This metal gasket interposes a regulation plate having compression stop portions and beads between first and second elastic metal plates the convexities of beads of which face one another. The compression stop portions prevent complete compression of each bead and absorbs any irregularity between opposed fitting surfaces around holes for a combustion chamber. An intermediate plate having an offset portion is sandwiched between the regulation plate and the second elastic metal plate. The offset portion is shaped to a height smaller than the thickness of the compression stop portions and regulates the degree of compression of each bead.

1. Field of the Invention PA1 2. Description of the Prior Art
This invention relates to a metal gasket used for sealing fitting surfaces between a cylinder head and a cylinder block in a multiple-cylinder engine.
A metal gasket made from a metal material has been used conventionally for sealing a cylinder head and a cylinder block in an engine. The metal gasket has beads near through-holes correspondings to cylinder bores, water passages and oil passages, and when the cylinder head and the cylinder block are fastened and fixed by bolts, beads form elastic annular contact portions to the opposed fitting surfaces and seal them.
In engines of the recent types, however, a higher output and a smaller weight have been required, and an aluminum material having a smaller specific gravity tends to be employed in place of conventional materials having a great specific gravity such as steel and castings so as to produce the cylinder head, the cylinder block, and so forth. The aluminum material has a small weight but has low rigidity. Therefore, relative displacement of the cylinder head to the cylinder block tends to become great during the operation of the engine. When the opposed fitting surfaces of these structural materials are fastened by bolts through the single plate metal gasket, the opposed fitting surfaces are likely to be non-uniform because the bolt positions are dispersed relatively to the outer peripheral portions of the metal gasket and because they are not always distributed uniformly to the periphery of cylinder bores, that is, holes for combustion chambers. As a result, a combustion gas having a high temperature and a high pressure enters the gap between the opposed fitting surfaces at positions having a large distortion, such as in the regions between the holes for combustion chambers, and corrodes and contaminates the beads of the metal gasket, lowering thereby the seal effect.
In the case of the metal gasket, the gap between the cylinder head and the cylinder block repeatedly increases or decreases during the combustion cycles of the engine, and stresses or in other words, mechanical stress and thermal stress, repeatedly act on the metal gasket. This load change stress occurs as a great value at the portions having the lowest rigidity of the cylinder block and the cylinder head, so that the beads undergo buckling, cracks occur, and seal performance is deteriorated.
A metal gasket disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 293363/1988 is shown in FIG. 11. As shown in the drawing, two intermediate plates 65, 66 are laminated between elastic metal plates 61, 62 having beads 63, 64 so formed as to extend along the periphery of each hole 71, and spacer members 67, 68 are clamped between the two intermediate plates 65, 66 at portions closer to the hole 71 than the contact portion of the beads 63, 64. Compensation portions 69, 70 are disposed so as to compensate for any non-uniformity between the deck surfaces. In the metal gasket, the spacer members 67, 68 are clamped between the two intermediate plates 65, 66 at the portions closer to the hole 71 than the contact portion of the beads 63, 64. Therefore, one additional contact surface is provided to bear the seal force. The spacer members 67, 68 must be fixed to the intermediate plates 65, 66 by means such as welding, bonding, and so forth.
The metal gasket disclosed in Japanese Patent laid-Open No. 65367/1989 laminates two intermediate plates between two elastic metal plates forming beads along the periphery of holes. The edge of one of the intermediate plates is held in a grommet form by the edge of the other intermediate plate, and compensation bent portions are disposed on both surfaces so as to form substantially the same offset portions on both surfaces. In this metal gasket, the edge of one of the intermediate plates is held in the grommet form by the edge of the other, substantially the same offset portions are formed on both surfaces, and the bent portions for compensation are disposed. When they are clamped by bead substrates on both sides and are compressed under the buckled state between the cylinder head and the cylinder block, the turnup offset portions held in the grommet form function as the seam of the beads. As a result, the stress amplitude of the elastic metal plate drops, but the bending stress and the stress amplitude occur at the compression stop portions of the intermediate plates due to the difference of the operations of the upper and lower elastic metal plates.


The present invention provides a spill-resistant air freshener canister that includes: a supply vessel filled with aromatic liquid that has a threaded mouth sealed with a puncturable foil/polyethylene membrane; a cylindrical inner sleeve incorporating a socket that sealably engages the threaded mouth of the supply vessel, the sleeve also having a cylindrical axial aperture at the bottom of the socket, and at least one seepage aperture at the very bottom of the socket which enables liquid from inside the supply vessel to escape in a radially outward direction to the exterior of the cylindrical inner sleeve; a cylindrical wick surrounding the cylindrical inner sleeve; and an evaporator cage into which the cylindrical inner sleeve is inserted, the evaporator cage having a fully-enclosed bottom portion containing a central projecting blade that fits through the axial aperture at the bottom of the socket. The bottom portion is ultrasonically welded to the bottom of the cylindrical inner sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to air freshener canisters having a central supply vessel containing an aromatic liquid that is surrounded by an evaporation chamber enclosing a generally cylindrical wick that is wetted by liquid escaping from the supply vessel. More particularly, the present invention relates to a spill-resistant air freshener canister that has no unabsorbed standing aromatic liquid outside the vessel, with all aromatic liquid that has seeped from the supply vessel being absorbed by the wick.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Aromatic fluid delivery devices, such as fragrance dispensers, have been known in the art for many decades. One example of a dispenser for volatile fluid is disclosed in three related U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,533,705; 5,816,846 and 6,105,916. The device provides a drive selectively using a large or small motor providing an air stream for generating vapor from a wick, ceramic wafers, or discs containing vaporizable deodorant. Socket assemblies provide a socket for a motor of larger dimensions and a socket for a motor of smaller dimensions. A frame for a cabinet composed of a separate back plate, a top member and a bottom member of a resilient plastic so that the top member and bottom member are snap-locked to the back plate and secured further by projections from the top and bottom members in slots in the back plate. The bottom member is a liquid tight tray capable of processing deodorants contained in wick-equipped bottles and cans, porous impregnated ceramic discs, and porous impregnated fiber wafers. There is a bottle holder snap-locked to the underside of the top member. A battery-blower assembly is snap-locked to the back plate. The battery poles are joined to the wires from the blower-motor by clips using solderless connections.
More recently as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,779 is a framed fluid delivery device that is made up of a fluid-delivery cartridge for the timed-release delivery of a fluid. The fluid delivery cartridge retained by a frame assembly uses a base portion for the delivery of fluid released from a cartridge. The base secures the fluid delivery cartridge within the frame assembly proximate the end when fluid is released. The fluid-delivery cartridge has a bottom, a top, and sides, and a dispersion pad positioned proximate the bottom of the fluid-delivery cartridge that at least partially surrounds the sides of the fluid-delivery cartridge. A generator that generates gas is used for powered discharge of volatile liquid from the storage cell that is part of the fluid delivery cartridge. While conventional dispensers have been readily utilized in numerous commercial markets, they have not been configured to automatically dispense a fluid at predetermined intervals. In particular, many conventional dispensers are manually or electromechanically actuated by depressing, for example, a cap, a button, or a trigger mechanism. Such manually, or electromechanically actuated dispensers are cumbersome and expensive inasmuch as they have many costly components.
A more recent trend has seen the proliferation of fragrance canisters which have a central fluid supply vessel surrounded by an evaporation chamber enclosing a wick. U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,461 to Ashok Joshi, et al. discloses a fluid delivery device including a container for holding a predetermined quantity of fluid, a gas generator for generating gas within the container, and a dispenser for cyclically dispensing fluid at predetermined intervals out of the container without cyclical actuation by a user. Although the Joshi, et al. device represents an improvement in the art, in that the cost of fragrance dispensers is substantially reduced, the device is still unnecessarily complex and relatively costly.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,005,350 to Arnold H. Zlotnik, et al. discloses an arom atic odor neutralizer that includes a vaporization chamber containing a wick with an end part immersed in fluid in a storage cup that is gravity fed from an airtight vessel by the use of air pathways exposed when the liquid level in the cup is reduced. The vaporization chamber is located in a dispenser housing with an internal passage between end walls and communicating with vents in the sides for aerodynamic airflow to efficiently absorb vapors from a vaporizer chamber. Once activated by puncturing a lower portion of the vessel, the Zlotnick, et al. device soon reaches an equilibrium condition characterized by the presence of standing aromatic fluid in the storage cup. This standing fluid is subject to spillage if the air canister is not handled with care.


A method and apparatus for whitening teeth which allow the user to undergo dental bleaching with the mouth closed and without protruding instruments, trays or electrical wires and the like. The apparatus includes a support structure and a dental whitening composition in contact with the support structure. A light source is included in the apparatus, disposed on or in the support structure so that light emitted from the source contacts on the dental whitening composition. The apparatus has a volume ranging between 0.5-450 cm3 permitting the apparatus to fit entirely within the mouth of a user during treatment.

Dental bleaching is an increasingly popular treatment and dentists are constantly searching for techniques that are both convenient and comfortable for their patients. Numerous methods and tools have been developed for the purpose of dental bleaching. Typically, a composition containing hydrogen peroxide is applied to the teeth and allowed to remain in contact with the surface to be bleached. Unfortunately, home treatments usually involve long treatment protocols due to the low strength compositions available for home use. For example, a typical treatment regimen may require twice daily 15-30 minute applications of a hydrogen peroxide, or 1-2 hour daily applications of carbamide peroxide, over a period of several weeks.
Alternatively, patients are treated in a dentist's office for more intensive treatment using concentrated bleaching compositions. Disadvantages of these treatments include the inconvenience of remaining in the dental office, often with uncomfortable clamps, dams and retractors affixed to the mouth to keep it in the proper position. Not surprisingly, much effort has been expended in the search for methods of increasing the comfort, convenience and speed of the bleaching process. Various methods and devices have been developed to this end, broadly including those that expose a whitening composition to heat, light or a combination of these. However, such methods and devices require that a user remain in one place with the mouth open, or attached to a heater or light source that extends from the mouth. Thus, there exists a need for methods and apparatus for bleaching teeth that accelerate treatment, allow the patient to move freely during treatment, and avoid the inconvenience of having any part of the treatment apparatus protruding from the mouth.

Method and apparatus for bleaching teeth


A protector for a wire harness. After the protector is placed onto and secured to a jig and the wire harness is wired, the wire harness will not become loose inside the protector even when the protector is removed from the jig. The protector comprises: a protector body that stores a plurality of wire harnesses, and a cover that closes off the opening section of the protector body, and boss(es), having pin holes in which jig pin(s) can be inserted, (is) are formed in the protector body. A plurality of wire harnesses are divided by the bosses as base points and guided to a plurality of guide openings that are formed on the outer edge of the protector body. The wire harnesses will not become loose inside the protector even when the protector is removed from the jig due to the bosses inside the protector.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a protector, and more particularly to a protector that is employed when dividing a wire harness.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, technology has been provided in which in order to place and fasten the protector for a wire harness on a jig, holes were formed in the protector body and cover, and jig pins that were formed on the jig were inserted into the holes. (See patent document 1.)
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese patent publication No. 2003-70121


An apparatus includes a developing tank, and the developing tank has a sidewall and a bottom. A fluid manifold is adjacent the bottom of the developing tank. The fluid manifold includes a plurality of holes and a plurality of valves. Developer and rinsing fluid flow through the plurality of holes. Each of the plurality of the valves corresponds to a different hole of the plurality of holes, and the plurality of valves allow the developer and the rinsing fluid to flow through the holes when open and prevent the developer and the flowing liquid from flowing through the holes when closed. The developer flows through a developer inlet to the fluid manifold. The rinsing fluid flows through a rinsing fluid inlet to the fluid manifold. A controller is configured to individually control opening and closing of each of the plurality of valves.

As consumer devices have gotten smaller and smaller in response to consumer demand, the individual components of these devices have necessarily decreased in size as well. Semiconductor devices, which make up a major component of devices such as mobile phones, computer tablets, and the like, have been pressured to become smaller and smaller, with a corresponding pressure on the individual devices (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.) within the semiconductor devices to also be reduced in size. The decrease in size of devices has been met with advancements in semiconductor manufacturing techniques such as lithography.
As the semiconductor industry has progressed into nanometer technology process nodes in pursuit of higher device density, higher performance, and lower costs, there have been challenges in reducing semiconductor feature size.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for developing a photoresist coated substrate

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


A resin composition suitable as an impact modifier for thermoplastic resins, which has an excellent blocking resistance improved without lowering the effect of improving the impact resistance and which comprises 100 parts by weight of a graft copolymer containing a hollow rubber component and at least two additives selected from the group consisting of 0.1 to 10 parts by weight of a higher fatter acid soap, 0.1 to 10 parts by weight of a crosslinked polymer of 0.1 to 100% by weight of a crosslinking monomer and 0 to 99.9% by weight of a vinyl monomer and 0.001 to 5 parts by weight of a silicone oil.

The present invention relates to a powdery resin useful as an impact modifier for thermoplastic resins, and more particularly to an impact modifier having an improved blocking resistance.
Various proposals have been made to improve the impact resistance of thermoplastic resins. Crazing and shearing yield play an important part in the improvement of impact resistance, and stress concentration in molded articles is inevitable for the generation thereof. For this purpose, graft copolymers containing a rubber component have been popularly incorporated into thermoplastic resins to improve the impact resistance. It is also known to perforate rubber particles (xe2x80x9cImpact Resistance of Plasticsxe2x80x9d by Ikuo Narisawa, pages 131 and 155, published by Siguma Shuppan). Further, in recent years, it has been investigated to improve the impact resistance of thermoplastic resins by using graft copolymers having a hollow rubber component.
For example, JP-A-10-310714 proposes a process of the synthesis of a hollow rubber-containing graft copolymer useful for improving the impact resistance of thermoplastic resins, wherein the graft copolymer is prepared utilizing a technique of synthesis of hollow particles. However, the graft copolymer prepared by this process is poor in powder characteristics and in particular has a blocking problem that the powdery polymer aggregates to a mass during storage, transfer or transportation.
In order to solve this problem, JP-A-11-315587 proposes adding a crosslinked polymer of 0.1 to 100% by weight of a crosslinking monomer and 0 to 99.9% by weight of a vinyl monomer to the graft copolymer. The blocking resistance of the graft copolymer is improved by the addition of this crosslinked polymer.
It is an object of the present invention to further improve the blocking resistance of the hollow rubber-containing graft copolymer.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a graft copolymer which is prepared by graft polymerization of a vinyl monomer onto hollow rubber particles and which can be suitably used as an impact modifier for thermoplastic resins without causing blocking during storage, transfer or transportation.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description hereinafter.
It has now been found that the blocking resistance of the hollow rubber-containing graft copolymer can be remarkably improved by incorporating the crosslinked polymer of 0.1 to 100% by weight of a crosslinking monomer and 0 to 99.9% by weight of a vinyl monomer into the graft copolymer together with at least one of a higher fatty acid soap and a silicone oil, or by incorporating the higher fatty acid soap and the silicone oil into the graft copolymer.
Thus, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided an impact modifier having an improved blocking resistance which comprises (A) a graft copolymer prepared by polymerization of a vinyl monomer in the presence of hollow rubber particles, and at least two additives selected from the group consisting of (B) 0.1 to 10 parts of a higher fatty acid soap, (C) 0.1 to 10 parts of a crosslinked polymer of 0.1 to 100% by weight of a crosslinking monomer and 0 to 99.9% by weight of a vinyl monomer and (D) 0.001 to 5 parts of a silicone oil, the parts of (B), (C) and (D) being parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the graft copolymer (A).
The higher fatty acid soap used in the present invention is anionic surface active agents of carboxylic acid type having a C7 to C25 alkyl group, preferably a C10 to C20 alkyl group.
The hollow rubber particle is a rubber particle having rubber component-non-filled part or parts therein, namely a rubber particle having hollow part or parts therein, unlike a conventional rubber particle the whole of which is formed by a rubber component. A typical hollow particle is hollow in the core part of the particle. The hollow rubber particles can be prepared by various known methods as disclosed in Takaaki Sugimura et al, Application of Synthetic Latex, page 285, published by Kobunshi Kankokai, Japan, e.g., (a) a method wherein a W/O/W emulsion is formed (O: lipophilic, W: hydrophilic) and a monomer of the O-layer is polymerized, (b) a method wherein core-shell polymer particles having a swellable core is swollen at a temperature of not less than Tg (glass transition temperature) of the shell layer, thereby forming a hollow part, (c) a method wherein polymers having different solubility parameters are produced by a two stage polymerization, (d) a method wherein an oily material and a monomer mixture containing a crosslinking monomer and a hydrophilic monomer are dispersed into water to form an O/W emulsion, the monomer mixture is polymerized and the oily material is removed from the produced polymer particles, and (e) a method utilizing a phenomenon that carboxylic acid units copolymerized into a rubber particle move in the particle under acidic or alkaline conditions.
The rubber particles used in the present invention which have a hollow part in the state of a latex can be prepared by any methods without particular restriction. For example, the hollow rubber particles can be prepared by emulsion polymerization of a monomer such as a diene monomer for forming a rubber in the presence of a swellable seed polymer and a swelling material which are used for forming a hollow part in a resulting rubber particle.
Examples of the seed polymer are, for instance, a rubber such as diene rubber, acrylic rubber, silicone rubber or olefin rubber; a semi-hard polymer such as butyl acrylate-styrene copolymer or ethyl acrylate-styrene copolymer; and a hard polymer such as styrene-methyl methacrylate. These seed polymers may be those prepared in the presence of a chain transfer agent such as t-dodecylmercaptan or n-dodecylmercaptan in order to decrease the molecular weight thereof.
The rubber which substantially constitutes the hollow particles is preferably a rubbery elastomer having a Tg of not more than 0xc2x0 C., more preferably a much lower Tg. The rubber includes, for instance, a diene rubber, an acrylic rubber, a silicone rubber and an olefin rubber. Examples of the diene rubber are, for instance, butadiene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, and the like. Examples of the acrylic rubber are, for instance, butyl acrylate rubber, butadiene-butyl acrylate rubber, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate-butyl acrylate rubber, and the like. A typical example of the silicone rubber is polydimethylsiloxane rubber. Examples of the olefin rubber are, for instance, ethylene-propylene rubber, ethylene-propylene-diene rubber, and the like.
In the polymerization for preparing the rubber, a crosslinking monomer can be used as a comonomer. The crosslinking monomer serves to prevent the rubber particles from breaking to pieces when a thermoplastic resin incorporated with an impact modifier is thermally molded. If the amount of the crosslinking monomer is too large, the rubber particles do not break at the time of molding, but the impact strength of the molded article is not greatly improved since a void is hard to extend when the molded article receive an impact (under stress).
Examples of the crosslinking monomer are, for instance, allyl methacrylate, divinyl benzene, diallyl phthalate, polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate, 1,3-butylene glycol dimethacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, and other known crosslinking monomers.
The preparation of the hollow rubber particles is not limited to a particular method, but emulsion polymerization method is preferred since the preparation can be efficiently conducted.
The hollow rubber particles may be directly used in the preparation of a graft copolymer by graft polymerization of a vinyl monomer onto the rubber particles, or may be subjected to a particle size enhancement treatment in a known manner, wherein the rubber particles are agglomerated by the use of an acid or a salt to enhance the particle size of the rubber particles, for the purpose of obtaining a graft copolymer having a large particle size. The cavity (hollow part) of the rubber particles which are hollow in the state of a latex can be confirmed by TEM observation wherein a rubber latex is embedded in an epoxy resin and stained with ruthenium tetraoxide. Also, the percentage of cavity can be determined by exactly measuring the particle size of a rubber latex with a particle size analyzer such as Microtrac UPA (product of LEED and NORTHRUP INSTRUMENTS) and measuring the light scattering intensity of the same latex, followed by calculation. From the viewpoint of the effect of improving the impact resistance of molded articles, the cavity percentage of the hollow rubber particles in the latex is from 3 to 90% by volume, preferably from 10 to 60% by volume. If the cavity percentage is more than 90% by volume, the rubber particles may break at the time of molding a thermoplastic resin, so the impact resistance is not stably improved. If the cavity percentage is less than 3% by volume, the impact resistance-improving effect is small since a void is hard to generate and extend in the rubber when the molded article receives an impact.
It is preferable in exhibiting the maximum effect of improving the impact resistance of molded articles of thermoplastic resins that the particle size of the graft copolymer used in the present invention is within the range of 0.05 to 2.0 xcexcm, though the optimum value varies depending on the kind of the thermoplastic resins. If the particle size is outside the above range, the impact resistance-improving effect becomes small.
The graft copolymer is prepared by polymerizing 10 to 70 parts by weight, preferably 15 to 40 parts by weight, of a vinyl monomer in the presence of 30 to 90 parts by weight, preferably 60 to 85 parts by weight, of the hollow rubber particles, the total of the monomer and the rubber particles being 100 parts by weight. If the amount of the rubber particles is less than 30 parts by weight, the effect of improving the impact resistance is small. If the amount of the rubber particles is more than 90 parts by weight, the effect of improving the impact resistance of molded articles tends to become small since the graft copolymer particles collapse at the time of the molding.
Examples of the vinyl monomer used in the preparation of the graft copolymer are, for instance, a (meth)acrylic ester, preferably an alkyl (meth)acrylate such as methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate, 2-ethylhexyl methacrylate, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate or 2-ethylhexyl acrylate; an aromatic vinyl compound such as styrene, xcex1-methylstyrene or chlorostyrene; a vinyl cyanide compound such as acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile; vinyl chloride; and the like.
A crosslinked polymer obtained by polymerization of 0.1 to 100% by weight of a crosslinking monomer and 0 to 99.9% by weight of a vinyl monomer is added to the graft copolymer in order to improve the blocking resistance of the graft copolymer. From the viewpoint of obtaining a larger effect of improving the blocking resistance, it is preferable that the average particle size of the crosslinked polymer is from 50 to 500 nm, especially 100 to 300 nm, more especially 110 to 250 nm.
The crosslinking monomer is a polyfunctional monomer having at least two polymerizable unsaturated bonds and forms a crosslinked structure. As the crosslinking monomer can be used those exemplified above with respect to the preparation of the rubber. Examples of the vinyl monomer used for the preparation of the crosslinked polymer are the same as those exemplified above with respect to the preparation of the graft copolymer. Vinyl monomers a homopolymer of which has a Tg of not less than 20xc2x0 C. are particularly preferred. Examples of such vinyl monomers are, for instance, methyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate, an aromatic vinyl monomer such as styrene or xcex1-methylstyrene, a vinyl cyanide compound such as acrylonitrile or methacrylonitrile. The vinyl monomers may be used alone or in admixture thereof.
The crosslinked polymer comprises 0.1 to 100% by weight of a crosslinking monomer and 99.9 to 0% by weight of a vinyl monomer. From the viewpoint that a good transparency is obtained when incorporated into vinyl chloride resins, the crosslinked polymer is preferably prepared from a monomer mixture of 0.1 to 25% by weight of a crosslinking monomer, 30 to 60% by weight of methyl methacrylate, 65 to 35% by weight of an aromatic vinyl monomer and 0 to 30% by weight of other vinyl monomers.
The crosslinked polymer can be prepared by a usual emulsion polymerization method with the use of a radical polymerization initiator and optionally a chain transfer agent.
In the preparation of the graft copolymer and the crosslinked polymer are used a radical polymerization initiator and optionally a chain transfer agent. Those used in usual radical polymerization can be used in the present invention.
Examples of the radical polymerization initiator are, for instance, an organic peroxide such as cumene hydroperoxide, t-butyl peroxide, benzoyl peroxide, t-butylperoxyisopropyl carbonate, di-t-butyl peroxide, t-butyl laurate, lauroyl peroxide, disuccinic acid peroxide, cyclohexanone peroxide or acetylacetone peroxide, an inorganic peroxide such as potassium persulfate or ammoniu persulfate, an azo compound such as 2,2xe2x80x2-azobisisobutyronitrile or 2,2xe2x80x2-azobis-2,4-dimethylvaleronitrile, and the like. Organic peroxides and inorganic peroxides are preferred from the viewpoint of high reactivity. Organic peroxides or inorganic peroxides can be used in combination with a reducing agent, e.g., a mixture of ferrous sulfate/glucose/sodium pyrophosphate, ferrous sulfate/dextrose/sodium pyrophosphate or ferrous sulfate/sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate/ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid salt. The combination use with a reducing agent is preferable since the polymerization temperature can be lowdered.
The amount of the radical polymerization initiator is usually from 0.005 to 10 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the total of monomers used. If the amount of the initiator is small, the rate of polymerization reaction becomes slow and accordingly the productivity tends to lower. If the amount of the initiator is too large, the molecular weight of the produced polymer is lowered and the impact resistance or the powder characteristics tend to lower.
Examples of the chain transfer agent are, for instance, t-dodecylmercaptan, n-octylmercaptan, n-tetradecylmercaptan, n-hexylmercaptan and the like. The chain transfer agent is optionally used. In case of using the chain transfer agent, the amount is from 0.001 to 5 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the total of monomers used.
In order to efficiently improve the blocking resistance of the graft copolymer, the crosslinked polymer is incorporated into the graft copolymer in a manner such that after coagulating a latex of the graft copolymer to form a slurry having a solid content of about 5 to about 40% by weight, to the slurry is added a latex of the crosslinked polymer or a slurry having a solid content of about 5 to about 40% by weight formed by coagulating the latex of the crosslinked polymer, followed by recovery of a resin powder from the resulting mixture.
The amount of the crosslinked polymer incorporated into the graft copolymer is from 0.1 to 10 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the graft copolymer from the viewpoint of balance of impact resistance and blocking resistance. If the amount of the crosslinked polymer is too small, the effect of improving the blocking resistance tends to lower. If the amount is too large, the impact resistance tends to lower.
Examples of the higher fatty acid soap are, for instance, lauric acid soap, myristic acid soap, palmitic acid soap, stearic acid soap and the like. The higher fatty acid soaps may be used alone or in admixture thereof. The number of carbon atoms of the higher fatty acid soap is from 9 to 25, preferably 11 to 20. If the number of carbon atoms is too small, the effect of improving the blocking resistance tends to lower, and if the number of carbon atoms is too large, the impact resistance tends to lower.
The amount of the higher fatty acid soap is from 0.1 to 10 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the graft copolymer from the viewpoint of balance of impact resistance and blocking resistance. If the amount of the higher fatty acid soap is too small, the effect of improving the blocking resistance tends to lower. If the amount is too large, the impact resistance tends to lower.
If a metal salt such as magnesium or calcium is used as a coagulating agent for coagulating the latex of the graft copolymer and a higher fatty acid alkali metal salt is used as a higher fatty acid soap, the higher fatty acid alkali metal salt converts into magnesium or calcium salt of a higher fatty acid. These magnesium and calcium salts have a higher melting point and exhibits a better blocking resistance. Accordingly, an enhanced blocking resistance-improving effect is obtained when a latex of the graft copolymer is coagulated with an alkaline earth metal salt such as calcium chloride or magnesium sulfate and is diluted with water to a solid concentration of 1 to 20% by weight and thereto is added at least one of the crosslinked polymer and the silicone oil, followed by recovery of a resin powder from the resulting mixture, or when a latex of the graft copolymer is coagulated with an alkaline earth metal salt to form a slurry having a solid concentration of about 5 to about 40% by weight, the crosslinked polymer is then added to the slurry and a 1 to 20% by weight aqueous solution of a higher fatty acid soap is subsequently added thereto, followed by recovery of a resin powder from the resulting mixture.
Silicone oils used in the present invention are an organosiloxane compound having siloxane bonds, e.g., octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane or decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, and a polyorganosiloxane, e.g., polydimethylsiloxane or polyphenylmethylsiloxane. These may have a substituent in the side chains. Known silicone oils can be used in the present invention.
The amount of the silicone oil is from 0.001 to 5 parts by weight, preferably 0.01 to 1 part by weight, per 100 parts by weight of the graft copolymer from the viewpoint of balance of impact resistance and blocking resistance. If the amount of the silicone oil is too small, the effect of improving the blocking resistance tends to lower. If the amount is too large, the cost rises.
Preferably, the silicone oil is added to the graft copolymer in a manner such that after adding the crosslinked polymer or the higher fatty acid soap to a slurry having a solid concentration of about 5 to about 40% by weight formed by coagulating a latex of the graft copolymer, the slurry is dehydrated to a solid concentration of about 50 to about 99.9% by weight and the silicone oil is then mixed therewith. The dropwise addition or spraying of the silicone oil to the dehydrated mixture is preferable since a higher blocking resistance-improving effect is obtained.
The graft copolymer is incorporated with two or three additives selected from the group consisting of the crosslinked polymer, the higher fatty acid soap and the silicone oil. Each of the graft copolymer and the crosslinked polymer may be used in the form of any of latex, slurry and dried resin powder. At least two additives may be added simultaneously or separately and may be added in a different order.
The thus obtained mixture of the graft copolymer with at least two additives is useful as an impact modifier for thermoplastic resins. The impact modifier of the present invention can be incorporated into various thermoplastic resins in order to improve the impact resistance thereof. Examples of the thermoplastic resin are, for instance, vinyl chloride homopolymer and copolymers, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer, styrene-acrylonitrile-N-phenylmaleimide copolymer, xcex1-methylstyreneacrylonitrile copolymer, polymethyl methacrylate, methyl methacrylatestyrene copolymer, polycarbonate, polyamide, a polyester such as polyethylene terephthalate or polybutylene phthalate, polyphenylene ether, and the like. These may be used alone or in admixture thereof.
The ratio of the thermoplastic resin to the impact modifier incorporated therein is from 5:95 to 99:1 by weight, preferably from 10:90 to 97:3 by weight, from the viewpoints of good impact resistance and rigidity of molded articles. The incorporation of the impact modifier can be conducted for example by mixing them in Henschel mixer or ribbon blender and then mixing the resulting mixture in roll mill, extruder or kneader.
At the time of mixing, there can be added usual additives such as plasticizer, stabilizer, lubricant, ultraviolet absorber, antioxidant, flame retardant, pigment, glass fiber, filler, high molecular weight processing aid, high molecular weight lubricant, and the like. The obtained thermoplastic resin composition can be molded by usual molding methods applicable to thermoplastic resins, e.g., injection molding, extrusion, blow molding and calendering.
The present invention is more specifically described and explained by means of examples wherein all parts and % are by weight unless otherwise noted. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to these examples.

Impact modifier having improved blocking resistance


Provided are a multiple discrimination device and a method of manufacturing the same. According to the multiple discrimination device, a three-dimensional micro ferromagnetic pattern is optimally designed and arranged to allow a magnetic force applied to a discrimination-target particle to be discriminated to be well controlled to perform discrimination well. The method employs a semiconductor processing technology, thereby precisely manufacturing and allowing mass production.

The present invention disclosed herein relates to a multiple discrimination device for species of material including biomass and a method of manufacturing the device.
In the medical field, it is necessary to discriminate a cellular type or an intracellular constituent as a preparative tool for a final target or different analysis in diagnosis, treatment, and research fields. For example, it is needed to analyze a cancer cell. Blood cancer cells commonly designate cancer cells existing in peripheral blood of a cancer patient, which are cancer cells separated from a primary lesion or a metastatic lesion. Such blood cancer cells are expected as an influential biomarker for cancer diagnosis, prognostic analysis, and micrometastatic analysis. In addition, compared to typical cancer diagnosis methods, since using a non-invasive method, blood cancer cell analysis is very a promising future cancer diagnosis method. However, since a proportion of blood cancer cells in blood is one cancer cell per one billion of the entire cells or one cancer cell per 106 to 107 of white blood cells, which is very low, it is difficult to precisely analyze and a very exquisite analysis method is necessary.
Although various methods have been researched as a method of discriminating cancer cells from blood, much time is necessary to check, only information on existence and an amount of cancer cells and is provided, and it is difficult to analyze a type of cancer. Also, an interference caused by a specific-coupled blood cells occurs.

Multiple discrimination device and method of manufacturing the device

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A massage chair of the present invention includes an electric reclining mechanism for moving a backrest into different sloping positions, left and right holding mechanisms for respectively holding user's left and right forearms, and a controller for controlling operations of the mechanisms. The controller separately controls operations of the electric reclining mechanism and the left holding mechanism as well as operations of the electric reclining mechanism and the right holding mechanism. When controlling the former operations, the controller controls (A) allow the left holding mechanism to hold the left forearm, (B) allow the electric reclining mechanism to recline the backrest to any of the different sloping positions, (C) allow the electric reclining mechanism to raise the backrest to any of the different sloping positions, and (D) allow the left holding mechanism to release the left forearm. Similarly, the controller controls the latter operations.

Such a massage machine is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-152260 issued Jun. 16, 2005. This machine (hereinafter referred to as a "first prior art") uses an electric reclining mechanism of a backrest to obtain a stretch (extension) effect on the user's arms and shoulders. That is, the first prior art swells upper and lower airbags located at each of left and right armrests to hold each hand and forearm of the user with each upper and lower airbags, and moves the backrest into an end position from a start position to lean the upper part of the user's body backward. The start position is a sloping position, and the end position is a sloping position that has an inclination larger than the start position with respect to the vertical direction. In case of a first operational example, the first prior art moves the backrest into the end position while swelling the airbags of the armrests; returns the backrest to the start position after the airbags finish swelling; and shrinks the airbags after holding each swell condition of the airbags for a specified time. In case of a second operational example, the first prior art swells the airbags of the armrests; moves the backrest into the end position after the airbags finish swelling; and returns the backrest to the start position while shrinking the airbags after holding each swell condition of the airbags for a specified time. However, in this first prior art, there is an issue that the two sets of upper and lower airbags restrain the user's arms simultaneously.
Another massage machine described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-177278 issued Jul. 7, 2005 can solve the issue. This massage machine (hereinafter referred to as a "second prior art") also swells upper and lower airbags located at each of left and right armrests to hold each hand and forearm of the user with each upper and lower airbags, and moves the backrest into an end position from a start position to lean the upper part of the user's body backward. At this point, the second prior art adjusts holding strength by upper and lower airbags located at one of the left and right armrests so that the user can take the corresponding arm off the upper and lower airbags. Therefore, the second prior art can prevent two sets of upper and lower airbags from restraining the user's arms simultaneously.
However, the second prior art decreases holding strength by upper and lower airbags located at one of the left and right armrests and accordingly cannot hold the user's corresponding hand and forearm surely.


A device for sanitizing a space includes a tank having an interior space for holding an aqueous sanitizing liquid. A reactor vessel is supported within the interior space and above a bottom of the tank. A liquid depth in the tank interior space is maintained at a level beneath a top edge of the reactor vessel. An ultrasonic head comprising an ultrasonically vibratable disc for generating ultrasonic energy is positionable within and beneath the top edge of the reactor vessel. Liquid is transferrable from the tank interior space to the reactor vessel to a level for substantially submerging the ultrasonic head. The disc is vibrated to form an atomized fog of particles from the aqueous sanitizing liquid. The formed atomized fog is exhausted from the reactor vessel to a space exterior of the tank. A sanitizing composition is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for sanitizing enclosed spaces, and, more particularly, to such systems and methods that are capable of treating spaces three-dimensionally.
2. Description of Related Art
The sanitization and disinfection of enclosed spaces has become an issue of increasing importance owing to the possible presence of both natural and deliberately introduced contaminants. Since most commercial buildings are "sealed," that is, their windows cannot be opened, circulation of "fresh" air is typically not possible within a particular room. Similarly, most houses are now effectively sealed, with mostly processed air being circulated. In addition, some forms of conveyance, especially airplanes, are of necessity sealed against the environment during flight.
The enclosed nature of modern spaces has led to such problems as "sick building syndrome," since molds and mildews can flourish in enclosed, damp environments, and also to the possibility of the deliberate introduction of more insidious threats to life, such as biological and chemical agents.
At present most sanitizing and disinfecting agents are "two-dimensional," that is, they are applied to accessible surfaces. For example, when cleaning a table, typically the cleanser is applied to the table top, but not the underside.
"Fogging" agents are known for eradicating pests such as fleas and other insects. Ionization-type purifiers are also known in the art that use electrostatic means to collect allergens and pollutants.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a more effective device, system, and method for sanitizing enclosed spaces in a three-dimensional fashion.

Ultrasonic sanitation device and associated methods


A method for fabrication of a semiconductor device on a substrate, the semiconductor having a wafer. The method includes the steps:(a) applying a seed layer of a thermally conductive metal to the wafer;(b) electroplating a relatively thick layer of the conductive metal on the seed layer, and(c) removing the substrate. A corresponding semiconductor device is also disclosed.

As semiconductor devices have developed there has been a considerable increase in their operational speed, and a reduction in overall size. This is causing a major problem of heat build-up in the semiconductor devices. Therefore, heat sinks are being used to help dissipate the heat from the semiconductor device. Such heat sinks are normally fabricated separately from the semiconductor device and are normally adhered to the semiconductor device just prior to encapsulation.
There have been many proposals for the electroplating of copper onto surfaces of semiconductor devices during their fabrication, particularly for use as interconnects.
The majority of current semiconductor devices are made from semiconductor materials based on silicon (Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and indium phosphide (InP). Compared to such electronic and optoelectronic devices, GaN devices have many advantages. The major intrinsic advantages that GaN have are summarised in Table 1:
TABLE 1Band GapBFOM(eV)/(powerMaximumMobility μwavelengthtransistorTemperatureSemiconductor(cm2/Vs)(nm)merit)(C.)Si1300 1.1/11271.0300GaAs50001.4/8869.6300GaN15003.4/36024.6700
From Table 1, it can be seen that GaN has the highest band gap (3.4 eV) among the given semiconductors. Thus, it is called a wide band gap semiconductor. Consequently, electronic devices made of GaN operate at much higher power than Si and GaAs and InP devices.
For semiconductor lasers, GaN lasers have a relatively short wavelength. If such lasers are used for optical data storage, the shorter wavelength may lead to a higher capacity. GaAs lasers are used for the manufacture of CD-ROMs with a capacity of about 670 MB/disk. AlGaInP lasers (also based on GaAs) are used for the latest DVD players with a capacity of about 4.7 GB/disk. GaN lasers in the next-generabon DVD players may have a capacity of 26 GB/disk.
GaN devices are made from GaN wafers that are typically multiple GaN-related epitaxial layers deposited on a sapphire substrate. The sapphire substrate is usually two inches in diameter and acts as the growth template for the epitaxial layers. Due to lattice mismatch between GaN-related materials (epitaxial films) and sapphire, defects are generated in the epitaxial layers. Such defects cause serious problems for GaN lasers and transistors and, to a lesser extent, for GaN LEDs.
There are two major methods of growing epitaxial wafers: molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). Both are widely used.
Conventional fabrication processes usually include these major steps: photolithography, etching, dielectric film deposition, metallization, bond pad formation, wafer inspection/testing, wafer thinning, wafer dicing, chip bonding to packages, wire bonding and reliability testing.
Once the processes for making LEDs are completed at the full wafer scale, it is then necessary to break the wafer into individual LED chips or dice. For GaN wafers grown on sapphire substrates, this "dicing" operation is a major problem as sapphire is very hard. The sapphire first has to be thinned uniformly from about 400 microns to about 100 microns. The thinned wafer is then diced by diamond scriber, sawed by a diamond saw or by laser grooving, followed by scribing with diamond scribers. Such processes limit throughput, cause yield problems and consume expensive diamond scribers/saws.
Known LED chips grown on sapphire substrates require two wire bonds on top of the chip. This is necessary because sapphire is an electrical insulator and current conduction through the 100-micron thickness is not possible. Since each wire bond pad takes about 10-15% of the wafer area, the second wire bond reduces the number of chips per wafer by about 10-15% as compared to single-wire bond LEDs grown on conducting substrates. Almost all non-GaN LEDs are grown on conducting substrates and use one wire bond. For packaging companies, two wire bonding reduces packaging yield, requires modification of one-wire bonding processes, reduces the useful area of the chip, and complicates the wire bonding process and thus lowers packaging yield.
Sapphire is not a good thermal conductor. For example, its thermal conductivity at 300 K (room temperature) is 40 W/Km. This is much smaller than copper's thermal conductivity of 380 W/Km. If the LED chip is bonded to its package at the sapphire interface, the heat generated in the active region of the device must flow through 3 to 4 microns of GaN and 100 microns of sapphire to reach the package/heat sink. As a consequence, the chip will run hot affecting both performance and reliability.
For GaN LEDs on sapphire, the active region where light is generated is about 3-4 micron from the sapphire substrate.

Method for fabrication of a semiconductor device


An image-forming apparatus includes a toner-supplying roller and a developing roller that receives toner from the toner-supplying roller, the toner having either a glass transition point not higher than 67° C. or a softening point not higher than 120° C. The developing roller and toner-supplying roller are configured to meet a parameter F given by 1×105<F<7×105 and F=θ×δ×Asp×(Vsp+Vdv) where θ is an angle of slide (degrees) of the developing roller, δis a nip (mm) formed in the toner-supplying roller in contact with the developing roller, Asp is a hardness (degrees) of a surface of the toner-supplying roller, the hardness being measured with an Asker Type F durometer, Vsp is a circumferential speed (mm/sec) of the toner-supplying roller, and Vdv is a circumferential speed (mm/sec) of the developing roller and is higher than 150 mm/sec.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic image-forming apparatus, and more particularly to a configuration of a toner-supplying roller and a developing roller that receives toner from the toner-supplying roller.
2. Description of the Related Art
A developer (referred to as toner hereinafter) for a conventional electrophotographic image-forming apparatus takes the form of hard, powder particles that are difficult to melt together in a normal storage temperature range. One such toner is manufactured by pulverization and has a particle diameter of about 10 μm. This pulverized toner has a glass transition point Tg higher than 68° C. Thus, pulverized toner is used for its low cost. As the name implies, pulverized toner is manufactured by mechanically pulverizing the toner material. Therefore, the diameter and composition of the toner particles have large variations but could be used without problem when printing is performed at conventional speeds. Another problem is that recent demand for increased printing speed in electrophotography accelerates wear of developing rollers. In order to solve this problem, the amount of nip formed between a developing roller and a toner-supplying roller is increased, thereby controlling the ratio of the circumferential speed of the toner-supplying roller to that of the developing roller to be lower than a predetermined value.
If a conventional electrophotographic image-forming apparatus uses the conventional pulverized toner and operates to print at a higher speed than conventional, a fixing unit requires a larger electric power to fuse a hard-to-melt toner. Greater power consumption generates more heat, requiring efficient heat dissipation. This would result in a larger overall apparatus size. However, there have been strong demands in the field of recent image forming apparatus towards higher printing speed, less power consumption, and miniaturization of apparatus. Conventional image-forming apparatus may be increased in printing speed at the expense of greater power consumption, but are difficult to address the problem of saving electric power and miniaturizing the image-forming apparatus.
For example, a conventional image-forming apparatus requires a developing roller to rotate at a circumferential speed in the range of 70 to 150 mm/sec. Recently, a developing roller is required to rotate at a speed higher than 150 mm/sec. In addition, because the conventional hard-to-melt toner is an obstacle to saving electric power and miniaturizing the image forming apparatus, a low melting point toner has come into use for less power consumption in the fixing processing. A lower melting point toner has either a glass transition point lower than 67° C., or a softening point Ts lower than 80° C. and a fluid point Tfb lower than 120° C. Tfb is a temperature at which the flowing of the toner begins. However, if such a low melting point toner is used with a developing roller rotating at a circumferential speed higher than 150 mm/sec, the toner melts due to the heat created by the friction between the developing roller and the toner-supplying roller and is deposited on the developing roller.

Image forming apparatus having a toner-supplying roller and a developing roller configured to meet a specific parameter


Apparatus for controlling vibratory machines of the type having at least one electromagnetic drive coil to drive a member at a resonant frequency includes a DC power supply; a programmable controller that produces PWM control signals that when applied to the drive coil cause vibrating motion; a switching driver circuit that applies a drive waveform to the drive coil by switching DC power to the drive coil in response to the PWM control signals; and a motion sensor that detects vibration amplitude; the controller tracking resonant vibration frequency as a function of an amplitude signal related to the drive waveform. The motion sensor preferably produces a signal related to vibration velocity.

The invention relates generally to control techniques for vibratory equipment. More particularly, the invention relates to the use of a programmable electronic control system for vibratory equipment that includes pulse width modulated drive signals, vibration amplitude and resonant frequency tracking.
Various material handling systems use vibration as a method for feeding and orienting parts for use in automated assembly processes. For example, a feeder bowl is a well-known device used to orient and feed parts. The bowl is mounted on a number of inclined springs, and typically vibrates in a rotational manner. Parts are dropped or otherwise placed in the bowl interior and the rotational vibration causes the parts to "walk" up a helical shelf within the bowl. Tooling is placed along the shelf to orient and/or sort the parts as needed for the next stage of the assembly process. A number of electromagnets are used to apply a mechanical force to the system to cause the vibratory motion.
The primary mode of vibration is resonance. The bowl and mounting springs together form a mass-spring mechanical system that exhibits a natural frequency of vibration or resonant frequency. Typically, the system is mechanically "tuned" by adding or removing springs so as to force by design the resonant frequency to be near 60 Hz or 120 Hz. These frequencies are selected so that standard 60 Hz outlet power can be used to drive the electromagnets.
Most feeder bowls are driven open loop, meaning that the vibration intensity is controlled simply by using a variable transformer, for example, or some other means for manually regulating the drive voltage. Such open loop control techniques tend to be sensitive to line voltage variations, load changes, spring wear and other dynamic conditions that result in inconsistent control of the vibration envelope. For applications involving larger bowls, such open loop control is not desirable. Closed loop control systems are known but tend to be application specific. Closed loop control systems typically attempt to drive the feeder bowl at its resonant frequency and use sensors for vibration amplitude feedback. The known systems tend to use expensive and complicated linear drive circuits and control techniques, and also consume excessive power.
The objectives exist, therefore, for a closed loop control apparatus and method for controlling vibration frequency and amplitude in vibratory equipment. Such apparatus, in contrast to previously known systems, preferably will be realized with minimal circuitry to reduce design and manufacturing costs and operate with lower power consumption to reduce operating costs, while providing fast response to system disturbances that produce changes in the resonant frequency and vibration amplitude. Such apparatus preferably will have universal application across a wide variety of systems, such as, for example feeder systems of substantial size variations (e.g. feeder bowls of six inch to forty-eight inch diameters) and a wide variety of vibration frequencies.

Apparatus and method for controlling vibrating equipment


In a magnetic heat pump system, in which heat transport medium is heated or cooled by magnetocaloric effect material accommodated in a magnetic heat pump device. A material having a coefficient of thermal conductivity, which is higher than that of the heat transport medium, or a material having a specific heat or a volume specific heat, which is higher than that of the heat transport medium, is mixed in the heat transport medium. A coefficient of thermal conductivity of the heat transport medium is thereby increased so as to increase heating and/or cooling performance of the magnetic heat pump system.

A magnetic heat pump system is known in the art, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4387892, as a heat pump system of an air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, for example, an air conditioning apparatus for a motor vehicle or a railroad vehicle. In the magnetic heat pump system, a certain kind of magnetic material (which is referred to as "magnetic working material" in the above Japanese Patent, but referred to as "magnetocaloric effect material" in this disclosure) is used. When magnetic field is applied to the magnetocaloric effect material, heat is generated in the magnetocaloric effect material, while when the magnetic field is removed, temperature thereof is decreased (this phenomenon is called as "magnetocaloric effect").
When compared with a gas heat pump system, since chlorofluorocarbon or alternatives for chlorofluorocarbon is not used for the magnetic heat pump system, it is environmentally friendly. In addition, since a compression stroke and an expansion stroke, which are necessary for the gas heat pump system using a compressor, are not required for the magnetic heat pump system, energy efficiency is high. Components, which are necessary for the magnetic heat pump system, are (i) a pump for moving heat transport medium so that it passes through magnetocaloric effect material in order to carry out heat exchange therewith and (ii) a magnetic field changing device for changing magnetic field to be applied to the magnetocaloric effect material.
In a conventional magnetic heat pump system or in a conventional air conditioning apparatus having the magnetic heat pump system, water or anti-freeze liquid (LLC: a long life coolant) is used as heat transport medium, which passes through the magnetocaloric effect material so that heat exchange is carried out between the heat transport medium and the magnetocaloric effect material. The water or the anti-freeze liquid is generally used as heat transporting medium but heat-exchange performance is not high.
Therefore, in a case that a cooling performance will be increased for the magnetic heat pump system, in which the water or the anti-freeze liquid is used, it is necessary to make the magnetic heat pump system larger in its size. It is, then, a disadvantage that weight of the magnetic heat pump system will be increased.

Magnetic heat pump with agitating structure and additives for heat transfer medium


A wire bonding apparatus including a bonding arm provided at a tip end thereof with an ultrasonic horn that has a capillary at its tip end, wherein the bonding arm is provided therein with a pressure sensor that detects the pressing load applied by the capillary on a workpiece when bonding is executed. The bonding arm has a supporting point which is a thin-connecting portion and located at a height which is the same as the height of the center of gravity of a part formed by the capillary, ultrasonic horn body portion, ultrasonic vibrator, ultrasonic horn connecting portion, etc., and at a point where a balance between inertial mass including the capillary, ultrasonic horn body part, ultrasonic horn connecting portion, horn securing screws and pressure screws and inertial mass of the ultrasonic vibrator is maintained, when the bonding arm is turned about a bonding arm supporting shaft.

The present invention relates to wire bonding apparatuses and more particularly to a wire bonding apparatus that includes a pressure sensor for detecting a pressing load of a capillary.
In the apparatus of Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication Disclosure No. 2003-258021, as shown in FIG. 6, an ultrasonic horn 1 is held by a bonding arm 5, and a pressure sensor 10 is provided at a part where the ultrasonic horn and the bonding arm are connected. In the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,514, as shown in FIG. 7, a transducer (ultrasonic horn) 1 is held by a transducer holder 100 at one end of the bonding arm 5, and another end of the bonding arm 5 is secured to a bond body 104 of the bonding apparatus driven by an actuator 106. Further, a pressure sensor 10 is provided in a recess part, which is inside the horn holder 100 of the bonding arm 5, so that the pressure sensor 10 with a spring washer 102 is sandwiched by the horn holder 100 and the bond body 104.
In the apparatus of Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication Disclosure No. 2003-258021, as seen from FIG. 6, the pressure sensor 10 is provided at a part where the ultrasonic horn 1 and the bonding arm 5 are connected. Accordingly, when replacing the ultrasonic horn 1, the pressure sensor 10 must also be removed from the bonding arm 5. For this reason, every time the ultrasonic horn is replaced, disassembly, reassembly, and load calibration of the pressure sensor are required. Thus, working performance is poor.
Moreover, in both apparatuses of Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication Disclosure No. 2003-258021 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,425,514, the position where the pressure sensor is provided is limited because the pressure sensor is provided between component parts that have different functions. Accordingly, there is little mechanism design freedom, and the magnification factor for the capillary pressing load detected by the pressure sensor is limited.


A light with a ring structure for a vehicle lamp has a light-guiding ring with a dull face, a light-emitting element, and a reflective cover. The light-guiding ring defines a front annular face and has a cavity. The light-emitting element is disposed in the cavity. The reflective cover is disposed on a part of the front annular face and corresponds to the cavity. The light-guiding ring with a dull face guides light emitted by the light-emitting element therein. The reflective cover reflects the light into the light-guiding ring. As such, the brightness of the light with a ring structure is even to improve the warning function of a vehicle lamp to ensure a safer driving experience for its user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light with a ring structure, and more particularly, to a light with a ring structure for a vehicle lamp.
2. Background of the Invention
Vehicle lamps (headlights and taillights, etc) of cars, vans or motorcycles illuminate the road ahead of a driver to ensure that the driver can see clearly and enjoy a pleasant and safe journey. They also have warning function—other vehicles' drivers can plainly see the position of an oncoming or reversing vehicle and thus take all necessary precautions to avoid a collision.
However, conventional vehicle lamps lack a structure that makes it more conspicuous. As a result, its warning function is poor.

Light with a ring structure for a vehicle lamp


A system, apparatus, and method are disclosed for modifying positions of sample positions for selectably oversampling pixels to anti-alias non-geometric portions of computer-generated images, such as texture, at least in part, by translating (e.g., shifting) shading sample positions relative to a frame of reference in which there is no relative motion between the geometries and the coverage sample positions. In one embodiment, an exemplary method determines whether a coverage sample position is covered by a geometric primitive. The method includes translating a shading sample position from an original shading sample position to the coverage sample position. This generally occurs if the geometry covers the coverage sample position to form a covered coverage sample position. Further, the method samples a shading value at the covered coverage sample positions for the pixel portion to anti-alias, for example, texture to reduce level of detail (“LOD”) artifacts.

A common problem in forming computer-generated images is aliasing, which is the under-sampling of a signal (or graphic feature) resulting in degraded image quality. For example, geometric aliasing causes a stair-stepping effect (or "jaggies") to appear on the geometric edges of primitives (or geometries). Non-geometric aliasing is another type of aliasing that is due primarily to under-sampling of texture, for example, or depth. Texture aliasing arises during the sampling of textures when screen coordinates of image pixels can irregularly map to more or fewer texture coordinates of texture pixels (i.e., "texels"). One general anti-aliasing approach is the technique of supersampling an entire frame. While providing higher resolutions with which to reduce aliasing, the conventional technique of supersampling has a drawback of increasing the computational overhead of rendering computer-generated images by a multiplicative amount. For example, a four-times (i.e., "4×") supersampling technique samples the texture (or shading) of each pixel of a frame four times. Unfortunately, this tends to decrease the frame rate of rendering computer-generated images, especially in shader limited and texture limited situations, to approximately a quarter of the frame rates achieved by other anti-aliasing techniques, such as multisampling. The reduction in frame rate is undesirable for real-time applications. The terms "texture limited" and "shader limited" refer generally to the fastest speed at which a graphics generating system can operate when respectively processing large textures and complicated shading that bottleneck the system.
FIG. 1 shows sampling of a pixel in accordance with multisampling as another conventional anti-aliasing technique. Multisampling reduces stair-casing effects by oversampling a pixel 100 to form four subpixels 102a to 102d. In turn, subpixels 102a to 102d respectively include coverage sample positions 104a to 104d, each of which are used to oversample, for example, geometric edges of geometries covering pixel 100. FIG. 1 identifies each of those coverage sample positions by an "X." While multisampling reduces geometric aliasing, it has a drawback of sampling shading at only one sample position—at pixel center 106. FIG. 1 identifies the shading sample position by a circle, or "◯." Notably, multisampling samples the shading at pixel center 106 and then applies the shading to any subpixel of a geometry that covers pixel center 106. But with only one sample position to sample shading, multisampling does not suitably handle oversampling of non-geometric edges, examples of which arise during alpha-tested rendering when using a texture map to add texture to objects and their edges, as well as during the rendering of tight specular exponents (e.g., rendering flashes of light that reflects from a geometric surface).
FIGS. 2 to 4D are diagrams conveying another conventional anti-aliasing technique that repeatedly shifts geometries to new locations. Generally, this technique anti-aliases images by first generating a scene 202 and then repeatedly shifting each pixel of either scene 202 by an amount no greater than a size of a pixel. Each shift offsets or "jitters" an object and its scene so that its geometries shift relative to a number of sample positions that determines coverage and shading for each subpixel. "Jitter" is an amount of shifting that determines the subpixel locations (X,Y) of the samples for each shifted scene. As an example, consider that this technique adds jitter to anti-alias object 220. First, object 220 and its scene are shifted by an amount (e.g., dX=−0.25 pixels, dY=+0.25 pixels) to form shifted scene 204, with shifted scenes 206, 208 and 210 being formed in a similar manner. Combiner 212 receives sampled subpixels from each shifted scene and accumulates them to form a final image. One example of combiner 212 is an accumulation buffer.
FIGS. 3 and 4A to 4D illustrate further the implementation of the conventional jitter-based anti-aliasing technique set forth in FIG. 2. FIG. 3 shows a quad 300 of four pixels 301. Each pixel 301 includes coverage sample positions 302 and shading sample positions 304 for multisampling each pixel in this example. By adding jitter, this technique samples shading for each subpixel 303. Object 310 can represent, for example, a twig in a foreground layer for rendering quad 300. By adding jitter (i.e., ±dX, ±dY), a center point 312 of object 310 shifts to four different positions, each of which are shown in FIGS. 4A to 4D. By shifting object 310 (FIG. 3) over different, stationary shading sample positions 304 four times, the shading for object 310 is sampled four times, thereby providing for 4× non-geometric anti-aliasing.
FIG. 4A illustrates a shifted geometry 402a as a portion of a triangle being shifted from center point 312 by an amount +dX,−dY. Object 410, which is a textured object, shifts from original position 310 to a shifted position within shifted geometry 402a during a first pass. According to this approach, multisampling is used to sample shading at each pixel center 404. A multisample mask is used to select which subpixels will be sampled. In the case shown in FIG. 4A, a multisample mask bit (e.g., bit zero) enables sampling of subpixels 450 at each top left subpixel in quad 400 into an accumulation buffer. In each subsequent pass, as shown in FIGS. 4B, 4C and 4D, this technique shifts center point 312 and object 410 by −dX,+dY, +dX,+dY, and −dX,+dY, respectively, to situate geometry 402a to other shifted positions, such as shifted geometries 402b, 402c and 402d. Other multisample mask bits (e.g., bits 1, 2, and 3) facilitate discrete sampling of corresponding subpixels 452, 454 and 456 in respective passes 2, 3 and 4. After each successive pass, sampled pixels are generally accumulated in an accumulation buffer to form a final image.
There are several drawbacks to the jitter-based anti-aliasing technique described in FIGS. 2 to 4D. First, any shading sample position at each pixel center that is not covered by shifted geometry 402a through 402d can introduce artifacts at the edges of the shifted geometry. Encircled shading sample positions 420 depict uncovered shading sample positions likely to hinder the effectiveness of anti-aliasing by sampling shading for object 410 at locations that are outside the boundaries of shifted geometry 402a. Another drawback is that coverage sample positions 302 (i.e., identified by "X") do not coincide with shading sample positions 304. This hinders accurate interpolation between screen and texture coordinates and gives rise to some undesirable level of detail ("LOD") artifacts. Yet another drawback is that each time shifted geometry 402a is shifted to other positions, corresponding depth values usually vary or change at each shading sample position 304 during each shift. Depth values (or Z values) describe the relative distance between a nearest surface of a computer-generated object and a plane, such as a display screen or a view point. Reconciling these different depth values adds complexity to implementing this anti-aliasing approach, for example, during multipass rendering to composite lighting from a number of sources.
Multipass rendering is a well-known technique for forming final images by rendering some or all of the objects in the scene multiple times whereby one or more of those objects are modified during each pass. A desirable implementation of multipass rendering is to supersample both coverage and texture for each pixel of a particular object during a first multipass-rendering pass, and then to sequentially add or composite lighting effects from different lighting sources in subsequent multipass-rendering passes. The use of multisampling to incrementally add lighting during subsequent passes is desirable since multisampling consumes less computational resources than does a supersampling technique that samples both shading and coverage at each coverage sample position 302. But a drawback to using multisampling in conjunction with jitter-based supersampling is that different depth values are determined for a geometry being shifted over each sample position during the jitter-based supersampling. As such, subsequent multisampling passes to apply lighting to that geometry requires computation-intensive interpolations to match the different depth values. Consequently, correcting mismatched depth values (or Z values) due to shifting object 410 generally offsets the benefits of using such an approach in graphics pipelines.
FIGS. 5A to 5D illustrate various arrangements of sample positions 502 that are positioned differently in each arrangement, which yields yet still another drawback. These coverage sample positions 502 are not moveable and these arrangements are usually hardware-specific. A user therefore requires specialized knowledge to determine sample positions 502 to use the conventional anti-aliasing technique described in FIGS. 2 to 4D, especially when implementing an accumulation buffer to oversample and/or to perform multipass rendering of an object within a scene. This is because a user generally must know the locations of those sample positions 502 when applying jitter-based supersampling to anti-alias an object.
FIGS. 6A and 6B demonstrate limitations of centroid multisampling, which has been recently developed to address some deficiencies associated with multisampling. In particular, centroid sampling adjusts the position for determining geometry color to be the center of all the covered sample positions of an entire pixel. For example, FIGS. 6A and 6B both show a shading sample position 614 for an unshifted geometry 602 (shown in dashed lines). But when the jitter-based anti-aliasing approach is active, then unshifted geometry 602 shifts to a position occupied by shifted geometry 604 of FIG. 6A for a first sample and by shifted geometry 606 of FIG. 6B for a second sample. A drawback to this approach is that the shifted geometry causes the centroid to change, thereby establishing unpredictable shading sample locations. For example, consider that the geometry shifts to a position occupied by shifted geometry 604 in FIG. 6A such that the geometry covers coverage sample position 612 but does not cover coverage sample position 616. Conventional centroid multisampling would then set a centroid sample 618 (shown as a solid square) to coincide with coverage sample position 612. So the net effect of shifting the geometry is FIG. 6A is −dX, +dY, as defined by the jitter-based anti-aliasing approach. But if the same geometry shifts to a position occupied by shifted geometry 606 in FIG. 6B so that both coverage sample positions 612 and 616 are covered, then centroid sample 618 (shown as a solid square) would be set between those coverage sample positions. Consequently, the shading sampling position would not shift by a predictable amount as does the geometry. That is, if the geometry shifts by +dX, +dY from shading sample position 614, then conventional centroid sampling causes the shading sample to reduce the actual amount of the shift by locating the shading sample at centroid sample 618. As shown in FIG. 6B, this results in an effective net shift of 0, +dY for the geometry (i.e., the geometry shifts by +dX and centroid multisampling resets the centroid sample back by −dX to between converge sample positions 612 and 616). So with the effective net shift of the geometries being made unpredictable, a jitter-based anti-aliasing approach implementing conventional centroid multisampling will be subject to significant reductions in quality improvement.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a system, an apparatus and a method for minimizing the drawbacks of the above-described conventional anti-aliasing techniques.

System, apparatus and method for subpixel shifting of sample positions to anti-alias computer-generated images


A negative resist composition and a patterning method for semiconductor devices using the composition are provided. In one aspect, a negative resist composition comprises an alkali-soluble base polymer having an epoxy ring substituent, a silicon-containing crosslinker having multiple hydroxy groups, and a photoacid generator. In another aspect, a patterning method includes using the negative resist composition in a bi-layer resist process to form fine patterns.

As the manufacture of semiconductor devices becomes more complicated and the integration density of semiconductor devices highly increases, there is a need to form fine patterns. Furthermore, with regard to 1-Gigabit or more semiconductor memory devices, a pattern size having a design rule of 0.1 μm or less is needed. Therefore, the use of conventional photoresist materials for a KrF eximer laser (248 nm) is limited. For this reason, lithography techniques using an ArF eximer laser (193 nm) or an F2 eximer laser (157 nm), which are shorter-wavelength energy sources than a KrF eximer laser, have emerged. Lithography processes using an F2 eximer laser (157 nm) need resist materials having a new structure.
However, ArF and F2 resist materials have many problems due to their structural limitations as compared with i-line or KrF resist materials, which include pattern collapse due to the fine pattern size and poor resistance to dry etching. Therefore, there is a need to develop new resist materials and processes therefor.
In a photolithography process for manufacturing highly integrated semiconductor devices, the application of a bi-layer resist (BLR) process ensuring dry-etching resistance and formation of high aspect ratio patterns, which eliminates drawbacks of a single layer resist process, is advantageous.
In the BLR process, binary chemically amplified resists have been widely used, which are composed of a silicon-containing polymer having in its backbone silicon atom substituents and a photoacid generator (i.e., positive chemically amplified resists). Also, the development of highly sensitive resist materials for BLR processes using a short-wavelength light source has been focused on positive chemically amplified resists. However, silicon-containing resist compositions developed to date for BLR processes have strong hydrophobicity and exhibit poor adhesion to an underlying layer. Also, it is difficult to control the amount of silicon to an appropriate level for resist materials.
The use of positive resists is limited in forming isolated patterns for high-speed, high-performance DRAMs. A lithography process for manufacturing 1-Gigabit or more DRAMs requires the use of a phase shift mask. In designing phase shift masks, it is more advantageous to use negative resists than positive resists. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of negative resists that are highly transparent for an exposure light source having a short wavelength and exhibit high resolution and high dry-etching resistance characteristics.

Negative resist composition comprising base polymer having epoxy ring and si-containing crosslinker and patterning method for semiconductor device using the same


In an example embodiment, a machine learned model that integrates a generalized linear mixed model (GLMix) non-linear optimization is utilized to jointly perform personalized communications targeting and volume control. The machine learned model may be trained to not only maximize user engagement with a notification generally, such as maximizing the total number of people who view, save, or apply for a job associated with a job listing in the communication, but also trained to maximize an end goal of the notification, such as the total number of people who apply for the job associated with a job listing in the communication.

The rise of the Internet has occasioned two disparate yet related phenomena: the increase in the presence of social networking services, with their corresponding user profiles visible to large numbers of people, and the increase in the use of these social networking services to provide content. An example of such content is a social media post, where a user can post information, such as text, pictures, videos, articles, etc. for other users to view.
Social networking services act to ensure that user engagement, meaning the amount of time and effort a user spends engaging with the social networking service, is high. Examples of such user engagement include browsing user profiles, looking through job listings, sending communications to other users of the social networking service, performing searches, clicking on feed items, etc.
Social networking services often attempt to target various communication to users to encourage engagement. Such targeted communications may include, for example, notifications about jobs a user may be interested in, notifications about published articles relevant to a job or interest the user has, notifications about friends or colleagues of the user, etc. Not only is there a range of types of such notifications that the social networking service can send, there also is a range of different communications channels that these notifications could be sent via. Examples of channels include email communications, push communications (e.g., via an installed mobile device application), text notifications, etc. Furthermore, the volume of such communications is also a factor that can be adjusted by the social networking services. Thus there are various combinations of types of notifications, channels, and volume that a social networking service can choose from.
Proper targeting of these combinations of communications types, channels, and volume can result in increased user engagement. A user, for example, who is presented with relevant information at a time and through a mechanism that the user finds convenient and acceptable views that information positively. Improper targeting, however, can result in reduced user engagement. A user, for example, who is presented with irrelevant information or views the notifications as inconvenient or even bothersome (either due to the channel used or the volume used or both) may be turned off by the social networking service.
Thus, what is needed is a mechanism to optimize the determination of which combination is appropriate for users.

Integrated GLMix and non-linear optimization architectures


An apparatus for coupling radiation of individual laser diode emitters into a common optical fiber is disclosed. The radiation is collimated along fast axis and combined by using crossed pairs of flat mirrors. The combined beams are collimated by a common slow axis collimating lens. The laser diode emitters are disposed on both sides of an optical axis of the slow axis collimating lens such that the optical path lengths from the emitters to the slow axis collimating lens are equal.

Semiconductor laser diodes, manufactured as single emitter lasers or a laser diode bars, may have an electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency reaching 50% and higher, and can presently achieve optical power levels of a few Watts or even tens of Watts per a single emitter laser diode, and tens to hundreds of Watts per a laser diode bar. Due to high efficiency, reasonable power levels, and high spectral and directional brightness, laser diodes and laser diode bars find applications in many areas, such as material processing, offset printing, medical treatment, pumping of solid state lasers, and particularly pumping of fiber lasers.
There are two important considerations related to packaging of laser diodes into a single package. A first of these considerations is heat sinking. Laser diodes, in operation, generate considerable amounts of heat, since not all of the electrical energy used to power the laser diodes is converted into optical energy. The non-converted energy is released as heat. At an efficiency of 50% and optical power level of 5 W, for example, a single laser diode emitter will generate 5 W of heat. The heat needs to be removed so as to ensure stable and reliable laser diode operation. Moreover, since the central wavelength of laser radiation depends on laser chip temperature, the latter often needs to be stabilized with a typical accuracy of about one degree Celsius.
The second important consideration related to packaging is optical coupling. Due to a thin-slab geometry of laser diodes, their radiation, propagating along Z-axis, has a highly asymmetric lateral distribution of optical power density and divergence along X- and Y-axes. Assuming a standard notation of an X-axis lying in the plane of the laser diode slab, a Y-divergence of a laser diode is typically much higher than an X-divergence and is almost diffraction limited, whereas the X-divergence of a laser diode is usually smaller and is not diffraction limited. Such an asymmetry of laser diode beam poses a certain difficulty in applications where a symmetric, round beam is required, for example in applications involving coupling of radiation of many laser diodes into an end of a single optical fiber. Since an optical fiber generally has a substantially circular or polygonal cross-section and has a substantially symmetrical acceptance angle, the combined radiation of a diode laser has to be symmetric in its divergence and lateral power density distribution, in order to couple as much light into an optical fiber as possible.
A variety of ways of solving both abovementioned design considerations have been suggested in the prior art. For example in order to provide heat sinking, the laser diodes or laser diode bars of a diode laser apparatus are typically placed onto a common heat sink or stacked together. Even though stacking provides certain advantages, such as a simpler and more compact optical arrangement, it is not as efficient as a common heat sink. In a stacking arrangement, heat flows in a serial fashion, whereas when a common heat sink is provided, heat flows in a parallel fashion allowing more heat to be removed. On the other hand, a common heat sink method often results in bulky and inefficient coupling optics. For example, one prior art apparatus uses a complex multi-faceted reflector to combine beams from individual laser diode chips. The resulting device is expensive and difficult to align. Other prior art designs use waveguides or complex stair-like heat sink structures and microlenses combined with multi-faceted reflectors, which are utilized to combine the individual beams of laser diodes into a symmetrical output beam.
One important type of laser diode assembly is a single-bar assembly. In a single bar of laser diode emitters, the latter are formed on a common semiconductor substrate, side-by-side, and therefore allow for a parallel heat flow towards the common substrate to occur. Since the lateral position of individual emitters in a bar is precisely defined using photolithography, a simple and reliable pre-manufactured set of micro-optics can be used to collimate and reformat the output laser beam. In diode lasers made this way, a few tens of Watts of output power can be easily generated and coupled into an optical fiber. However, other problems such as warping, or so called smile of a bar, come into play reducing fiber coupling efficiency and device reliability; furthermore, it is not very easy to remove heat from individual emitters disposed with a sub-millimeter pitch on the common semiconductor substrate. There is also a reliability concern related specifically to single-bar diode lasers: when a single laser diode emitter fails catastrophically in a bar e.g. due to an electrical short, it often disables its neighboring emitters, failing the entire single-bar diode laser.
While there are many specific geometries presently available to package laser diodes into an assembly, it is clear that a successful device will naturally combine efficient heat removal from individual laser diode emitters with a simple, inexpensive, easy to align set of optics for reformatting highly asymmetrical anamorphic beams from individual emitters into a low aspect ratio, single optical beam suitable for optical fiber coupling, material processing, and a multitude of other tasks.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive and compact, fiber or free space coupled light source, for pumping fiber lasers and solid state lasers, material processing, medical treatment, offset printing applications, and the like.


A guard for a sliding lid that acts as a cover for a cargo area of a center console. The center console includes a bottom, sidewalls, a front wall, and a back wall. Movement of the sliding lid is slidingly restricted by guide rails. The guard includes a body and a wiper section that has a contact edge. The guard is secured to the center console and disposed above the sliding lid and prevents objects from riding on the sliding lid past the guard.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed toward a storage compartment with a sliding lid. In particular, the present invention relates to a guard for the sliding lid.
2. Description of Related Art
Sliding lids, also known as tambour doors, are used in a variety of applications. For example, sliding lids are used on roll-top desks, on delivery trucks as either side or rear cargo doors, and to secure garages or storefronts. Furthermore, the sliding lids can be used as covers for storage compartments in vehicles.
In general, sliding lids provide a compact means for closing a space without requiring a typical one-piece door that swings in an arc about a hinge. Furthermore, sliding lids may be retracted into a recess within the assembly to be conveniently hidden when the sliding lid is opened.
In modern vehicles, it is common to have a storage compartment with a sliding lid. The storage compartment is typically used to store sundry objects that the vehicle occupant would like to have in the vehicle, but also prefers that the objects be contained. The sundry objects may include for example, musical CDs, sunglasses, vehicle owner's manuals, maps, keys, mobile telephones, pens, pencils, and facial tissues. By placing the sundry objects in the storage compartment, the objects are easily accessible, but still contained. By containing the objects, the likelihood of the objects becoming airborne is reduced in the event of a vehicle collision. Accordingly, the risk of injury from airborne objects is reduced. Furthermore, since the sundry objects are not in plain view, appearance of the vehicle interior is increased.
Typically, the storage compartment with the sliding lid is a portion of a center console of the vehicle. The center console is between the front seats of the vehicle. However, the storage compartment may alternatively be located in the vehicle dashboard or in the vehicle door. Access to the cargo area of the storage compartment is accomplished by retracting at least a portion of the sliding lid into the center console.
Many times, a cup holder, a coin holder, or other open bin is located near the center console in the vehicle. Accordingly, it is normal for an object, such as for example, a toll road ticket, a credit card receipt, or a coin (hereinafter "object"), to be placed on the sliding lid when the sliding lid is in a closed position (e.g. fully extended). When the sliding lid is opened (e.g. retracted), a portion of the sliding lid travels into an area of the center console that is inaccessible to the vehicle occupant. When the sliding lid is being opened, the object may ride on top of the sliding lid. Unfortunately, this can result in the object being relocated to the inaccessible area. Many times, when the object is in the inaccessible area, the object becomes dislodged from the sliding lid. This results in the object being lost and inaccessible to the vehicle occupant, even after the sliding lid is returned to the closed position.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an apparatus that prevents objects from traveling on the sliding lid when the sliding lid is being opened.