To provide an austenitic stainless steel material having a high creep strength and a high creep ductility even in a high-temperature environment at 800° C. or more. An austenitic stainless steel material according to the present disclosure has a chemical composition that includes, in mass %: C: 0.060% or less; Si: 1.0% or less; Mn: 2.00% or less; P: 0.0010 to 0.0400%; S: 0.010% or less; Cr: 10 to 25%; Ni: 25 to 45%; Nb: 0.2 to 2.0%; W: 2.5 to 6.0%; B: 0.0010 to 0.0100%: Al: 2.5 to 4.5%; and the balance being Fe and impurities, and satisfies Formulae (1) and (2), and the sum of the content of dissolved Nb and the content of dissolved W is 3.2 mass % or more.(W/184+Nb/93)/(C/12)≥5.5  (1)(W/184+Nb/93)/(B/11)≤450  (2)

Steel materials used for a chemical plant facility, such as a petroleum refining plant or a petrochemical plant, are used for a long time in a high-temperature environment that includes chemical materials such as hydrocarbons. Therefore, the steel materials used for the chemical plant facility are required to have not only oxidation resistance and carburization resistance but also high creep strength in the high-temperature environment. Such steel materials used for the chemical plant facility include the austenitic stainless steel material.
As known, if the austenitic stainless steel material contains 2.0% or more of Al, the oxidation resistance and the carburization resistance of the austenitic stainless steel material in the high-temperature environment described above can be effectively increased. When the austenitic stainless steel material contains 2.0% or more of Al, a coating primarily made of Al2O3 (referred to as an alumina coating, hereinafter), rather than a coating primarily made of Cr2O3 (referred to as a chromia coating, hereinafter), is formed on the surface of the steel material. The alumina coating is more densely formed than the chromia coating. Therefore, the alumina coating reduces the entry of oxygen and carbon from the high-temperature environment into the steel material. As a result, the oxidation resistance and the carburization resistance of the austenitic stainless steel material are increased.
Austenitic stainless steel materials on which the alumina coating is to be formed are disclosed in WO2010/113830 (Patent Literature 1), WO2018/088070 (Patent Literature 2), and JP2012-505314A (Patent Literature 3), for example.
The austenitic stainless steel material disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is a casting of a heat resistant alloy containing, in mass %: C: 0.05 to 0.7%, Si: more than 0% to 2.5% or less, Mn: more than 0% to 3.0% or less, Cr: 15 to 50%, Ni: 18 to 70%, Al: 2 to 4%, a rare earth metal: 0.005 to 0.4%, and W: 0.5 to 10% and/or Mo: 0.1 to 5%, the balance being Fe and an inevitable impurity. A barrier layer is formed on the surface of the casting. The barrier layer is an Al2O3 layer having a thickness of 0.5 μm or more, and 80% or more of the area of the outermost surface of the barrier layer is made of Al2O3. At the interface between the Al2O3 layer and the casting, Cr-based particles having a higher Cr concentration than the base metal of the alloy are dispersed. In this literature, it is described that since the outermost surface of the barrier layer (Al2O3 layer) contains less Cr oxide, and Cr-based particles are dispersed at the interface between the Al2O3 layer and the casting, the barrier layer is less likely to peel off, and the oxidation resistance and the carburization resistance can be maintained. Furthermore, in this literature, it is described that Ti, Zr and Nb are contained to form carbides, thereby increasing the creep rupture strength of the austenitic stainless steel material.
A tubular body disclosed in Patent Literature 2 is a tubular body used in a high-temperature atmosphere that is formed from a heat resistant alloy containing, in mass %: Cr: 15% or more, Al: 2.0% or more, and Ni: 18% or more, the inner surface of the tubular body has an arithmetic average roughness (Sa) of the three-dimensional surface roughness that satisfies a relation that 1.5≤Sa≤5.0, and the skewness (Ssk) of the surface height distribution of the tubular body satisfies a relation that |Ssk|≤0.30. In this literature, it is described that the area fraction of the alumina barrier layer formed on the inner surface of the tubular body can be increased by setting the surface roughness of the tubular body to fall within an appropriate range. Furthermore, in this literature, it is described that Nb is contained to form a carbide, thereby increasing the creep strength of the austenitic stainless steel material.
The nickel-chromium alloy disclosed in Patent Literature 3 contains, in mass %: C: 0.4 to 0.6%, Cr: 28 to 33%, Fe: 15 to 25%, Al: 2 to 6%, Si: 2% or less, Mn: 2% or less, Nb: 1.5% or less. Ta: 1.5% or less, W: 1.0% or less, Ti: 1.0% or less. Zr: 1.0% or less, Y: 0.5% or less, Ce: 0.5% or less, Mo: 0.5% or less, and N: 0.1% or less, and the balance being Ni and impurities depending on the melting process. In this literature, it is described that, since the nickel-chromium alloy has the chemical composition described above, a high oxidation resistance and a high creep rupture strength are achieved. Specifically, Nb, Ti, Ta and W are contained to form carbides and/or carbo nitrides, thereby achieving a high creep strength.

Abstract: In Formulae (1) and (2), the content in mass % of the corresponding element is substituted for each symbol of element.


The bonding apparatus includes a belt for feeding a label continuum (10) in which labels have been continuously formed. The label continuum fed by the belt is cut to a predetermined length to obtain a label strip by a cutter. A pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed on a rear surface of the label strip. The label strip obtained by the cutting operation of the cutter is fed by a belt having a label-contact surface not easily bonded to the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer. The label strip is fed to a bonding position with the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer thereof lightly bonded to the label-contact surface of the belt. The label strip fed by the belt is pressed against an object by a bonding roller serving and bonded thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bonding apparatus for bonding a label to an object, and more particularly, to the bonding apparatus for cutting a separator-unprovided label continuum, i.e. the so-called non-separable type of label continuum, in which labels have been successively formed to a predetermined length and bonding each label strip thus obtained to the object.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most of such conventional label continuum have separators. Labels having the same configuration are temporarily attached to a separation agent layer of the separator at predetermined intervals. Label-bonding apparatuses for separating each label from the separator and bonding it to the object have been developed and manufactured.
The conventional separator-provided label continuum comprising labels formed successively has, however, a problem that a great number of separators are wasted. In order to prevent resources from being wasted, a separator-unprovided label continuum comprising labels formed successively have been developed.

Bonding apparatus for cutting label continuum having labels formed successively and bonding label to object


An apparatus for lifting and moving a load. The apparatus comprises a lift frame having a first and second vertical member that are connected so that a working window area is defined. The apparatus further comprises a rotary actuator mounted on the first vertical member, and an arm having a first end and a second end, and wherein the first end of the arm is pivotly connected to the rotary actuator. The arm is pivotal from an area exterior of the working window area to an area within the working window area. The apparatus may further comprise a winch, operatively attached to the arm, for lifting a load with the cable. A method of lifting a load is also disclosed.

This invention relates to a crane and method of using a crane. More specifically, but not by way of limitation, this invention relates to a swing arm crane and a method of using the crane to lift loads on a rig.
In the course of searching for oil and gas, operators drill in various regions of the globe, including the world's oceans. Many times, a floating type of drilling rig or floating production platform is utilized, as is well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. During the course of drilling, completion, and/or production operations, operators may find it necessary to perform remedial well work.
Remedial well work can be performed with a coiled tubing unit, a snubbing unit, workover rig, etc. In the use of a coiled tubing unit and/or snubbing unit, operators will rig up a lift frame within the derrick. The lift frame is used to support injector heads, lubricators, etc. during the rig up, operation and rig down phases of the well work. Many times, the operator finds it necessary to lift equipment from a staging area to the work area within the lift frame.
Prior art equipment, such as cranes, have been used to aid operators in picking up and moving supplemental equipment from one point to another. However, oil field equipment is bulky. Prior art cranes and/or winches needed to lift this equipment are inadequate. In fact, operators will many times use a drilling rig's air tugger in order to lift and move equipment. However, air tuggers are generally ill suited and/or positioned for lifting this type of equipment. For instance, the air tuggers have a limited swing range of motion and have other uses for the rig crew.
Therefore, there is a need for a crane that will lift equipment. There is also a need for a crane that has a significant swing range of motion. There is also a need for a crane that can be used in conjunction with remedial well work on drilling and production platforms. The present invention will meet these needs, as well as others, as will be more readily understood by a reading of the following.


A catalyst composition comprises (i) a support; (ii) a dehydrogenation component comprising at least one metal or compound thereof selected from Groups 6 to 10 of the Periodic Table of Elements; and (iii) potassium or a potassium compound present in an amount of about 0.15 to about 0.6 wt % of potassium based upon the total weight of the catalyst composition, wherein the catalyst composition has an oxygen chemisorption of greater than 50%.

Currently, the most common route to produce phenol is the Hock process. This is a three-step process in which the first step involves alkylation of benzene with propylene to produce cumene, followed by oxidation of the cumene to the corresponding hydroperoxide and then cleavage of the hydroperoxide to produce equimolar amounts of phenol and acetone.
Another process involves the hydroalkylation of benzene to produce cyclohexylbenzene, followed by the oxidation of the cyclohexylbenzene to cyclohexylbenzene hydroperoxide, which is then cleaved to produce phenol and cyclohexanone in substantially equimolar amounts. Such a process is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,513.
In some embodiments, cyclohexanone is converted via dehydrogenation to additional phenol (see International Patent Publication No. WO2010/024975). Such a dehydrogenation step is generally achieved by contacting the cyclohexanone with a supported noble metal catalyst at a temperature of about 250° C. to about 500° C.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,110 discloses a process for the catalytic dehydrogenation of cyclohexanone and/or cyclohexanol to phenol over a catalyst comprising platinum and preferably iridium on a silica support. The catalyst also contains 0.5 to 3 wt % of an alkali or alkaline earth metal compound, which, according to column 3, lines 43 to 49, should be incorporated after addition of the platinum since otherwise the resulting catalyst composition has inferior activity, selectivity, and life.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,970 discloses a process for the dehydrogenation of cycloaliphatic alcohols and ketones to the corresponding hydroxyaromatic alcohols in the presence of a catalyst comprising a Group VIII metal, particularly nickel, and tin in a molar amount of about 1.7 to about 15 moles of Group VIII metal per mole of tin. The catalyst may further comprise an alkali metal stabilizing agent in an amount between about 0.3 to about 10 parts by weight of an alkali metal sulfate per part by weight of the Group VIII metal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,507 discloses a method of dehydrogenating cyclohexenone to phenol comprising reacting hydrogen and cyclohexenone in the vapor phase in a molar ratio of 0.5 to 4.0 moles of hydrogen per mole of cyclohexenone at a pressure of at least one atmosphere and a reaction temperature of 300° C. to 500° C. using a solid phase catalyst containing platinum, in the range of 0.2 to 10 wt % of the sum of the catalyst plus support, and an alkali metal, in the range of 0.2 to 3.0 calculated in terms of the weight ratio of K2CO3 to platinum, both the platinum and the alkali metal being carried on a support.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,285,685 discloses a process for the dehydrogenation of a saturated carbonyl compound, such as cyclohexanone, in the gas phase over a heterogeneous dehydrogenation catalyst comprising platinum and/or palladium and tin on an oxidic support, such as zirconium dioxide and/or silicon dioxide. In general, the dehydrogenation catalyst contains from 0.01 to 2 wt %, preferably from 0.1 to 1 wt %, particularly preferably from 0.2 to 0.6 wt %, of palladium and/or platinum and from 0.01 to 10 wt %, preferably from 0.2 to 2 wt %, particularly preferably from 0.4 to 1 wt %, of tin, based on the total weight of the dehydrogenation catalyst. In addition, the dehydrogenation catalyst can further comprise one or more elements of Groups I and/or II, preferably potassium and/or cesium, in an amount of from 0 to 20 wt %, preferably from 0.1 to 10 wt %, particularly preferably from 0.2 to 1.0 wt %, based on the total weight of the catalyst.
Research into metal-containing cyclohexanone dehydrogenation catalysts has now shown that, although potassium plays a positive role in improving the stability of the dehydrogenation metal, depending on the amount of potassium present, potassium can also have an adverse effect on the phenol selectivity of the catalyst by increasing the formation of unwanted by-products. Surprisingly, however, it has been found that by controlling the potassium content within very narrow limits, between 0.15 and 0.6 wt %, it is possible to achieve optimal phenol selectivity while retaining enhanced stability of the dehydrogenation metal.


A lighting system having at least three light sources receives an input relating to color coordinates of a target point representing a desired color characteristic for a combined output from the light sources. The system provides color tunable output and/or dimmable output in response to differences in user input. The system also corrects changes in performance of the light sources due to lifetime degradation in each of the light sources. After a period of system operation, outputs of the sources are measured. The system increases the luminosity outputs of each of the light sources by a respective amount relative to the degradations measured in all the light sources; in this manner, the luminosity outputs of the light sources remain substantially constant in relations to each other over the lifetime of the light sources.

An increasing variety of lighting applications utilize electronic type emitters as light sources. Examples of such emitters include solid state light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) as well as plasma type light emitters. An LED produces light output, when a voltage across two terminals thereof (e.g., anode and cathode) exceeds the LED's forward voltage so that forward current can flow through the LED. The intensity of light output from the LED is primarily governed by the amount of forward current flowing through the LED. In order to dim a light emitted from the LED, the forward current flowing through the LED needs to be manipulated. There are two commonly used methods for dimming lights from LEDs. One is Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Dimming, and the other is Analog Dimming. Both methods result in changing the average current through the LEDs and hence provide a visual appearance of changing intensities of light output from the LEDs. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an LED's relative luminous flux characteristic, i.e., a relationship between forward current and relative luminous flux. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an LEDs power consumption by depicting a relationship between forward current and forward voltage.
There is an industry-wide consensus that Analog Dimming may be superior to PWM Dimming. However, Analog Dimming has a drawback of undesirable color variation. In a given LED, if the peak current is varied, the current density (or J) also varies. More particularly, in a Gallium Nitride (GaN) based LED system (for example, Blue and Green type LEDs), a varying current density may lead to not only a varying intensity output but also a varying chromaticity output. In other words, in GaN based materials, Analog Dimming may lead to both intensity and chromaticity variations. While the intensity variation is a desirable effect of dimming, the associated chromaticity variation may not be a desirable one. For example, referring to the graph in FIG. 3, with Analog Dimming in Green LEDs, the chromaticity ((x, y)-coordinates of five connected dots in FIG. 3) shifts due to different forward currents of the LEDs used to produce light (at the five connected dots in FIG. 3). Moreover, as shown in FIG. 4, this shift in chromaticity results in changing dominant wavelength. Hence a need exists for techniques and equipment for color correction of a light emitted from a lighting system to correct for a color change with Analog Dimming of the light.
Furthermore, almost all LEDs show degradations in light output over time during the LEDs' lifetime. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an LED's lifetime degradation characteristic (i.e., hours used vs. light output). More particularly, FIG. 5 shows that light output of the LED has degraded by 14 percent after ten thousand hours. Hence, when Analog Dimming current density correction is applied, there is still room for further improvement in correcting for changes in color or lumen output of LEDs, either due to temperature changes of the lighting system or due to the LEDs' lifetime degradation.

Lifetime correction for aging of LEDs in tunable-white LED lighting devices


A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device and a method of imaging a volume of interest is provided. According to one aspect of the present technique, the MRI device includes an attachment portion having a profile at least partially defined by a cross-section thereof, and an array of radio-frequency coils arranged with respect to each other to generally correspond to the profile. In an exemplary embodiment, each coil may have a first turn portion located radially closer to the attachment portion than a second turn portion.

The present invention relates generally to the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and, in certain particular embodiments, to techniques for reducing coupling in an array of radio-frequency receiver coils and/or transmitter coils used in parallel MRI devices, for instance.
MRI is a non-invasive imaging technique in which the imaged subject is placed in a static main magnetic field known as the "B0" field. While in the B0 field, gradient coils are excited to create the "B1" field, in turn, exciting the nuclei of the imaged subject. In certain MRI systems, a plurality of radio-frequency coils are needed to transmit the RF energy to the nuclear magnetic moments as well as to receive the extremely small signal that comes back from the subject. The signals, referred to as magnetic resonance signals, result from reorientation of certain gyromagnetic materials of the subject, whose molecules spin or precess at characteristic frequencies. The radio-frequency coils are commonly employed to image whole body, head and limb imaging in medical applications. Moreover, MRI devices often include an array of receiver coils to improve the performance of the MRI devices. Irrespective of the specific implementation, MRI techniques are also used outside of the medical imaging field, such as in part inspection, baggage inspection, and so forth.
In recent years, parallel MRI imaging has emerged as an attractive imaging modality that results in scan time reduction, resolution enhancement, artifact suppression, and, even, attenuation of noise. In a general sense, parallel imaging utilizes the difference in sensitivities between individual coils of a receiver array to reduce the number of gradient encoding steps required for imaging. Thus, in parallel MRI, an array of receiver coils with different sensitivities is used to receive the signal in parallel, facilitating combination of these obtained signals to reconstruct the full image.
There are several parallel MRI approaches, including SMASH (SiMultaneous Acquisition of Spatial Harmonics) and SENSE (SENSitivity Encoding). For pulse sequences that execute a rectilinear trajectory in k space, these techniques reduce the number of phase encoding steps in order to reduce imaging time, and then use array sensitivity information to make up for the loss of spatial information.
In order to make the coils in the array sufficiently spatially distinct, and thus improve their signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for accelerated imaging, it is common to leave gaps between neighboring coils in the array. This, however, has the drawback of increasing the coupling between coils, which can in turn degrade performance. To overcome this limitation, the coils in the array may be overlapped by an amount that minimizes the mutual inductance between neighboring coils. When such an array is employed for parallel imaging, the SNR decreases, because the geometry factor of the array has increased. The geometry factor quantifies the spatial distribution of the noise amplification. The optimization of array geometry is necessary to minimize the geometry factors in MRI.
It would therefore be desirable to have a technique to reduce the coupling between coils in parallel imaging arrays without compromising the SNR.

Method and system for reducing coupling in magnetic resonance RF coil arrays


A pumping apparatus includes a housing having an inlet at a first end and an outlet at an opposite second end. An encapsulated stator defines an opening and is supported by the housing. A pressure plate includes diffuser vanes formed as part of the pressure plate. The pressure plate is formed as part of the encapsulated stator. A rotor is positioned at least partially within the opening and is rotatable with respect to the stator and an impeller is coupled to the rotor and cooperates with the pressure plate and the housing to pump a fluid from the inlet to the outlet in response to rotation of the rotor.

The invention relates to a combined motor and pump assembly. More specifically, the invention relates to a combined motor and multi-stage pump assembly configured to be positioned within a pipe.
In some applications, it is desirable to position a pump and motor within the fluid being pumped. However, this can shorten the life of many of the pump and motor components as some fluids present a corrosive environment for materials typically used to manufacture pumps and motors.


A mounting unit of a shock absorber for a vehicle is disclosed. A mounting unit of a shock absorber for a vehicle that fixes an upper portion of a shock absorber connected to wheels to a vehicle body according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a shock absorber housing mounted to the vehicle body; a mounting module disposed in the shock absorber housing, and at least two mounting hole is formed at the mounting module; a tapping nut engaged through a mounting hole of the mounting module in the shock absorber housing; and a fixing nut engaged to an end portion of the tapping nut protruded to outside of the shock absorber housing and fixing the mounting module to the shock absorber housing; the mounting module and fixing nut are temporarily assembled to the shock absorber housing through a temporarily assembly apparatus and engaged to the tapping nut.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting unit of a shock absorber for a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates a mounting unit of a shock absorber for a vehicle that can mount a shock absorber to a vehicle body.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a shock absorber is a constituent element of a suspension system, and provided to absorb or attenuate a load inputted from a road surface when the vehicle is driven.
A lower portion of the shock absorber is respectively connected to a front wheel and a rear wheel of a vehicle, and an upper portion of the shock absorber is fixedly mounted to a vehicle body. When the vehicle is driven, the shock absorber absorbs external load inputted from the front wheel and the rear wheel, and the remained load is distributed to the vehicle body.
The shock absorber connected to the front wheel of the vehicle is connected to a shock absorber housing mounted to an upper portion of a wheel housing by a bolt.
That is, the conventional shock absorber is connected to the vehicle body through a shock absorber mounting unit comprising a tapping nut engaging the shock absorber housing and the shock absorber housing.
According to the conventional shock absorber mounting unit, since additional tapping process that forms a screw thread at the shock absorber housing for engaging the tapping nut, manufacturing process and cost are increased.
Further, if defected products generated when the screw thread is formed at the shock absorber housing are discarded, thus manufacturing cost is increased.
Meanwhile, since the general shock absorber housing that mounts the shock absorber to the vehicle body is manufactured by die-casting process, ribs for reinforcing the stiffness of the shock absorber housing are formed at the shock absorber housing and thickness of the shock absorber housing is locally different from each other.
However, according to the conventional shock absorber housing, the shock absorber housing is manufactured by die-casting process, thus strength of the shock absorber housing is deteriorated by bubbles generated through casting process and non-uniformity of materials. And it is difficult to monitor these defects by naked eyes.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Mounting unit of shock absorber for vehicle


The present invention relates to a method for applying tear tape to a wrapper by advancing a web by continuous movement in a machine direction. The tear tape is advanced in a cross direction, and cut in order to provide a cut portion of the tear tape. The cut portion of the tear tape is then advanced in the cross direction and into alignment with a width of the web and applied to the web without stopping the web from its continuous movement in the machine direction.

Packaging material for reams (i.e., 500 sheets) of cut paper is typically manufactured in large rolls, printed or not printed, and rewound and/or cut to specific sizes. The packaging material is then sold to paper manufacturers who package the reams of paper on wrapping lines. Reams of cut paper (e.g., 8½ inches×11 inches, etc.) for copy machines, computers, printers, and other home and office applications are most commonly packaged for shipping, storage, and retail sale in various packaging materials, including paper, paper/film combinations, and solid single- or multi-layer plastic films. As more people have acquired home computers and printers, the use of copier, printer, and computer papers by individual consumers has increased. Individual consumers typically purchase individually wrapped reams of paper at an office supply store, retail store, or through an office supply catalog.
Small business and home office users often need to use only part of a ream at a time and store the remainder of an open ream. A major disadvantage of traditional ream wrap packaging for the individual user is that the current method of opening the packaging destroys the integrity of the entire wrapped ream because such wrappers lack an easy-open ability. For instance, when the folded bottom or top end of the wrapped ream is torn open, the entire folded package tears and opens, destroying the integrity of the wrapped structure and exposing and scattering the loose sheets of paper remaining in the ream. For the individual user who uses only a portion of the ream at a time and needs to store the remaining sheets, the unbound papers pose an inconvenience and impediment to storage. Since the structural support of the original packaging is compromised, the result for individual users is often physical damage to the unbound sheets of paper being stored for future use.
The current marketplace demands a packaging material that may be opened easily so that a user does not tear or destroy the packaging integrity and may remove part of a ream and store the remaining sheets in a structure that prevents physical damage and scattering of loose papers. When torn, a tear tape or easy-open feature enables one end of the package to open, without tearing the remaining packaging, leaving the remaining structure of the ream wrap intact. The remaining package enables the individual user to both safely and easily store and dispense papers.
Such easy-open packaging is equally applicable to other consumer goods, such as, for example, paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, etc., where a tear tape applied across a web either on the packaging line or during the manufacture of the packaging materials would be advantageous.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,609 provides an apparatus for cutting and applying a tearing strip to a packaging film. The apparatus uses a pressing device to which a transverse blade for cutting the tear strip and two (2) auxiliary blades for notching/cutting the edge of the packaging film are integrally fixed. When the tear strip is fed underneath the packaging film and the pressing device is actuated, the following three (3) actions occur simultaneously: (1) tear strip is cut; (2) notches are cut into the edge of the packaging film; and (3) tear strip is adhered to the packaging film. This apparatus requires the belt conveying the tear strip and the packaging film to be stopped or stationary while the tear strip is being applied to the packaging film.
In contrast to the prior art, in embodiments of the claimed invention, the packaging material/web is not stopped when applying the tear strip. In addition, the notching/cutting of the edge of the packaging material is performed before the tear strip is applied and also does not require the packaging material/web to be stopped or stationary. Moreover, embodiments of the invention provide an improved non-contact cutting mechanism, namely a laser, for cutting the tear tape, which improves the prior art. Embodiments of the invention further improve the prior art by resulting in faster application speeds and more accurate and reliable application of tear tapes.

Tear tape applicator for ream wrap and other packaging materials


A ventilated disc unit includes inner and outer annular discs coaxially coupled to each other by rib units having bifurcated outer ends, and a rib unit comprising a radially extending straight segment extending towards an inner periphery and a pair of bifurcated segments which are arranged symmetrically with respect to the straight segment so as to open towards outer ends thereof. The straight segment is discontinuous with the bifurcated segments. A plurality of grooves are disposed extending in a radial direction on inner surfaces of the inner and outer annular discs from the inner periphery of the annular discs to the middle of the annular discs. The disc unit produces increased air flow which assures efficient cooling of the discs, particularly bifurcated point areas thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a ventilated disc unit for a brake system adapted for an automotive vehicle or an industrial vehicle.
2. Discussions of the Related Art
One ventilated disc unit is disclosed in JP Utility Model Kokoku No. H 2-38107 (1990). As for this ventilated disc unit, an inner disc and an outer disc are formed as a flat annular member, respectively, with the inner disc having a sliding surface smaller in area than that of the outer disc. The inner and outer discs are interconnected by a large number of radially extending ribs having bifurcated outer ends. Between the inner and the outer disks, a large number of radially extending ventilation passages are formed between the adjoining ribs.
With this type of conventional ventilated disc unit, a large quantity of fresh air is drawn via inner ends of the ventilation passages during rotation of the disc unit for forced ventilation within the ventilation passages before being discharged via outer ends thereof into the ambient atmosphere. This ventilated disc unit has, however, a drawback that the inside of the bifurcated ribs are cooled insufficiently.
JP Utility Model Kokai Publication No. H 2-21342 discloses a ventilated disc unit in which the bifurcated outer ends are formed discontinuously from the radially extending rib as compared with JP U.M. Kokoku No. H 2-38107.
However, it has turned out that there is still much to be desired as to the cooling of the bifurcated point area, i.e., proximity including the bifurcated point.

Ventilated disc unit for automotive brake system


The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for mounting components on a substrate. The apparatus comprises a bond head with a component gripper, a first drive system for moving a carrier over relatively long distances, a second drive system which is attached to the carrier for moving the bond head back and forth between a nominal working position and a stand-by position, a drive attached to the bond head for rotating the component gripper or a rotary drive for rotating the substrate about an axis, at least one substrate camera attached to the carrier and at least one component camera. Either the second drive system is also designed to perform high-precision correction movements with the bond head, or a third drive system is provided to perform high-precision correction movements with the substrate. At least one reference mark is attached to the bond head or the component gripper.

Apparatuses of this type are particularly used in the semiconductor industry. Examples of such apparatuses are Die Bonders or Pick and Place machines, with which components in the form of semiconductor chips, flip chips, micromechanical, micro-optical and electro-optical components, and the like are deposited on substrates such as leadframes, printed circuit boards, ceramics, etc. and bonded. The components are picked up by a bond head at a removal location, in particular sucked in, moved to a substrate location and deposited at a precisely defined position on the substrate. The bond head is part of a Pick and Place system, which enables movement of the bond head in at least three space directions. In order to enable the component to be positioned accurately on the substrate, both the exact position of the component gripped by the bond head with respect to the positioning axis of the bond head and the exact position of the substrate place must be determined.
Mounting devices available on the market achieve in the best case a positioning accuracy of 2 to 3 micrometers with a standard deviation of 3 sigma.

Apparatus and method for mounting components on a substrate


An electrophotographic toner includes toner parent particles containing a binder resin, a colorant and a charge control agent; and an external additive added to the surface of the toner parent particles. The toner further includes positively chargeable silica and polymer beads in addition to large particle diameter silica, small particle diameter silica and titanium oxides. Thus, the toner can maintain its charge quantity and distribution stably even during environmental changes and after long image printing times, thereby preventing the contamination of the non-image part and the filming.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic toner. More particularly, the invention relates to an electrophotographic toner that is able to produce a high quality image with uniform density without the contamination of image due to a non-control toner. The electrophotographic toner of the invention does not generate filming action on a photoconductor that is normally due to contamination by an external additive. The toner also maintains charge quantity and charge distribution stably over a long period of time in an electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, electrophotographic image processing machines such as a laser printer, a facsimile and a copying machine, etc. are widely used. The image forming apparatus forms a latent image on a photoconductor by using a laser, migrate a toner onto the latent image formed on the photoconductor by employing electric potential difference, and transfer the latent image to a printing medium such as a paper to give a desired image.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a non-contact developing type electrophotographic image forming apparatus, of which operating mechanism is described below.
A non-magnetic one-component toner 8 is fed on a developing roller 5 by a feeding roller 6 made of an elastic member such as polyurethane foam or a sponge, and the like. The toner 8 supplied to the developing roller 5 arrives at the contacting part between a toner control blade 7 and the developing roller 5 through the rotation of the developing roller 5. The toner control blade 7 is made of an elastic member such as metal or a rubber, and the like. When the toner 8 is passed through the contacting area of the toner control blade 7 and the developing roller 5, the toner 8 is controlled and formed in a uniform layer to form a thin layer and to charge the toner sufficiently. Thin layered toner 8 migrates from the developing roller 5 to a developing area on the photoconductor 1 where the toner 8 is developed on an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 1.
The developing roller 5 is spaced from the photoconductor 1, without contacting each other in some intervals. The developing roller 5 rotates in a counterclockwise direction, and the photoconductor 1 rotates in a clockwise direction. The toner 8 that migrates to the developing area is developed on the electrostatic latent image of the photoconductor 1 by electric power generated by electric potential difference between the DC-offset AC voltage applied to the developing roller 5 and the electric potential of the latent image on the photoconductor 1.
The toner 8 developed on the photoconductor 1 arrives at a position of a transferring means 9 by the rotating direction of the photoconductor 1. The toner developed on the photoconductor 1 is transferred on a printing paper 13, which is passed between the photoconductor 1 and the transfer means by the transferring means 9 on which high voltage having counter polarity to the toner 8 is applied through corona discharge or in roller form, to form an image.
While the image transferred to the printing paper is passed through a fusing apparatus (not shown) at high temperature and high pressure, the toner is melted on the printing paper and thus the image is fused thereon. Meanwhile, the undeveloped toner remaining on the developing roller 5 is recovered by the feeding roller 6 in contact with the developing roller 5.
Such procedures are repeated to form a desired image.
Recently, high quality of images are required as electrophotographic image forming apparatuses such as an electrophotographic LBP, a multifunction machine and a color-copying machine are widely distributed. A toner used in a developing apparatus for this purpose is intended to possess the properties such as stable charge quantity and developing efficiency, and provide anti-fogging even during environmental changes and extended image printing times.
As an approach to control the stabilization of charge quantity in a toner, anti-fogging, and enhancing developing efficiency, and the like, various external additives such as silica, titanium oxide or titanium dioxide (TiO2), aluminum oxide (A2O3), strontium titanate (SrTiO3), barium titanate (BaTiO3) and calcium titanate (CaTiO3) are added to a toner, but there is a limitation in improving the image quality. That is, variation in charging property of a toner to environmental changes such as low temperature-low humidity and high temperature-high humidity occurs frequently, and uniform charge quantity and distribution is maintained in initial printing, but the drop of charge quantity occurs greatly during standing. Further, the drop of image density, fogging and toner scattering occur due to the drop of charge quantity and non-uniform charge distribution in image printing over long periods.
Accordingly, the types of various external additives to be added for improving image quality are increasing, and the amount of external additives added is progressively increasing. These external additives should maintain continuously stable adhesion state on a toner surface during long term printing, however, they are, in fact, impregnated into toner particles or some of them cause the contamination of a developing member due to their separation or departing, or the contamination of images therefrom. It has been found that such separation or departing of the external additives increases as the particle size of these external additives increases and the cohesive force between external additives increases. The separation becomes more severe due to the increase in the types and amounts of the external additives.
Particularly, a long lifetime of more than 10,000 copies is required for the recent color image forming apparatus. In these apparatus, the internal contamination in the image forming apparatus due to the external additives becomes more severe, thereby limiting the lifetime of the apparatus. Further, an image forming apparatus, in particular, the compaction in the inside member of a developing device and the roller type is promoted due to the need of compaction to set size, and in this case, the drop of image density and uniformity, and the contamination of a non-image part tends to occur easily due to the lack of absolute charge quantity and charging speed.


A spread spectrum protocol in a power line communication (PLC) system uses Harmonic Modulation (HM) as true spread spectrum modulation made up of a plurality of modulated tones spaced in frequency with equal distance between adjacent tones. The protocol incorporates the following modes:. "Conventional"--Master/Slave relation of meters to a common hub. PA1 "Leap Frog"--performing data relay through locally elected/designated meters for relay to a central hub or a distributed set of concentrators. PA1 "Alarm Channel"--reserving an HM signal set for meters to telemeter their configuration in a subnetwork after a power distribution network reconfiguration. PA1 "Probing"--using HM polling to diagnose the location of a feeder fault. PA1 "Derived Timing"--master derived timing for inbound message framing. PA1 "Rate Adapting"--allocating a mix of number of HM channels to the outbound/inbound ratio according to message traffic control requirements and power line distribution topology. PA1 "Priority/Noise Based Adapting"--allocating a different mix of number of HM channels to the outbound/inbound ratio based on message priority or noise conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to electronic signal modulation, and more particularly, to a spread spectrum modulation protocol having particular application in power line communications.
2. Background Description
Electric power companies typically have a service person visit customers and read a power meter to determine the amount of power consumed for billing purposes. This can be cumbersome and time consuming when there are many customers, especially if they are dispersed over a large geographic area.
It would be beneficial for power companies to read these electric power meters remotely, through a communications path. The power wires connected to each customer's power meter constitute a possible path for communicating with the power meters; however, existing modulation techniques may not easily be implemented or reliably perform in the high-noise environment of a power line. Moreover, the inductances of voltage transformers employed in the power line network introduce non-linear phase shifts in signals passing through the transformer. Therefore, complex communications systems are required to perform reliably in the high-noise, phase distorted power line channels. For example, some of these systems monitor several frequency channels, select an appropriate channel, and then indicate the appropriate frequency to other communicating units. Other systems, such as that set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,591 to Shuey, issued Feb. 9, 1993, employ a plurality of signals which are not harmonically related, so as to require elaborate filtering and signal extraction.
Currently, there is need for a relatively simple communication system which can utilize existing power lines to remotely read multiple power meters simultaneously.

Power line communications spread spectrum protocol


A connection circuit (CC) is formed by selectors (2,3) and a flip-flop (4). Th selectors (2,3) are switch-controlled by a test holding control signal (thld) and a shift mode control signal (sm) respectively. A scan-in terminal (si) is connected to a data input 0 terminal of the selector (2), while an output terminal of the flip-flop (4) is connected to its data input 1 terminal. An output terminal of the selector (2) is connected to a data input 1 terminal of the selector (3). An input terminal (d) is connected to a data input 0 terminal of the selector (3). An output terminal of the selector (3) is connected to an input terminal of the flip-flop (4). The output terminal of the flip-flop (4) is also connected to a scan-out terminal (so) and an output terminal (q) of the connection circuit (CC). In an ordinary operation, data is inputted through the input terminal (d). Thus, a scan path forming circuit attaining a high-speed operation in an ordinary operation is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a testing circuit, and more particularly, it relates to a scan path forming circuit which is provided around a logic circuit provided in a semiconductor device for testing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a design of providing a test simplifying circuit has been applied to a semiconductor device, for an operation test of a logic circuit which is provided in the semiconductor device.
Before explaining a scan test by the test simplifying design, a data circuit which is a logic circuit and input/output operations of the data circuit are now described with reference to FIG. 30.
FIG. 30 is a circuit diagram showing a data circuit 1 and circuits for inputting and outputting data in and from the data circuit 1.
Throughout the specification, symbols denote data or signals and terminals in common. For example, symbol IN0! may denote input data or a data input terminal.
The data circuit 1 is now described. The data circuit 1 comprises input terminals DI0! to DI3! and output terminals DO0! to DO3!. This data circuit 1 is a circuit outputting output data DO0! to DO3!, which are specific to input data DI0! to DI3! supplied to the input terminals DI0! to DI3!, from the output terminals DO0! to DO3!. The data circuit 1 can be a combinational circuit or a memory circuit such as a RAM (random access memory). Data input terminals IN0! to IN3! and data output terminals OUT0! to OUT3! are connected to the input terminals DI0! to DI3! and the output terminals DO0! to DO3! through selectors 1020! to 1023! and flip-flops 40! to 43! described later respectively. Numbers! which are added to the data or terminals express bit numbers of data. As described above, the data inputted in or outputted from the terminals are associated with each other by bit numbers respectively. Therefore, the bit numbers are hereinafter omitted when the data or terminals are generically called or no variation with the bit numbers may be taken into consideration. Also when the bit numbers are omitted, the respective data correspond to the terminals of the respective bit numbers.
The circuits which are related to data input/output are now described. The selectors 102 and the flip-flops 4 are inserted between the input terminals DI of the data circuit 1 and the data input terminals IN and between the output terminals DO and the data output terminals OUT respectively, in order to hold input or output data. All selectors 102 are simultaneously controlled by a holding control signal HLD0 which is inputted from a holding terminal HLD0. The flip-flops are D flip-flops, or flip-flops having functions which are similar to those of D flip-flops. Functions of the selectors 102 and the flip-flops 4 are similar in every bit number, and identical to each other on the input and output sides. While the following description is made on the selectors 102 and the flip-flops 4 provided on the input side, this also applies to the output side.
The state of connection is now described. Each selector 102 comprises two data input terminals, i.e., a data input 0 terminal which is selected and connected when the holding control signal HLD0 is "0" and a data input 1 terminal which is selected and connected when the holding control signal HLD0 is "1". The data input 0 terminal is connected with each data input terminal IN, while the data input 1 terminal is connected with an output terminal of the flip-flop 4. An output terminal of each selector 102 is connected to an input terminal of each flip-flop 4. The output terminal of the flip-flop 4 is connected to each input terminal DI and the data input 1 terminal of the selector 102 in common.
Circuit operations in the aforementioned state of connection are now described. When the holding control signal HLD0 is "0", data which are inputted in the data input 0 terminals of the selectors 102 are connected to the output terminals of the selectors 102. Therefore, input data IN are supplied to the input terminals DI through the selectors 102 and the flip-flops 4. When the holding control signal HLD0 is "1", on the other hand, the data input 1 terminals are selected, whereby data outputted from the output terminals of the flip-flops 4 are supplied to the input terminals of the flip-flops 4 through the selectors 102. Thus, the data of the flip-flops 4 are held.
The circuit operations in the circuits shown in FIG. 30 are summarized with respect to the input and output sides as follows: When the holding control signal HLD0 is "0", the input data IN are inputted in the input terminals DI, and output data DO are outputted from the data output terminals OUT. Namely, the input operation and the output operation are synchronized with each other. When the holding control signal HLD0 is "1", on the other hand, the input data DI and the output data DO are held by the selectors 102 and the flip-flops 4 respectively.
The scan test is now described.
The scan test is adapted to:
1. provide a scan path on the circuit to be tested,
2. supply test patterns from the scan path to the circuit,
3. incorporate output data outputted from the circuit with respect to the test patterns in the scan path again, and
4. analyze the results.
The scan test is a technique of a test simplifying design. The scan path is implemented by converting flip-flops which are connected to input or output terminals of the tested circuit to scan flip-flops.
FIG. 31 is a circuit diagram showing a state of converting a flip-flop 4 to a scan flip-flop SFF. In this case, scan conversion is adapted to connect a selector 103 to an input terminal of the flip-flop 4. An output of the selector 103 is switched by a shift mode signal SM. Data D and scan-in data SI are inputted in a data input 0 terminal and a data input 1 terminal of the selector 103 respectively. The data D is selected when the shift mode signal SM is "0", while the scan-in data SI is selected when the signal SM is "1", to be inputted in the flip-flop 4.
FIG. 32 is a circuit diagram showing a data circuit 1 which is provided with a scan path. Connection circuits PCC0! to PCC3! consisting of selectors 102 and 103 and flip-flops 4 are connected between data input terminals IN0! to IN3! and input terminals DI0! to DI3! respectively on the input side. Similarly, connection circuits PCC0! to PCC3! are connected between data output terminals DO0! to DO3! and output terminals OUT0! to OUT3! respectively on the output side. FIG. 33 shows each connection circuit PCC.
The functions of the connection circuits PCC provided on the input and output sides are identical to each other, and hence description is made on the state of connection of the connection circuit PCC shown in FIG. 33 with reference to the input side, similarly to FIG. 30.
The selector 102 has a data input 0 terminal which is connected with a data input terminal IN, and a data input 1 terminal which is connected with an output terminal of the flip-flop 4. An output terminal of the selector 102 is connected to a data input 0 terminal of the selector 103. A data input 1 terminal of the selector 103 is connected with a scan-in terminal SI. An output terminal of the selector 103 is connected to an input terminal of the flip-flop 4, while output data of the flip-flop 4 is inputted in the data input 1 terminal of the selector 102 as described above, and further outputted as scan-out data SO of the connection circuit PCC or serial input data Q.
As shown in FIG. 32, each scan-out data SO defines scan-in data SI of a connection circuit PCC having the next bit number, and is inputted to the shift-in terminal SI of the connection circuit PCC. The scan-out data SO of the input side connection circuit PCC3! defines the scan-in data SI of the output side connection circuit PCC0!, and the scan-out data SO of the output side connection circuit PCC3! is outputted as the scan-out data SO of the overall scan path.
The circuit operations are now described. The operations of the circuits shown in FIG. 32 include an ordinary operation and a scan test operation.
The ordinary operation is first described. The ordinary operation of the circuits shown in FIG. 32 is similar to the operation of the circuits shown in FIG. 30.
In the ordinary operation, the shift mode control signal SM is set at "0". At this time, input data IN are incorporated in the input terminals DI of the data circuit 1 through the connection circuits PCC on the input side if a holding control signal HLD0 is "0". On the other hand, output data DO are outputted from the data output terminals OUT through the connection circuits PCC on the output side. If the holding control signal HLD0 is "1", on the other hand, the input and output data IN and DO are held in the connection circuits PCC respectively.
The scan test operation is now described. In the scan test, shift-in of test patterns, execution, and shift-out of test results are successively performed.
1. Shift-In of Test Patterns
In preparation for inputting of test patterns in the data circuit 1, the test patterns are shifted in the input side connection circuits PCC. When the shift mode control signal SM is set at "1", the shift patterns to be inputted in the data circuit 1 can be shifted in from the scan-in terminal SI. The data circuit 1 of this prior art is of four bits, and hence 4-bit test patterns are shifted in the connection circuits PCC. The test patterns are shifted in the following order of the input side connection circuits PCC0!.fwdarw.PCC1!.fwdarw.PCC2!.fwdarw.PCC3!, to be inputted in the input side connection circuits PCC0! to PCC3!.
2. Execution
The shift mode control signal SM is set at "0". If the holding control signal HLD0 is "1", data after completion of the test pattern shift-in, i.e., the test patterns, are held in the input side connection circuits PCC, while data after completion of the test pattern shift-in are held in the output side connection circuits PCC. If the holding control signal HLD0 is "0" when the shift mode control signal SM is set at "0", the input data IN are incorporated in the input terminals DI, and the output data DO which are the test results of the data circuit 1 are outputted from the data output terminals OUT. When the holding control signal HLD0 is thereafter converted from "0" to "1", the input data IN are held in the input side connection circuits PCC while the output data DO which are the test results are held in the output side connection circuits PCC.
3. Shift-Out of Test Results
The shift mode control signal SM is set at "1". At this time, the test results are successively shifted out from the scan-out terminals SO.
The above are the circuit operations of the circuits shown in FIG. 32.
As shown in FIG. 32, two selectors 102 and 103 are included between each data input terminal IN for the ordinary operation and each input terminal DI of the data circuit 1. Similarly, two selectors 102 and 103 are included between each output terminal DO of the data circuit 1 and each data output terminal OUT for the ordinary operation. Therefore, set-up is increased and the circuit speed in the ordinary operation is disadvantageously reduced.


A position-measuring device is for determining the position of two objects which are arranged displaceably with respect to each other in at least one measuring direction, and a method is for the operation of such a position-measuring device. The position-measuring device includes a measuring graduation as well as a scanning device having a light source and one or a plurality of optical and/or optoelectronic components for generating displacement-dependent position signals. A semiconductor laser having great coherence length is provided as the light source, which is operated pulsed in a single-mode operational-mode.

In systems for manufacturing semiconductor components, the spatial position of certain components that are displaceable relative to one another are determined with precision with the aid of suitable position-measuring devices. Using the determined positional data, a computer-controlled sequencing control can then be implemented in these systems. Conventionally, the requisite position measuring is predominantly performed via a plurality of laser interferometers. In the future, it is assumed that the accuracy requirements for the position measurement will continue to increase with simultaneously increasing positioning speeds of the various parts. Given the high accuracy requirements that will then result, laser interferometers may no longer be able to be used as position-measuring devices. Even with optimal air conditioning, the refractive index fluctuations in the surrounding air may lead to unacceptable measuring value fluctuations in the position determination, which are on the order of magnitude of a few nanometers (nm).
For this reason, alternative position-measuring devices have already been proposed for such systems. European Published Patent Application No. 1 019 669, for example, describes the use of optical position-measuring devices having so-called cross gratings as a two-dimensional measuring graduation. In the following text, such position-measuring devices will also be referred to as grating-based position-measuring devices. These systems are hardly affected by possible refractive index fluctuations of the air and therefore allow position measurements that are well reproducible.
Optical position-measuring devices having gratings as measuring graduations, which provide the necessary resolutions in the nanometer range, are usually based on interferential scanning principles. In this instance, in general, a light beam from a suitable light source is split up into a least two coherent partial beams of rays, which subsequently impinge upon a plurality of gratings in the scanning beam path before they are reunited and brought to interference. The position information that is ultimately of interest is provided by the (displacement-dependent) phase position of the two interfering partial beams of rays. The resulting path length difference is usually approaching zero for the two partial beams of rays between splitting up and reuniting in symmetrical scanning beam path variants of such systems. Therefore, a short coherence length of the light used is sufficient to provide the desired interference from the detection side.
German Published Patent Application No. 10 2005 043 569 describes an additional interferential position-measuring device, which has asymmetric scanning beam paths for the two partial beams of rays. This means that, based on this asymmetry, path length differences result for the partial beams of rays coming to interference, on the order of magnitude up to a few millimeters (mm). With regard to the required coherence length of the light used, this means that the coherence length has to be in the range of a few millimeters (mm) all the way up to a few centimeters (cm), otherwise no interference of the partial beams of rays that come to superposition is possible.

Position-measuring device and method for operating a position-measuring device


A device for isolating vibrations includes an ion trap, a cryocooler, a primary chamber, a secondary chamber, a vacuum ion pump, a heat exchanger, a sample chamber, a support part, a connector, a heat conduction part, a first platform, a second platform, and a flexible connecting part. The primary chamber, the secondary chamber, and the vacuum ion pump are fixedly disposed on the first platform. The connector is a hollow structure disposed between the primary chamber and the secondary chamber. The primary chamber communicates with the secondary chamber via the hollow structure thereby forming an airtight chamber. The vacuum ion pump is connected to the primary chamber via a five-way flange. The support part is fixed on the second platform. The cryocooler is fixed on the support part. The cryocooler includes a cold head and a machine head. The cold head is suspended in the primary chamber.

The disclosure relates to a device for isolating vibrations.
An ion trap is a physical device in combination of electric or magnetic fields to capture charged particles, known as ions, in a system isolated from an external environment. Ion traps have a number of scientific uses in mass spectrometry, basic physics research, and controlling quantum states. Low temperature ion traps are more conducive to the operation of the quantum bits than normal temperature ion traps.
Known methods to keep the ultra-low temperature of the ion traps involve either the use of liquid helium, or the use of a cycle refrigerator.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY


An otoscope provides a circular display allowing a compact housing providing improved simultaneous viewing of the display and the patient's ear for improved positioning and stabilization of the otoscope. A recorded image may be rotationally corrected, and non-image data displayed on the screen may be rotationally corrected with the use of an inclinometer.

The present invention relates to an otoscope for inspection of the ear and in particular to an otoscope employing an electronic camera insertable into the ear canal.
An otoscope is a medical device allowing a healthcare professional to inspect the ear canal and tympanic membrane (eardrum). A simple otoscope provides for a hollow funnel-shaped speculum whose small end is inserted into the ear canal. The purpose of the funnel shape of the speculum is to provide a visual path to the tympanic membrane and to assist in controlling depth of insertion of the speculum. Modern otoscopes include an internal source of illumination directed down the speculum axis from a contained battery-operated lamp and may provide a magnifying lens supported outside the ear and aligned with the axis of the speculum to provide an enlarged image of the ear structure being viewed. More recently, otoscopes have incorporated digital cameras with displays directly on the otoscope for viewing the camera image. An example of these otoscopes is found in U.S. Pat. No. 9,326,668 hereby incorporated by reference.
The use of an otoscope requires that the clinician attend carefully to the positioning of the otoscope throughout the examination. The clinician must both hold the otoscope and stabilize it against the patient's head with one hand, while the other hand manipulates the external ear to maximize "straightness" of the external auditory canal. Once the visual axis is properly aligned, a single user is able to view and assess the characteristics of the tympanic membrane.
The use of an otoscope, particularly with infants, requires that the healthcare professional pay constant attention to placement and positioning of the otoscope by observing the infant's outer ear and at times using one hand to both hold the otoscope and stabilize the otoscope against the infant's head while the other hand manipulates the external ear to maximize "straightness" of the external auditory canal. Desirably, the camera display for the otoscope is mounted on the otoscope itself to minimize the need for the healthcare professional to look away from the otoscope and patient to see the desired clinical information. Nevertheless, the necessary size of display needed to provide proper readability and resolution can often in such cases obstruct the healthcare professional's view of the patient during this positioning and bracing operation if the healthcare professional simultaneously wants to view the display. This can be a particular problem when the otoscope is rotated, for example, with a handle positioned laterally rather than vertically, for improved bracing or access to the patient.

Otoscope providing low obstruction electronic display


A modular weighted base bicycle stand having cross over and adjustable application. Said bicycle stand is comprised of light weight weather enduring durable material. The device of this invention having a removably attachable weighted planar base and several removably attachable extendable arms.

1. Field of the Invention
The present inventive subject matter relates to a modular weighted base bicycle stand, particularly having removably attachable base and removably attachable extendable arms and being universally adaptable for any variety of bicycle types over any variety of environmental conditions.
2. Background
Modern day bicycle stands, particularly those with practical applications for mechanical maintenance, comprise a variety of embodiments that as a whole, lack universal capabilities and accommodations. Bicycle stands are traditionally designed with an intended type of bicycle or a manner of suspension (not excluding manufacturing and cost considerations) in mind. Given the wide variety of bicycle design and material composition, there are few cross-over bicycle stands in the market that address the specific needs of cyclists within their niche culture of use. Further, all stands available in the market are manufactured in their entirety to predetermined specifications and from new raw material.
Each type of bicycle stand provided in the prior art can be distinguished from each other by several features, not limited to the following: 1) the manner of adjusting the stand, 2) the means for suspending a bike, 3) the types of bicycles that are accommodated, 4) the location of contact on a given bicycle, 5) the types of environment warranted for use and 6) the scale of portability. The claimed benefit of one design may be detrimental in alternative application because the intended effect was not with cross over application in mind. For example, a modern popular design in the market for portable bicycle stands provide a tripod style stand with single arm extension having clamping means for suspending said bicycle central to its frame. This is a very unstable design with heavy gravitational force against a single leverage point on the metal frame. With larger performance bicycles that comprise softer frame material, warping or bending often occurs. Modern manufacture of high performance bicycles have dictated lighter weight alloy metal composites such as aluminum alloys, titanium, carbon fiber, and even bamboo or cardboard. The popular clamping means in the market are designed with heavier steel frames in mind.
Consider, for example, a cyclist during long distance race requiring timely adjustment of frame components several times throughout a trek. The terrain will vary and so will the tuning needs of the bicycle. Portability in size and weight, quick set up and break down, adaptability to changing environment and ease in fine tune adjustment are valuable concerns. Alternatively, a BMX cyclist or a mountain cyclist traversing uneven terrain will face unpredictable adjustment needs due to the high impact nature of the sport. In this case, adaptability to all weather and soiling conditions, the ability to manage both fine tuning and larger repair, and maintain stability over rough terrain are focuses of consideration. Even further, a city cyclist traversing high traffic city environment will require a stand that is convenient in portability, can be set up and broken down with minimum effort for agility, and has built in stability to manage the high risk scenario.
Performance cycling has developed popularity in the present time. Particularly in western culture, the purpose having switched from a utilitarian need to recreational, health and competitive interests. Performance bicycles include among its variety mountain bikes, dirt bikes, road bikes, tour bikes, cross bikes, stunt bikes, cyclo-cross bikes, etc. The frame structure among these is not the same between the varieties of niche bicycles in the market. There are more than 11 types of known popular bicycle frames in the market, each with unique geometric design. It is possible that new designs will arise in the market as performance requirements evolve, especially in the culture of competitive cycling. Accessories currently in the market and in the prior art do not adequately address or support the needs of the new cycling environment, particularly in a cross over manner.
EU Patent Application No. 94200538.0 pertains to a bicycle stand having a single front and single rear arm. The front arm is intended to be seated under the front fork of a bicycle without its front wheels attached. The rear arm is intended to be seated under the bottom bracket shell of the frame between the peddle. The stand is elevated above ground, propped by two thin lengths of solid material that seated on the ground. The base of the frame comprising interconnected tubing framework, which relegates positioning of the front and rear arm to the furthest edge of the stand where the tubing frame provides a seat for the base of said arms. This design is unstable because the lightweight base and height by which a bicycle would be positioned above would likely result in tipping, particularly in windy conditions and over uneven ground surfaces. Further, the design requires removal of the front wheels in order to be applicable. This is an impractical requirement, particularly in time sensitive scenarios such as with marathon races where removal of a wheel would cause substantial delay. In addition, the front arm interferes with the user's range of motion by the front portion of the bicycle where adjustment may be required.
U.S. Pat. No. 564,787 provides a bicycle stand having a pair of front and rear vertical arms. Both sets of arms are attached to a lower set of lateral support tubes. The length of the arms and support tubes are nonadjustable in length, therefore limiting its application to a predetermined type and size of bicycle. The front arm is intended to be seated beneath the head tube of the bike frame and the rear arm is intended to be seated beneath the nuts and bolts attached to the rear wheel that protrude from rear derailleur hanger. This design becomes problematic if the rear wheel is removed from the bicycle and nothing is present to leverage the bicycle against the rear arm of the stand. As with the above cited art, the base comprises lightweight tube frame structure with little counter support at a lower center of gravity to avoid tipping. This design can be impractical as it relates to work occurring in near the rear portion of the bicycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 506,495 provides a bicycle stand similar to the above described patent No. '495. However, patent No. '495 comprise a single longer front arm with two shorter rear arms. The front arm similarly rests against the handle bar stem while the two rear tubes rests against the bicycle's rear hub. The problem here is similar to that found in U.S. patent No. '787 in that the support is removed if the rear tire is removed and a lightweight tube frame forms the base of the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 663,226 provides a single fore arm and two rear arms interconnected by a common lateral joint. This fore arm is positioned under the handle bar stem of a bicycle. The rear arms are positioned at a lower height beneath the rear hub of the bicycle wheels. This device is not designed to accommodate fluctuating, unpredictable and extreme uneven terrain.
The demand for a more agile and portable bicycle stand has arisen in the area of competitive cycling, a fast evolving culture and sport. The challenge within this industry continues to increase by adding more environmental variables, greater distances, faster speed, and tougher terrain. The variety of bicycle designs and the relevant needs not quite matching between the niche sports nor is their evolution as predictable. There remains a need for a bicycle stand that can evolve with the dynamic cycling culture.


An apparatus for measuring characteristics of a liquid including a channel through which, during operation, the liquid flows and a plurality of sensors for measuring characteristics of the liquid as it flows through the channel. The cross-sectional shape of the channel varies along its length, but the cross-sectional area of the channel is substantially constant so that, during operation, liquid flows through the channel at a substantially uniform speed. The sensors include an ultra-violet sensor and an infra-red sensor, each having a source and a detector of electromagnetic radiation arranged along an axis transverse to the channel. The axes of the two sensors are transverse to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for measuring characteristics of a liquid. In particular, but not exclusively, the invention relates to an ultraviolet (UV) absorbency-based monitor for measuring the amount of organic pollution in a liquid, and is of application for on-line monitoring of water quality at locations such as industrial or water treatment plant effluent outlets, rivers or reservoirs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of methods are available for determining the biological or organic pollution in water, involving the measurement of parameters such as BOD (biochemical oxygen demand), TOC (total organic carbon) or COD (chemical oxygen demand). The parameter that is usually of most interest is the BOD.
A number of on-line, continuous BOD monitors are available that operate by measuring the absorbency of ultraviolet (UV) light by a sample. These monitors are based on the principle that a particular substance will absorb light of a particular wavelength (or wavelengths), so that the reduction in intensity of light of that wavelength, when transmitted through a sample containing the substance, can be related to the concentration of that substance. Aromatic organic compounds, and other organic compounds that have conjugated double bonds, absorb light in the UV wavelength region and research has shown that absorbency measurements taken in that region, and in particular at 254 nm, can be related to BOD (and also to TOC and COD).
In one such monitor, the amount of organic matter in a liquid sample is determined by passing a liquid sample through a flow cell, passing UV and visible light through the sample and making measurements of the absorption of UV light by the sample and the absorption and scatter of visible light. The amount of organic matter in the sample is determined from the measured absorption of UV light, with the visible light measurements being used for compensation purposes.
One disadvantage of the known monitor is the tendency of the flow cell to become fouled by substances in the liquid sample, which can result in the windows for the UV and visible light monitors becoming obscured. This reduces the accuracy and efficiency of the monitor and can eventually prevent operation. It is necessary, therefore, to clean the flow cell at regular intervals, which is costly and time-consuming and can prevent automatic operation of the monitor.

Apparatus for measuring characteristics of a liquid


A split electric rice cooker includes: a base (100) provided with a weighing-device mounting groove (120) at a bottom thereof; a cooker body configured to rest on the base (100) and separable with respect to the base (100); a weighing device (500) provided in the weighing-device mounting groove (120), the weighing device (500) comprising a weighing sensor (510) and a support leg (520); a press cover (600) provided to the bottom of the base (100) and shielding the weighing-device mounting groove (120), the press cover (600) being provided with a press-cover clearance hole (601) for the support leg (520) to pass downwards, and the support leg (520) being connected to the weighing sensor (510); or the support leg (520) being integrally provided to the press cover (600) and able to push the weighing sensor (520) along with deformation of the press cover.

In the related art, small home appliances have been popularized in people's lives, and each family basically possesses an electric rice cooker, an induction cooker and other household appliances. More and more products may be placed in a kitchen with product diversification. In order to reduce household appliances and thus reduce their occupation of the kitchen space, the electric rice cooker and the induction cooker can be integrated into a split electric rice cooker. A base of an existing split electric rice cooker cannot recognize whether a cooker body matches the base, and especially in a case of various cooker bodies, a phenomenon of mismatch is prone to occur and influences normal use of the product.

Split electric rice cooker with weighing device and press cover

FOSHAN SHUNDE MIDEA ELECTRICAL HEATING APPLIANCES MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


Compounds of formula (I): ##STR1## wherein: R.sup.1 is hydrogen, alkyl, halogen, haloalkyl, hydroxy, alkoxy, haloalkoxy, alkylthio, haloalkylthio, amino, alkanoyl, haloalkanoyl, carboxy, alkoxycarbonyl, carbamoyl, cyano, nitro, alkanesulfonyl, haloalkanesulfonyl or sulfamoyl; R.sup.2 is optionally substituted alkanoyl, optionally substituted alkenoyl, optionally substituted cycloalkylcarbonyl, substituted benzoyl, or 5,6-dihydro-1,4,2-dioxazin-3-yl; R.sup.3 is hydrogen, hydroxy, optionally substituted alkoxy, aralkyloxy, alkanoyloxy, alkenoyloxy, cycloalkylcarbonyloxy, arylcarbonyloxy, alkoxycarbonyloxy, aralkyloxycarbonylxy, phthalidyloxy, (5-methyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxolen-4-yl)methoxy, (5-phenyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxolen-4-yl)methoxy, optionally substituted amino or nitro; Y is --NH-- or oxygen or sulfur; n is 1 to 5; and tautomers and salts of said compounds of formula (I), have the ability to inhibit blood platelet aggregation, and can thus be used for treatment and prophylaxis of thrombosis and embolisms.

The present invention relates to a series of new tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridine derivatives and furo and pyrrolo analogs of these derivatives, and provides processes for preparing these derivatives as well as methods and compositions using them for inhibiting blood platelet aggregation.
A number of tetrahydrothienopyridine and tetrahydrofuropyridine derivatives is known, and some of these have been disclosed to have the ability to inhibit blood platelet aggregation. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,051,141, 4,075,215, 4,127,580, 4,464,377 and 4,529,596 all disclose compounds of this type, although not all disclose them for the inhibition of blood platelet aggregation. The closest prior art is believed to be U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,141, which discloses, inter alia, 5-(2-chlorobenzyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridine and U.S Pat. No. 4,529,596, which discloses, inter alia, 5-(2-chloro-.alpha.-methoxycarbonylbenzyl)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c] pyridine.
However, there are problems with the prior art compounds referred to above, especially in that many of them require a long time after administration before they manifest their activity. Accordingly, there is a need for new compounds of this type having improved activity and the ability to act faster.
We have now discovered a series of new tetrahydrothieno[3,2-c]pyridine derivatives and furo and pyrrolo analogs of these derivatives which have an improved ability to inhibit the aggregation of blood platelets.

Tetrahydrothienopyridine derivatives, furo and pyrrolo analogs thereof and their preparation and uses for inhibiting blood platelet aggregation


A handheld device having a lamp for testing and clipping a blade fuse includes a handle having two probes extended therefrom, a clamp formed on one end of the handle, and an indicator for indicating the condition of the fuse. One of the probes is movably disposed on the handle, thereby allowing the adjustment of separation between two probes. Finally, one side of the handle includes a first lamp, which is disposed parallel to the probes and is electrically connected to the circuit board for illuminating the fuse to be tested. The other side of the handle includes a second lamp, which is disposed parallel to the clamp and is electrically connected to the circuit board for illuminating the fuse to be pulled out.

The present invention relates generally to a blade fuse tester, and more particularly to a blade fuse tester having a lamp.
Electricity is one of the most important source of power in the daily life of modern people. Electrical device is widely applicable to all aspects of human life. However, the current flowed in the circuitry of the electrical device might occasionally exceed the sustainable limit, which will damage the electrical device or cause a fire. In order to prevent such a danger, a fuse is often used forming a series connection with the circuitry. Therefore, the fuse co-exists with most of the electrical devices. Particularly in the auto industry, fuses are an integral part of automobiles. Most of the fuses of an automobile are collected in a fuse box, which includes a plurality of blades, each blade having a fuse contained therein.
There are currently two types of fuses available in the market. One is the cylindrical fuse, while the other is the blade fuse. The cylindrical fuse includes a narrow cylindrical tube, which includes a fragile metallic wire wrapped therein. The blade fuse is a relatively flat, which includes a pair of male conducting terminal that can be inserted to the female terminal of the fuse box. In the automobile industry, people are more favorable to the blade fuse.
In order to maintain a good electrical connection within a circuitry, fuses are often tightly embedded in a fuse box, which renders it difficult to replace the damaged fuses. In addition, fuse box is often disposed at a location that is hardly accessible, for example, below the dash board, under the engine cover, or oftentimes behind the engine parts. Therefore, a fuse clip is invented and disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 1,053,770 for users to easily pick up the damaged blade fuse from the fuse box. Furthermore, a combination of fuse clip and fuse tester is invented and disclosed in Taiwanese Patent No. 154246 allowing users to perform two different tasks with a single tool.
However, the task of testing fuses is often performed under an environment without sufficient light. For this reason, an additional light source is required. Under such a circumstance, the user needs to use one hand to grab a flash light, while using the other hand to hold the fuse tester. Such simple task of testing fuses thus becomes unnecessarily difficult.


Automated systems, methods and tools that automatically extract and select portions of an image to automatically generate a premium finish mask specific to the image which require little or no human intervention are presented. Graphical user interface tools allowing a user to provide an image and to indicate regions of the image for application of premium finish are also presented.

Printing services Web sites allowing a user to access the site from the user's home or work and design a personalized product are well known and widely used by many consumers, professionals, and businesses. For example, Vistaprint markets a variety of printed products, such as business cards, postcards, brochures, holiday cards, announcements, and invitations, online through the site www.vistaprint.com. Printing services web sites often allow the user to review thumbnail images of a number of customizable design templates prepared by the site operator having a variety of different styles, formats, backgrounds, color schemes, fonts and graphics from which the user may choose. When the user has selected a specific product design template to customize, the sites typically provide online tools allowing the user to incorporate the user's personal information and content into the selected template to create a custom design. When the design is completed to the user's satisfaction, the user can place an order through the web site for production and delivery of a desired quantity of a product incorporating the corresponding customized design.
Finishes such as foil, gloss, raised print, vinyl, embossment, leather, cloth, and other textured finishes (hereinafter a "secondary finish") that must be applied to a printed product separately from the traditional ink application are typically reserved only for premium printed products due to the expense, time, and equipment required for design, setup, and application of the premium finishes. To add a premium finish to a printed product, at least one premium finish mask, designating areas where the secondary finish is to be applied versus areas where the secondary finish is not to be applied, must be generated. The generation of the mask requires knowledge of which portions of the design are to be finished using the secondary finish (i.e., foiled, glossed, raised print, or other premium finishes).
Currently, there are no tools for automatically extracting regions of a design designated for application of a premium finish (e.g., foil, gloss, raised print, etc.) which would produce satisfactory results in most cases which corresponds well to human judgment. In the printing world, premium finishes are generally used to accent or highlight features of an image. Generally, the determination of which features look good when accentuated using a premium finish is better left to a human designer because humans can more easily understand the meaning and relationship between the different areas of the image and can quickly select those areas of an image that make sense (to other humans) to highlight and to disregard for highlighting those areas that would detract from the overall aesthetics of the final product. It is difficult to translate this type of human judgment into a computer algorithm. Additionally, upon selection of regions of a given design for premium finish, there are currently no tools for automatically generating a secondary finish mask for the design. Thus, for every print design offered by a vendor, the vendor must expend resources designing one or more associated premium finish masks for that particular design. The design of a premium finish mask is therefore typically performed by a human graphics designer, often the same designer who created the print design. It would therefore be desirable to have automated tools available that would automatically extract regions of a given design for premium finish based on a selected area of the design image, and that would automatically generate one or more premium finish masks specific to the given design in order to minimize the amount of human designer time expended on the creation of a particular design without diminishing the quality of the end design and premium finish aesthetics.
Additionally, often customers of a retail printed products provider may wish to provide an image to be printed, and to apply a premium finish (e.g., foil, raised print, etc.) to portions of the image to be applied to the end printed product. No simple tools or techniques for indicating which portions of the image are to be premium finished exist. Instead, a trained designer must hand create an appropriate premium finish mask specific to the image the customer provided to ensure that the premium finish is applied in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Accordingly, it is difficult and expensive for end customers to add premium finish to their own images. It would therefore be desirable to have available web-enabled tools that allow a customer to provide an image and to indicate regions of the image for application of premium finish. It would further be desirable to provide an intuitive user interface that conforms to editing interfaces that customers are already used to dealing with in other document editing applications.

Methods and systems for automated selection of regions of an image for secondary finishing and generation of mask image of same


The invention intends to prevent the occurrence of a phenomenon that air is sucked through an ejection port formed at a nozzle end when a plunger rod is retracted to move away from a valve seat. In a method or apparatus for ejecting liquid droplets in which a liquid under regulated pressure, the liquid being stored in a container as required, is ejected while it is caused to fly in the form of liquid droplets from a valve ejection port, bubbles are prevented from being mixed into the liquid through the ejection port by controlling a supply amount of the liquid in a manner being able to follow a pressure difference between the ejection port and a flow passage in a valve body. The liquid is continuously ejected at a high-speed tact. The ejection port is opened with a plunger rod retracted by air pressure, and the liquid droplet is ejected through the ejection port with the plunger rod advanced by a resilient force of a spring. Bubbles are prevented from mixed in the liquid through the ejection port upon retraction of the plunger rod by controlling a retraction speed of the plunger rod in accordance with an air flow rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of ejecting liquid droplets and an apparatus for ejecting liquid droplets in fixed amount, in which a liquid under regulated pressure is ejected while it is caused to fly in the form of liquid droplets from a valve ejection port. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of ejecting liquid droplets and an apparatus for ejecting liquid droplets in fixed amount, which are suitably used to handle various kinds of liquids including a solution having a uniform concentration, a liquid containing fillers, liquids having any viscosity from a low to high level, and a highly-viscose paste-like liquid as a combination of those liquids.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional apparatus for ejecting liquid droplets, a liquid material supplied to a valve body is pushed into a flow passage within the valve body under constant pressure regulated by a pressure regulating device. However, such a conventional apparatus has a problem as follows. When a valve is opened, i.e., when a plunger rod is retracted to move away from a valve seat, air is sucked through an ejection port formed at a nozzle end, and bubbles are mixed in the liquid inside the valve body. As a result, the liquid cannot be ejected in desired amount.
The inventor has found that the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs for the reason given below. When the plunger rod is shifted from a valve-closed state in which the rod is seated against the valve seat provided in the valve body, to a valve-open state in which the rod is retracted to move away from the valve seat, a volume that is occupied by the plunger rod in the flow passage within the valve body is reduced and the pressure in the flow passage is lowered correspondingly. This causes a pressure difference between the nozzle end and the flow passage, and the pressure difference increases as the shift speed of the plunger rod is increased. Therefore, the supply amount of the liquid material pushed into the flow passage within the valve body under a constant pressing force cannot follow the pressure difference, thus resulting in a phenomenon that the atmosphere is sucked into the flow passage through the ejection port formed at the valve end for evenness of pressure. Particularly when the liquid is continuously ejected at a high-speed tact (short cycle), such a phenomenon appears noticeably because the plunger rod must be contracted at high speed.

Droplets forming method and device for discharging constant-volume droplets


The method for designing a diffractive lens to be formed on a refractive lens is disclosed. According to the method, a function of the diffractive lens is expressed as a polynomial optical path difference function using a height from an optical axis as a variable, a boundary of each zone to be formed is determined based on the optical path difference function, an angle of incidence of a ray on a macroscopic shape of the diffractive lens is determined, a shift, in a direction along the optical axis, corresponding to a unit wavelength of the optical path difference for each zone is determined based on the angle of incidence, an optical path difference to be given by each zone is determined based on the optical path difference function, and then a microscopic shape of each zone is determined.

The present invention relates to a method for designing a diffractive lens to be formed on a surface of a refractive lens, and more particularly, to a generalized method for designing a diffractive-refractive hybrid lens on which rays may be incident obliquely with respect to an optical axes of the lenses.
There is conventionally known a lens formed with a circular zone structure, which functions as a diffractive lens, on a curved surface of a refractive lens in order to compensate for chromatic aberration with a single lens element. An example of a lens having such a structure is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 6-242373, which discloses an objective lens for optical disk drive, and the diffractive lens structure described as above is formed on a surface thereof.
Further, Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 8-171052 discloses a designing method employing a high refractive index method utilizing a Sweatt model. Then, based on the designed results, a diffractive lens is replaced with a thin film having a very high refractive index, and the lens is designed. According to this method, locations at which steps of circular zones to be formed, and an amount of the steps are determined. Further, sag amounts of the zones are determined as a sum of sag amounts of a surface of a refractive lens on which the diffractive lens is formed and sag amounts of the diffractive lens structure.
The objective lens disclosed in the Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 6-242373 requires complicated calculations since aspherical surface coefficients are determined for each zone. The calculation disclosed in the Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 8-171052 defines variations of a sag amount within one zone of a diffractive lens structure using an expression below: EQU s(z)-(r(z).sup.2 -H.sup.2).sup.1/2
Since the above expression is an expression representing a spherical surface, this expression involves the following deficiencies.
(1) the expression involves a relatively large error if the diffractive lens structure includes a portion whose power is close to 0, i.e., a radius r of curvature of the portion is very great; and
(2) since the structure is expressed with a quadratic function, only a limited optical performance of the diffractive lens is obtained.
Therefore, a lens structure obtained by the method may produce greater aberrations in comparison to the diffractive lens structure obtained by the method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 6-242373.