A tool for use in installation, adjustment and removal of an energy storage device for a counterbalance system. The tool includes a member rotatable to manipulate a spring carriage. One embodiment includes a threaded shaft, an engagement member which engages the slidable carriage, a locking nut disposed on the threaded shaft, and a bearing member disposed to the threaded shaft between the locking nut and the engagement member. A position of the slidable carriage between compressed and extended positions relative the track housing is adjustable by rotation of the threaded shaft. Another embodiment includes a frame, a cable spool rotatably attached to the frame, and having a gear attached in a co-axial arrangement to the cable spool, and a worm gear attached to the frame. The spool gear is rotatable by the worm gear to apply axial force to the slidable carriage by winding the counterbalance cable.

Counterbalance systems are known in various mechanical assemblies. For example, conventional garage doors include a mechanical torsion spring to act as a counterbalance to reduce the force required to open a garage door. An exemplary torsion spring system includes a torsion spring located on a shaft which is typically located above the door opening. One end of the torsion spring is connected to the shaft. The opposite end of the spring is anchored to the door opening. The torsion spring is preloaded during the installation process. This preloading provides the necessary torque to counterbalance, that is to say, offset the torque the garage door imposes on the shaft by its connection to the drums located on the shaft. These drums are commonly referred to as door drums. The bottom corners of a garage door are connected to the door drums via cables. When the door is opened, the shaft rotates causing the cables to assist the lifting operation and the torsion spring releases its stored energy. When the door is being closed, the cable winds off the drum and the torsion spring assists in offsetting the weight of the door as it is reloaded with energy for the next lifting operation.
Improved counterbalance designs have been developed to replace the mechanical torsion spring. One improved system and method uses a gas spring and a cable drum system. Exemplary improved systems and methods are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,785 issued Jan. 10, 2006 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,042 issued May 26, 2009, each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, to the extent that either does not conflict with the present application. These improved methods replace the torsion spring with a gas spring and cable drum system. However, all other door components, shaft, door drums located on the shaft, and cables connecting the lower corners of the door to the drums remain required. The gas spring, like the torsion spring, is fixed at one end. However, the opposite end is slideable along a track, rather than able to rotate around the shaft. The slideable end, herein referred to as the slideable carriage, has a pulley to allow a cable to pass around.
When the door is in the closed position a cable wraps fully around a drum, referred to as a drive drum, located on the same shaft to which the door is connected. The spring is fully compressed, when the door is closed, storing the required energy to counterbalance the door. The cable passes from the drive drum around the pulley, attached to the slideable carriage of the spring, and is anchored to a fixed position. This configuration is a 2 to 1 mechanical advantage. For every inch of stroke the gas spring provides 2 inches of cable pull off the drive drum attached to the shaft above the door. Alternatively, for every pound of force the gas spring is applying to the slideable carriage, a half pound of force is applied to the drive drum via the tension in the cable. It is the force in the cable applied to the drive drum that provides the counter torque to offset or balance the torque applied to the shaft by the door weight. When the door is lifted, the compressed gas spring extends by moving the slideable carriage. As the slideable carriage moves, the cable pulls the drive drum applying the counter torque to the shaft. When the door is lowered to the closed position, the spring is again compressed storing the required energy to offset the door weight during the closing operation while reloading the gas spring for the next cycle.
The above-described improvement was advantageous and functional, but other improvements followed. Later developments led to an improved design including a drive drum that could provide the precise torque when coupled to the appropriate gas spring. A system that standardized the components was also developed. This system approximately fixed the number of rotations the shaft made regardless of the door height. By doing so, this improvement reduced the number of different designs of the same component within a garage opener sub-assembly or assembly.
During an installation process of an energy storage device, such as for example, one or more mechanical springs or one or more gas springs, the door will be in the closed position yet the spring will be fully extended. Conversely, to remove or replace the energy storage device, the door will typically be in the closed position, and the one or more springs will be compressed putting the compression cable in tension. Without a compression tool, disconnecting the cable from the slideable carriage can be time-consuming, laborious, and hazardous, even to a well-trained technician.

System and method for garage door counterbalance


A manufacturing method of an organic light emitting diode (“OLED”) display includes: forming a contact pattern on a panel region of a surface of a board glass, where the board glass includes the panel region, and a peripheral area which surrounds the panel region; contacting the paper glass with a surface of the contact pattern corresponding to the panel region and the surface of the board glass corresponding to the peripheral area; adhering the surface of the board glass corresponding to the peripheral area to a surface of the paper glass; forming an organic light emitting element on the paper glass corresponding to the panel region; and separating the paper glass from the board glass by cutting the paper glass at a position corresponding to an end portion of the panel region adjacent to the peripheral area.

(a) Field
The invention relates to a manufacturing method of an organic light emitting diode ("OLED") display and a manufacturing method of a touch panel. More particularly, the invention relates to a manufacturing method of an OLED display and a touch panel including a very thin paper glass.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Organic light emitting diode ("OLED") displays have received much attention as display devices for displaying images.
An OLED display has a self-emission characteristic and does not employ a separate light source, unlike a liquid crystal display ("LCD") device, and thus can be fabricated to be thinner and lighter than a display device employing a separate light source. Further, the OLED display has high quality characteristics such as low power consumption, high luminance, high response speed, and the like.
In general, the OLED display includes a substrate, and an OLED provided on the substrate.
An OLED display including a relatively very thin paper glass has been developed.

Method for manufacturing organic light emitting diode display and method for manufacturing touch panel


Method of treating a portion of subterranean formation, comprising                providing a water in oil emulsion of a water-soluble polymer, said emulsion comprising at least an inverting agent, and at least an emulsifying agent, wherein the mass ratio R of the total amount of inverting agent to the total amount of emulsifying agent is superior to 1.2, wherein the water in oil emulsion contains from 0.5% to 6% by weight of inverting agent;        inverting the water in oil emulsion by adding it into an aqueous fluid to form an injection fluid;        introducing the injection fluid into portion of the subterranean formation.

Water-soluble polymers are widely used in oil and gas recovery processes, such as enhanced oil recovery and fracturing operations, but also drilling operations or completion operations.
They may increase the viscosity of an aqueous fluid and/or reduce the level of frictional resistance that occurs during the injection of said fluid in a subterranean formation.
Water-in-oil emulsion is a well-known form of water-soluble polymer used in various industry, including the oil and gas industry. One of the advantages of water-in-oil emulsion is that it contains a relatively high proportion of polymer at a relatively low viscosity.
WO 2017/027319 discloses a water in oil latex and use thereof in the recovery of oil. This latex is added to an aqueous solution to afford a fluid that is injected into a subterranean formation. It might comprise 0 to 5 wt % of various additives. This document does not teach that the respective amounts of water in oil surfactant and oil in water surfactant of the latex should be adjusted as a function of the amount of salts of the injected fluid.
EP 0 030 425 discloses a water-soluble polymeric anti-precipitant and its injection into a subterranean formation. This document does not teach that the amount of surfactants should be adjusted as a function of the amount of salts of the injected fluid.
WO 2017/027319 and EP 0 030 425 do not teach using an emulsion having from 0.5 to 6 wt % of inverting agent and a mass ratio mass ratio inverting agent/emulsifying agent greater than 1.2.
One of the main challenges when using water in oil emulsion is to obtain an efficient and rapid effect of the polymer of the water-in-oil emulsion, particularly in high salinity brines when the salt (mono and/or divalent) concentration is high, or when the flow rate of the injection fluid is high, or when temperature of the fluid is low, or when shear rate applied to the fluid is low and little energy and mixing is provided to the emulsion, which is commonly the case in oil and gas recovery process.
Typically, polymers of the water-in-oil emulsion offers drag reducing and/or viscosifying effect, but may also offers flocculation and/or coagulation effects.
There is a need to improve the performances of the polymer of water in oil emulsion used in oil and gas recovery process. The applicant has discovered that by adjusting the surfactant package, the performances of the polymer of the water-in-oil emulsion are greatly improved, especially when the water in which the water-in-oil is mixed contains salts.

Method of treating a portion of a subterranean formation with improved water in oil emulsion


The present disclosure relates to a gas filtering device that allows to cover and filter gases emanating from liquid and/or solid substances without the use of auxiliary technologies. The gas filtering device comprises an air tight geomembrane that is adapted to cover and seal the surface from which the gas emanations come from, one or more air permeable filtering cartridge pocket(s) embedded within the air tight geomembrane that are adapted to adopt an opened configuration and a closed configuration, and one or more corresponding filtering cartridge(s) that are releasably secured within the air permeable filtering cartridge pocket.

Foul odors provided by gaseous emanations are an unfortunate reality at wastewater treatment plants or at any other similar plants. If left uncontrolled, nuisance odors can waft into public spaces and residential/commercial/industrial areas located around the plant.
There already exists on the market a plurality of solutions to better control such gas emanation. Some of them involve covering the liquid and/or solid surfaces using geo-textile membranes, aluminum, steel, concrete or other type of panels. These methods are not only expensive but require extra equipment to treat the odorous air molecules that remain trapped underneath these covers. Indeed, powerful fans, for example, need to draw the odorous air molecules through activated carbon filters and further away from the cover. Biofilters are also sometimes used instead of activated carbon filters, but such systems that include biofilters still require expensive fans, a lot of energy and maintenance time to deal with gas emissions.
Some other solutions do not cover the liquid or solid surface using a covering device but rather involve spraying chemicals in the atmosphere above the surface, the water surface for example, in an attempt to neutralize the emanating odors. This approach requires continuous use of chemicals and constant maintenance of the dispersing/dispensing system, resulting in important costs.
There is therefore a need for an improved gas filtering device that is adapted to cover and filter gases emanating from liquid and/or solid substances without the use of auxiliary technologies (fans, chemicals and the like).


In a sensor (10) for determining the angular velocity (.OMEGA.), an ultrasonic wave is radiated into a sound conductor (11) by means of a piezoceramic shear oscillator (12) as transmitter, two receivers (14, 15) being located adjacent to one another at the other end of the sound conductor (11) so as to be separated from one another by a narrow gap (16). If no angular velocity (.OMEGA.) acts on the sensor (10), the ultrasonic wave directed to the gap (16) should excite the two receivers equally, so that the differential signal of the two receivers (14, 15)--supported by an alignment--is equal to zero. If the sensor (10) is located in a rotating system, the ultrasonic ray is deflected by means of the acting Coriolis force (K.sub.c), so that a differential signal of the two receivers (14, 15) is obtained, which differential signal is a measurement for the angular velocity (.OMEGA.). The sensor (10) has a simple, mechanically stable construction with low sensitivity to shaking and temperature.

The invention relates to a sensor for determining angular velocity which operates in the manner of the vibratory gyroscopes. Known vibratory gyroscopes with the same field of application generally work with low-frequency flexural vibrations which, as a result of the Coriolis forces occurring in rotation, produce a resonance vibration perpendicularly relative to the primary vibration and accordingly provide a measurement of the angular velocity. However, vibratory gyroscopes have also been proposed which proceed from a thickness shear vibration. In this case, the natural frequency of the oscillator is already substantially higher (>100 Khz). Moreover, the excitation of a resonance vibration by Coriolis forces is deliberately dispensed with in the interest of a low temperature dependency of the signal. The Coriolis forces in this case effect a forced longitudinal thickness vibration.
In the present invention, however, a different measurement principle is used: the effect of the Coriolis forces on an ultrasonic wave in a rotating medium. In so doing, a new oscillation form is not brought about. The deflection of the ultrasonic wave in the rotating medium, which is proportional to the angular velocity, produces a measurement signal.


A method for determining the suitability of a distillate fuel for use after storage by measuring the absorption of ultraviolet light by the fuel.

This invention relates to a method for determining the degradation that will occur in distillate fuel oils over a period of time.
During hydrocarbon processing, transportation and storage, the hydrocarbons deteriorate, particularly when subjected to elevated temperatures. The deterioration usually results in the formation of sediment, sludge, or gum, and can manifest itself physically by color deterioration. Sediment, sludge, or gum formation can cause clotting of the equipment or fouling of processing equipment, such as heat exchangers, compressors, furnaces, reactors and distillation systems, as examples. The fouling can be caused by the gradual accumulation of high molecular weight polymeric material on the inside surfaces of the equipment. As fouling continues, the efficiency of the operation associated with the hydrocarbon processing equipment, such as heat exchangers, compressors, furnaces, reactors and distillation systems decreases. The distillate streams, which can result in significant fouling, include the straight run distillates (kerosene, diesel, jet) naphthas, catalytic cracker feedstocks (gas oils), light and heavy cycle oils, coker napthas, resids and petrochemical plant feedstocks.
In the past, methods for determining the deterioration of fuel oil over a period of time, such as during storage, transportation or processing of the fuel oil, have relied on sampling the fuel after the period of time has past. Thus, they have been insufficient for predicting the deterioration of the fuel prior to such deterioration occurring. It is desirable to have a test method that is capable of determining not only the present state of a fuel oil but, also, is capable of predicting the state of a fuel oil after a period of time and predicting the rate of degradation of the fuel oil.

Method for determining the degradation of fuel oil by UV absorption


There is provided a very thin light guide plate for a surface light source device and a method of manufacturing it without the use of high-precision molding machine. A surface light source device using this light guide plate generates outgoing light having high uniformity. According to the manufacturing method, a light guide plate free from a weld line or warp can be manufactured with good transferring characteristics. The light guide plate is thick on an incident surface 1 side and thin on a lower surface 4 side. At the central portion of an incident surface 1 in a longitudinal direction, a projecting portion obtained by cutting an overhang portion 7 at a position a distance D apart from the incident surface 1 is formed. The cut surface of the projecting portion is not made specular and is kept rough. In molding of the light guide plate, a molten material is supplied from the position of a gate mark 9. After molding, the overhang portion 7 is cut off by an ordinary cutter, thereby obtaining a light guide plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light guide plate for surface light source device and a method of manufacturing it and, more particularly, a light guide plate for a surface light source device used as a backlight for a liquid crystal display for OA equipment, a television set, a measuring instrument, a watch, or the like, and a method of the light guide plate by injection molding.
2. Description of Related Art
A surface light source device is well known. A small surface light source device is used as a backlight for a liquid crystal display wristwatch, and a large surface light source device is used as a backlight for an advertising display panel or an illumination device for a show window. An LED is used as the light source for the small device, and a fluorescent tube is used as the light source for the large device. As a light guide plate, an acrylic plate cut so as to have a proper dimension is used.
Since a surface light source device is required to have a small thickness and to cause a predetermined plane to emit uniform light, a light source is generally arranged at a lateral position of the light guide plate. For this reason, the light guide plate has been subject to various processings which include shaping to a special shape, surface roughening with sandpaper, special tool or apparatus and polishing of incident surface to making it specular.
In recent years, with epochmaking progress of a liquid crystal display technique and development of OA equipment, electronic-communication equipment, or the like, demand for a surface light source device used in a liquid crystal display device having a size of about 10 inches steeply increases. As a light source arranged at a lateral position of a light guide plate, a long-life extremely slender fluorescent tube having a diameter of 4 mm or less is developed. Light guide plates have come to be manufactured by injection molding which has a small number of steps and provides mass-production of light guide plates with stable quality.
A light guide plate used in a surface light source device is required to be variously improved to make it possible that a plane having a designed area emits source light guided in a latitudinal direction as uniform plane light. Various proposals associated with the improvements have been made. Almost all the various proposals use one of the following techniques: a technique in which a surface opposing the emission surface, i.e., a reflecting surface, is processed (formation of an uneven surface, coating, or printing) by some means to modify its reflectance distribution; a technique in which a reflecting surface is arranged not parallel to an emission surface, but formed by various planes and curves; and a technique obtained by combining both the above techniques to each other.
In these techniques, a light guide plate having a reflecting surface not parallel to the emission surface is thick at the incident surface for source light or near the incident surface and thin at positions distant from the incident surface. Such light guide plates are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 3-59526, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 3-104906, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 5-75738, or Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 5-75739, and in FIG. 7, FIG. 8. FIGS. 7 and 8 are side views showing light guide plates. Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, each upper surface is the incident surface, and each left surface is the emission surface. The present invention relates to a light guide plate having a shape as shown in FIG. 7 or 8 and to an improvement of a method of manufacturing the light guide plate.
A conventional method of molding a light guide plate is described here with reference to a light guide plate having a typical shape shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the light guide plate when viewed from the emission surface side, and FIG. 10 is a right-side view of FIG. 9. Therefore, referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, an upper surface is the incident surface 1 which is perpendicular to the emission surface 2 in FIG. 10. Since a fluorescent tube is arranged in the longitudinal direction of the incident surface at a position outside and near the incident surface, the thickness of the light guide plate is defined in consideration of the diameter of the fluorescent tube.
A reflecting surface 3 is obliquely formed with respect to the emission surface 2 so that the reflecting surface 3 can directly reflect incident light from the incident surface 1. Thus, the thickness of the guide plate gradually decreases downward in FIGS. 9 and 10.
When the light guide plate is to be formed by injection molding, a specific position on a specific surface for a gate (opening through which molten material is injected into a mold cavity) of the mold must be determined. Since the light guide plate is used in a surface light source device, the gate position is determined in consideration of the utilization efficiency of light, uniform emission from a large emission surface, profitability and so on. Judging from this point of view, it is conventionally assumed that the incident surface should be specular to efficiently receive source light. In addition, all the surface should be specular to obtain uniform outgoing light.
According to conventional understanding, a gate arranged on the incident surface provides an increase in cost because the incident surface must be made specular by high-accuracy polishing or buff finish serving as post-processing. Therefore, such arrangement of gate on the incident surface has not been employed.
The emission and reflecting surfaces generally must have effective areas as large as possible. In addition, in order to obtain uniform outgoing light, an uneven surface having a variety of shapes such as a net-like pattern is often formed on the reflecting surface, otherwise coating or printing is often applied to the reflecting surface. Therefore, it has been avoided to arrange a gate on these surfaces.
Referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, a gate may be arranged on the lower surface 4. However, the light guide plate has a very small thickness at lower surface 4. For example, an ultra-thin light guide plate for office Automation ("OA") equipment having a size of about 10 inches used, the thickness at the lower surface is about 1 to 2 mm, and a gate can hardly be arranged on the lower surface. Even if a gate is arranged on the lower surface, a sufficient injection pressure cannot be obtained by a general molding machine, an acrylic molten material cannot be preferably injected into the cavity. Thus, transferring characteristics are considerably degraded.
In order to increase the injection pressure, or increase the temperature of the mold to make the flow of the material easy, a highly expensive molding machine of high-accuracy control is required. For this reason, the cost of the light guide plate inevitably increases. Furthermore, the number of gates may be increased. In this case, however, the cost of the mold increases and a so-called weld line is inevitably formed, leading to a fatal problem for uniform outgoing light. Therefore, it is not practical to arrange a gate on the lower surface.
For these reasons, a gate is conventionally arranged at a position on one of side surfaces 5 and 6 in FIG. 9, in particular, in the thick portion near the incident surface. Similarly, the above arrangement is employed in molding for a two-light light guide plate in which the inclination direction of the reflecting surface 3 with respect to the emission surface 2 is reversed at the central portion of the reflecting surface 3, the lower surface 4 has a thickness almost equal to that of the incident surface 1 so that another fluorescent tube is arranged outside and near the lower surface 4, as shown in FIG. 11.
However, according to a conventional molding method, as shown in FIG. 9, if a gate G is arranged on the side surface 5, the material quickly flows in a flow path A, but slowly flows in a flow path B at injection. Thus, the material does not uniformly flow from the incident surface 1 to the lower surface 4 and the flow varies depending on the position. In addition, the flow on the side surface 5 is considerably different from the flow on the side surface 6. For this reason, the pressure difference and temperature difference between regions fall into disorder.
As a result, in particular, when an uneven surface having a variety of shapes is formed on the reflecting surface, the shape of the uneven surface cannot be desirably transferred. In addition, problems such as formation of an weld line and warp after molding arise easily. In the ultra-thin light guide plate as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, since a material cannot completely filled in a cavity by molding machine and an ordinary molding method, a troublesome examination must be performed for conditions set for molding processing at every slight change in shape of the light guide plate.

Tapered light guide plate for surface light source device and method of making by injection molding via supplementary cavity


A curable composition for coating eyeglass lenses and other transparent substrates and capable of producing a hard coating, the index of refraction of which can be easily matched, through proper formulating, to the index refraction of the substrate to be coated to thereby avoid visible interference fringes. The composition comprises, in an organic solvent, a plurality of acrylate or methacrylate-functional monomers or oligomers and specifically including a (meth)acrylate-functional monomer having an (meth)acrylate-functionality of at least three and, when cured by itself, having a predetermined index of refraction. Optionally and preferably, the coating composition includes as well a different (meth)acrylate monomer having a functionality of one or more and, when cured by itself, exhibiting a different predetermined index of refraction. Desirably included in the composition is a polymerization catalyst capable of catalyzing polymerization of the (meth)acrylate monomers or oligomers in response to actinic radiation or thermal activation. The composition also includes a colloidal sol of a metal compound, preferably the oxide, of a metal such as antimony, antimony pentoxide being preferred.

The invention relates to the field of transparent coatings for transparent objects such as eyeglass lenses, windows and the like, and refers particularly to a coating having an index of refraction essentially equal to that of the substrate that is coated.
Transparent plastic materials such as eyeglass lenses, television screen face plates and the protective coatings on photographic prints often are quite soft and are subject to becoming dull and hazy due to scratching and abrasion during use. Polycarbonate eyeglass lenses, for example, are strong and shatter resistant but also are relatively soft and susceptible to scratching. Television screen face plates similarly are made of flexible, shatter resistant plastic materials such as polycarbonate and poly (methylmethacrylate), and these also can be scratched or abraded.
Various coatings have been proposed for eyeglasses and other transparent plastic materials to reduce their propensity to become scratched and abraded. One such composition is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,250 (Treadway, et al.) granted Mar. 29, 1983. Other coatings are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,367.019 (Sawaragi), U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,180 (Kawamura), U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,767 (Mori et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,146 (Hohage et al.)
In connection with lenses or other transparent substrates that bear protective coatings, if the refractive index of the coating varies even slightly from the refractive index of the substrate, visible and undesirable interference fringes will appear, particularly when the surface is viewed from an angle rather than p)erpendicular to the surface. Efforts have been made to produce coatings having high indices of refraction with the expectation that such coatings will avoid the interference fringe problem. Reference is made to Sawaragi et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,367,019 and 5,314,947, referred to above. Such coatings have not been entirely satisfactory because they require thermal curing, which may lengthen production schedules and which also may not be appropriate for use with heat-sensitive substrates.
Thus, a coating is needed that is capable of producing a very hard and abrasion resistant surface upon curing, that has a refractive index that can be matched to the refractive index of the substrate to be coated, and that preferably can be cured quickly and easily.

Adjustable refractive index coating composition


A trailer backup alignment guide apparatus (10) is taught for aligning a vehicle hitch ball (20) to a trailer coupler (22) for attachment therebetween. The apparatus consists of a vehicle ball mount (28) incorporating a ball mounting strap (36) encompassing a vehicle ball. A vehicle mast (58) is disposed within the hitch ball mount in a vertical position. A trailer hitch coupler mount (62) is attached to the trailer which includes an L-shaped base block (64) with a telescoping trailer mast (68) in a vertical position parallel with the vehicle mast. A coupler mounting strap (70) is attached to and circumvents the coupler mount. When the ball mount and hitch coupler mount are attached to the vehicle and trailer and the vehicle is maneuverably backed toward the trailer, the masts (58) and (68) may be visually aligned to guide the vehicle in a straight line until a vehicle mast designator (60) on the vehicle mast engages a trailer mast stop (78) on the trailer mast advising the vehicle driver that alignment has been achieved.

Previously, many types of trailer hitch alignment guides have been used in endeavoring to provide an effective means to visual maneuver a vehicle while backing toward a trailer to align the hitch coupler adjacent to the ball for engagement of the trailer to the vehicle.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that possess the novelty of the instant invention; however the following U.S. patents are considered related:
InventorIssue DateU.S. Pat. No.4,723,788SuterFeb. 9, 19885,035,441MurrayJul. 30, 19915,269,554Law et al.Dec. 14, 19936,139,041MurphyOct. 31, 20006,764,091Grasso et al.Jul. 20, 20046,820,888GriffinNov. 23, 2004Patent Application Publication2002/0070529DraveczJun. 13, 2002
Suter in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,788 teaches an apparatus with interfitting masts with a first mast mounting on top of a socket and a second mast includes a collar which engages onto the ball. When the two masts nest together the socket is directly over the ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,554 issued to Law et al. is for an alignment guide including guide assemblies one mounted to the trailer ball hitch and the other to the trailer tongue. Each guide includes telescoping vertical leg members for alignment.
Murphy in U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,041 discloses a trailer hitching alignment aid which mounts over the ball hitch and a magnetic trailer mounted assembly mounted on the trailer tongue. A light source is coupled to an upper end of a guide rod with a switch that is energized when the switch and actuator are aligned.
Grasso et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,091 teaches an alignment device with two units each having press-on members. The ball neck member has a "C" shaped bottom portion and the hitch engaging member has a "U" shaped bottom portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,820,888 issued to Griffin comprises a telescoping guide post attached to the top of the hitch socket and a receiver has a magnetic mounting base. When the mounting base, which includes a "Y" member, contacts the upright member the driver is informed that the socket aligns with the tongue of the trailer.
Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0070529 of Dravecz discloses an alignment system utilizing reflective tape on rods with cast clamps and magnetic patches for attachment.
For background purposes and as indicative of the art to which the invention is related reference may be made to the remaining cited U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,441 issued to Murray


The present invention relates to a polypeptide which has β-glucosidase activity, and which includes an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, a polypeptide including an amino acid sequence in which one or several amino acids are deleted, substituted, or added in the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, or a polypeptide including an amino acid sequence having 90% or greater sequence identity with the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1. According to the present invention, a novel β-glucosidase enzyme derived from Acremonium cellulolyticus, a polynucleotide encoding the β-glucosidase, an expression vector for expressing the β-glucosidase, a transformant incorporated with that expression vector, and a method for producing a cellulose degradation product using the β-glucosidase can be provided.

Recently, the development of alternative energy to oil is a very important issue, because of the concern related to transportation energy supply, such as large increases in oil prices and the petroleum depletion prediction in the near future (peak oil), as well as environmental problems such as global warming and aerial pollution. Plant biomass, or lignocellulose, is the most plentiful renewable energy source on earth, which is expected to serve as an alternative source to oil. The main components in the dry weight of biomass are polysaccharides such as celluloses and hemicelluloses, and lignin. For example, polysaccharides are used as a biofuel or a raw material of chemical products, after being hydrolyzed into monosaccharides such as glucose or xylose by hydrolases which are collectively referred to as cellulase enzymes. Consequently, in the field of biorefining, it is important to develop a diverse range of highly active cellulase enzymes in order to efficiently carry out enzymatic hydrolysis treatment on cellulose-based biomass.
Lignocellulose is recalcitrant due to its highly complicated structures, and is hard to degrade with a single cellulolytic enzyme. Lignocellulose degradation to sugar requires at least three types of enzymes: endoglucanases (cellulase or endo-1,4-β-D-glucanase, EC 126.96.36.199) which randomly cut internal sites on cellulose chain, cellobiohydrolases (1,4-β-cellobiosidase or cellobiohydrolase, EC 184.108.40.206) which act as an exo-cellulase on the reducing or non-reducing ends of cellulose chain and release cellobiose as major products, and β-glucosidases (EC 18.104.22.168) which hydrolyze cellobiose to glucose. Besides, it is thought to be necessary to have an appropriate blending of a plurality of enzymes including xylanase (endo-1,4-β-xylanase, EC 184.108.40.206) which is a hemicellulase and other plant cell wall degrading enzymes.
On the other hand, Acremonium cellulolyticus is a filamentous fungus that produces a potent hydrolytic cellulase, and two types of cellobiohydrolase genes, 3 types of β-glucosidase genes and 7 types of endoglucanase genes have currently been isolated therefrom (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Endoglucanase is one of the glycoside hydrolases associated with the process of producing monosaccharides by randomly cleaving and degrading celluloses or lignocelluloses such as hemicellulose.


A fluid delivery system for delivering a process fluid to a vacuum processing system includes a secondary containment line surrounding a process fluid line. A purge gas flows through the secondary containment line and around the process fluid line in order to flow away any leaked process fluid. Alternatively, a heated fluid flows through the secondary containment line forming a heat trace around the process fluid line to heat the process fluid line and the process fluid by means of convection, which provides for precise uniformity of temperature throughout the length of the secondary containment line. The heated fluid loses heat to the ambient environment creating a temperature gradient through which the process fluid flows. The secondary containment line may have a heating element along its length for adding heat to the heated fluid to change the temperature gradient.

The present invention generally relates to methods and apparatuses for delivery of fluids in a processing system used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and flat panel displays. Specifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for heating fluid delivery lines in a vacuum processing system in order to heat the fluid flowing therein and for containing fluid leaked from the fluid delivery lines.
Vacuum processing systems for processing 100 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm or other diameter wafers are generally known. Typically, such vacuum processing systems have a centralized transfer chamber mounted on a monolith platform. The transfer chamber is the center of activity for the movement of substrates being processed in the system. One or more process chambers and load lock chambers mount on the transfer chamber, and a transfer chamber robot mounts in the middle of the transfer chamber to access each of the process chambers and load lock chambers to transfer a substrate therebetween. Different process chambers perform different processes on the substrates. For example, a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber or a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber may deposit a layer of material, such as a conductor or an insulator, onto the surface of the substrate; or an etch chamber may remove a layer of material from parts of the surface of the substrate; or an ion implantation chamber may implant ion dopants into the substrate; or a pre-clean chamber may remove a layer of the substrate contaminated with oxides; or a thermal processing chamber may heat a substrate to cure or anneal the substrate after a previous process. In fact, it is not uncommon for a manufacturer of semiconductor processing systems to provide over twenty different types of process chambers. Access to the transfer chamber from the clean ambient environment is typically through the load lock chambers. The load lock chambers may open to a very clean room, referred to as the white area, or to a substrate handling chamber, typically referred to as a mini-environment, for transferring substrates in a very clean environment at atmospheric pressure from pods seated on pod loaders to the load lock chambers.
Each type of process chamber typically performs one specific step or series of steps in the overall fabrication of integrated circuits or flat panel displays. For example, some types of process chambers specifically deposit one particular material onto the surface of the wafer. Other types of process chambers specifically etch away a particular layer from the surface of the wafer. Still other types of process chambers specifically implant a particular ion into the wafer.
Many of these processes require that certain gases or liquids be delivered to the process chamber to perform the process. These gases and liquids are commonly called process fluids and are delivered to the process chambers through fluid delivery lines from sources of the fluids in the manufacturing plant. For example, a chemical vapor deposition process of copper may require cupraselect, a metal organic compound, be provided as a precursor in the process. Another process may use dimethylaluminumhydride (DMAH) to perform chemical vapor deposition of aluminum. Yet another process may use tetrakisdimethylaminotitanium (TDMAT) to deposit a film of titanium nitride on a wafer. Still another process may use barium and strontium precursors to deposit a film of barium strontium titanate (BST). The process fluids are typically converted into a gaseous state by vaporization, bubbling or other appropriate process to deliver a vapor of the process fluid to the process chamber.
Many of these process fluids must be maintained within a specific temperature range while flowing through the fluid lines to prevent deposits along the path. Also, many of these process fluids are toxic, pyrophoric, corrosive, or otherwise hazardous, so special safeguards must be employed to prevent leakage of the process fluids into the ambient air.
Those process fluids that must be maintained within a particular temperature range while flowing through the fluid lines, may need to be in a gaseous state in order to flow properly through the fluid lines or to enter the process chamber in the proper concentration or condition for processing. Condensation of the process fluids may cause a loss of controllability or repeatability of the process, including a loss of accurate delivery of the process fluid from one wafer to the next or a loss of control over the amount of material deposited on a single wafer. Thus, these process fluids must be maintained above their vaporization temperature, so that they remain gaseous. Additionally, many of these process fluids are molecular compounds which may decompose, or chemically breakdown into their constituent elements or other molecules, above a certain temperature. Thus, these process fluids must be maintained below their decomposition temperature.
Some of these process fluids may have a fairly wide window between their vaporization temperature and their decomposition temperature, so that maintaining the fluid lines and the process fluid within the required temperature range may be fairly easy. Other process fluids, however, may have a narrow window between their vaporization temperature and their decomposition temperature, so that maintaining the fluid lines and the process fluid within the required temperature range may require a very tightly controlled delivery process in order to ensure that the temperature of the entire fluid delivery line does not vary. For example, cupraselect has a vaporization temperature of about 75xc2x0 C. and a decomposition temperature of about 85xc2x0 C. Thus, cupraselect has a very narrow temperature range within which it must be maintained for proper operation of a process that uses cupraselect. By comparison, DMAH has a vaporization temperature of about 40xc2x0 C. and a decomposition temperature of about 180-200xc2x0 C., and TDMAT has a vaporization temperature of about 50xc2x0 C. and a decomposition temperature greater than about 300xc2x0 C. Thus, these compounds present a fairly wide temperature range which is considerably less difficult to maintain than that of cupraselect.
FIG. 1a shows a simplified schematic of a process fluid source 10, a process chamber 12 and the delivery system in between. The fluid delivery system heats the process fluid in a hot box 14 next to the source 10 prior to flowing the process fluid through the fluid lines 16 to the process chamber 12. One or more fluid lines (not shown) are attached to the process fluid source 10 and connected to a system of valves (not shown) for regulating the flow of the process fluid. These fluid lines and valves are typically housed within the hot box 14. The hot box 14 is a closed heated environment for heating the regulating valves and the fluid lines that are immediately adjacent to the fluid source 10. Thus, the process fluid enters the fluid lines 16 for delivery to the process chamber 12 within the appropriate temperature range. The hot box 14 does not heat the fluid lines 16 that deliver the process fluid to the process chamber 12.
Since there may be several feet of fluid delivery line between the process fluid source and the process chamber, the fluid delivery line may also have to be heated. Otherwise, the process fluid may condense within the fluid lines before it reaches the process chamber and disrupt the proper functioning of the process. FIG. 1b shows a portion of a fluid delivery line 16 illustrating the means for heating the fluid line 16 between the hot box 14 and the process chamber 12. The fluid line 16 has an angled portion 18 and a section 20 that does not have the same diameter as the rest of the fluid line 16. Section 20 may be a fitting or a joint connecting two portions of the fluid line 16, or a valve section controlling the flow through the fluid line 16, or an intersection of more than one fluid line 16, or some other line section disposed in the fluid line 16 that presents an interruption in the contour of the outer surface of the fluid line 16.
A length of heating tape 22 is adhesively attached to the outer surfaces of each of the sections of the fluid line 16 between the hot box 14 and the process chamber 12. The heating tape 22 is typically a semi-flexible resistive tape that is heated with an electrical current. The heating tape 22 heats each section of the fluid line 16 in order to maintain the fluid line 16 and the process fluid within the appropriate temperature range. FIG. 1b shows the heating tape 22 attached longitudinally down the length of the fluid line 16. The heating tape 22, however, may be wrapped around the fluid line 16 in other manners as well.
A problem with the heating tape 22 is that gaps 24 frequently occur between the heating tape 22 and parts of the fluid line 16, so there is no contact therebetween at those locations. Cool spots can occur within the fluid line 16 at the location of these gaps 24, and hot spots can occur where the heating tape 22 may be concentrated. The variance in temperature may be +/xe2x88x9220xc2x0 C., and even in a well-assembled system may be +/xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C., very significant variances for a process gas such as cupraselect, as discussed above. If the cool spots are below the vaporization temperature of the process fluid, then the process fluid will form condensation at these cool spots inside the fluid line 16. Thus, the flow of the process fluid may be disrupted, and the system may lose control and repeatability of the performance of the process. If the operator of the system attempts to compensate for the cool spots by increasing the temperature of the heating tape 22, then the system may run the risk of exceeding the decomposition temperature of the process fluid, and the process fluid may break down into its constituent elements or other molecules, which will not perform the required process in the process chamber 12.
Another problem with the heating tape 22 is that many heat-trace applications in chemical vapor deposition rely on temperature gradients to prevent condensation throughout the fluid line 16. With the conventional heating tape 22, the temperature gradient can be created only with discontinuous steps through the fluid line 16. The discontinuous steps require separate controls for each step. A continuous temperature gradient with no additional controls would be preferable.
Those fluid lines that are delivering process fluids that are toxic, pyrophoric, corrosive, or otherwise hazardous should have a secondary containment means for capturing leaked fluid. The captured fluid needs to be safely contained and delivered to a facility for extracting or disposing of the hazardous material typically in the area of the fabrication facility commonly referred to as pump alley or in the gray area. Conventional secondary containment methods provide containment of only the volume in the straight sections of the fluid line and do not cover the fittings, joints or other discontinuities between the straight sections. However, leaks are more likely to occur at a fitting, joint, intersection, valve or other discontinuity in the fluid line than in the straight sections. Thus, conventional secondary containment methods have been inadequate in covering the entire fluid lines to adequately contain and remove hazardous fluids at the locations most likely to experience a leak.
A need, therefore, exists for a secondary containment method that covers all of the sections of the fluid line and for a line heating means that heats the fluid line uniformly from the fluid source or hot box to the process chamber.
A vacuum processing system has a process chamber mounted to a centralized transfer chamber and a primary fluid line for delivering a process fluid to the process chamber from a source of the process fluid. A secondary containment line surrounds the primary line for substantially all of the length of the primary line. A gas, or fluid, such as nitrogen, flows through the secondary containment line and around the primary containment line. This gas purges any of the process fluid that may have escaped from the primary fluid line. The purge gas carries the process fluid to an appropriate handling facility for safe disposal of the process fluid. The purge gas may also be heated. The heated gas heats the primary line, and the process fluid as it flows therethrough, and flows away any leaked process fluid. Since the heated gas is constantly flowing around the primary line, the heat is distributed evenly along each section of the primary line and the joints therebetween.
The heated gas may lose heat through the shell of the secondary containment line as the heated gas flows away from its inlet port to its outlet port. Thus, the process fluid will be heated through a temperature gradient. The gradient may be increasing or decreasing depending on the placement of the inlet port and the outlet port for the heated gas. Alternatively, a heating element, such as heating tape, may be wrapped around the secondary containment line to add additional heat to the heated gas. As the heated gas loses heat as it flows through the secondary containment line, the heating element may add heat so that there is no temperature gradient, or so that there is an increasing temperature gradient. Thus, the temperature range experienced by the process fluid may be very tightly controlled.
The shell of the secondary containment line includes a series of interlocking sections that conform to the shape of the fluid delivery lines. The straight sections are essentially cylindrical in shape with openings at both ends, but with a longitudinal opening extending between both end openings. A section of secondary containment line fits loosely over a partially assembled primary containment line through the longitudinal opening. Another section of secondary containment line fits around the primary containment line on the opposite side from the first section and slides or snaps through the longitudinal opening of the first section. Thus, the two sections together form a fully cylindrical pipe section assembly around the primary containment line. Any cracks or holes between sections may be covered with tape or filled with caulk. Support braces placed every few inches along the primary containment line serve as spacers to separate the secondary line shell from the primary line, so that the heated gas has space to flow all around the primary containment line.
The various secondary line section assemblies covering the various fitting and other discontinuities in the primary line are formed with the same basic structure as the straight section assemblies. For example, an angled section assembly is formed from essentially two pieces of straight section attached at an angle with their longitudinal openings facing each other on the acute side of the angle. Two regular straight sections cover the longitudinal openings of the angled sections. An intersection assembly includes two regular straight sections, one of which has a circular opening cut on a side opposite its longitudinal opening and fitted with a short, fully-cylindrical piece to form a T-section. The other straight section inserts into the longitudinal opening of the T-section, and the short cylindrical piece may receive another section assembly. A valve section assembly for covering a valve in the primary line includes the same or similar T-section as for the intersection assembly, but with a cylindrical cover over the short cylindrical piece that can be removed to access the valve. Additionally, a small hole in the cover provides a pneumatic control line input.
In another embodiment, a heat trace has a shell enclosing the process fluid delivery line and conforming to the outer surface of the fluid delivery line so that it is in thermally conductive contact therewith. The shell is formed from two half-shell sections with flanges at their mating surfaces for applying a fastener to hold the two half-shell sections together. Each half-shell section is sufficiently thick for a series of longitudinal holes to be formed therethrough. A plurality of cable heaters, such as resistive wires, disposed through some or all of the longitudinal holes, extend along the length of the heat trace. A controller provides precise temperature control for the cable heaters. Optionally, one or more temperature measurement devices, such as thermocouples, are disposed through one or more of the longitudinal holes at periodic locations to provide temperature feedback readings to the controller, so the controller can adjust the temperature of the cable heaters to a desired temperature. This embodiment can provide very tight control over the temperature of the fluid delivery line.

Uniform heat trace and secondary containment for delivery lines for processing system

Abstract: Two semicircular cylindrical sections fit together to form a fully circular section of the secondary containment line for covering a straight portion of the process fluid line. The secondary containment line also includes sections for covering angled sections, intersections, valve sections and other discontinuous sections of the process fluid line.

Abstract: In another embodiment, the heat trace includes a shell surrounding the process fluid line and in thermal contact therewith, and the shell has longitudinal holes through which cable heaters are disposed along the length of the process fluid line. Thermocouples are disposed along the length of the heat trace and provide temperature feedback to a controller that controls the amount of heat generated by the cable heaters.


A bicycle shift lever having a lever member and a base member that can be combined with other commonly available parts to enable connection of the lever member and base member to the derailler on a bicycle so that it can enable a user of the bicycle to shift between gears.

Disadvantaged people in both developing countries and developed countries have little or no access to affordable quality bicycles that can be used for transportation. In addition, the increased unavailability of basic bicycle parts further limits bicycle access to these disadvantaged populations in that the refurbishing of existing or used bicycles becomes impossible without replacement parts.
Accordingly, there is a need for basic bicycle parts that are simple and inexpensive to make and that may also be used with other common hardware components to achieve the same function as broken or nonrepairable existing bicycle parts. The present invention is just one such bicycle part.


A fixing device (7) includes a fixing member (21), a pressing member (22), a rotation detector (41), and an auxiliary driving part (42). The fixing member (21), with rotating around an axis, heats a toner image on a medium (S). The pressing member (22), with rotating around an axis, forms a pressing area (N) with the fixing member (21) and presses toner on the medium (S) passing through the pressing area (N). The rotation detector (41), when the medium (S) stops while being sandwiched between the fixing member (21) and the pressing member (22), detects rotation of the fixing member (21) or the pressing member (22) generated in a process of extracting the medium (S) toward an upstream side or a downstream side in a passing direction. The auxiliary driving part (42), while the medium (S) is being extracted, determines a rotating direction of the fixing member (21) or the pressing member (22) based on a detection result by the rotation detector (41), and rotates the fixing member (21) or the pressing member (22) in the rotating direction.

An electrographic image forming apparatus includes a fixing device that heats and fixes a toner image on a medium passing through a fixing member and a pressing member. In such a fixing device, the medium may stop (i.e., lodge) while being sandwiched between the fixing member and the pressing member.
Various techniques are proposed on the above stated matter. For example, in a laser printer stated in Patent Document 1, driving gears such as a recording paper transfer from a main motor to a fixing roller are reversely rotated when a recording paper remains for a predetermined period with remaining a non-fixing part on a delivery sensor. In the laser printer, the fixing roller is reversely rotated automatically, so that the recording paper causing a fixing jam is extracted only toward an inner side of the apparatus (i.e., a photoreceptor side).

Fixing device rotating fixing member or pressing member while medium is extracted and image forming apparatus including the same


An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to form an image on a printable medium; a casing to accommodate the image forming unit; a feeding cassette coupled to the casing and arranged so as to move between a feeding position where the feeding cassette is separated from the casing and used to store the printable medium and a waiting position where the feeding cassette is folded up against the casing; a main feeding unit arranged within the casing to store another printable medium and to supply the another printable medium to the image forming unit; a pick-up roller to feed the printable medium from the feeding cassette to the image forming unit when the feeding cassette is in the feeding position; and a pick-up roller cover coupled to a main feeding unit so that the pick-up roller cover can rotate between an open position and a closed position.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus and, more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having a pick-up roller cover.
2. Related Art
Image forming apparatuses, such as laser printers, photocopiers, facsimile machines, and multi-functional products, are generally connected to a host apparatus in which image data is stored to print the image data onto a printable medium according to an output signal from the host apparatus. The image forming apparatus comprises a feeding unit to store printable media, an image forming unit to form an image onto a printable medium fed from the feeding unit, and a discharging unit to discharge an image-formed printable medium. Image forming apparatuses may be classified into inkjet types, electrophotographic types, and thermal transfer types, depending on how the image forming apparatus forms the image onto the printable medium.
Generally, a feeding cassette is also detachably provided in a casing to stored printable media; and a pick-up roller is arranged to supply the printable media stored in feeding cassette to the image forming unit. In addition, a feeding cassette may be mounted to the casing to store additional printable media.
However, the surface of the conventional pick-up roller is often contaminated by dust from the outside or by paper powder from the inside of the casing since the surface of the conventional pick-up roller is exposed to the outside, even when no printable medium is being fed to the image forming apparatus. If the surface of the pick-up roller is contaminated, the printable media stored in the feeding cassette cannot be supplied with a proper friction force or be fed smoothly.

Image forming apparatus having pick-up roller cover


A joint is described which has a pair of coaxially aligned elastic rings (5) of truncated conical form the respective vertices of which are directed in opposite ways and are engaged each between a central core (3) externally having an attachment surface (3a) of truncated conical form and an outer collar (4) internally having an attachment surface (4a) of truncated conical form converging towards a vertex (V) which is common to the converging vertex of the attachment surface (3a) of the core (3).. Each elastic ring (5) comprises an inner layer made of elastomeric material (10) and an outer layer (11) made of elastomeric material between which a laminar insert piece of truncated conical form (12) is inserted, the inner (12a) and outer (12b) surfaces of which converge towards the common vertex (V) of the attachment surfaces (3a, 4a).. The outer elastomeric layer (11) is greater in thickness that the inner elastomeric layer (10).. The described joint (1) has an improved fatigue limit.

The present invention relates to an elastic swivel, of the type having at least a spring connection member comprising:
a central core external having an attachment surface of truncated conical form; PA1 an outer collar disposed coaxially about the central core and internally provided with an attachment surface of truncated conical form the vertex of which is oriented in the same direction as the vertex of the attachment surface of the core; PA1 at least one elastic ring made of elastomeric material, having the form of a truncated cone and being rigidly engaged between the outer frusto-conical surface of the core and the inner frusto-conical surface of the collar. PA1 axial oscillations; PA1 radial oscillations; PA1 rotational oscillations about the geometric axis of the joint; PA1 huntings about an axis perpendicular to the geometric axis of the joint.
The elastic swivel in question can be widely used in many fields of the mechanical industry, such as for example in the manufacture of suspensions for road and railway vehicles and/or in any situation in which the necessity arises of connecting two members or parts of a machinery susceptible of mutual oscillations in different directions.
In particular, in the course of the present description reference will be made, by way of example only, to the application of the elastic swivel to suspensions for bogies in the railway field.
It is known that when it is necessary to connect two members of a machine or apparatus giving them the possibility of mutual oscillation elastic swivels are often used which essentially consist of one or more spring connection members, each of which comprises a central core externally having an attachment surface of truncated conical form, an outer collar provided with an inner attachment surface of truncated conical form the tapering of which is equal to that of the attachment surface in the core, as well as a ring made of elastomeric material, of truncated conical form too, connected to the attachment surfaces of the core and collar by a rubber-metal junction process.
The parts that, must be mutually connected by the above describe swivel and are engaged to the central core and outer collar respectively, will be able to elastically oscillate according to different directions.
In more detail, the possible elastic oscillations in the different directions are classified according to four different types:
By choosing each time different construction solutions it is possible to impart more or less elasticity to the joint depending upon requirements, in connection with one or more of the above listed oscillation types.
For example, in making a swivel it is common to couple two connection members which are disposed coaxially and in mirror image relationship in order to balance the elastic behavior thereof in the two ways of the axial oscillation direction.
It is also known from the Italian Patent No. 1,006,248 to manufacture an elastic joint in such a manner that, after the assembling, the elastic ring or rings provided therein are precompressed between the central core and the outer collar.
This construction solution is normally adopted in order to reduce the ratio value between the radial stiffness and axial stiffness in the joint.
The behavior of the joint in the different oscillation directions can also be established, within some parameters, by the choice of suitable shapes and sizes of the elastic ring or rings interposed between the core and the outer collar.
It is however to be pointed out that at the present state of the art serious difficulties are encountered in the manufacture of elastic swivels offering a satisfactory behavior and in particular a high fatigue limit in connection with huntings.
In fact it has been found that when an elastic swivel is particularly stressed by this type of oscillation, it undergoes fatigue yieldings that usually result in the separation of the rubber ring from the core and/or outer collar at the edges defining the major base of the frusto-conical configuration of the ring itself.


An enhanced method and device are provided to treat atrial fibrillation or inhibit or reduce restenosis following angioplasty or stent placement. A balloon-tipped catheter is disposed in the area treated or opened through balloon angioplasty immediately following angioplasty. The balloon, which can have a dual balloon structure, may be delivered through a guiding catheter and over a guidewire already in place. A fluid such as a perfluorocarbon flows into the balloon to freeze the tissue adjacent the balloon, this cooling being associated with reduction of restenosis. A similar catheter may be used to reduce atrial fibrillation by inserting and inflating the balloon such that an exterior surface of the balloon contacts at least a partial circumference of the portion of the pulmonary vein adjacent the left atrium. In another embodiment, blood perfusion is performed simultaneously. In another embodiment, tissue contacted by the cryoablation catheter, undesired to be ablated, is protected against damage by a separate heating step.

Balloon angioplasty, or the technology of reshaping of a blood vessel for the purpose of establishing vessel patency using a balloon tipped catheter, has been known since the late 1970's. The procedure involves the use of a balloon catheter that is guided by means of a guidewire through a guiding catheter to the target lesion or vessel blockage. The balloon typically is equipped with one or more marker bands that allow the interventionalist to visualize the position of the balloon in reference to the lesion with the aid of fluoroscopy. Once in place, i.e., centered with the lesion, the balloon is inflated with a biocompatible fluid, and pressurized to the appropriate pressure to allow the vessel to open.
Typical procedures are completed with balloon inflation pressures between 8 and 12 atmospheres. A percentage of lesions, typically heavily calcified lesions, require much higher balloon inflation pressures, e.g., upward of 20 atmospheres. At times, the balloon inflation procedure is repeated several times before the lesion or blockage will yield. The placement of stents after angioplasty has become popular as it reduces the rate of restenosis.
Restenosis refers to the renarrowing of the vascular lumen following vascular intervention such as a balloon angioplasty procedure or stent insertion. Restenosis is clinically defined as a greater than 50% loss of initial lumen diameter. The mechanism or root causes of restenosis are still not fully understood. The causes are multifactorial, and are partly the result of the injury caused by the balloon angioplasty procedure and stent placement. With the advent of stents, restenosis rates have dropped from over 30% to 10-20%. Recently, the use and effectiveness of low-dose radiation administered intravascularly following angioplasty is being evaluated as a method to alter the DNA or RNA of an affected vessel's cells in the hope of reducing cell proliferation.
Another cardiological malady is atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is common following various cardiac surgeries, e.g., valve surgery. Atrial fibrillation refers to very rapid irregular contractions of the atria of the heart resulting in a lack of synchronization between the heartbeat and the pulse. The irregular contractions are due to irregular electrical activity that originates in the area of the pulmonary veins. A proposed device, currently under development, for treating atrial fibrillation is a balloon filled with saline that can be ultrasonically agitated and heated. This device is inserted in the femoral vein and snaked into the right atrium. The device is then poked through the interatrial septum and into the left atrium, where it is then angled into the volume adjoining the suspect pulmonary vein with the left atrium.
Research in atrial fibrillation indicates that substantially complete circumferential necrosis is required for a therapeutic benefit. The above technique is disadvantageous in that circumferential portions of the tissue, desired to be necrosed, are not in fact affected. Other techniques, including RF ablation, are similarly inefficient. Moreover, these techniques leave the necrosed portions with jagged edges, i.e., there is poor demarcation between the healthy and the necrosed tissue. These edges can then cause electrical short circuits, and associated electrical irregularities, due to the high electric fields associated with jagged edges of a conductive medium.
The above technique is also disadvantageous in that heating is employed. Heating is associated with several problems, including increased coagulum and thrombus formation, leading to emboli. Heating also stimulates stenosis of the vein. Finally, since tissues can only safely be heated to temperatures of less than or about 75° C.-85° C. due to charring and tissue rupture secondary to steam formation. The thermal gradient thus induced is fairly minimal, leading to a limited heat transfer. Moreover, since heating causes tissues to become less adherent to the adjacent heat transfer element, the tissue contact with the heat transfer element is also reduced, further decreasing the heat transfer.
Another disadvantage that may arise during either cooling or heating results from the imperfections of the surface of the tissue at or adjacent to the point of contact with the cryoballoon (in the case of cooling). In particular, surface features of the tissue may affect the local geometry such that portions of the balloon attain a better contact, and thus a better conductive heat transfer, with the tissue. Such portions may be more likely to achieve cell necrosis than other portions. As noted above, incomplete circumferential necrosis is often deleterious in treating atrial fibrillation and may well be further deleterious due to the necessity of future treatments. Accordingly, a method and device to achieve better conductive heat transfer between tissue to be ablated and an ablation balloon is needed.
A further disadvantage with prior systems arises from the temperature of the components. In particular, it is preferable if only the atrial tissue is exposed to cryogenic temperatures. However, occasionally, other tissues is exposed, such as the tissue at or near the insertion site of the catheter. Thermal tissue damage may occasionally occur.
In some situations, pulmonary vein cryo-ablation for treatment of atrial fibrillation may require long occlusion times, such as greater than five minutes. In such situations, there is a risk of stroke, which is clearly a disadvantageous result.
Prior attempts to remedy this included a perfusion balloon that facilitated flow through the catheter shaft. This design suffered from various drawbacks, such as the necessity of bringing the blood into deleteriously close contact with the refrigerant, and the insufficiency of space to provide unrestricted blood flow through the catheter. In another prior approach, a helical or star-shaped balloon was used which was self-centering. This design also suffered from various drawbacks, such as unequal ablation around the circumference.

Method and device for performing cooling- or cryo-therapies for, e.g., angioplasty with reduced restenosis or pulmonary vein cell necrosis to inhibit atrial fibrillation employing tissue protection


A density corrector performs a density correction processing on a resolution-converted image dataset to obtain a density-corrected image dataset by: determining whether each of first and second pixels in the resolution-converted image dataset is a deletion-target pixel, the first pixels each being a pixel located at a position including a longitudinal edge in a second original image, the second pixels each being a pixel located at a position including a lateral edge in the second original image, patterns of edges in regions in the first and second original images corresponding to the deletion-target pixel being the same; correcting a density of the deletion-target pixel to “0”; and correcting a density of respective pixels other than the deletion-target pixel among the first and second pixels to a value equal to or larger than an original density of the respective pixels.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an image processing device that generates print image data to be used in print operation performed by a printing machine, and also relates to a printing machine with the image processing device.
2. Related Art
Some printing machines are equipped with a text smoothing function for making the contours of printed text look smooth. Such a printing machine performs print operation as follows.
First, the printing machine performs raster image processor (RIP) processing on data in a page description language (PDL) at a resolution higher than a print resolution. Then, the printing machine performs resolution conversion to convert the high-resolution image data (raster data) obtained by the RIP processing into low-resolution (print-resolution) image data. The printing machine performs the resolution conversion by setting the density of each pixel in the low-resolution image data to an average density of corresponding pixels in the high-resolution image data in a number determined according to the ratio between the resolutions before and after the resolution conversion. Thereafter, the printing machine performs halftone processing on the low-resolution image data to generate print image data in printable format. Then, the printing machine prints an image by use of the print image data.
When an image is printed using the text smoothing function described above, the density averaging for the resolution conversion causes an edge portion of the image, such as text, to be printed at a lower density than in a case not using the text smoothing function. This brings about an advantageous effect of making the slanted contours or the like of the text slightly blur and look smooth, but meanwhile, makes jaggedness or the like of longitudinal or lateral lines more stand out.
If, for example, a multi-drop inkjet printing machine employs the text smoothing function, an edge portion is printed at lower density. Accordingly, in pixels of the edge portion, smaller dots are formed with a smaller number of drops, than in a case not using the text smoothing function. Thereby, a slanted edge portion of a slanted text line or the like slightly blurs and looks smooth. Meanwhile, since dots are small, jaggedness or the like of a longitudinal or lateral edge portion of a longitudinal or lateral line or the like stands out because of large inter-dot gaps.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-45634 discloses a technique for coping with such a problem. This technique corrects the density at the edge of an image in image data whose resolution has been converted from high resolution to low resolution. Thereby, the above-described jaggedness at the edge portion of a printed image can be suppressed.

Image processing device for generating and printing image data for one or some of colors at a higher resolution than the other colors


The present invention provides a percutaneous absorption preparation which comprises a compound having angiotensin II antagonistic activity and which allows the compound to permeate through the skin at a desirable rate for a prolonged period.

A compound having an angiotensin II receptor antagonistic activity is a drug which exhibits high activity for hypertension by such a mechanism that the compound antagonizes angiotensin II which causes a vasoconstriction action through the angiotensin II receptor on the cellular membrane. This drug is developed as an oral dosage form, and, for mitigating patient's troublesomeness, the drug is administered once after having a meal every morning. However, as is generally in common with oral dosage form, a change of a blood level of the active component with time after administration shows a pattern in which the level reaches the maximum 3-4 hours after administration and then falls. It is of importance to suppress the elevation of blood pressure at night and from bedtime to daybreak and, in order to also expect effective concentration also in the afternoon or at night, a little higher dose should be formulated. However, for this kind of a drug, it is of importance to control a dose and, at a higher dose, a patient experiences a blood drug level higher than that required for the patient, even if it is temporal. Sometimes, there is, a possibility that a higher blood level gives the patient displeasure such as giddiness and wandering. Therefore, for this drug, it is said that an ideal preparation form is a sustained-release absorption preparation, which maintains a blood drug level till the next day with a smaller range of fluctuation, once it has been administered to a patient. In general, a so-called extended-release oral dosage form, although the dosage form is made so that absorption an active component at the early stage after administration can be suppressed, the absorption efficiency of the active component is not necessarily constant within the large range of an alimentary canal, and is especially low in the large intestine. Thus, the retention time of absorption is decided by small intestine passing time (about at most 6 hours), and actually, the expected duration of absorptivity is hard to be obtained.
On the other hand, since an active component can be retained at an administration site for a long time by transdermal administration route, generally it is known that duration of much prolonged absorption can be expected in drugs having high skin permeability such as nitroglycerin or steroids.
In addition, since many patients with hypertensive are old, when they are also suffered from other alimentary canal disorders, sometimes, oral administration of a drug for hypertension may cause inconvenience. Therefore, an effective pharmaceutical preparation for hypertension which can be administered conveniently by an administration route other than oral administration is desired.

Percutaneous absorption preparation of compound having angiotensin II antagonistic activity


A hollow needle is adapted to be used in a safety syringe which is automatically blocked by a rigid blocking member after finishing an injection and retraction of the used needle into a syringe cylinder, having a bifurcated slot longitudinally notched in a rear portion of a shank and needle head portion of the hollow needle and a plurality of protrusions annularly formed on a circumferential surface of the shank portion of the needle for an easier, smooth and stable embedding of the needle on the rigid blocking member in the syringe, thereby being helpful for a smooth injection and retraction operation of the needle.

A conventinal safety syringe also invented by the present inventor of this application was patented on Apr. 27, 1993 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,826, which includes a hollow needle preliminarily held in a rigid blocking disk embedded in a rear disk socket perpendicularly formed in a flexible plug inserted in a front portion of the syringe for injection use having a needle head portion formed on a rear portion of the needle, and a plunger slidably held in the syringe for boosting a liquid medicine in the syringe to be injected into a patient through the hollow needle having a needle-head socket recessed in the plunger to be engageable with the needle-head socket for pushing the needle head portion of the needle frontwardly to drive the rigid blocking disk frontwardly to engage the blocking disk into a front disk socket which is normally inclinedly formed in the flexible plug and will be operatively perpendicularly biased in the plug when approximately exhausting the liquid in the syringe and finishing the injection, whereby upon a retraction of the plunger and the needle with the needle head portion received in and coupled to the plunger into the syringe to disengage the needle from the rigid disk, the flexible plug will restore the front socket and the rigid disk embedded in the front socket to be inclinedly positioned in the plug, thereby blocking an outward protruding of the needle retracted in the syringe for preventing its injury or infectious contamination to the surroundings.
However, such a conventional safety syringe may have the following drawbacks:
1. When the hollow needle 2 is held in the rigid blocking member 4 embedded in the flexible plug 13 in the syringe cylinder 11, the needle portion 21 with smooth surface may cause an automatic retraction of the needle 2 upon an injection of the needle tip end 211 into a patient's skin and upon an action by a counter force acted by the patient's skin to influence a normal injection operation.
2. The needle shank portion 22 is not bifurcated at its rear end portion to be lacking of elastic property for the hollow needle, thereby influencing or slowing down the coupling of the plunger 31 with the needle head portion 23 of the needle to cause an unsmooth needle injection and retraction operation for recovering a used needle into the syringe.
It is therefore expected to invent a needle which can be resiliently manipulated, held in a syringe for a smooth operation.

c/o Hung Hsing Patent Service Center, P.O. Box 55-1670


A method, apparatus and display for controlling defining and automatically executing a sequence of commands of a tool shelf. The user places (drags and drops) desktop icons from a tool box into a sequence tool shelf in an order in which the commands are to be executed. A directed list of the commands created during the placement of the icons in the sequence shelf, along with a current command pointer, is used to automatically control the execution of the commands in the order specified by the user. The execution can be performed without user input to indicate that the next command in the sequence should be executed or the user can control next command execution using a selection tool such as a marking menu. The icons of the commands are highlighted as the commands are executed to provide the user visual feed back concerning which command is currently being executed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of graphical user interface ("GUI") design for digital computers and, more particularly, involves a technique for defining and invoking user-customized sequences of commands based on the "tool shelf" GUI paradigm where the user places commands (icons) on a sequence tool shelf and designates an order of execution, and once entered and ordered the sequence automatically controls the execution order of the commands without requiring the user to select ("click-on") the commands.
2. Description of the Related Art
The "tool shelf" is a GUI technique known in the prior art that provides an on-screen pallet to which users may assign display icons corresponding to executable programs or commands. In creating the tool shelf the user "drags" desktop icons for the desired commands from one or more "tool boxes" to the tool shelf pallet and drops them on the pallet. As the user does this the conventional systems create a list of commands that are on the tool shelf. Once the user has dropped all the command icons on the tool shelf pallet that are desired the user can give the tool shelf a name. The typical systems allow the creation of multiple tool shelves that group commands according to a users desires and needs. These tool shelves can then be selected by "clicking-on" the "tab" (name) associated with the desired tool shelf. The selected tool shelf will be displayed in a visible tool shelf window and a user can then execute a command in the tool shelf simply by "clicking-on" the corresponding tool shelf icon (that is, by placing or positioning a pointer or cursor on the command icon and then depressing a selection button on a mouse or other pointing device). In this way, the user is given fast, convenient, one-button access to a custom set of particular programs, commands, or tools of interest to that user. For example, the typical GUI display 10, such as is provided with the STUDIO V7 software package available from Alias/Wavefront of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and shown schematically in FIG. 1, allows a user to "drag and drop" command desktop icons from a predefined "tool box" 12 onto a custom tool shelf 14. The commands can, of course, be removed from the shelf 14 by the same drag and drop operations. The tool box 12 is included in a tool pallet 16 of command icons, and is essentially a predefined library of tools, and is not interactively customizable by a user, whereas the tool shelf's contents are fully customizable by the user. The tool pallet 16 shown depicts five tool boxes each signified by a "tab", such as the tab 24 for the "objects" tool box.
Naturally, users generally populate the tool shelf with the most frequently used commands, or with a subset of commands generally used in a particular application of interest. These commands are then invoked by clicking on the desired command (icon). Some systems allow users to construct several different tool shelves, and to control which tool shelf is displayed at a particular moment by clicking on the "tab" or the like associated with each individual tool shelf. The tab generally displays a user specified name that is a description of the associated commands such as the tab 26 for an "Animation" tool shelf. The tool shelf pallet 18 shown in FIG. 1 is depicted with three tool shelves.
The prior art tool shelf interface approach is a reasonably effective GUI technique for some purposes, but remains limited. Current tool shelf designs do not permit users to define an ordering for the execution of a sequence of commands; indeed, they do not represent execution sequences at any meaningful level. This limitation may perhaps be acceptable in the context of a tool shelf containing icons representing disparate programs that are not primarily meant to be used together. However, a tool shelf may contain icons for a set of tools that are used together in an application, such as icons representing the various paintbrushes, colors, and geometric outlines available for use in a drawing or painting program. In this latter case, the ability to represent and define ordered sequences of execution can be very important. The problem of not being able to represent sequences of commands within the tool shelf paradigm is especially pronounced when certain sequences of commands are frequently repeated in a manner that is interleaved with interactive work by the user (e.g., "work flows"). For example, consider a work flow scenario in which the user of a geometric drawing program creates a sphere, moves the sphere, scales the sphere, rotates the view into a particular perspective view, returns the display to a normal work perspective, and then repeats the process. The icons for these operations are illustrated in different tool boxes in the tool pallet 16 of FIG. 1. Assuming that a user has created a customized tool shelf with all of these commands on it, the user must: (i) select (click-on) the "create sphere" tool icon on the tool shelf 14; (ii) move the screen cursor or pointer 20 to a location in the work area 22 of the screen 10 and click-on that location to specify initial placement of the new sphere; (iii) then go back to the tool shelf 14 and select the "move" tool icon; (iv) then once again "drag" or manipulate the cursor 20 within the work area 22 to move the sphere; (v) then once again return to the tool shelf 14 and select the "scale" tool; (vi) then once again drag the pointer 20 in the work area 22 to scale the sphere; (vii) then go back to the tool shelf 14 and select the "change to perspective view" command to evaluate the newly created sphere, and (viii) finally select "return to the normal view" command from the tool shelf 14 before repeating the entire process over again. Thus, even if an appropriate tool shelf is employed, in accordance with the prior art, the user must repeatedly move the cursor 20 (and more importantly, his or her attention) back and forth between the drawing area 22 and the tool shelf 14, and must mentally keep track of progress within the overall command sequence.
Moreover, because the tool shelf selections that make up the command sequence are, in the preceding example and in many real-life situations, necessarily interleaved with work area activity that varies each time the sequence is invoked (e.g., dragging or manipulating the cursor within the work area to select specific locations or scaling for the sphere), this problem is clearly not solved simply by combining prior art tool shelves with prior art macro recording tools.
What is needed is an improved GUI that preserves the intuitiveness and simplicity of the tool shelf paradigm, but that further allows users to define and automate common/custom execution sequences and that keeps the user apprised of the position of execution within the defined sequence.

Graphical user interface for defining and invoking user-customized tool shelf execution sequence


The present invention provides an apparatus and method for processing data, the apparatus comprising a plurality of asynchronous control circuits, each asynchronous control circuit employing a request-acknowledge control loop to control data flow within that asynchronous control circuit, and being arranged to exchange data signals with at least one other of said plurality of asynchronous control circuits. Further, a first of said asynchronous control circuits includes a halt circuit for blocking a control signal in the control loop of the first asynchronous control circuit, thereby preventing the exchange of data signals with said at least one other of said plurality of asynchronous control circuits so as to cause the control loops of said plurality of asynchronous control circuits to become blocked. The present invention is based on an asynchronous design, which only causes transitions in the circuit in response to a request to carry out useful work. It can switch instantaneously between zero power dissipation and maximum performance upon demand. According to the invention, there is provided a `Halt` circuit which causes all processor activity to cease until an interrupt occurs. The circuit preferably works by intercepting a control signal in the processing apparatus' asynchronous control circuits, effectively breaking a single request-acknowledge control loop. Since the control circuits are interrelated, blocking the response in one loop rapidly (but not instantaneously) stalls all the other control loops in the apparatus, and hence the stall ultimately propagates throughout the entire apparatus, terminating all activity. Preferably, an interrupt is used to release the stall in the original control loop, and activity then propagates from this point throughout the system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to asynchronous data processing apparatus, and in particular to techniques for enabling asynchronous data processing apparatus to operate in a power efficient manner.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Data processing apparatus, such as a microprocessor, will typically be implemented using a synchronous architecture, since this is generally considered to be less complex than an asynchronous architecture. Synchronous microprocessors operate under the control of an externally supplied clock signal, whereas asynchronous microprocessors need to be self-timed and to operate without any externally supplied clock. The absence of an externally supplied clock increases the complexity in designing a microprocessor. For example, the designer has to consider how the flow of data is to be controlled in the absence of any reference clock, and the delays of processing elements must be measured by the circuit itself instead of being simply modelled by the clock period.
However, microprocessors based on synchronous designs are not particularly power efficient. The clock in a synchronous circuit runs all the time, causing transitions in the circuit that dissipate electrical power. The clock frequency must be set so that the processor can cope with the peak workload and, although the clock rate can be adjusted under software control to varying demands, this can only be done relatively crudely at a coarse granularity. Therefore most of the time the clock is running faster than is necessary to support the current workload, resulting in wasted power.
Hence, an object of the present invention is to provide a microprocessor with an improved power efficiency.


A brake booster includes a housing, a partition adapted to divide the interior of the housing into two chambers, and two diaphragms adapted to divide the two chambers into constant and variable pressure chambers. A control valve includes a valve body carried by the diaphragms, and a plunger slidably received in the valve body. The control valve is operatively connected to the variable pressure chambers to develop a pressure differential across the diaphragms to cause the diaphragms to move in response to actuation of an input rod. A reaction disk is disposed between an output rod and the valve body to transmit the reaction of movement of the output rod to the input rod. An adjusting mechanism is disposed between the plunger and the reaction disk and compressible so as to develop a greater degree of pressure differential when a force applied by the input rod exceeds a predetermined level. The reaction disk is caused to make contact with the contact disk and held out of contact with the spring and the plunger when the plunger is actuated.

The present invention relates to pressure differential operated boosters for use in automotive brake systems.
A conventional tandem servo booster typically includes a housing, a partition secured within the housing to divide the interior of the housing into front and rear chambers, and two diaphragms located on opposite sides of the partition and adapted to divide the interior of the front and rear chambers into front and rear constant and variable pressure chambers, respectively (see FIG. 5). The it partition and diaphragms are secured to a valve body. An H output rod is connected to the valve body through an elastomeric reaction disk. An input rod is coaxial with the output rod and is connected to a plunger which is slidably received in the valve body. The front and rear constant pressure chambers are permanently communicated with a vacuum source. Normally, the plunger is urged into its retracted position so as to hold all the four chambers in communication with the vacuum source. When the brake pedal is depressed, an input force is applied to the input rod to activate the plunger. The plunger is then unseated from a valve seat to interrupt vacuum communication between the constant pressure chambers and the variable pressure chambers and in turn, cause ambient air to enter the front and rear variable chambers. With the air in the variable pressure chambers, a pressure differential is developed across the front and rear diaphragms. This pressure differential acts on the diaphragms so as to develop a force which is carried into the valve body for distribution into the output rod. Except for the initial stage of braking, this output force linearly increases as the input force increases (see the line F in FIG. 6). It is, thus, necessary to heavily depress the brake pedal in the event that a larger braking force is required at the time of X emergency.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a pressure differential operated brake booster which can readily produce a greater degree of braking force without the need to increase the force required to depress the brake pedal.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a pressure differential operated brake booster which enhances a "jump-in" effect at the time of emergency.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pressure differential operated brake booster which allows for ready and safe assembly of adjusting means within a valve body.

Pressure differential operated brake booster