For various reasons, it is highly desirable to be able to qualitatively and/or quantitatively measure human luteinizing hormone (hLH) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in a convenient, reliable manner. For example, it is known that the concentration of hLH in female biological fluids increases dramatically just prior to ovulation. A convenient, qualitative detector of the hLH surge for "at home" use could pinpoint the time of ovulation for women with fertility problems and/or aid in fertility regulation. Also, a quantitative hLH assay, which could be used by the physician in the office would be useful in the medical evaluation and observation of various conditions associated with hLH presence and/or concentration variation.
Similarly, significant presence of hCG in the female biological fluids has been accepted as one of the most reliable tests confirming pregnancy. hCG is secreted by the developing blastocyst and can be detected in pregnant women as early as 7 to 9 days after fertilization. Again, a qualitative "at home" pregnancy test capable of providing a reliable result within the first two weeks of pregnancy would be extremely useful. Also, a convenient assay procedure usable by the practicing physician would prove of benefit in the diagnosis and evaluation of various abnormal conditions characterized by hCG levels, such as in the diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy and spontaneous abortion, and in the follow-up of patients with trophoblastic disease and infertility problems.
One aspect of the present application is concerned with improved solid phase assay systems and methods for measuring hLH and/or hCG, which do not require radioactive substances. In one embodiment of the present invention, an enzymatic marker is employed. In another embodiment, a direct dye marker is used to eliminate the step of reacting enzyme with its substrate for measurement. Another aspect of the present application is concerned with materials and reagents to be used in the improved assay systems and methods.
Van Weeman et al, "Immunoasssay Using Antigen-Enzyme Conjugate", FEBS LETTERS, 15:232 (1971), conjugated hCG to horseradish peroxidase through glutaraldehyde and then used the conjugate for enzyme-immunoassay of hCG. A solid phase assay procedure is disclosed by Van Weeman et al where hCG antibody is attached to a cellulosic support (reprecipitated and diazotized m-aminobenzyloxymethyl cellulose or microcrystalline cellulose activated by CnBr.) Also, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,090 using the Van Weeman conjugate in similar assay procedures. Another enzyme used in the art in place of horseradish peroxoidase is alkaline phosphatase (ALP). For example, see Engvall et al, "Enzyme-linked Immunoabsorbent Assay (ELISA), Quantitative Assay of Immunoglobulin G", Immunochemistry, 8:871 (b 1971). Kawaoi et al, "An Improved Method of Conjugation of Peroxidase with Protein". Fed. Proc., 32 Abstract 840 (1973) also disclose a method for forming an enzyme-hormone complex.
Saxena et al, "Development of a Solid-Phase Centrifugation-free Enzyme Assay for LH for Ovulation Detection", Psychoneuroendocrinology in Reproduction, Zichella et al, editors, Elsevier/North Holland (1979), p. 277, describe both an enzymeimmunoassay and an enzymereceptorassay for hLH using antibody-coupled glass beads or receptor-coupled glass beads, respectively (glutaraldehyde activated aminopropyl glass beads) and an hLH-alkaline phosphatase conjugate (4-azidobenzoyl derivative of hLH). The receptor used by Saxena et al was of relatively low yield and suffered from poor stability.
Carlsson et al, "Protein-Thiolation and Reversible Protein-Protein Conjugation", Biochem. J., 173:723 (1978), disclose that N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio) propionate (SPDP) can be employed as a heterobifunctional reagent in forming protein-protein conjugates through a disulfide link. As one example, Carlsson et al form a horseradish peroxidase-rabbit anti- (human transferrin) antibody conjugate. In general, 2-pyridyl disulfide structures are introduced into both the peroxidase and the antibodies by their reaction with SPDP. Although either of the 2-pyridyldisulfide moieties can be converted into the corresponding thiol derivative by specific reduction with dithiothreitol at pH 4.5, Carlsson et al formed the thiolated antibodies and reacted them with the peroxidase 2-pyridyl disulfide derivative by thiol disulfide exchange to produce the peroxidase enzyme-antibody conjugate.
It is also known that hLH and hCG consist of two noncovalently linked polypeptide chains classified as .alpha. and .beta. subunits. The .alpha. subunits of these glycoprotein hormones, as well as the .alpha. subunits of other glycoprotein hormones, have almost identical amino acid sequences and are practically indistinguishable immunochemically. In contrast, the .beta. subunits of each have their own distinctive amino acid sequences which differentiate them from the .beta. subunits of the other glycoproteins. Methods are known to purify antibody, such as hCG .beta. antiserum, to reduce cross-reactivity with hCG .alpha. subunits or with similar hLH subunits. For example, see Jibiki et al, "A Receptor-Immunoassay for the Determination of the Specificity of Anti-hCG-.beta. Sera", ACTA Endocrinologica, 87, 838 (1978), where hCG-.beta. antisera is purified by immunoabsorption with hLH and hCG-.alpha..
Saito et al, "Use of Receptors in the Preparation of LH-Free Serum", J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 43:1186 (1976), used purified gonadotropin receptor to bind serum hLH to the exclusion of other serum proteins. This general technique provides a purer serum, depending upon the specificity of the receptor.
Glass beads have been used as the solid phase in the radioimmunoassay of hormones such as hLH and hCG. See Post et al, "A Rapid, Centrifugation-Free Radioimmunoassay Specific for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Using Glass Beads as Solid Phase", J. Clin. Endoclinol. Metab., 50:169 (1980), where solid glass beads of 6 mm diameter were sandblasted and then heated in the presence of .gamma.-aminopropyltriethoxysilane to generate reactive alkylamino groups on the glass surface. The amino groups are activated with glutaraldehyde and subsequently hCG-.beta. antibody is covalently coupled thereto.
Finally, a key reagent in an hLH or hCG receptor assay is the receptor itself. Heretofore, large quantities of the common hLH and hCG receptor of the corpora lutea have not been obtained in sufficiently pure form for use in enzyme receptor assays of good reliability and accuracy. See Khan et al, "Use of Purified Gonadotropin Receptor in the Development of an Enzyme Receptorassay (ERA) for Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG)", Enzyme Labelled Immunoassay of Hormones and Drugs, S. B. Pal,editor, de Gruyler & Co. (1978).
A number of the steps used in the receptor purification system of the present invention, the present invention resulting in a good yield of a receptor having better stability and higher purity, were disclosed by the inventors in the symposium paper. "Current Status of the Purification and Characterization of LH-hCG Receptors," Functional Correlates of Hormone Receptors in Reproduction, Mahesh et al, editors, page 397, Elsevier North Holland (1980), presented Oct. 15, 1980.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,250 and as a divisional thereof, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,963, both to Saxena, disclose receptorassay methods for determining hCG and/or hLH in a biological fluid wherein binding of said hCG and hLH in the sample is with a plasma membrane extract from the corpus luteum of a species possessing the common receptor for hCG and hLH. The additional purification steps disclosed herein, as compared to the Saxena patents, result in the preparation of a receptor material of significantly higher purity and binding capacity.


As electronic devices become increasingly compact and portable, the need to make precise electrical connections between components on a very small scale increases. Arrays of fine, closely spaced, parallel electrical conductors are often needed to connect arrays of closely spaced, side-by-side pads found on printed circuit boards, liquid crystal displays, display panels, charge-couple devices, or the like.
In electronic devices, electronic components are typically arranged with extreme space restrictions. Therefore, electrical connectors are often required to be flexible and to have closely spaced, parallel conductive stripes provided on a flexible insulating support. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,262 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,598. Other methods of producing parallel conductive stripes include: a) conductive inks, b) thin metal wires, or c) stripes of thin metal films, e.g., deposited through a mask or selectively etched to provide the desired conductor width and spacing.
There are disadvantages inherent in the presently known electrical connector tape constructions. Electrical connector tapes that use conductive inks as the conductive stripes typically have an undesirably high resistance. The manufacture of electrical connector tape using thin metal wires for the conductive stripes requires drawing the metal wires down to size and attaching the wires to a flexible insulating support. Known methods are typically difficult add expensive. Stripes made by means of photolithographic techniques are often complicated and also expensive.
In presently known electrical connector tapes, the tape is often constructed such that the spacing of the individual conductive stripes is the same as that of the terminal pads to which the tape is intended to be bonded. Accordingly, when the bonds are made between the conductive stripes and an array of terminal pads, it is necessary that absolute registration be maintained between the stripes and the pads during bonding. The fine pitch of many arrays of terminal pads makes such registration very difficult. Thus, it is often necessary to use magnifying devices when bonding the electrical connector tape to the terminals. However, if the pitch of the electrical connectors is so fine that one or more conductive stripes will contact a terminal pad during bonding, absolute registration may not be necessary. However, it will still be necessary, in most applications, to maintain a generally parallel alignment to prevent cross-over connections.


The present invention relates to a dust radiation monitor apparatus used in radiation source handling facilities such as nuclear power plants to measure the radioactivity concentration of dust in the air in the facilities, and a dust sampling apparatus used in the dust radiation monitor apparatus.
Conventionally, in radiation source handling facilities such as nuclear power plants, dust radiation monitor apparatuses for measuring the radioactivity concentration of dust in the air in the facilities are widely used.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an example of the arrangement of a dust radiation monitor apparatus widely used in practice in radiation source handling facilities such as nuclear power plants.
In the conventional dust radiation monitor apparatus in FIG. 1, when air is drawn into a chamber C through a sampling pipe 1, radiation dust in the air is collected through a filter (filter paper or the like) in a dust collection section 2. The air after dust collection is exhausted through a sampling pump 3. A .beta. ray detection section 5 detects .beta. rays from the radiation dust collected through the filter, and converts it into an electrical signal. When a .beta. ray measurement value is obtained by a .beta. ray measuring section 7, a data processing section 8 compares the measurement value with a warning set value and determines contamination if any.
Natural radioactive substances exist in nature. Radon is a naturally occurring substance (to be referred to as a natural nuclide hereinafter). Since radon exists in a rare gas form in nature, it also floats in the air in the facilities. A nuclide of this kind emits .alpha. and .beta. rays in the process of decaying into a daughter nucleus and granddaughter nucleus.
The radiation dust collected by the above dust radiation monitor apparatus therefore contains natural nuclides. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2, a total .beta. ray measurement value Va includes a contribution V2 of natural nuclides as well as a contribution V1 of measurement nuclides due to leakage. Owing to the influences of such natural nuclides, many radioactive nuclides (artificial contamination nuclides) as measurement targets may be determined to exist in amounts larger than actual amounts. For this reason, the influences of natural nuclides must be separately evaluated.
As a technique of solving this problem, a technique of accurately determining the presence/absence of radioactive contamination without separately evaluating the influences of natural nuclides is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-211133. According to this technique, .alpha. and .beta. rays emitted from natural nuclides are separately measured in advance by a measurement system, and the emission ratio of the measured .alpha. and .beta. rays from natural nuclides is obtained in advance. In actual contamination determination, radiation emitted from measurement targets is detected by a radiation detector, and .alpha. and .beta. rays are separately measured from the detection signal. A correction processing means then obtains a .beta. ray value base on natural nuclides which are contained in the .beta. ray measurement value on the basis of the emission ratio of .alpha. and .beta. rays and the .alpha. ray measurement value, and subtracts the .beta. ray value base on natural nuclides from the .beta. ray measurement value. As a result, a .beta. ray value free from the influences of natural nuclides can be obtained.
In the dust radiation monitor apparatus disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-211133, however, .alpha. and .beta. rays are measured by using a single radiation detector. More specifically, detection/measurement is performed by a single radiation detector having a detection section made up of two layers (.alpha. and .beta. ray detection layers). For this reason, the following problems are posed.
(1) Low-energy .beta. rays are absorbed by the .alpha. ray detection layer.
More specifically, with the structure formed by stacking the .alpha. and .beta. ray detection layers on each other, .beta. rays output from the dust collection section always reach the .beta. ray detection layer through the a ray detection layer. The detection efficiency of low-energy .beta. rays, which are easily absorbed, decreases, resulting in a measurement error.
(2) Separate measurement of .alpha. and .beta. rays has its own limitation.
More specifically, light components from the .alpha. and .beta. ray detection layers mix with each other. The mixed light components are separated by a subsequent circuit in accordance with differences in rise characteristics and emission amount, but they are not perfectly separated. Since .alpha. and .beta. rays as measurement targets vary in energy, they mix with each other in a certain energy region, resulting in a measurement error. Especially, the low-energy side of a rays tend to mix with the high-energy side of .beta. rays.
Demands therefore have arisen for a dust radiation monitor apparatus which has a structure that prevents light components from .alpha. and .beta. ray detection layers from mixing with each other, and can eliminate any measurement error due to mixing of light components. Demands has also arisen for a dust radiation monitor apparatus which can prevent the other detection layer from absorbing .beta. rays in detecting .beta. rays, and improve the detection efficiency of low-energy .beta. rays, thereby eliminating any measurement error due to .beta. ray absorption.
In such a dust radiation monitor apparatus, the following problems arise in intermittent measurement and continuous measurement, in addition to the above problems of a decrease in detection efficiency and measurement errors.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing an example of the arrangement of a conventional intermittent dust radiation monitor apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 3, a pipe switching unit 1401 sequentially switches connections between the radiation monitor side and a plurality of (n) sampling pipes 1400 which are installed in different sampling places in radiation source handling facilities (not shown) to introduce air from the respective sampling places. As shown in FIG. 3, the pipe switching unit 1401 is constituted by a plurality of solenoid valves 1402.
The air introduced through the sampling pipes 1400 sequentially switched by the pipe switching unit 1401 is drawn by a pump 1406 through a pipe system and continuously sent to a dust collection section 1411. Dust in the air sent to the dust collection section 1411 is collected on filter paper 1403 driven by a filter paper driving section 1407.
In addition, the amount of air drawn is adjusted to a predetermined amount by a flow rate indicator 1404 and a flow rate control valve 1405.
Radiation from the dust collected on the filter paper 1403 is detected by a radiation detector 1410, and the radioactivity concentration of the dust on the filter paper 1403 is then measured by a data converter 1408 using the radiation reading from the radiation detector 1410. The measurement result is output to a display/recording section 1409.
Such an intermittent dust radiation monitor apparatus can perform only intermittent measurement. For this reason, the flow rate of air must be increased to a value equal to or more than a detection limit value, and the flow rate of air must be fixed to maintain a high detection precision.
Under the circumstances, a continuous dust radiation monitor apparatus is proposed, in which dust collection/measurement units are arranged for the respective sampling pipes to perform continuous measurement.
In such a continuous dust radiation monitor apparatus, however, since dust collection/measurement units equal in number to the sampling pipes must be installed, the apparatus arrangement becomes large in size.
Demands have therefore arisen for a dust radiation monitor apparatus which can switch intermittent measurement to continuous measurement to perform continuous monitoring, as needed, while intermittent measurement is performed in normal operation as in the prior art, thereby improving the measurement precision. In addition, demands have arisen for a dust radiation monitor apparatus which can collectively perform dust connection control and measurement processing for each of intermittent and continuous dust radiation monitors by intensively using one data processing section, and can change the schemes of the respective monitors according to the circumstances.
In dust sampling apparatus used in the above dust radiation monitor apparatus, the following problems arise in collecting dust with filter paper.
FIG. 4 shows the arrangement of a conventional dust sampling apparatus.
A chamber 901 is used to draw air from a predetermined place in a radiation management area and exhaust the air after dust collection. A filter paper holder 905 for holding filter paper 903 and a paper filter receiving wire net 904 is mounted in the chamber 901. The filter paper holder 905 is mounted on the chamber 901 through a paper filter holder O-ring 918. A radiation detector 902 for detecting radiation emitted from the dust collected by the filter paper 903 is mounted in the chamber 901. The radiation detector 902 is held by a detector holder 906, which is mounted on the chamber 901, through a detector O-ring 917.
In the dust sampling apparatus having this arrangement, when air is drawn through the inlet of the chamber 901, dust in the air is collected on the filter paper 903 in the filter paper holder 905, and the air after dust collection is exhausted from the outlet of the chamber 901.
In this conventional dust sampling apparatus, to increase the detection sensitivity, the distance between the filter paper 903 and the radiation detector 902 is reduced to several millimeters. Owing to this structure, the flow path of air passing through the filter paper 903 is not uniform, and dust is nonuniformly collected on the filter paper 903. As a result, the detection efficiency decreases due to self-absorption of dust, or a sensitivity calibration deviation occurs with respect to a calibration ray source.
Under the circumstances, demands have arisen for a dust sampling apparatus which can make the flow path of air passing through filter paper uniform, and can uniformly collect dust, thereby preventing a decrease in detection efficiency due to self-absorption of dust and a sensitivity calibration deviation with respect to a calibration ray source.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to synthetic oil-based preferably polyol ester-based turbo oils which use a synergistic combination of phosphorous (P)-based and sulfur (S)-based load additive chemistries which allows the turbo oil formulation to impart high load-carrying capacity and also to meet or exceed US Navy MIL-L-23699 requirements including Oxidation and Corrosion Stability and Si seal compatibility.
Load additives protect metal surfaces of gears and bearings against uncontrollable wear and welding as moving parts are heavily loaded or subjected to high temperatures. Incorporating high load-carrying capacity into a premium quality turbo oil without adversely impacting other properties can significantly increase the service life and reliability of the turbine engines.
The mechanism by which load additives function entails an initial molecular adsorption on metal surfaces followed by a chemical reaction with the metal to form a sacrificial barrier exhibiting reduced friction between the rubbing metal surfaces. In the viewpoint of this action, the effectiveness as load-carrying agent is determined by the surface activity imparted by a polar functionality of a load additive and its chemical reactivity toward the metal; these features can lead to severe corrosion if not controlled until extreme pressure conditions prevail. As a result, the most effective load additives carry deleterious side effects on other key turbo oil performances: e.g., corrosion, increased deposit forming tendency and elastomer incompatibility.


The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices for drilling and boring through subterranean formations. More specifically, this invention relates to polycrystailine diamond compacts ("PDCs"), also known as cutting elements or diamond inserts, which are intended to be installed as the cutting element of a drill bit to be used for boring through rock for many applications, including oil, gas, mining, and/or geothermal exploration, that require drilling through geological formations. Still more specifically, this invention relates to polycrystalline diamond inserts which have a surface topography formed integral to an otherwise spherical, conical, or other uniform geometric shape, to increase stress at the insert/rock interface, thereby inducing the rock to fail with the expenditure of less overall energy while introducing little additional internal stresses to the insert.
2. Description of Related Art
Three types of drill bits are most commonly used in penetrating geologic formations. These are: (1) percussion bits; (2) rolling cone bits, also referred to as rock bits; and (3) drag bits, or fixed cutter rotary bits. Each of these types of bits may employ the polycrystalline diamond inserts of this invention as the primary cutting device.
In addition to the drill bits discussed above, polycrystalline diamond inserts may also be used with other down hole tools, including but not limited to: reamers, stabilizers, and tool joints. Similar devices used in the mining industry may also use this invention.
Percussion bits penetrate through subterranean geologic formations by an extremely rapid series of impacts. The impacts may be combined with simultaneous rotations of the bit. An exemplary percussion bit is shown in FIG. 1b. The reader is directed to the following list of related art patents for further discussion of percussion bits.
Rolling cone bits currently make up the largest number of bits used in drilling geologic formations. Rolling cone bits have as their primary advantage the ability to penetrate hard geologic formations while still being generally available at a relatively low cost. Typically, rolling cone bits operate by rotating three cones, each oriented substantially transverse to the bits axis and in a triangular arrangement, with the narrow end of each cone facing a point in the direct center of the bit. An exemplary rolling cone bit is shown in FIG. 1a.
A rolling cone bit cuts through rock by the crushing and scraping action of the abrasive inserts embedded in the surface of the rotating cone. These abrasive inserts are generally composed of cemented tungsten carbide, but may also include polycrystalline diamond coated cemented tungsten carbide insert of this invention, where increased wear performance is required.
The primary application of this PDC invention is currently believed to be in connection with percussion and rolling cone bits, although alternative embodiments of this invention may find application in connection with other drilling tools.
A third type of bit is the drag bit, known also as the fixed cutter bit. An example of a drag bit is shown in FIG. 2. The drag bit is designed to be rotated about its longitudinal axis. Most drag bits employ PDCs which are brazed into the cutting blade of the bit. The PDCs then shear the rock as the bit is rotated about its longitudinal axis.
It is expected that this invention will find primary application in percussion and rolling cone bits, although some use in drag bits may also be feasible.
A polycrystalline diamond compact ("PDC"), or cutting element, is typically fabricated by placing a cemented tungsten carbide substrate into a refractory metal container ("can") with a layer of diamond crystal powder placed into the can adjacent to one face of the substrate. The can is then covered. A number of such can assemblies are loaded into a high pressure cell made from a soft ductile solid material such as pyrophyllite or talc. The loaded high pressure cell is then placed in an ultra-high pressure press. The entire assembly is compressed under ultra-high pressure and ultra-high temperature conditions. This compression causes the metal binder from the cemented carbide substrate to become liquid and to "sweep" from the substrate face through the diamond grains and to act as a reactive liquid phase promoting the sintering of the diamond grains. Sintering of the diamond grains cause the formation of a polycrystalline diamond structure. As a result the diamond grains become mutually bonded together to form a diamond mass over the substrate face. The metal binder may remain in the diamond layer within the pores of the polycrystalline structure or, alternatively, it may be removed via acid leeching and optionally replaced by another material forming so-called thermally stable diamond ("TSD"). Variations of this general process exist and are described in the related art. This detail is provided so the reader may become familiar with the concept of sintering a diamond layer onto a substrate to form a PDC insert. For more information concerning this process, the reader is directed to U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,623, issued to Wentorf Jr. et al., on Jul. 7, 1973.
Many existing art PDCs exhibit durability problems in cutting through tough geologic formations, where the diamond working surface can experience high stress loads which may be transient in nature. Under such conditions, typical PDCs have a tendency to crack, spall, and break. Similarly, existing PDCs are relatively weak when placed under high loads from a variety of angles. These problems of existing PDCs are further exacerbated by the dynamic nature of both normal and torsional loading during the drilling process, during which the bit face moves into and out of contact with the uncut material forming the bottom of the well bore.
For optimal performance, the interface between the diamond layer and the tungsten carbide substrate must be capable of sustaining the high residual stresses that arise from the thermal expansion and bulk modulus mismatches between the two materials. These mismatches can create high residual stress at the interface as the materials are cooled from the high temperature and pressure process. Residual stress can be deleterious to the life of the PDC cutting elements, or inserts, during drilling operations, when high tensile stresses in the substrate or diamond layer may cause fracture, spalling, or complete delamination of the diamond layer from the substrate.
Diamond is used as a drilling material primarily because of its extreme hardness and abrasion resistance. However, diamond also has a major drawback. Diamond, as a cutting material, has very poor toughness, that is, it is very brittle. Therefore, anything that contributes to further reducing the toughness of the diamond, substantially degrades its durability.
A number of other approaches and applications of PDCs are well established in related art. The applicant includes the following references to related art patents for the reader's general familiarization with this technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,737 describes a rotary drill bit for rock drilling comprising a plurality of cutting elements mounted by interference-fit in recesses in the crown of the drill bit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,106 reveals a composite polycrystalline diamond compact comprising at least one layer of diamond crystals and precemented carbide pieces which have been pressed under sufficient heat and pressure to create composite polycrystalline material wherein polycrystalline diamond and the precemented carbide pieces are interspersed in one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,918 describes an insert that has a tungsten carbide body and at least two layers at the protruding drilling portion of the insert. The outermost layer contains polycrystalline diamond and the remaining layers adjacent to the polycrystalline diamond layer are transition layers containing a composite of diamond crystals and precemented tungsten carbide, the composite having a higher diamond crystal content adjacent to the polycrystalline diamond layer and a higher precemented tungsten carbide content adjacent to the tungsten carbide layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,707 describes a diamond insert for a rotary drag bit consists of an insert stud body that forms a first base end and a second cutter end.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,049 describes a tool insert having a cemented carbide substrate with a recess formed in one end of the substrate and having abrasive compacts located in the recesses and bonded to the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,023 describes a process for polishing refractory materials, including natural and synthetic diamond, wherein the surfaces are successively softened to a predetermined depth by io implantation, followed by mechanical polishing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,245 relates to a rock bit insert of cemented carbide for percussive or rotary crushing rock drilling. The button insert is provided with one or more bodies of polycrystalline diamond in the surface produced by high pressure and high temperature in the diamond stable area. Each diamond body is completely surrounded by cemented carbide except the top surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,081 relates to a rock bit insert of cemented carbide provided with one or more bodies or layers of diamond and/or cubic boron nitride produced at high pressure and high temperature in the diamond or cubic boron nitride stable area. The body of cemented carbide has a multi-structure containing eta-phase surrounded by a surface zone of cemented carbide free of eta-phase and having a low content of cobalt in the surface and a higher content of cobalt next to the eta-phase zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,264,283 relates to buttons, inserts and bodies that comprise cemented carbide provided with bodies and/or layers of CVD- or PVD-fabricated diamond and then high pressure/high temperature treated in the diamond stable area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,342 describes a sintered product useful for abrasion- and impact-resistant tools and the like, comprising an iron-group metal binder and refractory metal carbide particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,738 relates to a button of cemented carbide. The button is provided with a layer of diamond produced at high pressure and high temperature in the diamond stable area. The cemented carbide has a multi-phase structure having a core that contains eta-phase surrounded by a surface zone of cemented carbide free of eta-phase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,195 describes a drill bit having a means for connecting the bit to a drill string and a plurality of inserts at the other end for crushing the rock to be drilled, where the inserts have a cemented tungsten carbide body partially embedded in the drill bit and at least two layers at the protruding drilling portion of the insert. The outermost layer contains polycrystalline diamond and particles of carbide or carbonitride.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,854 discloses a cutting element which has a metal carbide stud with a plurality of ridges formed in a reduced or full diameter hemispherical outer end portion of said metal carbide stud. The ridges extend outwardly beyond the outer end portion of the metal carbide stud. A layer of polycrystalline material, resistant to corrosive and abrasive materials, is disposed over the ridges and the outer end portion of the metal carbide stud to form a hemispherical cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,208 describes a cutting element having a polished, low friction substantially planar cutting face with a surface finish roughness of 10 mu inch or less and preferably 0.5 mu inch or less.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,713 discloses a cutting element with a metal carbide stud that has a conic tip formed with a reduced diameter hemispherical outer tip end portion of said metal carbide stud. A corrosive and abrasive resistant polycrystalline material layer is also disposed over the outer end portion of the metal carbide stud to form a cap, and an alternate conic form has a flat tip face. A chisel insert has a transecting edge and opposing flat faces, which chisel insert is also covered with a polycrystalline diamond compact layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,068 describes buttons, inserts and bodies for rock drilling, rock cutting, metal cutting and wear part applications, where the buttons or inserts or bodies comprise cemented carbide provided with bodies and/or layers of CVD- or PVD-fabricated diamond and then HP/HT treated in a diamond stable area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,300 describes a superhard cutting element having a polished, low friction substantially planar cutting face with a surface finish roughness of 10 mu inch or less and preferably 0.5 mu inch or less. A chamfered cutting edge and side surface of the superhard material table of the same surface finish roughness are also disclosed.
Each of the aforementioned patents and elements of related art is hereby incorporated by referenced in its entirety for the material disclosed therein.


Mirrors are typically used in either hand held or mounted form to assist in applying make-up, inspecting the face and the eyes, etc. It is especially desirable to use a mirror in close proximity and with a certain degree of magnification to assure proper execution of detailed procedures such as application of make-up, removing hair or treating blemishes.
It is known to provide a hand held or stand-mounted mirror which provides a normal sized mirror reflection on one side having a mirrored surface on the other side which provides a magnified reflection. However, the degree of magnification is limited by the physical construction of the mirror. As magnification increases in such a mirror, substantial distortion is encountered. Also, as one moves closer to the magnifying mirror surface, the degree of magnification decreases.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,140, a combination of magnifying and non-magnifying mirrors are used for close-up viewing of the eyes and face. However, no means are provided for producing a higher degree of magnification for example, by the use of a lens. The invention concerns orienting the mirrors to provide images to the viewer from different angles of perspective.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,817,998, a mirror camera has an objective formed by a concave mirror to which one or more correcting elements are added. The camera additionally incorporates means to prevent distortion of the mirror through impact or shock damage. The mirror camera utilizes a concave mirror with a meniscus shaped lens as a correcting element. There is no description of the utilization of a mirror with a magnifying lens for providing magnified viewing of a reflection for personal use.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,829, discloses a hand mirror and supporting handle which incorporates a closure cap to protect the mirror faces.


In the last century reconstructive and cosmetic surgery has become a common practice. Specifically cosmetic breast surgery has been developed to allow reconstruction of a woman's breast that was affected by procedures such as mastectomy. Cosmetic breast surgery has also become available to amend the appearance of a woman's breast, for example by adding an implant to increase the size of the breast, to correct asymmetries, change shape and fix deformities.
Generally the implant is required to be able to provide a specific form and maintain the form for many years, preferably for the lifetime of the woman in which the implant is installed to prevent the need for additional invasive surgery. The implant is also required to have a specific feel preferably imitating the feel of a real breast. The implant also needs to be bio-durable such that it is not ruined by interaction with the human body and it needs to be bio-compatible so that the woman's health is not detrimentally affected by the implant even under extreme circumstances, for example the implant is required to be non toxic in case of leakage from the implant.
The standard implants used today comprise an outer shell typically formed from vulcanized silicone or polyurethane, and an inner content typically formed from a silicone gel or saline. The specific weight of the commonly used filling materials is generally between 0.95 to 1.15 (grams per centimeter cube). An average implant may weigh between 50 to 1000 grams, or even more. The weight of the implant is an addition, which is not negligible for a person.
Over time breast implants are known to cause many problems, mostly related to the weight of the implant, for example: ptosis (i.e. sagging and deformity), breast tissue atrophy, prominence of the implant through breast tissue, back pain, and striae of the skin.
Traditionally, the silicone gels used had silicone oils with short polymers in them that leached out through the shell over time. Current implants involve the use of a shell with barrier layers to achieve very low permeability, and using a cohesive gel as the filling material. The cohesiveness ensures that the filling material does not leak out into the body, even in case of rupture of the shell.
An additional characteristic to be considered in selection of the filling material is the resilience, elasticity and pliability of the implant, which provides it with a specific feeling when being sensed. Generally it is desirable to provide an implant which provides a specific shape and mimics the feel of real human tissue at the position of the implant. It is important that the implant maintain its form and feel for extended periods, to prevent the need for additional surgery.
US patent application publication no. 2004/0153151 to Gonzales dated Aug. 5, 2004 of which the disclosure is incorporated herein by reference describes a breast prosthesis from silicone that is formed as a trabecular body or micro-cell body in order to obtain a prosthesis of lower density.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,569 to Shaw dated Apr. 19, 1983 of which the disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a reduced weight breast prosthesis which is worn external to the human body or implanted into the human body. The breast prosthesis is comprised from a mixture of a silicone gel with glass micro-spheres.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,335 to Snyder, Jr. dated May 11, 1999 of which the disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a reduced weight breast prosthesis which is worn external to the human body, based on the U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,569 to Shaw. Snyder states that the use of glass micro-spheres as described by Shaw results in a stiff product that does not mimic the human breast as well as silicone gel alone. Snyder describes a breast prosthesis having two sections. A first outer section filled with silicone gel that mimics the human breast and a second inner section of reduced weight to reduce the weight of the prosthesis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,330,to Carlisle et al. dated Aug. 19, 1997 of which the disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a molded silicone foam implant and method for making it.


The explosive growth of the Internet as a publication and interactive communication platform has created an electronic environment that is changing the way business is transacted. As the Internet becomes increasingly accessible around the world, online communications and business transactions increase exponentially.
Several attempts have been made to facilitate online management of financial data using such network-based communications, namely to provide software packages residing on a computer and configured, for example, to acquire data from network-based financial transaction facilities, and to facilitate organization and management of such data over the network. However, such packages do not provide a satisfactory level of data access and/or detail. For example, many of the current software applications rely on preparation and display of transaction lists, such as credit card monthly statements and/or bank account statements, but do not provide a system to organize such transactions. Other software applications allow categorization of transactions, but require user input and data downloading prior to such user-defined operations. Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus that facilitate real-time data retrieval, organization, and management over a network, such as the Internet.


The present invention relates to a head amplifier for use with a home VTR, more specifically, to a head amplifier suitable for integratin into an IC.
A head amplifier is an amplifier for a home VTR which processes playback signals from a magnetic head. A head amplifier installed in an IC is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 55-153108. The head amplifier of this publication has several disadvantages which will be detailed hereinbelow.


This invention relates to a filter with a valve-in-head construction. The filter is adapted for household and other uses for filtering fluid flowing through a pipeline. The above identified patents illustrate filters of this general type. Normally, such filters include an outer housing which is adapted to receive a replaceable filter cartridge. One end of the housing is closed, while the other end is adapted to receive a removable valve head which connects to the fluid line for selective fluid flow through the filter.
Various constructions of valve heads are shown in the above patents. Some of them, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,889, include an annular "stand pipe" which telescopes into the core portion of the filter to locate it. Some also include inlets and outlets which are diametrically opposed, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,020. Others, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,761, utilize suitably actuated sliding spools which control the fluid flow within the valve. Some known devices also provide a bypass of portions of the fluid around the valve, even when it is in the "off" position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a valve-in-head filter arrangement which is improved over the previously known structures.
In accordance with the various aspects of the invention, the device is for use with an outer housing adapted to receive a fluid filter cartridge therein. A valve head is provided which includes an annular stand pipe for locating an end of the filter. The stand pipe is cut away on its downstream side to reduce fluid back pressure. Furthermore, a passage is disposed between the head inlet and outlet, with the passage receiving a slideable plunger therein. An actuatable device connects through a rotary actuator to move the plunger. The actuator includes a stem mounted eccentrically to the handle axis, with the stem received in a recess in the plunger so that turning of the handle moves the plunger between "on" and "off" positions. The plunger includes a seal which continuously engages the passage wall in all plunger positions, and the construction provides full "on" and "off", with no fluid bypass in the "off" position.


The escalating demands for high density and performance associated with ultra large scale integration semiconductor devices require design features, such as gate lengths, below 100 nanometers (nm), high reliability and increased manufacturing throughput. The reduction of design features below 100 nm challenges the limitations of conventional methodology.
For example, when the gate length of conventional planar metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) is scaled below 100 nm, problems associated with short channel effects, such as excessive leakage between the source and drain, become increasingly difficult to overcome. In addition, mobility degradation and a number of process issues also make it difficult to scale conventional MOSFETs to include increasingly smaller device features. New device structures are, therefore, being explored to improve FET performance and allow further device scaling.
Double-gate MOSFETs represent structures that have been considered as candidates for succeeding existing planar MOSFETs. In double-gate MOSFETs, two gates may be used to control short channel effects. A FinFET is a recent double-gate structure that exhibits good short channel behavior. A FinFET includes a channel formed in a vertical fin. The FinFET structure may be fabricated using layout and process techniques similar to those used for conventional planar MOSFETs.


The invention relates to a method of stripping metal sheets coated with molten material and in particular to stripping sheet or sheet material coated in a galvanising or vitreous-coating installation directly after the coated sheet has left a bath of molten coating material, both sides of the strip-like or web-like sheet being blasted with a thin curtain of gas. In addition the invention relates to apparatus for carrying out this method with two opposed gas nozzles which are arranged near and above the bath from which the sheet is drawn, and which form a thin curtain of gas for blasting both sides of the strip-shaped sheet or sheet-like material passing between them.
It is known, in the case of sheet and in particular strip-shaped sheet material which has been coated with molten coating material in a galvanising or vitreous-coating installation, to blast the surfaces of the sheet with a thin curtain of gas in order to strip off surplus coating material and prevent lumps or ribs of the coating material forming on the surfaces and thereby not only giving rise to unattractive surfaces, but also making the coating unnecessarily thick at different regions, representing an unnecessarily high consumption of coating material.
It is known to blast the surfaces of the coated sheet with air. However this leads to oxidation or other actions on the coating material, which again can result in flaws in the coated surfaces. Accordingly there has been a move towards using an inert gas such as nitrogen for blasting the surfaces of the coated sheet. It is true that this does satisfactorily eliminate the oxidation problem, but the gas consumption is relatively high, leading to undesirable increaases in cost.


Micro and nano structures including nanoparticle assembly with two and three dimensional periodicity can have potential applications in the areas of photonic crystals, chemical sensors, catalysts, and biotechnology. Patterned surfaces can be used as hard templates to assist the self assembly of not only relatively simple clusters but also complex and unique crystallization structures. Soft polymer templates have been used for directed self assembly of particle arrays on flat substrates. Binary colloidal crystals have been fabricated using two different sizes of colloidal particles. Further, micro and nano particles have been used as templates for the preparation of porous metallic nanostructures and monodisperse colloidal crystals. Even though nanochannel structures for nanofluidic applications have been fabricated using thermal oxidation or nanoimprint, there is a need for a simple and inexpensive approach for the fabrication of enclosed channels formed of nanoparticles.
Thus, there is need to solve these and other problems of the prior art and provide a simple method for the fabrication of nanochannel structures.


There is a known HMD that is worn around a user's head and can present the user with an image in a virtual space with the aid of a display or any other device disposed in front of the user. In particular, the HMD disclosed in Patent Document 1 can display a 360-degree panoramic image in a three-dimensional virtual space. Such an HMD typically includes a variety of sensors (an acceleration sensor and an angular velocity sensor, for example) and measures data on the attitude of an HMD main body. In particular, the direction of the sight line of the eyes looking at the panoramic image can be changed in accordance with information on the angle of rotation of the head. That is, when the user who wears the HMD rotates his/her own head, the direction of the sight line of the eyes looking at the 360-degree panoramic image is changed accordingly, whereby the user's immersive sensation in the video world is enhanced for improvement in entertainment quality (see paragraphs [0004], [0005], [0006], and [Abstract] of Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 further discloses that the user's gesture in the form of motion of the head is related in advance to operation (display screen switching, for example) on the screen of the HMD, and when the user's gesture is identified on the basis of the inclination of the head or the acceleration thereof, screen operation related to the gesture is performed. Inconvenience in controller operation resulting from the fact that the user who wears the HMD is unable to see his/her own hands and therearound is therefore solved (see paragraphs [0008] to [0009] in Patent Document 1).


DE 10 2012 010 757 A1 discloses an illuminating device for a vehicle. The illuminating device includes an eye-tracking system for detecting an eye position and its viewing direction. The illuminating device is divided into several predefined switch-on ranges, and light is emitted only into that predefined switch-on range which corresponds to the user's field of vision. No light is emitted as soon as the user's field of vision does not correspond to the respective predefined switch-on range.
The disadvantage, however, consists in that drivers of a motor vehicle during darkness frequently orientate themselves using the lighting of motor vehicle instruments. If the instruments are always completely switched-off as soon as the driver ceases to look in their direction, the driver loses his orientation more easily, which may make operation of the motor vehicle more difficult.
This leads to the requirement to further develop a method to address this disadvantage in such a way that it becomes easier for the driver to orientate himself in a dark motor vehicle without being irritated by the lighting of at least one motor vehicle instrument.


(i) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a waterproof seal ring to be fitted between the contacting surfaces of a master cylinder body and a power booster housing.
(ii) Description of the Prior Art
Conventional waterproof seal rings of this character have a recess formed at the lower end of the outer periphery, through which air is allowed to flow into and out of the master cylinder as its piston reciprocates. When rainwater or the like gains entrance between the contacting surfaces of the master cylinder body and the power boosting housing, it will flow down around the outer periphery of the seal ring. The intruding liquid can then be entrained by air that is drawn by suction into the master cylinder, eventually to corrode its inner wall surface. This is particularly true with the arrangements in which the master cylinders are installed with their axes increasingly raised frontwards, for example, to meet the recent design requirements of the braking systems for the front-engine front-wheel-drive automobiles.


This invention relates to a pneumatic tire having an asymmetric tread pattern. More particularly, it relates to a pneumatic tire capable of improving driving performance on a wet road surface and reducing noise during driving while keeping excellent driving performance on a dry road surface.
A pneumatic tire having an asymmetric tread pattern wherein ribs continuing in a tire circumferential direction are disposed at a shoulder end portion on a tread surface on the outer side of a vehicle when the tire is fitted to the vehicle, and block lines each comprising a plurality of blocks are disposed at a shoulder end portion on the inner side of the vehicle exhibits excellent driving performance on a dry road surface because its outer shoulder end portion is constituted by ribs having high rigidity. It is known generally that such a pneumatic tire exhibits excellent wear resistance even under a critical state such as in circuit driving because the shoulder end portion on the outer side of the vehicle comprises the ribs having high rigidity and the tire does not have relatively sharp block edges.
However, though this pneumatic tire has no problem of draining property on a wet road surface having a relatively small depth of water, it involves inferior drainability when the depth of water is great because the shoulder portion on the outer side of the tire with respect to the vehicle consists of the ribs. Various attempts have been made so far to solve these problems by, for example, increasing the void volume of the tread, or by employing an asymmetric profile as disclosed in Japanese patent application Kokai publications No. 57-147901 and No. 61-98601. However, these methods have not been entirely satisfactory because they invite the drop of other items of tire performance.
Also, lately it has been increasingly strongly demanded from the viewpoint of the environmental integrity that noise generation occurring when vehicles are run should be suppressed, and the above described tires having remarkable dry performance are not excluded in this respect. Tires the tread pattern of which is asymetrical and comprises a rib at the shoulder end on the outer side in the condition in which they are mounted to wheels of a vehicle have a feature such that they do not have a continuous lug groove in the outer rib in contrast to such tires of which the tread pattern comprises a block-based pattern over a whole tread area, and basically such feature ought to be advantageously influential upon supression of the noise generation. However, a pair of tires, one for a left and the other for a right wheels of a vehicle, are produced by a same molding die, so that in mounting such tires to the vehicle, either of the two tires has to be reversed in the mounting-position relative to the other so that the outer rib of each tire is on the outer side of the vehicle. If the tire mounting is made in that way, then a basic direction of inclination of sub-grooves extending in the widthwise direction of the tires falls to be identical in connection with the left tire and the right tire on the vehicle, whereby a difference in the block rigidity is produced between the left tire and the right tire, possibly resulting in a large difference in the noise generation between the left side and the right side of the vehicle.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to microfluidic devices and methods.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditional methods for crystal growth and crystallization are highly labor intensive and require significant quantities of material to evaluate and optimize crystal growth conditions. Examples of these methods include the free interface diffusion method (Salemme, F. R. (1972) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 151:533-539), vapor diffusion in the hanging or sitting drop method (McPherson, A. (1982) Preparation and Analysis of Protein Crystals, John Wiley and Son, New York, pp 82-127), and liquid dialysis (Bailey, K. (1940) Nature 145:934-935).
Presently, the hanging drop method is the most commonly used method for growing macromolecular crystals from solution, especially for protein crystals. Generally, a droplet containing a protein solution is spotted on a cover slip and suspended in a sealed chamber that contains a reservoir with a higher concentration of precipitating agent. Over time, the solution in the droplet equilibrates with the reservoir by diffusing water vapor from the droplet, thereby slowly increasing the concentration of the protein and precipitating agent within the droplet, which in turn results in precipitation or crystallization of the protein.
The process of growing crystals with high diffraction quality is time-consuming and involves trial-and-error experiment on multiple solution variables such as pH, temperature, ionic strength, and specific concentrations of salts, organic additives, and detergents. In addition, the amount of highly purified protein is usually limited, multi-dimensional trials on these solution conditions are unrealistic, labor-intensive and costly.
A few automated crystallization systems have been developed based on the hanging drop methods, for example Cox, M. J. and Weber, P. C. (1987) J. Appl. Cryst. 20:366; and Ward, K. B. et al. (1988) J. Crystal Growth 90:325-339. More recently, systems for crystallizing proteins in submicroliter drop volumes have been described including those described in PCT Publication Nos. WO00/078445 and WO00/060345.
Existing crystallization, such as hanging drop, sitting drop, dialysis and other vapor diffusion methods have the limitation that the material for analysis and the crystallization medium are exposed to the environment for some time. As the volumes of materials decrease, the ratio of surface area to volume ratio varies as the inverse of the radius of the drop. This causes smaller volumes to be more susceptible to evaporation during the initial creation of the correct mixture and during the initial period after the volume has been set up. Typical hanging drop plates can have air volumes of 1.5 milliliters compared to a sample drop size of 3-10 microliters. Moreover, typical methods expose the sample drop to the environment for a duration of seconds to minutes. Small variability in the rate that samples are made can cause significant variations in the production of crystals. Small variations external environment also can cause significant variations in the production of crystals even if the rate that the samples are made is unchanged. Prior methods fail to reduce the problems of convection currents under 1 g such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,646, without the large expenditure of resources or in methods that complicate crystal analysis.


Tape drives that operate bi-directionally are well-known. The tape media is generally enclosed into a single reel cartridge and the tape is transported around the tape path onto a tape reel thereby placing the tape media in contact with the transducer. The transducer in present day tape drives comprise a separate read and write element that cover each track of the data on the tape media. It is known, for instance, that a one-half inch wide magnetic tape can include 18 tracks. A higher number of tracks are contemplated and it is proposed that a one-half inch wide magnetic tape includes 36 tracks. To be able to read 36 tracks from the tape, an interleaved data transducing head is proposed.
An interleaved read/write head is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,005 to Fields, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In the magnetic head disclosed in that patent, the read and write gaps of each module of the magnetic head are alternately spaced across the width of the tape, such that the write gaps of one module are aligned with the read gaps of the other module. When one module is selected for writing, as a function of the direction of the tape movement, the other module is selected to read-after-write check the data written by the write element of the first module. One module writes odd track data during one direction of the tape movement and reads even track data during the opposite direction of the tape movement. The problem arises in that both read and write elements are located within one module with the gaps of each element aligned along the same line.
The read element of the modern day tape head is a magneto-resistive transducer and is formed of thin film layers deposited through a standard thin film deposition procedure. The write transducer, however, has its pole pieces formed from two blocks of magnetic ferrite magnetically connected together at the back gap and a transducing gap at the front face. A single block of magnetic ferrite operates as a closure structure after all of the elements of the read transducer and the write conductors are deposited onto the substrate magnetic ferrite block. Having different layers of material deposited at different locations into the side-by-side elements creates a leveling problem when the magnetic ferrite closure block is to be placed over the plurality of read and write elements. More layers form a greater thickness in the read element and therefore the write element generally lacks a supporting structure that can cause the magnetic ferrite closure piece to bend under stress when affixed to the completed transducers. In any event, the write head gap must not be narrower than the read head gap to properly read the written bits of information onto the magnetic media. Also, with the closure piece bent under stress at the time of manufacture, the stress may relieve in time, resulting in an unreliable gap.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an enhanced magnetic recording drive for multi-track operation.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic drive that uses an enhanced interleaved head to read and write magnetic transitions forming data onto magnetic recording media.
Another object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide an enhanced transducer assembly and an enhanced method for making the transducer assembly.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates a parts welding device, wherein a part, such as a bolt, is held by a spring chuck mean and the part is welded to the other part, such as a steel plate.
2. Description of Related Art
As a method of welding a bolt where a flange is integrally formed on the shaft to a steel plate, stud welding is known. In this method, a collet-type chuck with a spring structure is arranged on the head of a feed pipe for the bolt and the shaft of the bolt moved to the chuck is held by the spring structure, wherein the flange is exposed on the head side. The flange is brought closer to the steel plate, and welding current is made to flow between the flange and the steel plate to generate arc, which fuses the flange and steel plate together by metal fusion. Then, pressure welding follows, completing the welding process.
The above method is to hold the bolt after stopping the approaching bolt by the collet-type chuck. This method, however, raises the problem that the holding position of the bolt is not determined in a constant manner. In such a situation, the gap between the flange and steel plate becomes not constant, causing the unevenness of welding quality. Further, for automating such a welding system, feeding and holding the bolt in a secure manner upon welding is imperative, but the above method cannot provide an operation enabling the feeding and holding to be made in a satisfactory manner. Besides, in the case of a nut with a flange integrally formed on the cylindrical part of the nut, on the internal surface of which a female screw is formed, a similar problem occurs when the flange is welded to the other part.
This invention is a parts welding device provided to solve the problem mentioned above. In the invented system, a part feed apparatus and a welding apparatus are mounted on a board, a supporting member is fitted on a supporting shaft fixed on the board in a rotary manner, a welding unit is fitted into the supporting member, and a receiving hole for a part fed by the part feed apparatus is formed on the head of the supporting shaft, wherein the head tip of the welding unit is arranged near the opening of the receiving hole.
The part fed by the part feed apparatus is inserted into the receiving hole and held there, and the part comes in contact with the other part, then both parts are welded together by the welding unit. The supporting shaft has the opening as the receiving hole for the part and the supporting member is fitted on the supporting shaft in a rotary manner, that is, the supporting member equipped with the welding unit is fitted on the supporting shaft in a rotary manner. Therefore, the operations, such as holding the part in the receiving hole and fitting or rotation of the welding unit, are arranged in a compact manner while the supporting shaft is set as the central member for the operations, providing a welding system having a constitutional advantage. In addition, when the part is fed to the receiving hole, the part is inserted in the hole from the outside, so that it can be held with the supporting shaft in a smooth manner.
It is applicable that the above supporting member is rotated by a rotation mean so that the head tip is moved to a prescribed position. As the supporting member rotates, the welding unit fitted into the supporting member rotates together, allowing the head tip to move freely to a required welding spot. Therefore, when a circular flange is welded to a steel plate, local welding spots can be arranged apart at 120 or 180 degree without fail.
While the above supporting shaft is arranged in the direction almost perpendicular to the board and the above part feed apparatus inserts the part retained on the feed rod of the feed unit into the above receiving hole from the head side of the above supporting shaft, a retaining mean for the part may be arranged in the above receiving hole. As described above, the part feeding behavior is to inserting the part into the receiving hole form the head side of the supporting shaft, wherein part holding can be made by the most simple method of inserting the part from the outside. As a result, the dislocation of the holding position of the part never occurs, making the relative position between the part and the other part constant, thus a good welding quality can be obtained. Further, arranging the part holding mean in the receiving hole keeps the relative position between the receiving hole and the part constant, maintaining a correct contact state upon making the part come in contact with the other part, thus works effectively to improve welding quality.
While the feed rod of the above part feed apparatus is made to move back and forth in an inclined state against the above supporting shaft, a moving-back-and-forth mean may be arranged for moving back and forth the whole body of the above feed rod in the same direction of the axis of the part retained on the feed rod. The part retained on the head of the inclined feed rod stops in the position where the axes of the part and receiving hole are aligned. Then, the whole body of the feed rod moved in the axial direction of the receiving hole and the part, allowing the shaft of the part to be inserted smoothly into the receiving hole. As described here, by arranging a proper position relation between the feed rod and supporting shaft and moving the whole body of the feed rod, the above smooth operation can be achieved, so that a high credibility as a welding system can be maintained. In order to secure the above coaxial state between the shaft and receiving hole, in this system, the axis of the supporting shaft, the axis of the shaft held by a supporting pipe, and the stroke direction of the piston rod of an air cylinder are all set in parallel. Thus, when the whole body of the feed rod is moved, the shaft is inserted smoothly in the receiving hole.
The above board can be fitted on the head of a robot apparatus. By operating the robot apparatus, the board is moved freely to any directions and the direction of the board upon its stopping can be selected freely, the parts welding can be made without any hamper even if the other part has a complicated form or the welding point is in a complicated area. In addition to such a free moves of the board, the particular arrangement made for the supporting shaft and feed rod gives more advantages to this welding system, further enhancing the utility of the system.
In another application, the above board is fixed to a stationary member and the other part to which the part is welded is held with the robot apparatus. Such a constitution is reverse to the one mentioned above, but secures the same advantages obtained by the one mentioned above. In the reversed constitution, the other part is held with the robot to move freely, while the part feed apparatus and the welding apparatus are kept stationary.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of acoustic waves for charging batteries in a battery charger or in a portable telephone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Home audio systems use audio speakers to convert audio signal into acoustic waves that can be heard by a user. The audio signals are analog electronic signals that represent the time-variation of the desired acoustic waves. They generally represent music or voice signals with frequency components typically in the range of 50 Hz-20 kHz. Typically, the audio signals are received by an amplifier from a radio receiver, compact-disk player, cassette player, or other audio source, amplified to appropriate voltage and current levels, and provided to one or more audio speakers to generate the corresponding acoustic waves.
Thus, audio speakers are energy transducers that convert electrical energy into acoustic energy. The transduction from acoustic energy to electrical energy is typically performed in the speakers by providing the audio signal to a solenoid to generate a time-varying magnetic field. The time-varying magnetic field then displaces a magnetic element coupled to a speaker diaphragm, causing the speaker diaphragm to vibrate with a displacement indicated by the audio signal. With the audio speaker placed in a listening area, the vibrating speaker diaphragm generates the desired acoustic waves in the air of the listening area.
Rechargeable batteries and battery chargers for rechargeable batteries are well known in the art. The rechargeable batteries are based on a variety of electrochemical reactions, and are generally recharged by applying an appropriate potential across the rechargeable battery to run a current through the rechargeable battery. Some battery chargers monitor the energy stored in a rechargeable battery and adjust the applied potential to optimize the charging process. A main feature of battery chargers is their use of some electrical power source, such as home 120 V AC electrical power source, to drive a current through a rechargeable battery.
It would be useful to have a battery charger that does not draw current from other batteries or from a home 120 V AC electrical power source, but which instead uses an otherwise unused source of power, such as the acoustic energy generated in a room by people in the room performing typical activities such as talking, walking, and moving.


Generally, for health maintenance (improvement of lifestyle-related diseases) or enhancement of athletic abilities, it is valid to decrease body fats and promote carbohydrate metabolism by aerobic exercises. That is to say, if we incorporate glucoses which are energy sources of muscles into the muscles and burn the glucoses, we consume surplus glucoses, as a result of improvement of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, incorporating the glucoses and burning the glucoses contribute the improvement of lifestyle-related diseases (diabetes, obesity and hyperlipemia and so on).
The incorporating the surplus glucoses into the muscles is caused by muscle contractions, if we increase incorporated quantity into the muscles, it becomes possible to promote the carbohydrate metabolism.
In order to do the carbohydrate metabolism effectively by the muscle contractions, it is desirable to cause the muscle contractions of large volume muscles, we think that it is valid to extend and bend a hip joint and contract a big muscle group from a trunk to femoral regions.
There are running or walking et cetera as exercises contracting the big muscle group, and in the capacity of a device to imitate those exercises, treadmill is generally known.
The treadmill is an exercise assisting device to be capable of adapting rotational velocity and inclination angle of a moving belt which is a walking surface or running surface. And, as an aim of a training of a whole body endurance, running exercise or walking exercise on the treadmill are often done.
On the other hand, in the capacity of an exercise assisting device which is different from the treadmill and which intend a simulation of running or walking, it is known that an axle moving type bicycle ergometer which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-78817.
The ergometer comprises a pair of rotational axes which are given each rotational force by a pair of right and left pedals and a pair of right and left arms, a pair of tables which supports each axis of the pair of rotational axes in a horizontal direction, a pair of guide parts which supports each table of the pair of tables capably of reciprocating in a direction orthogonal to the pair of rotational axes, a pair of moving mechanisms which move the pair of tables on the pair of guide parts based on rotational angle of the rotational axis and a braking mechanism which do a breaking of each rotational axis of the pair of rotational axes (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-78817).


As for the engine torque control of an internal combustion engine controller for automobiles, so-called “torque base (torque demand) type engine control” in which target engine torque is computed from the angle of an accelerator and the speed of an engine and throttle control, fuel control and ignition control are carried out to achieve the target engine torque and the target air-fuel ratio has recently been implemented.
The torque base (torque demand) type engine control of the internal combustion engine has advantages that a torque difference at the time of switching between uniform charge combustion and stratified charge combustion in a stratified charge lean combustion system can be reduced and that traction control and engine torque demanded from an external device such as an auto-cruise or AT can be processed smoothly by adding an interface for external demand torque to a logic for computing the above target engine torque.
The above torque base type engine control has an advantage that torque control can be carried out while the target air-fuel ratio is maintained as torque control is basically carried out by controlling the quantity of air sucked by an electrically controlled throttle. However, it has a problem that its response for achieving desired torque is low due to a phenomenon that the supply of intake air into cylinders is delayed. To cope with this problem, when high-speed response is desired for traction control or VDC (vehicle dynamics control), for example, other torque control means is used in combination to improve the torque response. As one example of this, there is known technology making use of a fuel cut or ignition retard when torque is reduced (deceleration).
Another technology concerning the torque response is disclosed by JP-A H11-72033, for example. In this technology, when high-speed torque response is desired in a stratified charge lean combustion system, the torque response is improved by correcting the ignition time at the time of uniform charge combustion and the air-fuel ratio at the time of stratified charge combustion. In this technology, torque correction is carried out by correcting the ignition time as the purification efficiency of a three-way catalyst is reduced to deteriorate exhaust gas when the air-fuel ratio is corrected at the time of uniform charge combustion, and torque correction is carried out by correcting the air-fuel ratio in the case of stratified charge combustion as the variable range of ignition time is small.
Meanwhile, as for the recent exhaust gas purification control of an automobile internal combustion engine, there is generally known technology for improving the exhaust purification ratio with a three-way catalyst by carrying out air-fuel ratio feed-back control, using a detection signal from an O2 sensor installed in the exhaust pipe, so that the air-fuel ratio becomes a value close to the theoretical air-fuel ratio.
However, the three-way catalyst has an O2 storage effect (effect of storing oxygen in a catalyst) and the function of reacting with an exhaust component in the catalyst so that the stored O2 cancels a shift from the theoretical air-fuel ratio in exhaust from the engine. Therefore, when air-fuel ratio feed-back control is carried out by using information only from the O2 sensor without considering the exhaust purification function of the stored O2, the correction quantity of fuel becomes inappropriate and over-correction occurs, thereby deteriorating the exhaust gas. To cope with this problem, for example, technology disclosed by JP-A H2-230935 is to prevent the deterioration of the purification of exhaust gas by adjusting the amount of air-fuel ratio feed-back control based on an estimated value obtained by O2 storage quantity estimation means for estimating the storage quantity of O2 in a three-way catalyst provided in an internal combustion engine controller.
For the torque base type control of the conventional internal combustion engine controller for automobiles, technology for improving the torque response by using other high-speed torque control means is used to compensate for a delay in the supply of intake air when high-speed torque response is desired. In a uniform charge stoichiometric combustion system which is operated at a value close to the theoretical air-fuel ratio, there has not been proposed appropriate torque assist means when high-speed torque increase is demanded during non-idling.
One of the reasons for this is that torque increase is impossible at the time of non-idling by further advancing the ignition time as a value (MBT) at which the ignition time is advanced to enable the generation of the maximum torque is generally set as a standard ignition time even when torque assist is tried by changing the ignition time.
Another reason is that when the air-fuel ratio is simply made rich, the purification of exhaust gas may be deteriorated (specifically, increases in the quantities of CO or HC) as the air-fuel ratio must be maintained at a value close to the theoretical air-fuel ratio due to the exhaust gas purification properties of the three-way catalyst used in a uniform charge stoichiometric combustion system though it is commonly known that the torque can be increased by making the air-fuel ratio rich (for example, power air-fuel ratio of about 12) as for the technology of assisting torque by the air-fuel ratio control of an internal combustion engine.
It is an object of the present invention which has been made in view of the above problems to provide an internal combustion engine controller for automobiles which can realize torque increasing performance and exhaust gas purification performance in a well-balanced manner even when a high-speed torque increase is demanded in uniform charge stoichiometric combustion which is operated at a value close to a theoretical air-fuel ratio in the torque base type engine control of an internal combustion engine.


Metallurgical plants are plants for processing metal ore, wherein the central element of such a metallurgical plant is a blast furnace. These metallurgical plants have been known for a long time. A blast furnace is fed with raw materials which comprise metal ore, additives and heating material. Usually coal or coke is used as a heating material, wherein coal and coke produce heat by burning in the presence of air on the one hand and wherein coal and coke also function as reduction agent for the metal ore, as the metal ore is basically comprised of metal oxide. When reducing metal ore in a blast furnace, various gases are produced, which collectively are known as a furnace gas or flue gas. Said furnace gas usually contains a substantial amount of carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and during recent years more and more effort has been made to avoid or convert greenhouse gases, as these greenhouse gases are regarded as detrimental for the climate.
In the field of metal production, it is a general aim to use as few raw materials and heating materials as possible, as these materials are expensive and it is expensive to transport these materials. Much effort has been made to reduce the amount of coke/coal used in production. One approach was blowing coal dust into the blast furnace, and another approach was producing carbon monoxide as a reduction gas, either in the blast furnace itself or in a separate gasification reactor outside the blast furnace. From EP 09318401 A1 it is known to blow a portion of the carbon required for reducing the metal ore into the blast furnace in form of a substitute reduction material. In this sense, e.g. natural gas, heavy oil, fine coal and similar material having a high carbon content may be used as a substitute reduction material. These materials may be directly blown into the blast furnace shaft or may be gasified outside of the blast furnace shaft in a separate gasification reactor so as to form a reduction gas. Subsequently, such a reaction gas may be directed into the blast furnace shaft. The method known from EP 09318401 A1 may provide a possibility to reduce the consumed amount of coal or coke and may also provide a possibility to use materials, which are difficult to process as a substitute reduction material, however, the problem of high CO2 production in metal production has not been solved.
The prior art discloses methods wherein furnace gas or a particular component thereof is directed out of the blast furnace shaft and, after being processed in a CO2 converter, is re-directed into the blast furnace shaft. EP 2 543 743 A1 discloses a method wherein furnace gas is directed out of the blast furnace shaft and is directed to a separation device in which CO and CO2 are separated. Only the separated CO2 is subjected to reforming in a CO2 converter. Reforming produces mainly CO and H2O, wherein H2O is separated and CO is directed into the blast furnace shaft. WO 2011/087036 A1 also discloses a method wherein first furnace gas is directed to a separation device in which CO and CO2 are separated. In a CO2 converter, the CO2 is converted into O2 and CO. The CO from said conversion and the previously separated CO are jointly directed into the blast furnace shaft. U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,446 A discloses a method wherein furnace gas from a blast furnace shaft is mixed with coke oven gas in a CO2 converter. Thus, a gas mixture comprising CO and H2 is produced which is ro-directed into the blast furnace shaft. WO 2010/049536 A1 describes a similar method wherein also carbon containing particles are re-directed into the blast furnace shaft. U.S. Pat. No. 2,598,735 A discloses a method wherein furnace gas from a blast furnace shaft is mixed with carbon/coal and oxygen in a gas generator. A portion of the carbon is burnt in presence of the oxygen, and another portion of the carbon reduces the CO2 from the furnace gas and the CO2 from the burnt carbon to CO. Said CO is re-directed into the blast furnace shaft as a reducing agent. None of these documents discloses a method wherein further processing of a portion of the converted CO is carried out.


This invention relates to water purification systems and in particular to a control for a system of the type that purifies water by converting it into steam and condensing the steam back into water.
Water distillation systems are well-known in the art and include a boiling tank having an inlet for admitting untreated feed water to the tank and heating means for heating the untreated water to produce steam. As steam is generated by the boiling tank, the minerals and other impurities in the residue water increase in concentration. Periodically, it is necessary to remove the residue by draining. In a water distillation unit designed for domestic home use, the drain commonly discharges the residue water into the house drain. With the advent of polyvinylchloride plastic pipe for plumbing systems, it is necessary to reduce the temperature of the residue water before discharging it to the drain. Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide an efficient and inexpensive means for reducing the temperature of the residue water before it is discharged to drain.
Even if the residue is periodically discharged to drain, mineral scale will be deposited on inner surfaces of the tank and outer surfaces of the heater. Accordingly, it is necessary to periodically shut down the unit and descale the interior of the boiling tank by filling the tank with water having descaling chemicals added thereto and, after a soaking period, draining the cleaning liquid and rinsing the tank. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control having a cleaning mode that minimizes the complexity of the procedure performed by the user and that adds very little to the cost of the control.
The primary purpose of a water distillation unit is to produce distilled water and accumulate this water in a holding tank until needed for use. Consumers expect that such water will be of very high quality. If the water in the holding tank is contaminated by the condition of the holding tank then water quality may be diminished. Accordingly, it is known to disable the condensing portion of the water distillation apparatus in order to provide steam from the boiling tank directly to the holding tank in order to destroy microorganisms that may be established in the tank. The difficulty with known units having such a steam cleaning cycle is that, if the user forgets to reactivate the condensing means, then the steam will eventually condense within the holding tank providing a buildup of very hot water in the holding tank. If the holding tank outlet pump is operated by the user after inadvertently neglecting to discontinue the steam cleaning mode, it is possible that the hot water may cause damage to the holding tank outlet pump. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive control for protecting a water distillation unit against the failure of the user to discontinue the steam cleaning mode.
Another difficulty with water distillation units is that the addition of relatively cold untreated feed water to the boiling tank tends to rapidly lower the temperature of the interior of the tank. This lowering of temperature creates a vacuum within the boiling tank which tends to draw water already condensed in the condenser and steam previously produced back into the boiling tank where it will condense back into water. Therefore, the addition of feed water creates inefficiencies in the operation of the unit which results in increased energy consumption per unit of water produced. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a control for a water distillation unit which carefully controls the frequency and amount of feed water admission to the boiling tank in order to reduce the detrimental affects described above.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit forming method and a circuit connection structure in an electrical connection box for use in a vehicle, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electrical connection box of the sort mentioned above, an electronic circuit board 104 provided with electronic parts 103 between a lower case portion 101 and an upper case portion 102 constituting the electrical connection box, and an insulating board 106 provided with bus-bars 105 are generally housed in a laminated form as shown in FIG. 5.
The electrical connection of the electronic parts 103 to the bus-bars 105 is accomplished by fitting a connector housing 107 retaining female terminals 108 to an edge portion of an electronic circuit board 104 and stacking the electronic circuit board 104 in this state on top of the insulating board 106 thereby to fit bus-bar tabs (male terminals) 105a with the bus-bars 105 in an upright condition into the respective female terminals of the connector housing 107. An insulating spacer 109 is provided between the electronic circuit board 104 and the insulating board 106 to avoid unnecessary electrical connection.
However, there have been the following problems concerning the connection structure of the bus-bar in the conventional electrical connection box.
(1) When a wiring pattern (not shown) is formed for a number of electronic parts provided on the electronic circuit board 104, it is needed to form the wiring pattern up to the edge portion where the female terminals 108 are provided. Moreover, as a space for use in fitting up the female terminals 108 becomes necessary and this results in a large-sized electronic circuit board 104, thus increasing the cost.
(2) The edge portion of the electronic circuit board 104 requires the female terminals 108 and the connector housing 107 so as to electrically connect the electronic parts 103 to the respective bus-bars 105, so that the number of parts tends to increase.
(3) Moreover, because the bus-bar tab 105a connected to the female terminal 108 is formed by processing the edge portion of the bus-bar 105, any intermediate part of the bus-bar 105 cannot be connected to the female terminal 108 and when one bus-bar is connected to two or more connecting parts, for example, it is needed to use the same number of bus-bars as the number of connecting parts. Consequently, the utilization efficiency of the space for used in arranging the bus-bars has been poor.
An object of the present invention is to solve the foregoing conventional technical problems and to provide a circuit forming method and a circuit connection structure that are capable of making smaller an electronic circuit board as well as reducing the number of parts.
There is provided a circuit forming method in an electrical connection box according to the invention with an electronic circuit board and an insulating board being stacked up and housed therein, comprising the steps of providing not only a through-hole in the electronic circuit board but also lead wires or electric wires of electronic parts in a manner straddling the through-hole, providing the bus-bars on the insulating board so that the upright pressure-contact knife-edges of the respective bus-bars may be arranged in a position corresponding to the through-hole of the insulating board, and stacking up the electronic circuit board and the insulating board by moving both the boards close to each other in such a condition that the pressure-contact knife-edges are passing through the through-hole, and pressure-welding the lead wires or electric wires to the respective pressure-contact knife-edges.
There is provided a circuit connection structure comprising: an electronic circuit board having a through-hole, the electronic circuit board being provided with lead wires or electric wires of electronic parts in a manner straddling the through-hole, and an insulating board provided with bus-bars having upright pressure-contact knife-edges electrically connected to the lead wires or electric wires, wherein the electronic circuit board and the insulating board are stacked up by relatively moving both the boards close to each other in such a condition that the pressure-contact knife-edges are passing through the through-hole; and the lead wires or electric wires are pressure-welded to the respective pressure-contact knife-edges.
As the lead wires are pressure-welded to the respective pressure-contact knife-edges passed through the through-hole provided in the electronic circuit board in this circuit forming method and the circuit connection structure, the space for use in fitting the female terminals to the edge portion of the board in the prior art can be dispensed with, which results in making it possible to reduce the size of the electronic circuit board. Moreover, the pressure-contact knife-edges are directly pressure-welded to the respective lead wires, so that female terminals and the connector housing necessitated in the prior art can be omitted, which results in reducing the number of parts.
In the circuit connection structure according to the invention, the pressure-contact knife-edges are formed separately from the respective bus-bars, and the pressure-contact knife-edges may be fitted to the respective bus-bars in such a condition that the former has been electrically connected to the latter.
With this arrangement, as any number of pressure-contact knife-edges can freely be provided to the end portion or mid position of the bus-bar, the utilization efficiency of the space for use in disposing the bus-bars becomes improvable thereby.