The invention is directed towards an automated system for tracking a vehicle, associating that vehicle with a vehicle washing selection, and tracking the vehicle until it enters the vehicle washing station for subsequent presentation of the vehicle washing selection to the control computer of the vehicle washing system for subsequent washing.

The present invention is directed to a vehicle tracking system for an automated vehicle washing system.
Automatic vehicle washes are well known and very popular. One goal of these vehicle washing systems is to wash as many vehicles as possible while providing an automated system so a customer does not have to wash a vehicle by hand. Some vehicle washing service stations provide one washing selection input station and subsequently the customer drives the vehicle forward to the vehicle washing system. In this system, vehicles enter one at a time into the washing system and the vehicles maintain approximately a single file line. Other vehicle washes have multiple pay points with multiple vehicle washing selection services available. After the customers enter their selections and pay for the selections at one of the multiple pay point systems, the vehicles typically exit the selection and pay area and enter a queue point area where they wait for entry into a washing tunnel.
When a customer purchases a vehicle washing service, a problem can arise if the vehicle washing equipment system does not receive the proper service selection that the customer ordered. A current solution to this problem, as generally know in the art, is to allow for one vehicle to pull forward from the pay point to a single file queue point. Once the vehicle reaches the single file point, another vehicle can be released from the pay area gate. In this way the system can provide the correct wash to the correct vehicle as opposed to confusing the identification of the vehicles and their respective washing selections.
Another problem associated with both of these vehicle washing systems is that there is a relatively high risk of not having a vehicle to wash when there is an open spot in the tunnel for a vehicle. This could happen if a vehicle does not immediately exit the vehicle washing selection input area and travel directly to the line for the vehicle washing tunnels. Accordingly, if the vehicles do not enter the line directly following their service selection, the timing of the service selection arriving at the vehicle washing station and the vehicle arriving at the vehicle washing station may be off. Consequently, the vehicle may receive the incorrect wash.
Additionally, it is important for efficiency purposes to have a vehicle in the tunnel at all times if there is a large buildup at the entry gate. If there is not a vehicle in the tunnel at all times, the overall efficiency of the vehicle washing system is decreased and the system can lose potential revenue. Furthermore, if a customer runs into a problem, for example, if the customer is putting a wallet away, waiting for a receipt to print, or any number of other things that could happen at the pay point, on a busy day efficiency is decreased as a whole as the vehicle is holding up the line and preventing a smooth flow of vehicles to the vehicle washing tunnel. In some high volume vehicle washes, efficiency is particularly important in that a small amount of time savings can lead to more vehicles entering the washing system. For example, some vehicle washes have vehicles enter at as high of a rate as one vehicle every approximately fifteen seconds. A decrease in the amount of time between vehicles can lead to a vehicle washing system with a likely increased efficiency and an increase in profitability.
In order to solve this problem, some vehicle washing system designs have a multiple gate and pay area solution in which there are multiple pay stalls for multiple vehicles to pay for vehicle washes. After making a vehicle wash selection and paying for the selection, the vehicles move through a gate towards the vehicle wash equipment and tunnel. The problem associated with this is determining to which vehicle a customer's vehicle washing service selection is associated. Many vehicle washing system designs have attempted to solve this by using people to input the vehicle selection service as the vehicle reaches the vehicle washing tunnel. Additionally, the vehicle washes will somehow mark a vehicle and then an operator in the tunnel entrance manually enters the vehicle number, picks a service, or uses some other mechanism to tell the tunnel which service or services to provide. The problem with this situation is that it uses a person, as an employee, to perform the task and thus increases the likelihood of error, fraud, or failure to provide the correct services each customer paid for.
Another potential difficulty with these vehicle washing systems is that multiple people are attempting to get into a vehicle washing tunnel that has only one access point. This can lead to multiple vehicle bottlenecks that can frustrate customers when they cannot immediately get into the vehicle wash. In turn, this can lead to decreased customer retention rates as customers may choose to go to a different vehicle wash if they become frustrated with the current system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system in which vehicles can enter a vehicle wash in any order and do not have to comply with a specific sequence, thus increasing efficiency.
Accordingly, another object of the invention is to provide a system that is fully automated to prevent human error and increase efficiency.
A further object of the invention is to provide a vehicle tracking system that automatically pairs the vehicle with the vehicle washing selection choice in order to increase the number of vehicles that can be washed in a given amount of time by decreasing the number of vacant vehicle washing tunnels and vehicles waiting in line.
A further object of the invention is to provide a vehicle washing system in which multiple vehicles can be washed with maximum system efficiency by minimizing the time a vehicle is not in the vehicle wash.

Vehicle tracking system for vehicle washing


The present invention effectively produces glucose dehydrogenase derived from Aspergillus oryzae, and provides more practical glucose dehydrogenase. The invention makes it possible to efficiently produce glucose dehydrogenase and to obtain glucose dehydrogenase in more practical manner by using a glucose dehydrogenase gene isolated from Aspergillus oryzae.

Self-monitoring of blood glucose is important for a patient with diabetes to figure out a usual blood glucose level in the patient and apply it to treatment. An enzyme taking glucose as a substrate is utilized for a sensor used for the self-monitoring of blood glucose. An example of such an enzyme includes, for example, glucose oxidase (EC. 22.214.171.124). Glucose oxidase is advantageous in that it has high specificity for glucose and is excellent in thermal stability, and thus has been used as the enzyme for a blood glucose sensor from a long time ago. Its first publication goes back 40 years ago. In the blood glucose sensor using glucose oxidase, the measurement is performed by transferring electrons produced in a process of oxidizing glucose to convert into D-glucono-δ-lactone to an electrode via a mediator. However, glucose oxidase easily transfers protons produced in the reaction to oxygen, and thus dissolved oxygen affects the measured value, which has been problematic.
In order to avoid such a problem, for example, NAD(P)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase (EC. 188.8.131.52) or pyrrolo-quinoline quinone-dependent glucose dehydrogenase (EC. 126.96.36.199; former EC. 220.127.116.11) is used as the enzyme for the blood glucose sensor. They dominates in that they are not affected by dissolved oxygen, but the former NAD(P)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase has the poor stability and requires the addition of the coenzyme. Meanwhile, the latter pyrrolo-quinoline quinone-dependent glucose dehydrogenase is inferior in substrate specificity, reacts with other sugars such as maltose and lactose and thus correctness of the measured value is impaired.
In Non-patent documents 1 to 4, glucose dehydrogenase derived from Aspergillus oryzae has been reported, but no glucose dehydrogenase gene has been reported. In Non-patent documents 1 to 4, it has not been described to produce the glucose dehydrogenase derived from Aspergillus oryzae by gene recombination.
Non-patent literature 1: Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1967 Jul. 11; 139(2):265-76
Non-patent literature 2: Biochim. Biophys. Acta., 1967 Jul. 11; 139(2):277-93
Non-patent literature 3: Biochim Biophys Acta. 146(2):317-27
Non-patent literature 4: Biochim Biophys Acta. 146(2):328-35
In Patent document 1, flavin-binding type glucose dehydrogenase derived from genus Aspergillus has been disclosed. This enzyme dominates in that this is excellent in substrate specificity and is not affected by the dissolved oxygen. For the thermal stability, it has been described that a residual activity ratio after being treated at 50° C. for 15 minutes is about 89% and this enzyme is excellent in thermal stability (hereinafter also described as heat resistance). In Patent document 2, a gene sequence and an amino acid sequence of that enzyme have been reported.
Patent document 1: WO2004/058958
Patent document 2: WO2006/101239
Recently, a complete genome sequence of Aspergillus oryzae has been determined. However, there is no available information what part of the sequence encodes glucose dehydrogenase.


A transmit-receive switch architecture comprises a first switch coupled to transmit circuitry and to an antenna, a second switch coupled to receive circuitry and to ground, wherein the second switch is configured to couple the receive circuitry to ground during a time period in which a power source associated with the transmit circuitry is enabled.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to transceiver architecture in a wireless portable communication device. More particularly, the invention relates to a transmit-receive switch architecture providing pre-transmit isolation.
2. Related Art
With the increasing availability of efficient, low cost electronic modules, mobile communication systems are becoming more and more widespread. For example, there are many variations of communication schemes in which various frequencies, transmission schemes, modulation techniques and communication protocols are used to provide two-way voice and data communications in a handheld, telephone-like communication handset. The different modulation and transmission schemes each have advantages and disadvantages.
As these mobile communication systems have been developed and deployed, many different standards, to which these systems must conform, have evolved. For example, in the United States, third generation portable communications systems comply with the IS-136 standard, which requires the use of a particular modulation scheme and access format. In the case of IS-136, the modulation scheme can be 8-quadrature phase shift keying (8QPSK), offset π/4 differential quadrature phase shift keying (π/4-DQPSK) or variations thereof and the access format is TDMA.
In Europe and in other parts of the world, the global system for mobile communications (GSM) standard requires the use of the gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) modulation scheme in a narrow band TDMA access environment, which uses a constant envelope modulation methodology. The GSM communication standard has been further developed into what is referred to as the enhanced data rates for GSM evolution, referred to as EDGE, which uses 8-quadrature phase shift keying (8QPSK). In Europe and in many other regions the GSM communication system operates in the 900 MHz "EGSM900" band and the 1800 MHz "DCS1800" band, while in the Americas it operates in the 850 MHz "GSM850" band and the 1900 MHz "PCS1900" band. Each of the GSM variants uses different transmit and receive frequencies.
For efficiency of deployment, in some instances it is desirable to provide a single communication device that can be used in more than one communication system. These so called "multi-mode" or "multi-band" communication devices are capable of providing communications access in two or more communications systems (multi-mode), or two or more bands (multi-band). For example, in the GSM communications system, some communications devices are capable of operating in the GSM850, EGSM900, DCS1800 and PCS1900 frequency bands. Even though the PCS1900 transmit band overlaps the DCS1800 receive band, and the GSM850 receive band overlaps the EGSM900 transmit band, these communications devices can provide the capability to operate in all of these bands because they only operate in one band at any given time.
Unfortunately however, due to the frequency overlap between the PCS1900 transmit band and the DCS1800 receive band, there is an operating situation in which leakage from the transmit section in the PCS1900 band may leak through the receive section of the DCS1800 band, and in which leakage from the transmit section in the EGSM900 band may leak through the receive section of the GSM850 band. The operating condition arises because the GSM transmit time mask specification requires stringent adherence to power output limitations. For example, during what is referred to as a "pre-transmit time" a transmit voltage controlled oscillator (TX VCO) associated with the DCS1800/PCS1900 transmit section of the communication device is activated to stabilize frequency prior to transmitting, but the communication device is not permitted to transmit until a prescribed time. Specifically, the level of any emitted power must be below a specified limit during the pre-transmit time. To prevent any transmit power from being emitted during this pre-transmit time, one or more transmit/receive switches in the communication device are maintained in a receive position, thus preventing any significant transmit power from being emitted by the transmit circuitry in the communication device during the pre-transmit time. Unfortunately, because the PCS1900 transmit band overlaps the DCS1800 receive band, power from the TX VCO may leak through the DCS1800 receive band circuitry to the antenna, particularly through the surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter associated with the DCS1800 receive circuitry.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary front end module (FEM) 10 of a communication device. The front end module 10 comprises an antenna 11 coupled to a diplexer 12. The diplexer separates frequency bands and provides, in this example, GSM850/EGSM900 transmit/receive signals via connection 14 and the DCS1800/PCS1900 transmit/receive signals via connection 16. The front end module 10 illustrates an architecture that combines GSM850, EGSM900, DCS1800, and PCS1900 (also considered within the GSM framework) communication bands on a single portable communication device. This architecture is also referred to as "quadband." For simplicity of description, only the DCS1800/PCS1900 frequency bands will be discussed. The signal on connection 16 is coupled to a transmit-receive switch 18. The transmit-receive switch 18 can be, for example, fabricated using a gallium arsenide (GaAs) field effect transitor (FET) or any other switch. The transmit-receive switch 18 determines whether a signal received by the antenna 11 will be delivered to receive circuitry or whether a transmit signal will be delivered to the antenna 11 from the transmitter circuitry.
In the receive path, the transmit-receive switch 18 is coupled via connection 38 to a pair of surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters 41 and 42. The surface acoustic wave filter 41 is tuned to receive signals in the DCS1800 communication band while the surface acoustic wave filter 42 is tuned to receive signals in the PCS1900 communication band. In addition, a transmit filter 44 allows the passage of DCS1800 and PCS1900 transmit signals from the power amplifier 49 via connection 48. The surface acoustic wave filter 41 should present a high impedance in the band in which the surface acoustic wave filter 42 operates. Similarly, the surface acoustic wave filter 42 should present a high impedance in the band in which the surface acoustic wave filter 41 operates. This impedance condition may be met in a variety of ways as known in the art.
A transceiver 37 includes a transmit voltage control oscillator (TX VCO) 36 for the GSM850/EGSM900 transmit bands and a TX VCO 52 for the DCS1800/PCS1900 transmit bands. The TX VCO 52 is coupled to the transmit power amplifier 49 via connection 51. The transceiver 37 also includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) 33 for the GSM850 receive band coupled to the surface acoustic wave filter 27 via connection 29, and an LNA 34 for the EGSM900 receive band coupled to the surface acoustic wave filter 26 via connection 28. The transceiver 37 also includes an LNA 54 coupled to the surface acoustic wave filter 41 in the DCS1800 receive band via connection 46, and an LNA 55 coupled to the surface acoustic wave filter 42 in the PCS1900 receive band via connection 47.
The following description will be directed to the DCS1800/PCS1900 bands, but is also applicable to the GSM850/EGSM900 bands. When communicating using time division duplex (TDD) or time division multiple access (TDMA), as used in the GSM communication methodology, there is a portion of the communication time, referred to as the "pretransmit" time, during which the switch 18 remains in the receive position, as shown in FIG. 1, and during which time the TX VCO 52 is activated to power-up and stabilize prior to transmitting. During this pre-transmit time period, and because the PCS1900 transmit band overlaps the DCS1800 receive band, a PCS1900 transmit signal emitted from the TX VCO 52 may leak through the DCS1800 receive path, through the surface acoustic wave filter 41, as shown using reference numeral 60. This leakage path 60 occurs due to the TX VCO 52 being active, and being in close proximity to the receive port 46 of the low noise amplifier 54. Further, leakage from the TX VCO 52 may propagate to other portions of the transceiver 37. This transmit signal leakage through the receive path to the antenna 11 may cause the portable communication device to violate the allowed GSM transmit time mask.
FIG. 2 is a graphical illustration 70 showing an exemplary transmit power curve of a portable communication device operating in the GSM communication environment. The horizontal axis 71 represents time and the vertical axis 72 represents transmit power. The GSM communication system transmits power in what are referred to as "transmit bursts" which occur during carefully controlled time periods. The curve 76 illustrates the transmit power output of the antenna 11 of FIG. 1. The mask 74 represents the GSM transmit spectrum within which the transmit power curve 76 must remain.
During a pre-transmit time, illustrated using reference numeral 77, the TX VCO 52 is on, while the switch 18 (FIG. 1) remains in a receive mode to attempt to prevent transmit power from reaching the antenna 11 (FIG. 1). During this time period 77 the TX VCO 52 (FIG. 1) is on, but is not allowed to transmit. However, as mentioned above, transmit power may leak through the receive path as described above and may cause a portable communication device to violate the GSM transmit spectrum mask 74.
Prior solutions, which isolate the DCS1800 receive circuitry from the PCS1900 transmit circuitry during pre-transmit and transmit time (and which isolate the GSM850 receive circuitry from the EGSM900 transmit circuitry), include additional switches to select the different receive band ports. Unfortunately, additional switches raise the cost and the complexity of the communication device.
Therefore, it would be desirable to efficiently reduce or eliminate any radio frequency (RF) power emitted by a communication device through the receive circuitry.

Transmit-receive switch architecture providing pre-transmit isolation


An actuator for the change speed shaft of a motor vehicle automatic transmission comprises a housing, an actuating shaft rotatably mounted in the housing, an electric motor, a reversible, low-loss reduction gearing by which the rotor of the electric motor is directly coupled to the actuating shaft, a pretensioned spiral spring forming an energy storing means by which the actuating shaft may be driven into the parking position independently of the electric motor, an electronic controller for driving the electric motor as a function of control signals, a coupling means for coupling the actuating shaft to the change speed shaft of the automatic transmission. Rotation of the actuating shaft by the coupling means is converted into angles of rotation of the change speed shaft which correspond to the control signals. The actuator replaces a conventional gearshift lever on an automatic transmission.

The invention relates to an actuator for a change speed shaft of a motor vehicle automatic transmission.
In motor vehicles having an automatic transmission shifting between the various gearbox positions, including the parking position, is done by means of a gearshift lever usually arranged above the transmission tunnel of the vehicle. The gearshift lever is coupled to a change speed shaft of the transmission via a traction cable or linkage.
The invention provides an actuator for a change speed shaft of a motor vehicle automatic transmission comprising no gearshift lever to be actuated manually so that the space provided in conventional vehicles for the gearshift lever can be put to use for other purposes.
The actuator in accordance with the invention comprises:
a housing, an actuating shaft rotatably mounted in the housing, an electric motor with a rotor, a reversible low-loss reduction gearing by which the rotor of the electric motor is directly coupled to the actuating shaft, an energy storing means storing an amount of energy required for driving the actuating shaft independently of the electric motor, an electronic controller for driving the electric motor in response to control signals, a coupling means for coupling the actuating shaft to the change speed shaft, rotation of the actuating shaft by the electronic motor and through the coupling means being converted into angles of rotation of the change speed shaft which correspond to the control signals.
The actuator in accordance with the invention is an electromechanical positioner activated by electrical control signals. The electrical control signals can be generated by switches actuated manually located anywhere as desired in the vehicle, for example, on the dashboard or on the steering wheel.
An objective of the invention is to ensure that the automatic transmission is switched to the parking position when the ignition key is removed with the vehicle stationary, i.e. the driver not being forced to select the parking position before removing the ignition key. To satisfy this requirement, selecting the parking position must also occur even when there is a power failure to the electric motor. It is for this case that an energy storing means is provided storing an amount of energy required for driving the actuating shaft independently of the electric motor. The actuating shaft is thus powered in normal operation by the electric motor through the reduction gearing and in emergency operation via the energy storing means. To permit eliminating a mechanical selector device, however, which is hardly achievable with the necessary reliability, the invention provides for both the energy storing means in emergency operation and the electric motor drive in normal operation being permanently coupled to the actuating shaft. The electric motor thus works against the energy storing means, for example, a tensioned spiral spring, and the energy storing means entrains in emergency operation the electric motor through the reduction gearing which then translates to a higher speed. This concept requires, on the one hand, a particularly rugged electric motor and, on the other, a low-loss design of the reduction gearing.
In accordance with one advantageous embodiment of the invention a brushless external rotor motor is provided as the electric motor, particularly suitable being a 28-pole 4-phase external rotor motor. To permit positional control a rotary shaft encoder is employed achievable by two Hall sensors assigned to the rotor. Such a rotary shaft encoder permits sensing the absolute angles of rotation of the rotor. Driving the stator windings is done by extremely low-impedance FET-type power semiconductors.
A particularly low-loss reduction gearing suitable for communicating a high torque is achieved by a two-stage design. The first stage is a belt drive with a small diameter pulley on the rotor of the electric motor coupled to a larger diameter pulley via belts, more particularly V-belts. The second stage is a planetary gearing, the sun gear of which is connected to the larger diameter pulley for joint rotation and the and planet carrier of which is coupled to the actuating shaft. The reduction ratio of such a two-stage reduction gearing is, for example, approx. 40 to 1.
A further objective of the invention is to ensure that in the absence of an explicit positioning command to the controller any shift action is excluded.
This objective is achieved by one further embodiment of the invention in that the actuating shaft can be selectively arrested in its various discrete rotary positions by a latch active in the non-operated condition, unlatching requiring a current pulse to a solenoid which maintains the latch temporarily in the release position. The solenoid has two exciter windings each independent of the other. The first exciter winding is driven in normal operation by the controller when a positional control is translated. The other exciter winding is driven by a signal derived from the vehicle ignition lock when the ignition key is removed and the vehicle is stationary. For this signal, energy needs to be available independently of the vehicle voltage which, however, may be small and, for example, achievable by a storage capacitor coupled to the vehicle electrics via a decoupling diode.

Actuator for the change speed shaft of a motor vehicle automatic transmission

TRW Automotive Electronics and Components GmbH and Co. KG


A viscous material evacuator has a chamber to hold containers shaped as drums and has a plunger that presses into the interior of the drum to press out its highly viscous contents. The chamber has a hinged enclosure that has a hydraulically activated clamp that connects the two sides of the hinged enclosure. The hydraulically activated clamp can be arranged in series and also has a relief cartridge and pressure sensor to prevent the drum from becoming overpressurized.

The invention relates to a hydraulic system and method, in particular for controlling a fastener for a container evacuator that evacuates silicone gum or other viscous material from a drum to a compounding system.
In a compounding system, a viscous material is fed to a processing line where feed is mixed and additives are injected in proportions to produce a customized product. The feed material for these processes can be delivered in various containers. When delivered, the material must be removed from the container for processing. For example, a compounding system can require emptying material such as silicone gum from drums or similar containers. However, the feed material may be very viscous and resistant to flow and hence, resistant to removal from the delivery container.
Some container emptying processes use a plunger to drive through the container content to express the content for further processing. A considerable amount of pressure is needed in these processes to express a viscous material such as a silicone gum. The high expressing force exposes the materials container to very high mechanical stress. For reasons of weight and expense, the containers are usually designed with very thin walls and a structure that is just sufficient to avoid damage to the container during transport. The container is not designed to withstand stress imposed during an emptying operation and the high pressure developed during the emptying operation can easily burst a container structure.
Reinforcing split metal sleeves or half-shells can be placed around a container during an emptying operation to provide some structural integrity and resistance to bursting. However, the mounting and closing off of the sleeves and half-shells can be very complicated operations, requiting considerable manual labor. The sleeve or half shells are particularly vulnerable to bursting where they are fastened together. Another disadvantage is that the sleeves or half-shells must be adapted in an exact manner to the outside container dimensions thus sometimes requiring an inventory of sleeves or half-shells to accommodate various sized containers.
Commonly assigned and copending patent application Knox et al., Ser. No. 11,536,700, filed Sep. 29, 2006 and entitled FASTENER FOR A VISCOUS MATERIAL CONTAINER EVACUATOR AND METHOD teaches a secure enclosure for a viscous material container evacuator and method to remove viscous material from a delivery container to a processing system. The viscous material container evacuator comprises: a chamber to hold a container and a plunger axially and slidably accommodated within the chamber to express material from the container; at least one hinged closure that closes to define the chamber and to securely enclose the container; and at least one motor activated fastener that secures the closure around the container. However, while the motor activated fastener is advancement, the fastener is only as secure a closure for the chamber as its particular activating mechanism. Accordingly, there remains a need to provide an activating mechanism for a fastener to securely close a viscous material container evacuator

Hydraulic container evacuator and method


A fuel injection shutdown system for a fuel injected internal combustion engine having mechanical fuel injectors with a return spring and lifter bodies slidably disposed in lifter guides comprises a slot formed in the lifter guides to receive a hydraulic cartridge and a slot in the lifter bodies which registers with the slots in the lifter guides, but are longer, the hydraulic cartridge extends into the slots in the lifter bodies, as the lifter bodies are reciprocated by an injection cam and the hydraulic cartridge does not contact the slots in the lifter bodies and the hydraulic cartridges have a stop pin slidably disposed therein and have a hydraulic duct which when filled with pressurized hydraulic fluid causes the stop pin to extend from the hydraulic cartridge contact the top of the slot in the lifter body and hold the lifter body off the cam preventing the fuel injectors from injecting fuel into the engine in two engine revolutions and stopping the engine to prevent harm to the engine.

If a diesel engine loses its lubricating oil pressure or over speeds it is desirable to shut down the engine rapidly, preferably within one cycle in order to protect the engine bearings from major damage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,170 describes a device for shutting off the fuel supplied to the engine by utilizing a solenoid valve to shut off the fuel being supplied to the engine and activating an aspirating pump to remove fuel from the fuel manifold to shutdown the engine quickly.


An emergency axle is provided for small trailers normally pulled by automobiles or small trucks. The emergency axle may be carried on the trailer on in the pulling vehicle. In the event an axle is damaged or breaks, the emergency axle is placed over the end of that axle so that the wheel is remounted and the trip continues. The emergency axle has an extension tube for sliding over the end of the damaged axle. One end of the tube is closed with an attachment plate which connects to the brake mounting plate on the trailer axle. The other end of the tube is closed by an axle plate with a stub axle to which the wheel can be mounted.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an emergency repair of a disabled trailer by replacement of a broken or damaged trailer axle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Trailers used to haul furniture, horses, boats, snowmobiles, personal watercraft, ATV's, gliders, etc., are usually attached to an automobile or small truck by a simple ball hitch. The trailers can have a ladder frame with side rails extending along the length connected to spaced cross members. The frame includes one or more axles terminating in hub assemblies on each side of the trailer. Tires mounted on wheels bolted to the hub assemblies support the frame and provide locomotion for the trailer.
The axles and hub assemblies of such small trailers are subjected to extremes of operating conditions, including submersion in water or mud, high speeds and general lack of maintenance. Because of these factors, it is not uncommon to observe such trailers abandoned along the highways as a result of the failure of an axle or wheel assembly. This invites criminality of misappropriation and possible violence, not to mention the inconvenience and expense of delay.
Others have addressed this problem in various ways, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,058 to Horn teaches the use of a spare wheel assembly that can be swung into position to replace a damaged wheel. Lay, U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,679 teaches the use of an auxiliary wheel chained into place. Lay et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,687 teach a spare wheel attached to the trailer frame until needed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,629 teaches a vertical strut mounting a wheel and tire assembly to replace a broken axle. All of these references use an entire wheel, hub and tire assembly as a replacement. These devices are both heavy and bulky which adds to the over-all weight of the trailer and requires a greater size to carry them.


A cleaning blade system for a variety of electrophotographic apparatuses. A preferably reversible, elongated, elastic wiper blade is longitudinally supported by a relatively rigid, elongated holder. The wiper holder is universally adaptable to a variety of differently configured cleaning blade mounts by a plurality of mounting adapters which all have a uniform interface with the wiper holders so that all wipers and wiper holders can be uniform. Each mounting adapter has a second interface for fastening it to at least one of the varied cleaning blade mounts in the same way that a conventional cleaning blade is fastened. The holder and mounting adapters include provisions for locating and stabilizing the disposition of wipers relative to the drums. Preferably the holder includes an interlock securing a wiper blade without adhesives. The wiper blade may include flared edges to enhance contact pressure against the drum and extend its useful life.

This invention relates to removing toner and other residue from the photosensitive drum in an electrophotographic apparatus by means of a cleaning blade consisting of a rigid holder coupled with an elastic wiper. The edge of the elastic wiper is caused to bear against the surface of the photosensitive drum, thus wiping toner and other residue off the drum as it rotates.
Two popular types of cleaning blades are distinguished by the method of forming and attaching an elastic wiper, usually polyurethane, to a rigid holder typically made of stamped steel sheet or extruded aluminum. The first type of cleaning blade is molded whereby liquid polyurethane is introduced into a mold with the rigid holder affixed therein. The assembly is oven cured to obtain the desired physical characteristics of the urethane, which is then precision trimmed to form the surface to be placed in contact with the rotating drum. The second type of cleaning blade is fabricated by attaching a polyurethane strip cut from a preformed sheet to the rigid holder using an adhesive, preferably double-sided adhesive tape.
In the family of electrophotographic apparatus, which includes copy machinery and laser printers, the diversity of geometries have spawned the development of approximately four hundred and fifty different cleaning blade configurations. The design of these systems has typically not considered the use of standardized cleaning blade configurations in different applications, leading to this proliferation of cleaning blade configurations.
In the prior art, the cleaning blades are specifically designed for a particular application without regard to using a standardized cleaning blade configuration interchangeably in different electrophotographic machines. Currently, there are no means available to locate and secure a standard configuration cleaning blade to preserve its geometric relationship with the photosensitive drum for different machines, nor to allow for interchangeability of a standard cleaning blade in different machines.
In the prior art, the cleaning blade is attached directly to a mounting area integral to the particular electrophotographic apparatus, normally using screws to secure the cleaning blade in position. Note that hereafter in this specification this mounting area described will be referred to as a "primary mounting" or alternatively as a "cleaning blade mount." The primary mounting often has ears, tabs, or other locating provisions, which cooperate with notches on one or both ends of a blade holder to locate the cleaning blade with respect to the photosensitive drum. Thus, for each apparatus, a uniform pressure, contact area, and contact angle of the wiper is maintained relative to the photosensitive drum.
Examples of prior art cleaning blades are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings. The cleaning blades (collectively 1A and 2A or 1B and 2B) are attached directly to a primary mounting 4, the geometry of which is dependant upon the particular machine design, to maintain a desired pressure, contact area, and geometric relationship, primarily parallelism, of the elastic wiper to the photosensitive drum being cleaned. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a cleaning blade with an elastic wiper blade 2A molded onto a holder 1A, the blade having a flat surface abutting the surface of the photosensitive drum 3 to be cleaned and a sloped (or tapered) surface on the side opposite from the flat surface. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a cleaning blade with an elastic wiper blade 2B of rectangular cross-section adhesively affixed to a holder 1B.
The cleaning blades shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are mounted so the edge of the elastic wiper bears against the photosensitive drum in opposed relationship with the movement thereof (i.e. in the direction of the arrow) to remove toner and other residue. It should be noted that the cleaning blades of FIGS. 1 and 2 are not reversible and cannot be selectively mounted so that either opposite edges of the wiper blades clean the drum.
A disadvantage of the prior art is that the configurations of the various cleaning blades are very specific because they are designed only to mate with corresponding cleaning blade mounts without any regard for standardization or interchangeability. In other words, the prior art does not disclose or even suggest using a common cleaning blade configuration for different or multiple applications since the prior art does not teach or suggest any uniform means for locating and stabilizing the cleaning blade to preserve its geometric relationship to the photosensitive drum for differing cleaning blade mount configurations.
Moreover, the design and manufacture of prior art cleaning blades prevents their wiper blades from being reused in the event of a worn or defective wiper blade. The molded wiper blades cannot be removed without damaging them, thus preventing their replacement on a holder, and the adhesive on the adhesively attached wiper blades prohibits their removal and re-use on the rigid holder.
Furthermore, the configuration of the elastic wipers used in prior art are such that the thickness of the elastic wiper at the edge placed in contact with the photosensitive drum is less than or equal to the thickness of the elastic wiper at all points in the direction of the rigid holder. As the edge of the elastic wiper wears down, the contact pressure against the photosensitive drum diminishes, rendering the cleaning blade prematurely ineffective.
This invention overcomes the above-discussed problems and provides a universally usable cleaning blade which is preferably reversible for twice the useful life, and preferably has additional features which make it longer lasting. These advantages and attributes of this invention and others will be readily understood upon a reading of the text hereinafter.

Cleaning blade system for electrophotography


An annotation server uses a hierarchical annotation storage structure to maintain a correspondence between a plurality of multimedia stream annotations and a hierarchically higher group identifier. The annotations corresponding to the different multimedia streams can easily be accessed concurrently by referencing the group identifier.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
This invention relates to networked client/server systems and to methods of delivering and rendering multimedia content in such systems. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods of selecting and providing such content.
The advent of computers and their continued technological advancement has revolutionized the manner in which people work and live. An example of such is in the education field, wherein educational presentations (such as college lectures, workplace training sessions, etc.) can be provided to a computer user as multimedia data (e.g., video, audio, text, and/or animation data). Today, such presentations are primarily video and audio, but a richer, broader digital media era is emerging. Educational multimedia presentations provide many benefits, such as allowing the presentation data to be created at a single time yet be presented to different users at different times and in different locations throughout the world.
These multimedia presentations are provided to a user as synchronized media. Synchronized media means multiple media objects that share a common timeline. Video and audio are examples of synchronized mediaxe2x80x94each is a separate data stream with its own data structure, but the two data streams are played back in synchronization with each other. Virtually any media type can have a timeline. For example, an image object can change like an animated gif file, text can change and move, and animation and digital effects can happen over time. This concept of synchronizing multiple media types is gaining greater meaning and currency with the emergence of more sophisticated media composition frameworks implied by MPEG-4, Dynamic HTML, and other media playback environments.
The term xe2x80x9cstreamingxe2x80x9d is used to indicate that the data representing the various media types is provided over a network to a client computer on a real-time, as-needed basis, rather than being pre-delivered in its entirety before playback. Thus, the client computer renders streaming data as it is received from a network server, rather than waiting for an entire xe2x80x9cfilexe2x80x9d to be delivered.
Multimedia presentations may also include xe2x80x9cannotationsxe2x80x9d relating to the multimedia presentation. An annotation is data (e.g., audio, text, video, etc.) that corresponds to a multimedia presentation. Annotations can be added by anyone with appropriate access rights to the annotation system (e.g., the lecturer/trainer or any of the students/trainees). These annotations typically correspond to a particular temporal location in the multimedia presentation and can provide a replacement for much of the xe2x80x9cin-personxe2x80x9d interaction and xe2x80x9cclassroom discussionxe2x80x9d that is lost when the presentation is not made xe2x80x9cin-personxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9clivexe2x80x9d. As part of an notation, a student can comment on a particular point, to which another student (or lecturer, assistant, etc.) can respond in a subsequent annotation. This process can continue, allowing a xe2x80x9cclassroom discussionxe2x80x9d to occur via these annotations. Additionally, some systems allow a user to select a particular one of these annotations and begin playback of the presentation starting at approximately the point in the presentation to which the annotation corresponds.
However, current systems typically allow a user to retrieve annotations based only on a per-media stream basis. In other words, a user is typically not able to quickly, with a single request, access annotations related to different media streams. This limitation can be very cumbersome for a user, requiring him or her to painstakingly make multiple requests in order to access the desired annotations. By way of example, assume that a professor is teaching a course with forty lectures during the semester, each of which is available as an annotated media stream. A teaching assistant may need to check the annotations daily for student questions. However, requiring the teaching assistant to access the annotations for the media streams independently, and thereby requiring a separate search of each of the forty different media stream annotation groups, is particularly burdensome on the assistant.
The invention described below addresses this and other disadvantages of annotations, providing a way to improve access and retrieval of annotations.
Annotations correspond to multiple different multimedia streams. An annotation server uses a hierarchical annotation storage structure to maintain a correspondence between the annotations and a hierarchically higher group identifier. Thus, annotations corresponding to the different multimedia streams can easily be accessed concurrently by using the group identifier.
According to one aspect of the invention, uniform resource locators (URLs) are used to identify the different multimedia streams. Each of the multimedia steams is identified by a different URL having a common prefix. This prefix is then used to identify all of the multimedia streams and their corresponding annotations.

Accessing annotations across multiple target media streams


A roller bearing assembly for supporting a shaft axially and radially in a rack includes a roller bearing with a carrier, a portion of which is supported at the rack with an element with elastomeric properties being interposed between a support for the rack and the portion of the carrier. In order to indicate a roller bearing, which supports the shaft axially and radially, and makes an inclined position of the shaft possible without causing straining of the system of shaft, roller bearing and rack, the element with elastomeric properties, viewed in the tangential (circumferential) direction of the roller bearing, has at least a first region, the stiffness of which is different from that of the remaining tangential (circumferential) region.

The invention relates to a roller bearing for supporting a shaft axially and radially in a rack, and more particularly, a roller bearing assembly which functions to inhibit straining of a system of the shaft, roller bearing and rack when subjected to a bending moment.
A roller bearing is described in DE 601 03 257 12, especially for a steering column of motor vehicles for supporting a steering shaft radially and axially in a steering column. An inner ring of the roller bearing is supported over a compensating ring, which can be shifted to a limited extent axially, at a damping element of the steering column. The damping element may have elastomeric properties or an element with elastomeric properties, such as an axially elastic spring washer, is disposed between the damping element and the compensating ring. In this way, the inner clearance of the roller bearing can be eliminated and a durable, clearance-free and pre-loaded contact between the rings and the rolling elements of the roller bearing is ensured.
The roller bearing, however, is not equipped to compensate for bending moments, which are exerted on a shaft that is to be supported, by assuming an inclined position so that a slight tilting moment results and any jamming of the shaft is avoided.
Another roller bearing is shown and described in EP 0 165 699 A1 for supporting a shaft in a rack, a carrier of the roller bearing being held axially displaceable in the rack and being supported at the rack with the interposing of an element with elastomeric properties.
This roller bearing also is not in a position to compensate for additional bending moments, applied on a shaft that is to be supported, by assuming an inclined position, so that a slight tilting moment results and any jamming of the shaft is avoided.
It is therefore an object of the invention to indicate a roller bearing for the axial and radial support of a shaft, which makes an inclined position of the shaft possible without causing any straining of the system of shaft, roller bearing and rack.


The present invention belongs to the field of composite materials, particularly to an underwater non-dispersible quick-setting and rapid-hardening cement-based composite material and the preparation method and application thereof. The material consists of the following raw materials in percentage by weight: 32%-34% of silicate cement, 8.8%-9% of calcium aluminate, 5%-7% of magnesium oxide, 0.5%-2% of sulfur trioxide, 0.2%-0.3% of polycarboxylate high performance water-reducing agent, 0.3%-0.7% of flocculant, 0.05%-0.2% of setting accelerator, 0.05%-0.2% of air-entraining agent, 0.05%-0.3% of rust inhibitor, 26%-31% of fine aggregate, 13%-18% of coarse aggregate, and 8.4%-8.5% of water. The material can be used for rapid repair of cement buildings in water conservancy projects, the repair material can be quickly set and the initial strength can be guaranteed.

With the continuous development of society, more and more hydraulic engineering projects have been launched in succession. When the traditional concrete used in the projects is poured under water, the cementitious materials and aggregates are likely to be severely segregated, resulting in the phenomena of bleeding and laitance, and even washing the concrete away by water, which results in a decrease in the strength and durability of concrete and serious pollution to the waters around the projects. Therefore, during construction, it is necessary to avoid contact between concrete and water as much as possible, for example, by the cofferdam and drainage method, the bag-stacking method, the prepacked aggregate grouting method, or construction with construction tools such as tremies and bottom-open containers. Nevertheless, although the above method can ensure the quality of concrete, it has disadvantages such as huge amount of work, long construction period, high construction cost, and complicated process.
In recent years, studies have found that the addition of flocculants (water-soluble polymer compounds with long chain structures and high adsorptive capacity) to underwater non-dispersible concrete can make the cementitious materials in the concrete adsorbed to the aggregate, thereby improving the cohesion, avoiding the loss of cementitious materials, and ensuring the strength of the concrete. Currently, the two most widely used flocculants are water-soluble cellulose ethers (SCR) and water-soluble acrylic polymers (UWB), respectively. Due to the addition of flocculants, many performance indicators of underwater non-dispersible concrete will also be changed as compared with the ordinary concrete, for example, the initial setting time will be delayed relatively, and the like. It has been tested and found that the initial setting time for the underwater non-dispersible concrete was delayed by 1-3 h as compared with the ordinary concrete incorporated with equal amounts of SCR; the initial setting time for the underwater non-dispersible concrete was delayed by 6 h as compared with the ordinary concrete incorporated with equal amounts of UWB; and the initial setting time will be prolonged with the increase of the addition amount of flocculants. If facing projects requiring rapid concrete setting, such as situations of cracks, scour holes and honeycombs often occurred on bridge piers or reservoir dams, or situations of encountering larger waves and the like in sea repair operations, there would be a need for materials capable of quickly setting and quickly increasing strength, and the above methods are no longer applicable. For example, after a typhoon hit a century-old landmark building, trestle in Qingdao, in 2013, a large area of the bridge road collapsed, and in order to repair the bridge, the collapsed trestle bridge was completely excavated and broken by the repair party, resulting in damages to the cultural relic. The main reasons for the collapse of the trestle bridge are as follows: the concrete bridge piers had been immersed in seawater for a long time, resulting in breakage by scour of seawater; the chloride ions in the seawater penetrate into the bridge piers and rust the steel bars; furthermore, the broken parts are not repaired in time; finally, the complete destruction occurred under a strong force of the typhoon. If the bridge piers can be repaired to meet an emergency, the trestle bridge collapse would not happen.
In summary, it is particularly important to develop a composite material that can meet the requirements of cement building repair in water conservancy projects under emergency conditions.

Underwater non-dispersible quick-setting and rapid-hardening cement-based composite material and preparation method and application thereof


A tray conveyor comprising ice-coated magnetic trays driven by a linear-motor stator along a rail track. The ice coating is applied to the trays to provide a product-bearing ice surface. After the product is processed and transferred off the tray, the top layer of the contaminated ice coating is removed and the tray with the remaining ice coating reused.

The invention relates generally to power-driven conveyors and in particular to ice-covered tray conveyors.
Current methods of processing meat, fish, or poultry require cutting bulk product by hand. For example, the bulk meat is conveyed to an operator who loads the meat onto a tray. The operator then cuts the meat into defined portions on the tray's cutting surface. The tools used to cut the meat can score and scratch the cutting surface. Trays marred by scratched surfaces are difficult to sanitize—especially if the trays are sanitized manually. Biofilms, which are especially difficult to remove, can form on and contaminate the trays.


A semiconductor structure and a method for forming the same are provided. The semiconductor structure comprises: a substrate; and a plurality of convex structures formed on a surface of the substrate and arranged in a longitudinal direction of the substrate, each convex structure having a top surface, a bottom surface located on the surface of the substrate, a first end surface and a second end surface parallel to each other, and a front side surface and a rear side surface parallel to each other, in which the rear side surface of one of two adjacent convex structures and the front side surface of the other are located on a same plane to allow the plurality of convex structures to form a zigzag structure.

A GaN crystal material is primarily used in conventional blue light and white light light-emitting diode (LED) products. A common technology for fabricating a light emitting layer is an epitaxial growth of the (0001) GaN crystal on a (0001) sapphire crystal or a (111) silicon substrate. Because the crystal plane (0001) (perpendicular to a c axis) of the GaN crystal is polar, according to common LED device structures, a polarity of a material may greatly reduce a quantum efficiency of the light emitting layer, thus greatly reducing a light emitting efficiency. Therefore, the quantum efficiency may be greatly raised by using a GaN LED device of a non-polar plane. However, a dislocation density of a GaN film, which has a non-polar a-plane or m-plane and is formed on the sapphire or silicon substrate by epitaxy, is a few orders of magnitude higher than that of the conventional (0001) GaN crystal because of factors such as lattice mismatch, so that it is difficult to apply the GaN LED device of the non-polar plane in a large scale production.
In addition, in a fabrication technology of a semiconductor device, it is generally needed to fabricate a specific crystal plane on a substrate to form a special three-dimensional structure. By coating a photoresist on a wafer substrate, transferring a planar pattern onto a photoresist mask by lithography, and then etching, a required structure such as a recess or a trench may be obtained with a conventional micro-fabrication technology. However, some special three-dimensional structures cannot be fabricated by the technology based on the planar process, and only some extremely special crystal planes, such as (111) of silicon, may be obtained by using an anisotropy characteristic of a wet etching. However, some crystal planes, such as (337), (5 5 12), (113), or (211) of silicon, cannot be fabricated on arbitrary orientation substrate.

Semiconductor structure and method for forming the same


There are provided mechanisms for beam forming using an antenna array comprising dual polarized elements. A method comprises generating one or two beam ports. The one or two beam ports are defined by combining at least two non-overlapping subarrays. Each subarray has two subarray ports. The two subarray ports have identical power patterns and mutually orthogonal polarizations. The at least two non-overlapping subarrays are combined via expansion weights. The expansion weights and map the one or two beam ports to subarray ports such that the one or two beam ports have the same power pattern as the subarrays. At least some of the expansion weights have identical non-zero magnitude and are related in phase to form a transmission lobe. The method comprises transmitting signals using said one or two beam ports.

In wireless communications networks, antenna design may be key to obtaining good performance and capacity. This applies for the wireless communication from a network node to a wireless user terminal or conversely, as well as between two network nodes. For example, massive beam forming, i.e., beam forming using active antenna arrays where antenna elements are orders of magnitude more numerous than in current communications networks, is expected to become a technical component in the radio access part of future fifth generation (5G) communications networks. By the deployment of large antenna arrays at the radio base stations, user data can be transmitted focused in space so that energy is received mainly by the wireless device dedicated by the user data, thus resulting in little interference being perceived by other wireless devices or other types of nodes. Massive beam forming therefore has the potential to increase system capacity and energy efficiency considerably.
According to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, codebooks may be constructed using Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) based vectors, enabling beamforming towards a fixed set of angular directions. A DFT beam, by its nature, is characterized with a fixed power pattern, whose half-power beamwidth (HPBW) is determined by the parameters of the antenna array (number of antennas, antenna element spacing, HPBW of the power pattern of an antenna element). For example, an antenna array having eight equidistant omnidirectional antennas with a nearest-neighbor spacing of 0.8 wavelengths, excited with a DFT vector will yield a power pattern with a HPBW of 8 degrees.
Generally, the power pattern of a DFT-beam pointing at the angle ϕ0 transmitted from a ULA having N antennas can be described by the Dirichlet kernel |G(θ)| as follows:
                G                    (        θ        )                  =                                    sin                                [                          N                                                                                π                                                                                d                  λ                                                                  (                                                            sin                                                                                ϕ                                        -                                          sin                                                                                ϕ                        0                                                                              )                                                      ]                                    sin                                [                          π                                                                                d                  λ                                                                  (                                                            sin                                                                                ϕ                                        -                                          sin                                                                                ϕ                        0                                                                              )                                                      ]                                      .
As follows from the above expression for |G(θ)|, as the number of antennas N in the ULA increases, the power pattern becomes more and more narrow and increases the antenna gain at ϕ=ϕ0. Actually, as N→∞ the Dirichlet kernel approaches a Dirac delta function with infinitely small beam width and infinite antenna gain a ϕ=ϕ0. FIG. 1 illustrates the power pattern in terms of |G(θ)| as a function of angle θ for a DFT beam with N=10, ϕ0=5°.
At the same time, apart from creating (narrow) device-specific beams, the radio base station must be capable of also creating wide cell-specific beams to cover the entire sector/cell with a desired level of radiation. This might be needed, e.g., for sending broadcast information or common reference signals. Existing approaches to address this issue will be summarized next.
According to a first approach, a separate wide-beam antenna may be used for transmission of broadcast data. A drawback with this approach is that it requires additional hardware.
According to a second approach, broadcast data is transmitted using a single antenna array element, or sub-array, of the antenna. This array element or sub-array will have a wider beam than the full array of the antenna. A drawback of this approach is that only one, or a few, power amplifiers (PAs) in the antenna array is/are utilized, which thus wastes power resources.
According to a third approach, amplitude and/or phase tapering is used over the full array of the antenna to widen the beam. Drawbacks with such tapering are that amplitude tapering gives poor utilization of the PA resource and that it is in many cases not possible to synthesize the desired beam shape using phase-only tapering.
According to a fourth approach, broadcast data is transmitted sequentially in different directions using narrow beams. A potential drawback with this approach is that this takes longer time and consumes more resource elements than transmitting broadcast data simultaneously in all directions with a wide beam.
Other scenarios where it may be desirable to use wide beams with an antenna array with many elements is in millimeter-wave communications, which is an access technology foreseen to be a part of 5G radio access. Due to the increased propagation loss at such high frequencies, high gain beam forming may be needed to retain the link budget, possibly both at the receiver and transmitter. Beam forming may be needed since the dominant propagation paths between a transmitter and a receiver are typically not known a priori. Testing all combinations of a large number of narrow transmit and receive beams in order to find the best beam pair may consume a prohibitive amount of time/frequency resources. A way to resolve this issue may be for the radio base station to start the search procedure with wide beams and then make the beams narrower and narrower until the best pair of narrow beams has been found. Such a beam finding procedure generally requires means for generating beams with different beam widths in a flexible manner. In order to fully utilize the antenna array and the available PA resource it may be desired to use all antenna elements and all PAs at full power when transmitting beams with different beam widths.
Hence, there is a need for improved beam forming.

Beam forming using an antenna arrangement


A head carrier plate is pressed in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the videotape by spring force against stops. The audio control head bears with its lower edge on a support which simultaneously serves as a tape guide of the lower edge of the videotape and as a pivotal support for the audio control head. Only two setting screws are then necessary, with which the head carrier plate can be set in terms of the angle of inclination with respect to the capstan shaft and in terms of the angle of inclination with respect to the longitudinal axis of the videotape.

The invention relates to a holding device for an audio control head of a video recorder.
In video recorders according to the VHS system, the recording of video signals and stereo audio signals takes place in slanted tracks by means of a rotating video head and the recording of control signals and mono audio signals takes place in longitudinal tracks by means of a stationary audio control head.
In order to ensure compatibility between video recorders and prerecorded videotapes, it is necessary to adjust the audio control head with regard to the recording track of the videotape. Use is made for this purpose of tape guides, screws and helical springs which enable the setting of the position of a head carrier plate with respect to a baseplate and the tape guides and fix the setting position. The angle of inclination of the audio control head with respect to the capstan shaft (tilt angle), the angle of inclination of the head gaps of the audio control head with respect to the longitudinal axis of the videotape (azimuth angle), the relative height of the audio control head with respect to the edge of the videotape and, if appropriate, the so-called X distance can be set. The known holding devices have a multiplicity of individual parts and require, owing to the multiplicity of setting elements, a comparatively long time for carrying out the settings, since the setting measures in some instances mutually influence one another.

Holding device for stationary arranged write/read heads of a recorder