Hot beverage makers, such as coffee makers, have been known and sold for many years using various brewing techniques. The typical and traditional coffee maker includes a stand or tower that has a warming plate forming the bottom or base of the tower with a filter basket located above the warming plate. The interior of the tower defines, at least in part, a fresh water reservoir. Such coffee makers further include a fluid reservoir, such as a glass carafe, that rests on the warming plate beneath the filter basket. Alternatively, the fluid reservoir may be an insulated carafe, in which case the warming plate is typically omitted.
In use, an operator fills the carafe in order to transfer water to the fresh water reservoir. The water is heated and passed through the filter basket, which includes the grounds to be infused. The brewed beverage then flows from the basket into the carafe. The beverage is maintained at an elevated temperature via the warming plate upon which the carafe rests, in the case of a glass carafe, or by the insulating properties of the carafe in the case of an insulated carafe.
A new variation of coffee maker has been developed wherein a brewed beverage tank is included, such as the coffee makers described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,975 to Garman, issued May 20, 2003, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,960 to Garman, issued Jan. 27, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety. Briefly, the brewed beverage tank holds the filter basket above a reservoir portion. Hot water passes through the filter basket and a material to be infused (e.g., ground coffee beans). The brewed beverage is then collected and held in the reservoir portion of the brewed beverage tank (“brew tank”). A dispenser actuator is depressed that opens an outlet port in the reservoir. A user simply actuates the dispenser actuator with a mug or cup and the brewed beverage passes through the outlet to the operator's container.
In order to allow a user to determine the amount of brewed coffee within the device, a transparent window on the coffee holding reservoir can be used. A transparent vertical slot-type window on the side of the holding reservoir can also be used. Also known is the use of a buoyant ball contained within a transparent column, the transparent column containing coffee at the same level as in the holding reservoir and the ball floating on the surface of the coffee in the column. The transparent column typically includes markings that correspond to the quantity of coffee in the reservoir, such that the quantity of coffee in the reservoir may be determined by reading the marking nearest the floating ball.
However, these transparent windows, slots, and columns give a somewhat rough estimate of how much coffee remains and often do not give a clear indication of the exact amount. In addition, the amount of coffee remaining in the coffee maker is often difficult to gauge as the coffee may be difficult to see against the background of the coffee maker which is often somewhat similar in color to the coffee itself. Further, the glass or plastic of the these transparent windows, slots, and columns may be quickly stained by the coffee, such that the transparency is greatly reduced and the amount of coffee becomes difficult or impossible to determine. Because of the above problems, even when the amount of coffee may be determined at a short distance from the coffee maker via these transparent windows, slots, and columns, it may be difficult or impossible to determine the amount of coffee at a greater distance, such as across a room.
There is a need, therefore, for a coffee level indicator that is accurate, reliable, clearly indicates the amount of brewed coffee remaining in the holding reservoir, is unaffected by staining, and is readable at a distance. The operation and structure of a brew tank with an integrated fluid gauge in accordance with the present invention would solve one or more of these or other needs.


Traditionally prescribing ophthalmic lens to a wearer involves fitting a potential wearer having an eyesight defect with ophthalmic lenses having different optical characteristics and then selecting the lenses which provide the best optical performance for the wearer. Such techniques suffer the drawback that the wearer has to go through the process of putting off and taking off a number of spectacles and may only be exposed to a limited selection of lenses which may not include the optical lens optimal for correcting the particular eyesight defect.
To address such issues various solutions based on virtual reality techniques which simulate the optical effect of an ophthalmic lens have been proposed. For example, WO 2007/056795 describes a method of simulating an optical defect of a selected ophthalmic lens design which includes retrieving simulation data for the selected ophthalmic lens design and processing the simulation data to generate a virtual output image simulating the optical defect.
A drawback of the system described in WO 2007/056795 is that it requires complex data processing techniques and a high calculating power to provide an average quality output image. This leads to prohibitive costs and complex system requirements for implementation of the virtual simulation method.


This invention relates in general to the construction of sewing machines and, in particular, to a new and useful multineedle clamps having a plurality of bores, the number of which corresponds to the number of needles and which are provided side-by-side and parallel to each other between the lateral walls of the needle guard body and intended to receive a needle butt.


(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting display and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Description of Related Art
An organic light emitting display (OLED) is a self emissive display device, which displays images by exciting an emissive organic material to emit light. The OLED includes an anode (hole injection electrode), a cathode (electron injection electrode), and an organic light emission layer interposed therebetween. When the holes and the electrons are injected into the light emission layer, they are recombined and pair annihilated with emitting light. The light emission layer further includes an electron transport layer (ETL) and a hole transport layer (HTL) as well as an electron injecting layer (EIL) and a hole injecting layer (HIL) for enhancing the light emission. Each pixel of the OLED includes two TFTs, i.e., a switching TFT and a driving TFT. The current for light emission is driven by the driving TFT and the mount of the current driven the driving TFT is controlled by the data signals from the switching TFT.
A plurality of pixels of the OLED, each including an anode, a cathode, and a light emission layer, are arranged in a matrix and driven in passive matrix (or simple matrix) addressing or active matrix addressing.
The passive matrix type OLED includes a plurality of anode lines, a plurality of cathode lines intersecting the anode lines, and a plurality of pixels, each including a light emission layer. The selection of one of the anode lines and one of the cathode lines cause light emission of a pixel located at the intersection of the selected signal lines.
The active matrix type OLED includes a plurality of pixels, each including a switching transistor, a driving transistor, and a storage capacitor as well as an anode, a cathode, and a light emission layer. The OLED further includes a plurality of gate lines transmitting gate signals and a plurality of data lines transmitting data voltages. The switching transistor is connected to one of the gate lines and one of the data lines and transmits the data voltage from the data line in response to the gate signal. The driving transistor receives the data voltage from the switching transistor and drives a current having a magnitude determined depending on the difference between the data voltage and a predetermined voltage such as a supply voltage. The current from the driving transistor enters the light emission layer to cause light emission having an intensity depending on the current. The storage capacitor is connected between the data voltage and the supply voltage to maintain their voltage difference. The gray scaling of the active matrix type OLED is accomplished by controlling the data voltages to adjust the current driven by the driving transistor. The color representation of the OLED is obtained by providing red, green and blue light emission layers.
In the meantime, the OLED is classified into top emission type and bottom emission type depending on the light emitting direction. The top emission type OLED includes a transparent cathode usually made of indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO) and an opaque anode, while the bottom emission type OLED includes an opaque cathode and a transparent anode. The relative positions of the anode and the cathode can be altered if required.
Since ITO and IZO have high resistivity, the top emission type OLED may add an auxiliary electrode having low resistivity to the cathode. However, the addition of the auxiliary electrode requires an additional lithography step that may complicate the manufacturing process and increase the manufacturing cost.


This invention relates to high-intensity-discharge (HID) lamps and, more particularly, to improved electron emissive material for the electrodes of such lamps.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,710 dated Jan. 2, 1973 is disclosed a high-intensity-discharge sodium-mercury vapor lamp which utilizes dibarium calcium tungstate as electron emissive material. Such material has been used in so-called dispenser cathodes and U.S. Pat. No. 3,434,812 dated Mar. 25, 1969 discloses the use of dibarium calcium tungstate or dibarium strontium tungstate as an emissive material in a dispenser cathode.
Dibarium calcium molybdate is known for use as a getter layer material in conjunction with an incandescent lamp, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,861, dated Aug. 16, 1966. In addition, high-pressure sodium-mercury vapor lamps have in the past utilized as electron emissive material a mixture of several oxide phases comprising thorium dioxide, barium thorate, dibarium calcium tungstate and barium oxide. This mixture of oxide phases is quite sensitive to the atmospheric contaminants with the result that even a brief exposure to the air can result in a relatively large pickup of water and carbon dioxide by the emission mixture, which contaminants are rather difficult to remove. In such a mixture, the thorium dioxide serves as a matrix for the more active oxide emitters such as the barium oxide, dibarium calcium tungstate and barium thorate.


Applications and processes executing in enterprise cloud based environments may be hindered because of the lack of flexible resource scaling and provisioning of resources. Applications and processes executing in the cloud may have to adapt to varying resource requirements based on customer and business needs. Provisioning computing storage resources at the time usage demand increases may be inefficient because it may take significant time and resources to allocate and initialize the storage which may cause service interruptions. Thus, operators may be faced with the choice of expensive over-provisioning of computers resources, or reactively provisioning computer resources when demand increases occur which may result in poor service response and unplanned downtime. Further, some resources, such as virtual machine data storage, may have provisioning characteristics where reactive provisioning may cause significant negative impact on system performance. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the invention has been made.


E-commerce has grown exponentially over the past decade. In addition, consumers are increasingly using the Internet to perform various other transactions such as banking, information gathering, etc. However, security associated with these on-line transactions has always been a cause for concern for all users. These concerns about security has both hindered growth of on-line transactions and undermined consumer confidence in on-line transactions. One of the major areas of concern for consumers is protecting their sensitive information from getting into the hands of criminals.
One of the predominant ways of stealing sensitive consumer information such as credit card numbers, birth dates, social security numbers, etc. is to hack into a merchant website or into a consumer's computer and steal this information. It is more difficult to compromise a merchant website since most of the reputed merchants use sophisticated technology to keep out the criminals. However, consumer communication devices, e.g., a computer, often lack adequate protection against unauthorized access making them an easy target for stealing sensitive information.
Hackers use numerous techniques such as, Cross-Site Scripting (CSS), Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Phishing, Cross-frame Scripting, Man-in-the-Middle (MIM), browser cache attacks, cookie exposure, etc. to gain access to sensitive consumer and/or merchant information. One of the predominant methods to conduct these attacks is via an Internet browser, e.g., Internet Explorer, that may be resident on a consumer computer this is usually used to conduct on-line communications and e-commerce transactions.
Conventional techniques for preventing such attacks include providing a sand-boxed environment for conducting on-line transactions. However, even the sandbox solutions are not immune from CSRF attacks that exploit the trust a website has for a user of the website.
What is needed is a system and method to alleviate and mitigate these threats and to provide a secure environment for conducting on-line transactions.


1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate in general to compositions and methods that are useful for incorporating certain alloying compounds into metal substrates. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to fluid compositions comprising certain alloying compounds which may be sprayed onto metal substrates and then heated, for example by a laser, to temperatures sufficient to create a molten mixture and to disperse the alloying compound into the metal substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
Compositions do exist for bonding and/or cladding the surface of metal substrates with transition elements by using high intensity lasers. The interface between the cladding and the surface of the metal substrate is clearly defined with no substantial intermixing between the two sections. These compositions or the methods by which they are applied do not alter the chemical or physical composition of the metal substrate itself to improve characteristics.
Such compositions are also unfortunately generally in the form of dry metal powders and their application to metal substrates is often difficult and wasteful of the dry powder. Also, the application of the dry powder directly to the surface of the metal substrate involves several laborious steps to pretreat the metal substrate prior to application of the metal powder to ensure that it will adhere to the metal substrate. In addition, given the difficulties in working with dry powders, dry powder deposition techniques are usually limited to applications involving small surface areas.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide compositions and methods for incorporating alloying elements into metal substrates and also in a manner which overcome the drawbacks of existing compositions and methods of cladding metal substrates, while providing for economical and easy application.


The following description of the background of the invention is provided simply as an aid in understanding the invention and is not admitted to describe or constitute prior art to the invention.
The present invention relates generally to the field of audience interaction systems. Specifically, the present invention relates to audience messaging systems.
Methods for sending electronic messages such as the short message service (SMS) or text messaging allows a user to send simple text messages from a mobile device, computer or handheld device to a recipient device such as a mobile phone. FIG. 1 illustrates a general communications architecture for mobile device to mobile device messaging. When a text message is sent from a mobile device 10 it is first received by a mobile switching center (MSC) 20. The MSC 20 then forwards the message to a short message service center (SMSC) 30. The SMSC 30 routes SMS messages within a wireless provider's network. The text message is saved at the SMSC and then forwarded to a second MSC 40 associated with the recipient device 50 which then routes the text message to a recipients mobile device 50. SMS messages are stored by the SMSC until the destination device is available to receive the message. Thus, the save and forward capability of the SMSC guarantees deliver of the SMS message.
Text messaging is an increasingly popular communication method. Several commercial applications for text messaging exist. For example, companies use broadcast text messages to send information to multiple consumers. Text messaging is used by television programs to allow viewers to participate in interactive polls. In addition, venues for concerts and sporting events use displays such as giant screens, “JUMBOTRONS®, “ribbon boards”, video displays in the venue, electronic marquees and scoreboards to display text messages sent from audience members. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary communication architecture for a conventional venue messaging system. A user sends a message on her mobile device 10 to a number associated with the venue's display 80. The message is transmitted to a MSC 20 which routs the message to a SMSC 30. The SMSC 30 stores the message and then routes the message to a message server 60. The message server 60 passes the message through a content filter 70. The filtered message is then shown on the venue display 80.
It is common for multiple events such as concerts or sporting events to occur at different venues at the same time. Thus, a system and method is desired that will allow an audience member located in one venue to send a message to be displayed to audience members attending a different event at a separate venue.


The present disclosure relates to a light emitting device and a method of manufacturing the light emitting device.
For a light emitting device, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2013-219397 and 2016-219743 each disclose a structure which includes a cover member disposed in the surrounding of a light emitting element.


Semiconductor lasers are commonly used for low power reading operations in optical data storage systems, such as CD-ROM, audio compact disk and video disk systems. For these applications, red (620-690 nm) AlGaInP/GaAs laser diodes are favored over near infrared (780-880 nm) AlGaAs/GaAs laser diodes, because of their shorter wavelength and hence better resolution, although the latter are also sometimes used because of their lower unit price. In addition to such wavelength considerations, laser diode application often favor one particular polarization, either transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM), over the other. Moreover, TE mode lasers typically have higher gain, higher output power and higher operating temperatures than TM mode lasers, which may be important factors in certain applications. In light of all of this, it would be advantageous to be able to selectively tailor the semiconductor laser materials to not only produce a particular emission wavelength but also to favor a preferred polarization at that selected wavelength. Unfortunately, for the AlGaInP/GaAs material system it has been found that prior laser diodes of this type operate in the TE polarization mode only for the longer 650-690 nm emission wavelengths and that only the TM polarization mode is available for the shorter 620-650 nm wavelengths. To see why this should be the case, it will be useful to consider the effects of material composition on bandgap energy and strain, and of strain on the emission polarization.
FIG. 1 shows the bandgap energies and corresponding wavelengths for unstrained In.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x P material in the range from x=0.2 to x=0.8. (The wavelengths are derived from the relationship E.sub.g =hc/.lambda., where E.sub.g is the bandgap energy, h is Planck's constant, c is the speed of light in vacuo, and .lambda. is the wavelength, and thus assumes that substantially all of emitted photon energy is contributed by the bandgap energy.) It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the alloy composition In.sub.0.5 Ga.sub.0.5 P has a bandgap of about 1.9 eV and emits light at about 650 nm. In order to produce laser light emission with a longer wavelength than 650 nm, one can decrease the bandgap of the active lasing material by changing its composition, for example by increasing the proportion of indium. Thus, In.sub.0.58 Ga.sub.0.42 P has a bandgap of about 1.8 eV and a corresponding emission wavelength of about 690 nm. Likewise, in order to produce a wavelength shorter than 650 nm, one can change the composition of the material to increase its bandgap. While this could be done by adding aluminum to the composition, as is done with quantum barriers and cladding layers in the laser diode heterostructure, in order to provide sufficient carrier confinement for room temperature CW operation, the bandgap increase for the quantum wells is normally obtained by decreasing the proportion of indium in the composition. For example, In.sub.0.42 Ga.sub.0.58 P has a bandgap of about 2.0 eV and a corresponding wavelength of about 620 nm.
FIG. 2 shows the amount of strain for various compositions of In.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x P layers on a GaAs substrate. The material is lattice-matched to the substrate for x.apprxeq.0.48. Increasing the proportion of indium results in a larger crystal lattice so that the material is under compressive strain. For example, when x.apprxeq.0.62, the alloy composition is under about 1.0% compressive strain. Likewise, decreasing the proportion of indium produces a smaller lattice size and tensile strain. Thus, when x.apprxeq.0.35, the composition experiences -1.0% compressive strain (i.e., +1.0% tensile strain). Replacing part of the gallium with aluminum has only a negligible effect on strain. For useful lifetimes, a maximum strain in the active region's quantum wells and barriers of about 2% (i.e., compositions where 0.2.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.8) is a practical limit for most devices. The critical limit for strain depends on the thickness of the strained layers. Thus, the cladding layers and other relatively thick layers outside of the active region require significantly less strain and may need to be substantially lattice-matched to the substrate to avoid dislocations and other lattice defects. One can see from a comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2, that compositions providing bandgaps less than 1.9 eV and corresponding emission wavelengths longer than 650 nm are under compressive strain, while compositions providing bandgaps greater than about 1.9 eV and corresponding wavelengths shorter than 650 nm are under tensile strain.
For GaInP lattice-matched to a GaAs substrate, the band-structure has "light" hole and "heavy" hole valence bands that are degenerate at k=0 (where k is the wavenumber of carriers in the lattice). There is an energy gap E.sub.g between these valence bands and the conduction band. TE polarized light is emitted when an excited electron in the conduction band recombines with a hole in the heavy hole valence band, whereas TM polarized light is emitted when an electron combines with a light hole. Because the differential gain of the TE mode is larger than that of the TM mode, a laser mode with a lattice-matched InGaP active region will generally lase in the TE mode. An In.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x P layer with x<0.48 will be under tensile strain and will emit TM polarized light. However, a compressively strained layer (x>0.48) will emit TE polarized light due to the dominance of the heavy hole band. Prior laser diodes emitting at the shorter 620-650 nm wavelengths have tensile strained quantum wells and thus operate in the TM mode, while those emitting at the longer 650-690 nm wavelengths are compressively strained and operate in the TE mode.
When reading stored data from optical disks, a very low random intensity noise (RIN) level from the laser illumination source is needed for a good signal-to-noise ratio at the detector. However, in such data storage systems, external reflective feedback typically occurs, in which some fraction of the emitted laser light is coupled back into the laser diode. The phase of this feedback varies in time due to vibrations in the system, other slight, but essentially random, movements of various system components, and the reading of phase-encoded data stored on some types of disks. These phase variations in the feedback cause modal instabilities in the laser cavity, resulting in random fluctuations (i.e., noise) in the laser's output power.
Although this feedback sensitivity of the laser is also dependent to some extent upon the amplitude of the optical feedback, such that the noise in the emitted output of the laser could be reduced by using an optical design that minimizes the amount of reflected light coupling back into the laser, such a design normally requires completely separate illumination and collection optics, thereby leading to a much larger and heavier (and hence mechanically slower) read head containing such optics.
Another way to reduce the feedback sensitivity of a laser diode is to modulate the laser at high speed. The high speed modulation renders the laser insensitive to feedback by destroying phase coherence between the reflected beam and the oscillating modes of the laser. Typically, the modulation rate needed for this purpose is on the order of several hundred megahertz. Unfortunately, the additional circuitry needed to bias and modulate the laser diode at high frequency considerably complicates the overall system and makes it much more expensive.
A better solution is to provide a laser diode that inherently self-pulsates, emitting a high frequency stream of successive optical pulses when driven by a DC (unmodulated) bias. Self-pulsating laser diodes have been demonstrated, as illustrated for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,961,197 (Tanaka et al.); 5,003,549 (Mitsui et al.); 5,111,469 (Narui et al.); and 5,416,790 (Yodoshi et al.). Most of these prior self-pulsating lasers are of the near-infrared AlGaAs-type. Those of the AlGaInP-type are characterized by the same wavelength-polarization constraints imposed by strain as their non-pulsating counterparts.
The self-pulsating laser diodes usually achieve their rapid pulsation operation by incorporating a saturable absorbing layer into the laser structure. This absorbing layer is positioned outside of the active region, but close enough to the active region that it overlaps the propagating optical mode. The active region itself can be a single active layer (typ., .apprxeq.50 to 150 nm thick), a single quantum well (SQW) structure (typ. well .apprxeq.10 to 30 nm thick), a multiple quantum well (MQW) structure (typ. 2 to 4 wells, each .apprxeq.5 to 20 nm thick), or a superlattice structure (effective thickness .apprxeq.15 to 30 nm). The saturable absorbing layer in the neighborhood of the active region is composed of a material (such as GaInP) and has a thickness (e.g., it may form a 10 to 40 nm thick quantum well) having an effective bandgap energy that is smaller than (or at most substantially equal to) the energy corresponding to the lasing wavelength, thereby giving the absorbing layer a high intrinsic absorption coefficient at the lasing wavelength. Accordingly, when the laser diode is first energized, the absorbing layer initially absorbs the light generated in the active region quite strongly, so that the photon density in the active region is kept at a level below the lasing threshold and the density of excited electron-hole pairs in the active region is allowed to build. Carriers generated in the absorbing layer due to the absorption of light from the active region are confined there by the higher bandgap energy of adjacent cladding layer material (such as AlInP) both above and below the absorbing layer. The resulting collection of carriers in the absorbing layer causes a drop in its absorption coefficient as the absorbing layer saturates, thereby reducing the loss in the laser cavity and allowing the sudden onset of strong lasing as the photon density in the active region rises above the threshold level. The intense lasing mode rapidly depletes the carriers in the active region, so the device quickly stops lasing again. The cladding material above the absorbing layer typically has a ridge structure with lower bandgap material (such as GaAs) regrown on each side of the central ridge. Carriers confined in the absorbing layer by the cladding layer below and the ridge above are still free to diffuse laterally within the absorbing layer until they reach the areas on each side of the ridge structure, where they can fall out of the absorbing layer into the surrounding lower bandgap material. The absorbing layer can thus be quickly emptied of the accumulated carriers by means of diffusion once lasing has stopped, so as to restore the absorption coefficient to its original peak value and again become a strong absorber of light generated by the active region. Hence, the cycle starts all over again. The modulation rate attained in such self-pulsating devices is typically several hundred megahertz, but can be as high as several gigahertz, which is more than enough to reduce the laser's feedback sensitivity and obtain very low RIN emission.
It is an object of the invention to provide AlGaInP/GaAs laser diodes that operate in the TE polarization mode for 620-650 nm emission wavelengths.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such TE mode laser diodes with self-pulsating operation.


This invention relates to battery chargers.
Low voltage rechargeable batteries are used in many appliances, for example electric dry shavers. The appliance may include at least one rechargeable battery and an integral charger comprising a charging circuit including AC input terminals, a transformer, and a full wave current rectifier. A pilot lamp is desirably connected for energization during charging to indicate normal operation of the charging circuit. Extinction of the lamp signals some malfunction of the charging operation, such as lack of mains voltage or poor contacts.
In a compact hand-held appliance, such as an electric dry shaver, space and weight are strictly limited. Consequently the batteries, transformer, current rectifier and even the charging terminals for connection to the AC mains are designed to minimum dimensions and weight. The power output of the transformer is thus very limited and must be used with maximum efficiency to permit recharging to be accomplished within an acceptable short time period.


A wig has been manufactured in such a manner that a hair segment to be transplanted is folded in two, which is one by one transplanted onto a three-dimensional thick base by handwork. When one folded hair segment is transplanted on the base, it looks as if two hairs are transplanted. Several folded hair segments may be transplanted at one time.
However, such a prior art handwork is extremely inefficient. It would take two or three weeks or more to transplant 20,000 hairs, for example. When a wig is manufactured in foreign countries in order to save labor costs, it tends to increase inferior products and reduce a production yield.
Some attempts have been made to develop automated wig manufacturing systems, but no success has been achieved.
According to the study by the present inventor, the greatest difficulty in automation of wig manufacturing exists in providing high-precision transplanting pitch. Human hairs are, in their natural condition, spaced from each other by less than 1 mm, or normally of the order of 0.5 mm, so that it will be desired to determine the transplanting pitch as such.
However, it is quite difficult, like a divine work, to operate an extremely thin needle at a pitch of lower than 1 mm along a predetermined line. When the needle should be wobbling even a little, the needle holes are connected with each other to form a continuous slit, thereby making it impossible to transplant hair segments onto a base.
More importantly, when the needle is to penetrate the base, it pushes the base, so that the needle would move and wobble.
If the needle should wobble, the hair segment cannot surely be hooked by the needle.
After repeated trial and error in development of automated wig manufacturing apparatus which is the first in the world, the present inventor has reached a conclusion that a keyword is an issue of the needle wobbling.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described background, with the object to surely hook the hair segment with the needle in automated wig manufacturing. Another object is to control the transplanting pitch of the hair segment with great accuracy. Still another object is to reduce a percentage of production of defective articles when automatically manufacturing wigs.


This invention relates to cotton bale covers and, more particularly, to a circular knit cotton cover designed to be used on high density cotton bales.
A wide variety of covers for cotton bales have been used in the past. Those made from jute or burlap are loosely woven permitting contamination of the bale to occur and their low strength causes rips and tears of the cover to develop during handling and storage. Attempts have been made to construct covers of other materials to avoid contamination and tearing. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,061 the bale cover disclosed is a laminate of a paper outer layer and a nonwoven cotton inner layer bonded through a polypropylene net with a low melt acrylate. Such construction is expensive and its low air permeability tends to cause mildew. A similar nonwoven cotton laminate cover is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,139 wherein two nonwoven cotton layers are bonded in a like manner. These covers are also very expensive in comparison to jute and have the further disadvantage of being non-biodegradable. An attempt was then made to produce a knitted cotton cover in U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,138. This bale cover was made from a warp knit fabric having tricot stitch construction. However the bag must be shaped by spiral sewing which adds to its weight, increases cost and reduces its stretch due to the tricot construction and the spiral seams. Synthetic fibers were next used in cotton bale covers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,985 teaches the use of a woven polyolefin fabric with resin coating stripes to help reduce fraying as a cotton bale cover. This cover bag has good strength but is non-biodegradable, heavy and expensive to make since it has to be spiral-tubed. An in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,703 the cotton bale fabric is a single layer nonwoven fiber blend of cotton and polypropylene. Here also the product is not biodegradable and is prepared by spiral tube sewing with reduced stretch in comparison to cotton covers.
The cotton bale cover bag of this invention is completely biodegradable, can easily be recycled due to its jersey stitch construction, has improved stretch and shape conformity characteristics, is light weight, has excellent strength and tear resistance since it has only one seam across the end or bottom portion as it is not spiral sewn and is economically attractive.


Machines in the prior art such as copiers have cabinetry and housings which are generally flat, such as flat access panels and flat top, front, and side surfaces. Flat panels and surfaces are economical to manufacture, and may be formed with the components of the machine to constitute a relatively compact configuration.
However, flat panels give no immediate indication of the functions of the trays and panels. Paper tray access panels are typically indistinguishable from regions presenting information for visual output to the user. That is, input regions and output regions are not differentiated by shape, as all of such regions are generally flat. Accordingly, labels with indicia thereon are typically required to be provided and affixed to the appropriate panels to indicate the function of each panel, which thus increases the assembly time and cost of the machine. In addition, users and service personnel must learn the use of the panels by instructions and/or by experience. Such learning reduces the efficiency of the users and service personnel in having to learn and memorize the functions of each access panel as needed.
Accordingly, a need exists for cabinetry and housings of machines which provides quick visual indications of the functions of access panels.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a quick-action flap according to the preamble of claim 1.
2. Discussion of Background
A quick-action fitting together with an intercept valve are placed in steam turbines between the respective reheater and the intermediate pressure turbine. In dependence on the steam data and the type of mounting, the quick-action fitting can be a valve or a flap, preferably a swing flap. The opening of this quick-action fitting occurs hydraulically, closing is initiated via a spring. A swing flap possesses the advantage over a valve that it does not have to deflect the steam and therefore, naturally causes lower flow losses. Furthermore, a swing flap facilitates an advantage arrangement on the intermediate pressure turbine. On the other hand, it is to be noted that a swing flap is subjected to this flow to a greater degree than a valve and thus experiences greater mechanical loading, i.e., in respect of loading, the swing flap structure is highly stressed. If the flow processes in a swing flap are considered, it is to be noted that, during the closing process, the steam pressure on the outflow side of the flap falls and thus the pressure difference at the disk of the flap rises. The entire swing flap is speeded up by the force growing in the flow direction to such an extent that a high, and for the construction of the swing flap, dangerous impact speed of the flap disk against the seating ring in the flap casing occurs. Although the conclusion could be drawn that the construction should be strengthened, with increased mass the kinetic energy would also rise. The impact speed could be reduced by means of a hydraulic brake; however, any deceleration causes braking forces (mass times deceleration) which would greatly load the entire mechanism of the swing flap. It is also to be borne in mind that, even if the mechanism of the flap withstands the loading caused by the braking force, a hydraulic brake designed for a low closing speed would have the great disadvantage for such a flap that the closing speed would be too low in respect of the task and correspondingly the closing time would be too long, not to mention the fact that, in such a constellation, the steam pressure behind the flap would fall even further, which would cause the pressure difference and thus the force on the flap to rise even more.
In addition, the smaller the chambers through which there is flow, between the quick-action flap and the entry to the blading, the quicker the pressure behind the flap disk must drop due to falling accumulation effect, which in turn must have a negative effect on the impact speed of the flap against the seating ring. If this were to be remedied, one would have to provide long lines in each case behind the flap, which alone could provide large accumulation capacities. However, it is part of the definition of the object to place the fittings directly in front of the turbine;
in order to minimize the accumulation capacity, in order to avoid damage to the turbine due to excessive speed of rotation; PA1 because of more favorable use of space.


Plastic and reconstructive surgery relies greatly on the use of free skin grafts, expansion of contiguous tissue or pediculed flaps of various shapes and sizes. In the repair of skin, the amount of skin available is often not sufficient for grafting and reconstruction. The requirement for additional skin or tissue has led to the development of various types of tissue expander devices. These devices are generally designed to cause gradual expansion of the skin and its subcutaneous tissue by applying progressively increasing pressure over a predetermined time period. An example of naturally occurring tissue expansion is seen in the extension of the skin over the pregnant female abdomen. A similar condition occurs when obese individuals undergo weight loss resulting in the development of folds of excess tissue.
Typically, the expander devices now commercially available and in use employ some form of elastic envelope or balloon which is surgically implanted under the skin and subcutaneous tissue in the area of the desired expansion. Ordinarily, a reservoir and connecting tube are implanted under the subcutaneous layers in communication with the envelope, and the envelope is slowly inflated by injecting a sterile saline solution into the reservoir using a syringe and hypodermic needle. The solution passes from the reservoir into the envelope through the connecting tube so as to inflate the envelope and cause it to exert pressure on the surrounding tissue which in turn expands to accommodate the increase in volume of the envelope. Periodic sterile injections of additional saline are typically performed at intervals of several days apart, this process being repeated until the desired degree of expansion has been achieved. When expansion has been completed, the envelope is surgically removed and the expanded tissue is then available for the desired plastic or reconstructive surgery. Representative tissue expander devices are set forth and described in a number of patents including U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,889 to C. Radovan; U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,447 to G. M. Smith et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,704 to E. E. Frisch; U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,717 to E. R. Jakubczak; U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,357 to D. L. Pierce et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,447 to A. A. Iversen et al.
Notwithstanding the development and availability of numerous types of tissue expander devices, a problem which is especially prevalent in connection with the use of these devices is that of closely controlling expansion of the tissue to avoid undue pain as well as tissue necrosis. For example, the aforementioned patent to Radovan et al describes the problems associated with too rapid expansion of tissue and which may lead to lack of blood flow in the surrounding expanded tissue which if not corrected results in tissue necrosis and loss of tissue viability. Similarly, wound dehissence may occur requiring a further healing period before expansion can be resumed. Presently, in the course of each filling or inflation procedure, the envelope is inflated until the tissue becomes "tight" or "firm" and this degree of tightness is based on the subjective opinion of the clinician; or, the clinician may gauge the degree of inflation by monitoring the pain experienced by the patient. However, this is not a reliable method as patients have widely variable thresholds of pain.
Pressure measuring devices have been utilized in the past for monitoring fluid pressure in the body. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,749 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,083 to R. E. Fischell disclose pressure measuring devices for a urinary sphincter. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,063 to D. M. McWhorter et al is directed to a method and apparatus for pressure monitoring an artificial sphincter. U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,584 to A. S. Borsanyi is concerned more with measuring the fluid pressure of plasma, blood or other fluids in the body while isolating the gauge from direct contact with the fluid. To the best of my knowledge, no one has recognized the ability to monitor tissue expansion by providing a reproducible method of measuring the pressure exerted on the tissue during or after the filling procedure. By closely monitoring the pressure and providing for a precise means of measuring actual pressure, it is possible to achieve an optimum inflation rate or degree of inflation which will overcome and avoid the previously noted problems associated with tissue expander devices. In this connection, it is hiqhly desirable that the pressure monitor be capable of directly sensing the fluid or liquid pressure condition of the tissue expander envelope but at the same time be isolated from the liquid such that the sterility of the fluid path is not compromised. That is to say that the liquid contents of the expander must be protected from any bacteria or particulate matter that may be carried by the liquid to or from the monitor itself. In this way, even though the tissue expander fill kit and tissue expander are disposable, the pressure gauge or monitor may be reusable.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a high density optical disk on which recording and reproduction of information are conducted with respect to a land and a groove of a track, and also to an information recording/reproduction apparatus which conducts recording and reproduction of information on the optical disk.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An optical disk is a high density memory which has a large capacity, on which non-contact recording and reproduction can be conducted, and which can be replaced with another one. Capacities of typical optical disks are as follows: When an optical head of a lens NA of 0.5 is used, a 130-mm disk has a capacity of 300 to 500 MB per face, and a 90-mm disk has a capacity of about 128 to 250 MB per face. For a multimedia purpose, a high density recording/reproduction technique which uses a short-wavelength laser of 680 nm to obtain a capacity that is about 2 to 4 times the above-mentioned capacities has been studied.
FIG. 10 shows plan views (upper ones) and section views (lower ones) of continuous servo track formats in the prior art.
FIG. 10(a) shows a continuous servo track which is employed in a 130-mm or 90-mm optical disk of the prior art and which is of a land record track format. In the land record track format, a track consists of a groove 2 which is formed on a transparent substrate 1 and which has a depth of .lambda./(8.multidot.n) (.lambda. is the wavelength of a laser, and n is the refractive index of the substrate 1. The same applies to the followings.), and pits 4 constituting a sector identification (ID) signal, and record marks 5 are recorded onto a land 3 sandwiched by the tracks. The pits 4 for the ID signal are convex-concave pits having a phase depth of .lambda./(4.multidot.n).
The track pitch is selected so as to be about .lambda./NA which is obtained from the laser wavelength (.lambda.) and a lens aperture (NA). In the prior art disk, since the lands must remain to exist between the grooves 2 and the ID signal pits 4, it is difficult to reduce the track pitch to 1.3 .mu.m or less in the view point of a land forming process.
FIG. 10(b) shows an example of a groove record track format in which tracks are formed by simple grooves 6 having a phase depth of .lambda./(8Nn) and lands 7, and pits 8 constituting an ID signal and record marks 9 wherein data signals are recorded are recorded into the grooves 6. Since such a groove record track has a track structure consisting of the simple grooves 6, a disk of a track pitch which is 1 .mu.m or less can easily be produced.
FIG. 10(c) shows an example of a land/groove record track format in which groove record tracks are formed by setting the width of grooves 11 having a depth of about .lambda./(8.multidot.n) to be one-half of the track pitch, and signals 12 are recorded also onto lands 10. In principle, this land/groove recording can achieve an area recording density which is twice that of the land recording of FIG. 10(a).
Generally, when a track pitch is to be reduced, there arise problems in a cross-talk of a signal recorded in an adjacent track, in a cross-erase in which also signals into two adjacent tracks are erased by conducting a data recording, and in the stability of a tracking servo.
The stability of a tracking servo will be discussed. In the land record track 10 for the land/groove recording of FIG. 10(c), the track pitch is one-half of .lambda./NA. In the case where .lambda. is 830 nm and NA is 0.5, even when the pitch of tracks for recording signals is 0.8 .mu.m, the tracking servo can be conducted with respect to the track pitch of 1.6 .mu.m consisting of each groove and land. Consequently, the tracking can be done stably by either of the 3-beam method and the push-pull method which are conventionally employed.
Even in the land/groove recording in which recording is conducted as described above, when the track pitch is further reduced in order to increase the recording density, there arises a problem in that a cross-talk between the track of the groove 11 and that of the land 10 occurs.
Specifically, in the case where an optical head in which the laser wavelength .lambda. is 830 nm and the lens aperture NA is 0.5 is used, a cross-talk of -30 to -35 dB occurs when the track pitch is 1.6 .mu.m, and that of -15 to -20 dB occurs when the track pitch is 0.8 .mu.m, thereby producing a problem in that an ID signal and a data signal cannot be reproduced normally.
Particularly, there arise the following problems: In a track search process, the confirmation of a target track is made difficult by reproduction errors such as that an ID signal is caused to be erroneously reproduced by an effect of a cross-talk on the ID signal, and that an ID signal of an adjacent track is erroneously reproduced. In a recording process conducted on an unrecorded sector, even when an ID signal leaks from an adjacent track, the reproduction is apparently conducted in a normal manner, thereby causing data to be recorded into a wrong sector.
In the groove/land recording conducted as described above, however, the track density is doubled, and hence there arises a problem in that, in a recording or reproducing process, a cross-talk, or a cross-erase produces errors which exceed a criterion, so that defective sectors are generated in an increased number.


Clearing of obstructions from drain pipes typically involves hiring a plumber or technician to clean out the obstruction using a drain auger, especially when the obstruction is quite substantial and consumer grade hand-powered drain augers are insufficient for the task, as the typical homeowner is unlikely to own or operate a heavier grade motor-driven unit. The need for professional services not only increases the cost involved in a drain cleanout operation, but can also lead to significant wait times for the consumer depending on the availability of services providers in the area. Customers may also be unlikely to schedule regular maintenance in view of the cost and/or inconvenience of seeking a professional service provider, thereby increasing the likelihood of more significant obstructions building up over time and leading to potential drain line backup, and associated property damage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,321 discloses an automatic drain cleanout device in the form of a motorized, timer activated drain snake with a suitable fitting for attachment to a plumbing adapter between the drain trap of a sink and a vertical drain pipe. While this provides for improved plumbing maintenance via regular ongoing cleanout operations, this device lacks any means for retracting the drain snake, which therefore remains within the plumbing path at all times, reducing the available flow area within the pipes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,741 teaches an automatic sewer cleaning system that similarly prevents clogs through regular timer-controlled cleanout operations, but again uses a cleanout cable that remains within the plumbing at all times.
Accordingly, there remains room for improved solutions in the field of automated drain cleanouts, in response to which Applicant has developed a unique drain cleanout apparatus.


This invention relates generally to a heat transfer labeling apparatus and a method of applying a heat transferable label to a hollow article. More particularly, this invention relates to such an apparatus and method wherein the articles are decorated in a continuous operation.
Numerous decorating techniques are known in the art, some of which include the application of a label onto a hollow article to be decorated. One of the techniques which is desirable in this type of decorating is the usage of a heat transferable label which includes a decorative predetermined design thereon and may thus be transferred onto the article or container being decorated.
The heat transfer process permits for multicolored designs to be applied to a container in a single operation. The heat transfer process involves the use of a release-coated carrier upon which the design to be transferred is printed. The design is transferred from the web-like carrier to the container generally by using a combination of heat and pressure. The principal advantage of the heat transfer technique is that multicolored designs of an infinite variety may be applied to a container.
Because of the heat requirements associated with the release and application of the label from the web onto the container, it has been generally accepted practice to maintain the container in a stationary position, albeit rotatable in the instances of circular containers, during the decorating step. This has resulted in numerous prior art types of apparatus which employ intermittently moving mechanisms which include one to engage and deposit a container at a decorating station. Yet another mechanism engages the container at a decorating station. This latter mechanism must permit relative movement between the container and die to facilitate application of the label onto the container to be decorated. Once the container has been decorated it is removed from the decorating station by yet another mechanism and conveyed to another destination. Each of these functions has required numerous types of moving parts and mechanisms to impart the desired motion and transfer of the container to and from a decorating station.
Because of the intermittent movement associated with such systems, the speed of decoration has been limited. The various movements have curtailed operating speeds and placed heat transfer labeling systems in a limited and low rate of production category. Because the means disclosed herein have eliminated these various undesirable mechanisms, a system has been devised which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art and provides for a system wherein articles are decorated in a continuous manner.


The present invention relates to plastic compositions containing a polysulfone. More specifically, the present invention covers plastic compositions containing a three component system which consists of a polysulfone, certain bis-phenoxy compounds (hereinafter defined) as flame retardants for said plastic compositions, and an enhancing agent (hereinafter defined) for said flame retardants.
Polysulfones and utility thereof are known in the art as exemplified by Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology Vol. 9, pages 460-485, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1968, and Modern Plastics Encyclopedia 1972-1973, Vol. 49, No. 10A, October, 1972, pages 98, 102, 162 and 222 and which publications are in toto incorporated herein by reference.
The need for flame retarding polysulfones has also been recognized in the art as exemplified by Modern Plastics Encyclopedia, ibid, pages 222 and 456-458.
The prior art has specifically recognized the problems of finding suitable flame retardants for polysulfones in view of the fact that polymer systems differ substantially in both flammability characteristics and physical properties and there is no predictability whatsoever from one system to another. Thus in the Norris et al paper entitled "Toxicological and Environmental Factors Involved in the Selection of Decabromodiphenyl Oxide as a Fire Retardant Chemical", Applied Polymer Symposium No. 22, 195-219 (1973), the authors state: "A growing recognition of the huge annual toll taken by fire is resulting in more stringent flammability requirements for synthetic polymers in a variety of applications. Because of economic constraints and the need to produce flame resistant polymers without total replacement of existing manufacturing processes, increased flame resistance is generally achieved by incorporation of a fire retardant chemical in the finished product. This chemical is usually based on bromine, chlorine, phosphorus, or nitrogen and may either be chemically reacted or physically blended into the product. Since polymer systems differ markedly in both flammability characteristics and physical properties, selection of a suitable flame retardant depends on a variety of factors that severely limits the number of acceptable materials.
"A general class of synthetic polymers that require flame retardancy because of their use in electrical and high temperature applications, but pose severe problems in selecting a suitable flame retardant are the high performance thermoplastic resins such as thermoplastic polyesters, polyphenylene oxides, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) terpolymers. Some of the most important criteria for an acceptable flame retardant in these applications are:
1. It must be as effective as possible to minimize both cost and effect on polymer properties. Use levels may range up to 15% by weight.
2. It must have sufficient stability to withstand conditions encountered during polymer processing and use. Processing conditions (blending, extrusion, and molding) often involve temperatures exceeding 300.degree. C. The flame retardant must tolerate these conditions without degradation or volatilazation. Also, attention must be given to hydrolytic stability and oxidative degradation, particularly under extended service at high temperatures.
3. It must be compatible with the base polymer and exert minimal adverse effect on those properties that give the polymer its value. Some of these critical properties are tensile strength, impact strength, heat deflection temperature, shear strength, and flexural modulus.
4. Finally, the flame retardant must not interfere with attainment of desired product esthetics and form.
"Because of the stringest thermal stability requirements, only a very few compounds have been identified which can meet the necessary performance and economic criteria."
The resultant disadvantages in the utilization of various prior art materials as flame retardants, in general, for plastic compositions include, without limitation, factors such as thermal migration, heat instability, light instability, non-biodegradable, toxicity, discoloration, the large amounts employed in order to be effective, and the unpredictable end results obtained when using the same material in different plastics (note, for example, in Modern Plastics Encyclopedia, ibid, page 650, wherein octabromobiphenyl is suitable for use in polyolefins as a flame retardant therefor, but is not shown for use (or functionally equivalent) as such for the other 27 compositions listed such as ABS; polycarbonates, polystyrene, acrylics and polyurethanes). Thus, it can be seen that the field of flame retardancy is highly sophisticated and consequently requires substantial research effort to achieve a particular desired end result.
In conjunction with the rendition of a polysulfone flame retardant the aforegoing discussion is particularly applicable. Furthermore, it is desirable that, in addition to the retention of good physical characteristics, three characteristics (one of which is critical) of the product (polysulfone) be within certain defined limitations in order to provide a functional flame retarded product. These three characteristics are (1) light stability (as measured, for example, by .DELTA. E color values, hereinafter defined), (2) flame retardancy (as measured, for example, by UL-94, hereinafter defined, and which is a critical characteristic and limitation), and (3) thermal stability (as measured, for example, by certain ASTM tests for decomposition and migration, hereinafter defined). This characteristic of flame retardancy is not an arbitrary item but is a criteria which is strictly adhered to in the polysulfone art and hereinafter explained in more detail, with particular reference to the examples contained herein.
In conjunction with the foregoing discussion, the prior art in general suggests the use of halogen-containing materials as "potential" or "possible" flame retardants for plastic materials. However, the prior art also recognizes that any material must be adjudged on a case by case basis because of the unpredictable results of the end product when any additive is incorporated therein. For example, with reference to the use of a halogenated fire retardant in U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,634 attention is directed to the fact that the patentee specifically points out the disadvantages in the use of a halogen-containing fire retardant. In Column 1, lines 14-17, the patentee states: "Therefore, if it is possible to impart fire retardancy to the thermoplastic polymers without deteriorating the useful properties of the thermoplastic polymers, they can be widely used in the field of inertia, construction and electric industries." In Column 1, lines 26-32 the patentee states: "--the compounds containing chlorine or bromine atoms to be used as fire-retardant agents, are generally sublimated and therefore, the fire retardant agents are sublimated and lost in the process for producing fire-retardant polymers or in after-finishing processes; accordingly, deteriorations of fire-retardancy or difficulties in use tend to occur more often than not."
In Column 1, lines 39-44 the patentee states: "--the compounds containing chlorine or bromine atoms to be used as fire-retartant agents are unstable in most cases when exposed to ultraviolet rays." In Column 1, lines 59-64 the patentee states: "However, as a matter of fact, only very few fire-retardant polymers can be used in actual practice although they are said to have fire-retardant effects, because there are restrictions such as the conditions employed in product attributable to the properties of the fire-retardant agent, or to the properties of the polymers into which they are to be incorporated."
It can be seen, then, from the foregoing discussion and quoted subject matter that the field of flame retardancy is highly sophisticated, unpredictable and requires substantial research to produce an end product (plastic composition) which meets the necessary criteria for utilitarian purposes, particularly under the present day government standards. Thus, there is always a demand for a material which will function as a flame retardant in a polysulfone and concurrectly will not, be incorporation therein, adversely effect the chemical and/or physical and/or mechanical properties of the resultant polysulfone containing plastic composition (herein also referred to as "polysulfone plastic composition") and also have utility.
The prior art problem of providing a flame retarded polysulfone composition having desired chemical, physical and mechanical properties, in addition to functional utility, has now been substantially solved by the present invention and the above-described disadvantages substantially overcome.
Accordingly, one of the main objects of the present invention is to provide polysulfone plastic compositions which are flame retarded.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a unique three component system for polysulfone plastic compositions which will not substantially adversely affect the chemical and/or physical and/or mechanical properties of said compositions.
A salient object of the present invention is to provide a polysulfone plastic composition which has a certain defined flame retardancy property.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a flame retardant and an enhancing agent which are economical and easy to incorporate into polysulfones without being degraded or decomposed as a result of normal blending or processing operations.


The rapid proliferation of portable electronic devices in the international marketplace has led to a corresponding increase in the demand for advanced secondary batteries. The miniaturization of such devices as, for example, cellular phones, laptop computers, etc., has naturally fueled the desire for rechargeable batteries having high specific energies (light weight). Mounting concerns regarding the environmental impact of throwaway technologies, has caused a discernible shift away from primary batteries and towards rechargeable systems.
In addition, heightened awareness concerning toxic waste has motivated efforts to replace toxic cadmium electrodes in nickel/cadmium batteries with the more benign hydrogen storage electrodes in nickel/metal hydride cells. For the above reasons, there is tremendous market potential for environmentally benign secondary battery technologies.
Several approaches have been pursued in an effort to develop improved secondary battery technologies, including the recent introduction of the nickel/metal hydride cell and the commercialization of lithium-ion technologies. Among the factors leading to the successful development of high energy density batteries, is the fundamental need for high voltage and/or low equivalent weight electrode materials. Electrode materials must also fulfill the basic electrochemical requirements of sufficient electronic and ionic conductivity, high reversibility of the oxidation/reduction reaction, as well as excellent thermal and chemical stability within the temperature range for a particular application. Importantly, the electrode materials must be reasonably inexpensive, widely available, non-toxic, and easy to process.
It has been found previously that organodisulfide compounds can be used as high energy density electrodes for rechargeable battery systems. In the work by Liu et al. [Liu et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 138: 1891 (1991); Liu et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 138: 1896 (1991); Visco et al., Mol. Cryst. Lig. Cryst. 190: 185 (1990); and Visco et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,175 (issued Nov. 10, 1992)], a novel class of polymeric organodisulfides were described having exceptionally low equivalent weights and consequently very high gravimetric and good volumetric capacities. The electrochemical reaction involves the oxidation of a thiolate anion to a sulfur radical which rapidly dimerizes to form a disulfide linkage as shown below: EQU 2[.sup.- SRS.sup.- -e.sup.-.fwdarw..sup.- SRS ] EQU 2.sup.- SRS .fwdarw..sup.- SRS-SRS.sup.-.
Those reactions lead ultimately to the formation of a polymeric organodisulfide.
In the preferred embodiment, the polyorgano-disulfides (PDS) were used as positive electrodes in thin-film polymer electrolyte cells having alkali metal negative electrodes. [See, Visco et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,175.] Since organodisulfides are invariably electronic insulators, carbon black was included in the electrode formulation. The PDS were formulated as an intimate mixture of the disulfide, solid polymer electrolyte (SPE), and carbon black. Although the intermediate temperature performance (60.degree. C. to 120.degree. C.) of the alkali metal solid polymer batteries having PDS cathodes is excellent, utilization of positive electrode capacity can be critically dependent on the intimate connection between the carbon black particles, PDS particles, and current collectors. That interconnectivity appears to be more important as the temperature of operation is reduced to ambient and sub-ambient temperatures.
The instant invention provides a means to overcome the temperature range limitations of the Liu et al. PDS electrodes. The need for a high degree of interconnectivity between and among the carbon black, PDS matrix, and current collectors of the Liu et al. PDS electrodes is eliminated or minimized according to the instant invention by the introduction of metallic conductivity into the polyorganodisulfide polymer chain.
Metallic conductivity and low temperature superconductivity has been reported for inorganic polymers such as (SN).sub.x, and synmetals such as tetracyano-p-quinodimethane-tetrathiafulvalene (TCNQ-TTF) since the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s considerable attention was directed towards the study of organic polymers following the discovery that polyacetylene could be prepared as a film having metallic luster.
In the late 1970s it was found that the conductivity of polyacetylene could be increased 13 orders of magnitude by doping it with various donor or acceptor species, reaching conductivities of 10.sup.3 S.multidot.cm.sup.- 1. It was later proposed by Heeger and MacDiarmid [MacDiarmid et al., J. Phys. Collog. 44: C3-543 (1983)] to use such materials as electrodes in secondary batteries. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, conducting polymers such as doped polyacetylene tend to be air sensitive, difficult to process, and have very low volumetric capacities. For those reasons, most groups have abandoned conducting polymers for battery applications.
Recently, highly conducting metallo-organic and/or coordination polymers have been reported which exhibit exceptionally good electrical properties and environmental stability, as well as multiple oxidation states. For example, tetrathiolate ligands can be reacted with transition metal salts (see reaction set forth below) to yield black amorphous coordination polymers with exceptionally high electrical conductivity and environmental stability [Dahm et al., Synthetic Metals, 55-77: 884-889 (1993)]. Such materials have achieved electrical conductivities of 10.sup.2 S.multidot.cm.sup.-1. ##STR1##
The instant invention concerns the use of metallo-organic charge-transfer materials as positive electrodes in secondary batteries. Some metal oxides and chalcogenides presently used as battery electrodes have appreciable electrical conductivities; however, many such oxide/chalcogenide materials need to be formulated with carbon black to increase the conductivity of the composite electrode to acceptable levels. In contrast, the inherently high electrical conductivity of charge-transfer materials allows them to be used without significant dilution.
The metallo-organic charge-transfer materials of this invention are essentially redox electrodes and in principle are reversible to an enormous variety of counter electrodes. Oxide/chalcogenide cathode materials presently under investigation by other groups are not reversible to alkali metal ions other than lithium, and thus, lack the flexibility of the electrodes of the instant invention.
The reversibility of the electrodes of the instant invention can furnish large economic advantages in the commercialization of secondary batteries based on charge-transfer materials, in that expensive lithium anodes can be replaced by inexpensive sodium electrodes. Also, the ability to alter the thermodynamic redox potential of the charge-transfer electrode by a suitable choice of the metal ion and/or of the organosulfur chelating ion provides tremendous flexibility in tailoring-the secondary battery characteristics to the specific application at hand.
Teo [U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,779 (issued on Jan. 1, 1980)] describes the use of halogen reactive materials such as organo-metallic polymers limited to the nominal stoichiometry [M(TTL)].sub.x in which M is a transition metal containing complex having at least one transition metal ion selected from Group VIII of the periodic table; wherein TTL has the nominal atom composition C.sub.10 H.sub.4 X.sub.4 and substituted compositions thereof in which X is selected from the group consisting of sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and mixtures thereof; and x is equal to or greater than 1. The TTL compounds described by Teo have high formula weights, for example, as shown below, leading to unattractive energy densities (watthours/kilogram) for electrodes formulated with such materials. ##STR2##
In contrast to the Teo electrodes, the electrodes of the instant invention have low equivalent weights and consequently high energy densities.
A key feature of the electrodes of the instant invention is the use of thiolate ligands to chelate metal ions of the electrodes and thereby form coordination polymers having low equivalent weights and enhanced electrical conductivity. The chelation also solves a prior art dissolution problem of the PDS electrodes. For example, thiolate anions from the PDS electrodes most notably in a liquid or gel format, diffuse and migrate to the negative electrode, which may result in deterioration of battery performance. In accordance with the instant invention, the metal-organosulfur polymers are anchored by chelation and locked into position.
The new metal-organosulfur positive electrodes of this invention, thus, overcome as indicated above many of the problems found in prior art battery systems. The invention provides for novel secondary batteries that have high electrical conductivity, high energy densities and polymeric positive electrodes that are stably situated. Further, the secondary cells of this invention represent improvements over prior art batteries in having more cycle life and in being able to perform at a lower temperature without deterioration of performance.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of downhole sampling and in particular to the maintenance of hydrocarbon samples in a single-phase state after capture in a sample chamber.
2. Summary of the Related Art
Earth formation fluids in a hydrocarbon producing well typically comprise a mixture of oil, gas, and water. The pressure, temperature and volume of formation fluids control the phase relation of these constituents. In a subsurface formation, high well fluid pressures often entrain gas within the oil above the bubble point pressure. When the pressure is reduced, the entrained or dissolved gaseous compounds separate from the liquid phase sample. The accurate measure of pressure, temperature, and formation fluid composition from a particular well affects the commercial interest in producing fluids available from the well. The data also provides information regarding procedures for maximizing the completion and production of the respective hydrocarbon reservoir.
Certain techniques analyze the well fluids downhole in the well bore. U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,544 to Brown, et al. describes a sample chamber having a slidably disposed piston to define a sample cavity on one side of the piston and a buffer cavity on the other side of the piston. U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,839 to Griffith et al. (1993) disclosed a transducer for generating an output representative of fluid sample characteristics downhole in a wellbore. U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,811 to Schultz et al. (1994) disclosed an apparatus and method for assessing pressure and volume data for a downhole well fluid sample.
Other techniques capture a well fluid sample for retrieval to the surface. U.S. Pat. No. 4,5 83,595 to Czenichow et al. (1986) disclosed a piston actuated mechanism for capturing a well fluid sample. U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,157 to Berzin (1988) disclosed a shifting valve sleeve for capturing a well fluid sample in a chamber. U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,955 to Petermann (1988) disclosed a piston engaged with a control valve for capturing a well fluid sample, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,765 to Zunkel (1990) disclosed a time delayed well fluid sampler. U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,100 to Gruber et al. (1991) disclosed a wireline sampler for collecting a well fluid sample from a selected wellbore depth, U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,072 to Schultz et al. (1993) disclosed a multiple sample annulus pressure responsive sampler for permitting well fluid sample collection at different time and depth intervals, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,120 to Be et al. (1994) disclosed an electrically actuated hydraulic system for collecting well fluid samples deep in a wellbore.
Temperatures downhole in a deep wellbore often exceed 300 degrees F. When a hot formation fluid sample is retrieved to the surface at 70 degrees F., the resulting drop in temperature causes the formation fluid sample to contract. If the volume of the sample is unchanged, such contraction substantially reduces the sample pressure. A pressure drop changes in the situ formation fluid parameters, and can permit phase separation between liquids and gases entrained within the formation fluid sample. Phase separation significantly changes the formation fluid characteristics, and reduces the ability to evaluate the actual properties of the formation fluid.
To overcome this limitation, various techniques have been developed to maintain pressure of the formation fluid sample. U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,822 to Massie et al. (1994) pressurized a formation fluid sample with a hydraulically driven piston powered by a high-pressure gas. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,166 to Shammai (1997) used a pressurized gas to charge the formation fluid sample. U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,775 (1994) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,755 (1995) to Michaels et al. disclosed a bi-directional, positive displacement pump for increasing the formation fluid sample pressure above the bubble point so that subsequent cooling did not reduce the fluid pressure below the bubble point.
Existing techniques for maintaining the sample formation pressure are limited by many factors. Pretension or compression springs are not suitable because the required compression forces require extremely large springs. Shear mechanisms are inflexible and do not easily permit multiple sample gathering at different locations within the well bore. Gas charges can lead to explosive decompression of seals and sample contamination. Gas pressurization systems require complicated systems including tanks, valves and regulators which are expensive, occupy space in the narrow confines of a well bore, and require maintenance and repair. Electrical or hydraulic pumps require surface control and have similar limitations.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system capable of compensating for hydrostatic well bore pressure loss so that a formation fluid sample can be retrieved to the well surface at substantially the original formation pressure, that is, in a single phase state. The system should be reliable and should be capable of collecting the samples from the different locations within a well bore.
Unlike an ordinary sample tank, however, a single-phase tank has a floating piston inside of it. Sample fluid or crude is pumped into the sample tank against the top side of the piston. Downhole, as crude oil is pumped into the tank, the pumped crude pushes against the top side of the floating piston inside of the sample tank and further compresses the gas cushion underneath the sample tank piston. Crude oil is pumped into the sample tank against the cushioned piston until its pressure is several thousand pounds per square inch above formation pressure. The gas cushion is initially created at the surface where the tank is charged before going into the well bore. The purpose of charging the down hole sample tank is to maintain the down hole sample of crude oil in a single phase condition after it has been brought to the surface and cools. Gas is pumped underneath the sample tank piston to charge the sample tank cylinder.
To charge the single-phase sample tank cylinder a non-reactive gas (e.g., nitrogen) is connected to the sample tank through a pressure regulator. The tank is filled until the pressure underneath the sample tank piston reaches the set pressure of the regulator. The tank inlet valve is then closed thereby trapping as many moles of gas as can possibly fit into the tank volume underneath the piston at that pressure. This gas cushion is important when collecting down samples of crude oil at elevated temperatures of 100-200 C and pressures of 10-20 kpsi. As these tanks are brought back to the surface, the tank and the sample inside of the tank, once removed from the high temperature down hole in the well bore, cools to the ambient surface temperature so the crude oil within the sample tank shrinks or reduces its volume and pressure associated therewith is likewise reduced. This temperature-induced shrinkage can be as much as 30% of the initial crude oil volume. At this reduction in pressure, below the bubble point for the crude, it is expected that natural gas bubbles will nucleate or asphaltenes precipitate and come out of the crude oil and fill the void left by shrinking liquid. Nucleation of gas bubbles or precipitation of solids changes the single-phase liquid crude to a two-phase state consisting of liquid and gas or liquid and solids. Two-phase samples are undesirable, because once the crude oil sample has separated into two phases, it can be difficult or impossible and take a long time (weeks), if ever, to return the sample to its initial single-phase liquid state even after reheating and/or shaking the sample to induce returning it to a single-phase state.
Due to the uncertainty of the restoration process, any pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) lab analyses that are performed on the restored sing-phase crude oil are often suspect. When using ordinary sample tanks, one tries to minimize this problem of cooling and separating into two-phase by pressurizing the sample down hole to a pressure that is far (4500 or more psi) above the downhole formation pressure. The extra pressurization is an attempt to squeeze enough extra crude oil into the fixed volume of the tank that upon cooling to surface temperatures the crude oil is still under enough pressure to maintain a single-phase state and maintains at least at the pressure that it had downhole.
The gas cushion of the single-phase tanks, thus, makes it easier to maintain a sample in a single phase state because, as the crude oil sample shrinks, the gas cushion expands to keep pressure on the crude. However, if the crude oil shrinks too much, the gas cushion (which expands by as much as the crude shrinks) may expand to the point that the pressure applied by the gas cushion to the crude falls below formation pressure and allows asphaltenes in the crude oil to precipitate out or gas bubbles to form. Thus, there is a need for a gas cushion pressurization tank that maintains the single-phase state of a sample without requiring inordinately large and possibly dangerous pressures to be used in charging a sample tank before going down hole.


The present disclosure relates generally to content management services and in particular to selectively providing content management features within an existing messaging client.
Content management services allow users to access and manage content across multiple devices using a network. In a typical content management service, a user establishes a content management account with the service provider and can associate various content items with the content management account. For example, content management services may allow the user to store content items (including but not limited to text documents; email messages; text messages; other types of messages; media files such as photos, videos, and audio files; and/or folders containing multiple files). Some content management services may allow users to set sharing options for stored content items in order to control whether and how other users are able to access the content items.
Messaging services enable users to communicate with one another. The messaging services may include email, instant messaging (IM), or social networking services. In some cases, messaging services also allow for the transmittal of content items as attachments. For example, an email service may allow a user to compose an email, attach a file from the user's local machine, and send the file to a recipient through the email service. After the sent email is received, the recipient can open the email, download the attached file to the recipient's local machine, and view or otherwise use the attached file.


Both commercially and domestically, it is oftentimes desirable if not absolutely necessary to be able to locate studs beneath sheet rocked walls or as structural support members for roofs and the like. For even the simple task of hanging a picture or installing a new set of shelves, the finding of a structural stud member behind a surface can be important if not critical.
Before there were stud finders, one would either pound a small nail into the wall until it hit a stud or a small pivoting magnet would be used whose orientation would change when a magnetizable object such as a nail was confronted.
Electronic stud finders replaced the hit and miss and pivotable magnet approaches. These products operate like a touch switch on a touch-sensitive lamp. They use changes in capacitance to sense stud location. When the plate inside the stud finder is over a surface such as wallboard, it will sense one dielectric constant but when over a stud, the dielectric constant is different. It works on a capacitance differential generated by density differences. The circuit in the stud finder can sense changes and report it on its display. The magnet approach was made the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,384 issued in 1974. The stud finder based upon detection of capacitive differences was made the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,118 issued in 1978.
Although current commercially available stud finders operate reasonably well in the right conditions, there are many instances where the detection of capacitive differences behind a wall or membrane can be difficult if not impossible For example, in applying the hardware necessary to support photovoltaic panels on a roof, it is oftentimes necessary to locate structural stud members for applying standoffs which in turn support rail members and solar photovoltaic panels thereon. Installations of this type have been disclosed in applicant's previously filed U.S. application Ser. No. 12/407,952, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. However, roofs oftentimes support one or more layers of composite shingles and similar waterproof membranes which provide surfaces which are too thick and uneven to enable capacitive-based stud finders to function.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a new paradigm in stud finder technology which does not depend upon capacitive differences to enable a user to locate a structural stud member beneath a surface.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel stud finder device which can be used in virtually any environment whether or not the studs to be located are sufficiently proximate a homogeneous surface to enable them to be detected by capacitive techniques.
These and further objects will be more readily apparent when considering the following disclosure and appended claims.


In recent years, businesses have found it more and more useful to analyze the transactions they undertake with their customers. In some cases, such an analysis can provide the business with the information it needs to fine tune the transactions to shape customer behavior to improve performance of the business.
For example, an electronic commerce company may want to analyze the “clickstream” of individual customers visiting the company's web page to find associations between customer actions, such as the customer clicking on a particular image on the web page, and desired customer actions, such as the customer making a purchase. With this information, the company may tune its web page to increase the likelihood that a customer will click on the image, with the hoped-for result that sales will increase. A method and apparatus for performing this analysis, called “association” or “affinity analysis,” using a massively parallel processing (MPP) computer system is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/410,528, entitled SQL-BASED ANALYTIC ALGORITHM FOR ASSOCIATION, filed on Oct. 1, 1999, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
This analytical approach can be useful in analyzing other forms of data, such as retail or financial data. The owners of a grocery store, for example, may find it useful in designing the layout of the store to know that customers are more likely to purchase cheese when they purchase grapes. Similarly, a bank may find it useful to know that customers who contract for certain banking services, such as a checking account, are more likely to acquire other banking services, such as automobile loans. The bank could use such information to design the mailing materials it includes with its statements.
It is sometimes important to isolate the actions of individual customers to properly perform affinity analysis. For example, in the web page context, in which a log is maintained containing customer transactions with the web page, it may be useful to associate transactions with individual customer “sessions” in order to allow a meaningful analysis of the transactions. A method and apparatus for performing such an analysis is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/752,355, entitled IDENTIFYING WEB-LOG DATA REPRESENTING A SINGLE USER SESSION, filed on Dec. 29, 2000, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
Understanding the order of transactions may also be important. For example, a web page owner may be interested to know that a customer that clicks on a first image on the web page followed by a second image may be more likely to make a purchase than a customer that clicks on the second image before the first image. Making such a determination adds an extra degree of complexity to an affinity analysis.


Microelectromechanical systems (hereinafter MEMS) have been developed for movable micro devices, such as hygroscopes, accelerometers, tunable RF capacitors, digital mirrors, sensors and the like. They are used for forming small electrical and mechanical structures on a substrate, particularly a substrate of silicon or a silicon-containing material. These devices are made using conventional semiconductor processing techniques, such as chemical vapor deposition and plasma etching for example.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional three-layer substrate that can be used to make a MEMS device. A substrate layer of silicon 10 is covered with a sacrificial layer of silicon oxide 11 and a layer of polysilicon 12 deposited thereover. In accordance with a prior art method, the silicon oxide layer 11 is etched away to at least partially separate the layer of polysilicon 12 from the substrate 10. This etch step is known as release. FIG. 2 illustrates a partial etch of the sacrificial silicon oxide layer 11, as by using an isotropic wet HF etch. Now the polysilicon feature 12 can move, e.g., bend toward and away from the silicon substrate 10. Suitable etchants are anhydrous and aqueous hydrogen fluoride (HF).
The above method however requires the steps of deposition and removal of the sacrificial layer, and requires a wet etch, as of HF, to etch through the sacrificial silicon oxide layer.
In addition to the extra steps required for depositing and isotropically etching away the sacrificial layer, release is also a problem. Release is a complex process wherein the silicon oxide layer must be controllably etched. If too much silicon oxide is removed, the desired structure is undercut; if too little silicon oxide is etched away, frozen microstructures are formed that are not able to move as intended. Further, such an etch produces residues which adhere to the substrate.
Another part of the problem is that different silicon oxides have different etch rates. Doped oxides, such as PSG, BPSG and doped TEOS oxide, attain a high and fairly stable etch rate quite rapidly. However, dense oxides, such as thermal oxides, TEOS oxides and high temperature oxides, have an etch initiation period, and a much slower etch rate, even after initiation. Etch rates can also vary with device design. Thus it is difficult to know how long the etch needs to be carried out for the desired release.
Aqueous HF has traditionally been used to isotropically etch silicon oxides. However, this etchant has a high surface tension that causes capillary and van der Waals forces that pull the released features toward the substrate until they contact each other. This results in a generally permanent adhesion of the feature to the substrate, a result known as stiction.
Anhydrous HF has also been tried as a release etchant. However, it is a very strong acid, and will damage materials used in the interior of the etch chamber, adding to the costs of the process. A special chamber must be made, one that is at least partially impervious to anhydrous HF, a difficult and expensive challenge.
Thus a method of releasing MEMS devices that does not cause stiction, and that can be done in situ in a single chamber with fewer steps and high throughput that results in reduced costs, would be highly desirable.