
The above described prior art bolt anchoring devices require that the anchor sleeve and the plug be driven into the bore by beating or striking to expand the end portion of the anchor sleeve. Thus, in the case of installation or attachment of a metallic part for hanging a picture from a wall or a metallic part for preventing a furniture from falling, there is the possibility that damage or breakage of the wall and its facing or peeling of a wallpaper is liable to be caused, and great shocks, vibrations and noises are caused to give annoyance to the neighbors.
The anchor sleeve adapted to be expanded by striking requires that the bore in a ceiling or the like structure be accurate in depth. If the bore is too deep, a desired pull-out strength cannot be obtained. Further, it is difficult to ascertain the strength with which the anchor sleeve is attached to the structure. If the hole is not accurate in depth, there is caused an irregularity in the length by which the anchor sleeve protrudes outward from the ceiling or the like structure, and therefore the appearance is deteriorated.
When the anchor sleeve is to be driven into the wall or the like structure, a special tool made up of a driving rod having a head portion for pushing the anchor sleeve into the bore, is necessitated, which is inconvenient since expansion of the anchor sleeve cannot be attained without such a special tool.
The prior art anchoring device of the above described type requires three or more parts and it is hard to reduce the number of its constituent parts and therefore its manufacturing cost.
Further, the prior art anchoring device of the above described type have no means for assuredly checking or ascertaining whether the end of the sleeve is expanded completely or desirably and therefore have the possibility that the sleeve is not held fast or secured to the wall or the like structure and easily pulled off from same when the bolt screwed into such an anchor sleeve is subjected to a load.

Bolt anchoring device with improved plug portion of bolt


Method for preparing zeolite beta which method comprises crystallization of zeolite beta from a solution comprising a template, a silicon source and an aluminum source in which the template is polymeric compound comprising ionizable polydiallyldimethylammonium (PDADMA) cationcrystallization. Furthermore, the present invention provides the use of thus prepared zeolite beta in catalysts for hydrocarbon conversions.

In the art of zeolites, zeolite with a composite pore structure means that the zeolite has incorporated a further pore structure beyond its original pore structure so that to have a composite pore structure, thereby the zeolite has varied pore structure and improved porosity as well as varied mass transfer ability and catalytic activity.
Since MCM-41 zeolite molecular sieve with a composite pore structure was synthesized by Mobil Company from USA in 1992 and the same was found to be with an ability of quickly mass transferring and high catalytic activity for hydrocarbon conversions [cf. Kresge, C. T., Leonovicz, M. E., Roth, W., J., Vartuli, J. S. Nature 353, (1992), 710.], the zeolite with a composite pore structure has received more and more attention and there are more and more zeolites being imparted with composite pore structures successfully, thereby zeolites being imparted with more possibility for extensive industrial uses.
Zeolite beta with a composite pore structure is such a zeolite, whereinto a meso-pore structure is incorporated beyond its original micro-pore structure, so that zeolite beta has a composite pore structure comprising both micro-pore structure and meso-pore structure simultaneously, thereby zeolite beta has improved mass transfer efficiency and catalytic activity for hydrocarbon conversions.
Ryoo et al. have developed a bifunctional surfactant for synthesizing zeolite comprising both mesopore and micropore simultaneously, thereby yielding zeolite nanosheets or mesoporous zeolites. However, said bifunctional surfactant is costly so that its industrial applications are less feasible. Thus, there is still need to improve the synthesis of zeolite beta with a composite pore structure in the art.
In order to make zeolite beta with a composite pore structure could be used commercially, in Chinese patent application CN 1749162A, the present inventors have successfully synthesized zeolite beta with a composite pore structure by using a combination of polyquaternium-6 (polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride) and TEAOH (tetraethylammonium hydroxide) as templates (cf. example 2 and FIGS. 8-9 therein).
According to such a synthesis route, based on the conventional concepts in the art, of the combined templates, the organic small molecular template, i.e. tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH), is used to form the microporosity, and the organic high molecular template, i.e. polyquaternium-6, is used to form the mesoporosity. Thus, the two organic templates have to match with each other very well, otherwise, some amorphous porous materials could be easily formed in the synthesized zeolite. Thus, such combined templates make the synthesis of zeolite beta with a composite pore structure little complicated, although the same had been more feasible than that by Ryoo et al. for commercial applications already.
With such a situation, the present inventors now have surprisingly found that zeolite beta with beneficial properties, more specifically zeolite beta having a composite pore structure, can be successfully synthesized by using a polymeric compound comprising ionizable polydiallyldimethylammonium (PDADMA) cation such as polyquaternium-6 as the only template present during its preparation. Viewing that such a polymeric compound such as polyquaternium-6 is much cheaper than TEAOH as commercial agents, the present invention makes the synthesis of zeolite beta with a composite pore structure more simplified with reduced cost, thus, promoting zeolite beta with a composite pore structure to be used in extensive industrial applications.

Process for preparing zeolite beta and use thereof


The imaging device includes a camera body and an interchangeable lens unit detachably attached to the camera body, the imaging device including, an optical system including a focus lens, an infinite rotation type focus ring, a lens drive part moving the focus lens forward and backward in an optical axis direction of the optical system, a setting part allowing a user to set a rotation range of the focus ring, a storage part assigning and storing respective different rotation amounts of the focus ring to multiple positions within a movement stroke of the focus lens in accordance with a rotation range set in the setting part, and a control part driving the lens drive part to move the focus lens depending on a rotation amount of the focus ring to a position corresponding to the rotation amount stored in the storage part.

Conventionally known imaging devices of this type include an imaging device configured to move a focus lens in an optical axis direction of an optical system for focusing depending on a rotation speed of the focus ring. This imaging device can roughly be focused by rotating the focus ring at high speed and can finely be focused by rotating the focus ring at low speed, for example. However, the imaging device has a problem that the rotation position of the focus ring in focus differs between low-speed rotation and high-speed rotation.
In this regard, an imaging device configured to move a focus lens in an optical axis direction of an optical system depending on a rotation amount of the focus ring has been proposed (e.g., see Patent Documents 1 and 2). According to this imaging device, the rotation position of the focus ring in focus can be made coincident regardless of the rotation speed.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


A microprocessor-based system for controlling the presentation of a motion picture film in a theater having sound, lens, masks, and light systems with controllers for switching between the various modes or settings of the systems. The microprocessor-based system receives, stores and outputs information relating to desired operational settings along with the various times at which these settings are to be adjusted as a function of time relative to the start of the film.

Sensory components or variables associated with the presentation of motion pictures, such as lights, speaker output, mask position and lens settings are typically controlled either manually or through the use of cue tape attached to the film. Manual control of the sensory components is disadvantageous in that it requires a film operator to be available and alert throughout each and every showing of the film to control the sensory components within the theater.
The use of cue tape is also disadvantageous in that it offers limited control over presentation variables and installation or replacement of the cue tape is time consuming and inconvenient and involves handling of the film which often transfers dirt and other matter onto the film which can scratch the film. For example, cue tape enables control over only a few variables at the beginning and end of the film and dirt and scratches which may result from handling of the film during installation or replacement of cue tape are greatly magnified by the projector and detract from the quality of the presentation. Also, if the cue tape wears out before replacement, an audience may experience undesirable performance such as the lights not dimming, or an incorrect sound mode output.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system for controlling the presentation of motion pictures.
It is another object of the invention to provide a system of the character described which offers enhanced control over presentation parameters as compared to prior systems such as those using cue tape.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a system of the character described which enables enhanced control over presentation variables as compared to prior systems.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a system of the character described which avoids the use of cue tape.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system of the character described which is programmable and editable.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system of the character described which is economical, uncomplicated and convenient to use.
Regarding the foregoing and other objects, the present invention is directed to a system for enhancing the presentation of a motion picture film.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention includes a plurality of theater operation systems and an output controller operatively associated with the theater systems and having operating parameters corresponding to a plurality of desired operational parameters associated with each of the theater operation systems.
A presentation controller in electrical communication with the output controller means is provided for selectively controlling the desired operational parameters as a function of time. The presentation controller includes a microprocessor in electrical communication with a clock, an input device in electrical communication with the microprocessor for inputting information, corresponding to selected ones of the desired output parameters into the presentation controller by an operator as a function of time as measured from the commencement of the presentation of the motion picture film, the input device generating input signals in response to the input information. Computer memory is disposed in the microprocessor for storing the input signals as a function of time and a display, such as an LCD, is provided for displaying to the operator the desired operational parameters as a function of time.
The microprocessor generates output signals at desired times corresponding to the input signals, with the output controller device being responsive to the output signals so that the operational parameters of the theater operation systems correspond as a function of time to the desired operational parameters.
For example, preferred theater operational systems include the sound, lens and light systems of the theater and controllers for switching between the various modes or settings. Preferably, such systems include sound, lens and light systems, with the sound system having various desired outputs such as mono or stereo or digital and an electrical switch for selecting among these, the lens system having a flat lens and a scope lens selectable by an electric switch, and the light system having floor lights, perimeter lighting and the like and including dimmer switches for varying the intensity of the lighting. As will be appreciated, the microprocessor enables control over these and other theater operation systems including, but not limited to the position of the curtains and masks and whether the projector is on or off, by programming of the various times at which these settings are to be adjusted as a function of time relative to the start of the film.
In this manner, an operator may program in the start times of various films and, in an initial viewing, program in the desired changes in the operational parameters such that thereafter, all the operator must do is to thread the film into the projector prior to the start time. Thereafter, the presentation system can start the projector, make the desired operational settings at the designated times and shut off the projector at the end of the film. Editing of the times or selected operational parameters may thereafter be made if desired requiring re-input of the remaining settings.
As will be appreciated, the invention overcomes many of the disadvantages and features of the prior art by providing a system that is both programmable and editable and which enables automatic control over the presentation of a motion picture film.
Further in this regard, it will be appreciated that the invention enables an operator during an initial viewing of a film to input information corresponding to desired parameters of the viewing environment. For example, at each stage of the viewing of the film the operator may select the most appropriate presentation variables and program this information into a microprocessor-based system which repeats the selected viewing criteria during subsequent showings without the need of cue tape or operator intervention. The parameters are selectable via corresponding buttons and indicators and once the system is programmed, all that is necessary is that the operator thread the film into the projector prior to the next showing of the film.
The system of the invention automatically starts the film at the appointed time and adjusts the viewing parameter as a function of time as measured from the start of the film and displays the current operating parameters for inspection by the operator. However, should a change of one or more parameter be desired, this may be readily accomplished via a keypad and an easy to view LCD panel, with the subsequent in time selections being updated to reflect any prior in time change.
For example, if the operator desires to have the house lights brought down to half intensity at the beginning of the previews and brought down to low at the start of the main feature of the film, the operator may program this selection into system by pushing a "lights" button until the selected parameter "half" or "low" is illuminated by a corresponding LED provided on a panel associated with the system. However, should the preview be shortened from 5 minutes, for example, to 4 minutes, the operator may edit the programmed information via the keypad and LCD by scrolling through the programmed information and editing the "low" command to occur at 4 minutes from the start of the film as opposed to 5 minutes as initially input. Likewise, any subsequent events programmed to occur thereafter are automatically shifted in time for 1 minute less such that the presentation parameters are adjusted to reflect that the preview was of 1 minute less duration.


A detachable box magazine for firearms includes a hollow magazine tube extending longitudinally along a median plane. The magazine tube defines a single-stack portion extending to an upper tube end with an upper tube opening. The magazine tube defines a double-stack portion positioned below the single-stack portion and extending to a bottom tube end with a bottom tube opening. For example, front portions of the opposite tube sidewalls have a stepped shape between the upper tube end and the double-stack portion, and the rear portions of the sidewalls have a linear taper between the upper tube end and the double-stack portion.

Firearms design involves many non-trivial challenges. Traditionally, semiautomatic handguns have been made with a metal frame that includes the grip. The grip portion defines a magazine well into which a magazine is installed. A slide mounts to and slides longitudinally along rails along the top of the frame as the action is cycled. The frame defines an open region adjacent and above the magazine well for the fire control group. Components of the fire control group are installed in the frame, often with a pin that extends laterally through the frame. More recently, the traditional semiautomatic pistol has been modified to include a polymer grip module that defines a well for a separate metal frame that houses the fire control group. The frame is installed into the grip module above the magazine well and includes rails for the slide. Some such handguns have become popular for their reduced weight and modularity.