1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus which has the function of detecting a jam of a recording material.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 illustrates a sheet conveying path from a sheet-feeding unit to a sheet-discharging unit in a conventional image forming apparatus. In FIG. 7, there are shown sheet-feeding cassette 1 of a sheet-feeding unit, and transfer paper P, serving as paper accommodated within the sheet-feeding cassette 1. Sheet-feeding roller 2 is rotatably driven in response to a print start signal, whereby sheets of transfer paper P are individually taken out from within sheet-feeding cassette 1, and each sheet is fed to a transfer process portion of image forming unit 10 passing along a sheet path 6.
In this case, image forming unit 10 has an electrophotographic process mechanism. A drum-shaped electrophotographic photosensitive member (hereinafter termed a "photosensitive drum") 7 is rotatably driven in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow at a predetermined circumferential speed (process speed).
Primary charging by charging unit (charging roller) 11, image exposure L by exposure means (not shown), such as a laser scanner or the like, and development by developing unit 12 are performed for rotating photosensitive drum 7, and a toner image corresponding to object image information is formed on the circumference of rotating photosensitive drum 7.
The toner image is sequentially transferred onto a sheet of transfer paper P fed from sheet-feeding cassette 1 at transfer nip portion 9 provided between photosensitive drum 7 and transfer unit (tranfer roller) 8.
The sheet of tranfer paper P passing through transfer nip portion 9 is then separated from the surface of rotating photosensitive drum 7, and is guided to fixing unit 17 passing along a sheet path 16. The surface of rotating photosensitive drum 7, after separation of the sheet, is cleaned by cleaning unit 13 to be repeatedly used for image formation.
The fixing unit 17 of the present case comprises a tensionless film-heating-type fixing unit disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Application (Kokai) Nos. 4-44075-44083 (1992). FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of fixing unit 17.
The fixing unit 17 includes a heat-resistant film guide member 18 having a substantially semicircular cross section, a plate-like ceramic heater 19 having a low heat capacity disposed along the longitudinal direction at a central portion of the lower surface of film guide member 18, a cylindrical (endless) thin film (fixing film) 20 made of heat-resistant resin loosely fit around film guide member 18 having the ceramic heater, and a pressing roller 21 disposed below film guide member 18 so as to be in pressure contact with ceramic heater 19 across film 20 by always being pressed upwardly by upwardly-pressing spring 22. That is, ceramic heater 19 and pressing roller 21 are in pressure contact across film 20, to form a fixing nip portion N.
Ceramic heater 19 is heated by a current supplied from a current supply system (not shown), and is controlled at a predetermined fixing temperature by a temperature control system (not shown).
Pressing roller 21 is rotatably driven by a driving unit (not shown) in the counterclockwise direction indicated by the arrow at a predetermined circumferential speed. The cylindrical film 20 is rotatably driven around film guide member 18 by the rolling frictional force of pressing roller 21 in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow at a predetermined circumferential speed while sliding along the surface of ceramic heater 19 in a state of firmly contacting the lower surface thereof at the fixing nip portion N.
The sheet of tranfer paper P conveyed to fixing unit 17 after image transfer is guided at entrance guide 23 to enter a space between the rotatably driven cylindrical film 20 and pressing roller 21 at the fixing nip portion N provided by the temperature-controlled ceramic heater 19 and the rotating pressing roller 21, and passes through the fixing nip portion N together with film 20 in a state of firmly contacting the lower surface of ceramic heater 19 across film 20.
While the sheet of transfer paper P passes through the fixing nip portion N, the unfixed toner image on the sheet is heated across film 20 by the heat of ceramic heater 19. Thus, the image is fixed.
The sheet of transfer paper P passing through the fixing nip portion N is separated from the surface of film 20, and is output outside the apparatus after passing through exit guide 24, a sheet path 29 and a pair of sheet-discharging rollers 30.
Referring again to FIG. 7, registration sensor S1 for detecting the leading edge of the sheet is disposed at a side upstream from transfer unit 8 in the conveying direction of the sheet. Discharged-sheet sensor $2 four detecting the discharge of the sheet is disposed at a side downstream from fixing unit 17 in the conveying direction of the sheet.
As shown in FIG. 8, the discharged-sheet sensor S2 of the present case includes a sensor lever 26 swingable around supporting shaft 25, and a photo-interrupter 27. Usually, sensor lever 26 has a substantially vertical posture by the function of gravity as indicated by the solid lines, with the upper-end portion thereof protruding in the sheet path and a lower-end shutter portion 26a thereof blocking the optical path of photo-interrupter 27.
When the sheet is fed from the fixing nip portion N to exit guide 24, sensor lever 26 is pushed by the sheet to be rotated around supporting shaft 25 in the counterclockwise direction as indicated by the two-dot chain lines, whereby shutter portion 26a rotates to open the optical path of photo-interrupter 27.
Thus, the presence/absence of the sheet is detected by the opening/blocking of the optical path of photointerrupter 27. The registration sensor S1 has the same configuration as the discharged-sheet sensor S2.
Signals from registration sensor S1 and discharged-sheet sensor S2 are input to a CPU (not shown) for controlling the main body of the image forming apparatus. Based on these input signals, control of the main body of the apparatus, such as timing control of exposure by a laser when exposure means for the rotating photosensitive drum 7 comprises, for example, a laser scanner, timing control of sheet feeding, control of the fixing sequence, jam detection and the like, is performed.
A heat-roller-type fixing unit comprising a fixing roller, in which a halogen-lamp heater is provided within a roller having the shape of a hollow pipe, and a pressing roller in pressure contact with the fixing roller, a pressure fixing unit comprising a pair of pressing rollers, or the like may be used as the fixing unit 17. However, the film-heating-type fixing unit used in the present case is advantageous over other fixing units in that, for example, waiting time can be shortened (quick-start property) or electrical power consumption can be reduced, since a low-heat-capacity heating member, in which temperature rises rapidly, and a thin film can be used.
In the above-described image forming apparatus, if a paper jam occurs, the CPU for controlling the main body of the apparatus detects the jam from the relationship between the sheet-feeding timing and the signals from the sensors S1 and S2, stops the driving of the main body of the apparatus, and displays the occurrence of the jam.
The operator then opens an openable/closable cover of the main body of the apparatus, removes the jammed paper within the apparatus, and closes again the cover, whereby a door switch linked with the cover is closed. The CPU resets the jammed state by a signal from the door switch. By this reset, the main body of the apparatus executes pre-rotation driving as a mode of forcedly discharging paper, and returns to a state in which image formation can be executed.
In the above-described image forming apparatus, when the openable/closable cover of the main body of the apparatus is first opened after the driving of the apparatus has stopped based on the detection of a jam, and the cover is closed again carelessly or due to some other reason without removing the jammed paper, or when the jammed paper is insufficiently removed, and the cover is closed again without recognizing the presence of a remaining part of the jammed paper, the jammed state is reset based on a signal from the closed door switch, and the pre-rotation driving of the apparatus is executed, whereby the jammed state of the paper still remaining in the apparatus becomes worse, causing, for example, damage to the apparatus. Such problems also arise in the case of reset of the apparatus by the turning-on and turning-off of the power supply of the apparatus.
This is because when, for example, the paper produces an accordion jam, or a jam P' is produced by the paper becoming wound around the fixing member (comprising rotating film 20, pressing roller 21, the heat roller, the pressing roller and the like) of fixing unit 17, as indicated by the two-dot chain lines in FIG. 8, the jammed paper P' is then present between registration sensor S1 for detecting the leading edge of the paper and discharged-sheet sensor S2 for detecting the completion of sheet discharge. The CPU, therefore, cannot detect the presence of the jammed paper P' within the main body of the apparatus when the door switch is closed by closing the cover again, or when the power supply is turned on or off. Thus, the CPU resets the jammed state, and the apparatus moves to the pre-rotation driving in spite of the presence of the jammed paper P'.
Due to the pre-rotation driving, an accordion-jammed paper remaining in the main body of the apparatus may be more severely jammed, or a jammed wound paper P' may be further wound in the fixing member, making jam removing processing by a user difficult or impossible. When the fixing unit 17 is a film-heating-type unit as in the present case, the thin fixing film 20 may be broken.


The proper care of medical patients is essential for optimal treatment of their medical conditions. Typically, a patient having a particular condition/ailment is prescribed a medicine or treatment based upon established treatment guidelines. The treatment guidelines outline, inter alia, the specific dosages of medicines, the frequency in which dosages should be administered, instructions on how dosages should be administered and the time-lines for therapeutic treatments. Oftentimes, treatment for new patients is administered directly from the treatment guidelines with little variation. These guidelines are typically derived through prospective medical studies. Prospective medical studies, namely, randomized clinical trials, are studies wherein researchers empirically test hypotheses in near ideal conditions by screening the patient population, ensuring that patient care diligently follows the guidelines and recording all relevant data. Such practices fail to take full advantages of historical medical data, rather, relying only on success rates for the patients that rigidly adhered to the treatment guidelines. Additionally, clinical trials are very expensive to conduct.
Historical medical data represents a valuable source in the analysis of the patient care process and medical outcomes. As indicated, treatment guidelines have been generated based solely upon the results of treatment on patients who rigidly adhered to the treatment guidelines. However, the number of variables from patient and professional medical care having an impact on the results of patient care is exceedingly high. Moreover, the relationship between these variables is virtually unknown. Accordingly, the ability to fully learn from past medical data could greatly improve patient health care.
Retrospective studies, for example, the analysis of historical medical patient records from a hospital, are complementary to prospective clinical trials. Health-care organizations are accumulating vast stores of patient data, which are a vital tool for knowledge management. Analyzing this already-collected information may lead to insights that can be subsequently verified in a prospective trial. Most importantly, retrospective studies can measure, in a least two ways, the impact of guidelines in real-life clinical settings. First, retrospective studies can determine the effectiveness of the treatment for a patient population that was excluded from clinical trials. For example, patients above 65, or those with other diseases may be excluded in a clinical trial—however, the guideline validated in that trial is now used to treat all hospital patients. Second, patient treatment in a hospital may differ from that in a trial. For instance, the colon cancer guideline mandates commencing chemotherapy within 6 weeks of surgery, which is rigorously enforced in the clinical trial. However, in a hospital, some patients may begin chemotherapy up to 10 weeks after surgery (e.g., they may be too sick or miss appointments). The impact of this delay on a patient's outcome can only be determined via retrospective analysis since it is not ethical to conduct a clinical trial that would test the impact of this delay—in effect, withholding the accepted standard of care.
However, analyzing hospital data is hard for many reasons. First, medical data is very complex to analyze because of its rich structure. Many traditional statistical methods are ill-suited to data with structure, time-sequenced events (medical data has important temporal components) and/or no structure such as free text, images, etc. Second, because the hospital patient data was collected to treat the patient (as opposed to collected for analysis in a clinical trial), it is imperfect in many ways, for example, missing/incorrect/inconsistent data; key outcomes/variables not recorded; bias in data collection, e.g., sick patients get more tests than well ones, (this is perfectly natural from the medical point of view, but has inherent assumptions that may cause problems for many algorithms); and variables collected/treatments change over time, which particularly impacts some long-term diseases whose treatment can span decades. Lastly, there is wide variation in practice among medical professionals determining if a patient is on a guideline and treated properly is difficult to tell.
In view of the above, there exists a need for techniques to collect population-based patient information from a variety of sources, to perform outcome analysis on the collected information, and to conduct retrospective analysis on a large quantity of medical information derived from various sources in a rapid manner.


Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to accent lighting systems and more particularly to accent lights for use in connection with posts, post caps, stairs and vertical, sloped and horizontal surfaces associated, for example, with decks, docks (and other marine applications), patios, arbors and indoor/outdoor spaces.
Description of Related Art
For both safety and aesthetic reasons, there is a desire to provide accent lighting in decks, docks (and other marine applications), patios, arbors and indoor/outdoor spaces. For example, stair installations, such as with the treads or risers, are often lit not only for the obvious safety concerns, but also because such lighting is viewed as attractive and opulent. Similarly, the perimeter of an indoor/outdoor space is often accent lit to provide a clear indication of the barrier location but also to provide pleasing illumination of surfaces without having to use overhead lighting which oftentimes is harsh and overly extensive. Still further, accent lighting is often preferred to overhead lighting because the illumination can be better focused and thus the distracting and perhaps visually interfering overspill associated with overhead lighting sources is avoided. Indeed, accent lighting is preferred in many installations, both indoor and outdoor, because such lighting can effectively address safety concerns while simultaneously providing an attractive lighting feature without concern for light pollution.
A number of accent lighting solutions are known in the art. These solutions suffer from a number of well known drawbacks including excess cost, difficulty or inability for customization, failure of the light source to be hidden from casual view, and premature failure of the lighting sources due to overheating or environmental intrusion (from water, for example).
There is a need in the art address the foregoing and other issues when providing an access lighting system.


Network devices, such as routers, are sometimes used to process, route, and provide services to data flows between user devices and server devices. Network devices sometimes include a wide area network (WAN) interface card (WIC). The WIC may include processing instructions, routing tables, or some other information that provide the network device with instructions for processing data flows. Modifying the functionality and/or operations of network devices (e.g., modifying the processing instructions, etc.) may require replacement of WAN cards and/or specialized software development.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling the screen size of a monitor adapted for the environment of a graphic user interface (hereinafter, referred to as a "GUI") between a computer and a user and, more particularly, to a technique for controlling the screen size of a monitor adapted for the GUI environment which is contrived to magnify a part of the screen by using an S-shaped correcting an switching circuit and a correcting port of a horizontal and vertical signal processor in the monitor.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In general human beings can sense graphic data, that is, visual information more rapidly than any other sort of information. For that reason, it may be good if software is visible as other visible objects. A dialogic button controller of Windows utilizing this principle converts conceptual data into visible data. Therefore, data are easily shown when those windows are used, and moreover lots of data can be seen by overlapping the screens. Software utilizing windows is designed to select command words logically by operating the button controller on the monitor screen.
For these reasons, as hardware and software have gradually gotten more complicated and their operating method gets more difficult, a GUI (graphical user interface) operational system has been developed. The GUI operational system provides a computer operation with continuity and convenience as well as simplicity of study.
Those applied programs utilizing the GUI environment can execute more than one program at a time. The applied programs are utilized by dividing CPU time in order. But, this means dividing the time of CPU use, and not simultaneously executing those applied programs. This is because the user cannot sense the speedy conversion of the applied programs by the CPU. The ability to simultaneously perform various functions is called multitasking. An environment for executing the multitasking is called a GUI environment, and is widely distributed recently.
But, a monitor adaptable to the GUI environment has not been developed yet.
In an earlier monitor for multitasking, the video card receives data processed in a central processing unit of a computer and processes the data into video signals including horizontal and vertical synchronization signals and RGB (red, green and blue) video signals.
The RGB signals are fed to a video preamplifier which in turn is fed to a video output amplifier which in turn feeds a cathode ray tube.
The horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals are fed to a microcomputer as well as to a horizontal and vertical oscillator signal processor. The horizontal and vertical oscillator signal processor provides an output to a horizontal driving circuit which in turn drives a horizontal output circuit driving a horizontal deflection yoke. The horizontal and vertical oscillator processor also provides an output to a vertical output circuit which drives a vertical deflection yoke. An automatic frequency control circuit provides control signals both to the horizontal and vertical oscillator signal processor and the horizontal output circuit.
An S correcting circuit receives an S-shaped correction signal from the microcomputer and supplies the S-shaped correction signals to the horizontal output circuit to correct the distortion of the monitor screen.
In such a monitor, during multitasking in the GUI environment, various programs are executed at the same time by using multiple windows. However, the monitor does not provide a circuit which magnifies a certain portion of on the monitor screen using hardware.


This invention relates generally to novel gaskets having continuous multiple seals created by utilizing a core of functionally corrugated material encapsulated by a graphite material such that an interaction occurs among the graphite, the functionally corrugated core, and the surfaces to be sealed. Specifically, the present invention relates to fail-safe, ring-type, concentrically corrugated, graphite encapsulated gaskets with continuous, multiple seals creating a multiplicity of parallel, fluid-locked, graphite-densified, barriers for use in the petrochemical industry to seal flange connections. The present invention also relates to fail-safe, concentrically corrugated, graphite encapsulated heat exchanger and internal combustion engine head gaskets with similarly created continuous, multiple seals.
In the petrochemical industry there exists a need for a versatile flange gasket and heat exchanger gasket having the following characteristics: continuous, fail-safe operation thereby avoiding potential damage to human health, plant equipment and the surrounding environment; fire resistance; resistance to temperature differentials across the diameter of the gasket; chemical resistance; field ruggedness; positive sealing even when the gasket is misaligned; positive sealing when the gasket material differs in thermal expansivity with respect to the surface to be sealed; environmentally safe, non-asbestos construction; operability at high pressures and temperatures; resiliency, springiness, memory, and structural integrity particularly during thermal cycling from high temperatures to low temperatures and vice versa, thermal shock, or other thermal excursions; low torque requirements for maintaining a positive seal at all operational or accidental temperatures and pressures to avoid subjecting the flanges (or other surface) and flange bolts to warpage and/or other damage; inhibited gasket creep or cold flow; crash resistance to enhance the potential for gasket reusability; minimized extrusion of the gasket coating; and reduced installation and maintenance time.
Furthermore, it is likewise desirable to have a cylinder head gasket having similar characteristics as those set forth above in order to improve engine performance.
Until the gaskets of the instant application, these desired gasket characteristics, in combination, had not been achieved. Whereas existing gaskets to date have demonstrated a level of utility and selected ones of the characteristics noted, no gasket until the present invention has been able to achieve the desired combination of gasket characteristics.
Graphite has long been known to possess properties generally desired for high temperature packing materials. In particular, an expanded form of graphite material such as the flexible expanded graphite material sold under the names "Grafoil.RTM." (Union Carbide Corporation, U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,061), "Calgraph.RTM." (Polycarbon, Inc.), "Flexicarb.RTM." (Flexicarb, Inc., a Flexitallic Gaskets, Limited Company), or "Sigraflex.RTM." (Sigri GmbH); an inorganic binder-containing expanded graphite material, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,638; or an intercalated graphite material, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,956, have been employed for use in flange gaskets, heat exchanger gaskets, and automobile engine and exhaust gaskets, and the like.
Bare metal corrugated ring gaskets are known in the art for use as flange gaskets for high temperature applications. Bare metal flat gaskets are also known in the art. However, these bare metal gaskets must be precisely aligned, and the flange and gasket surfaces must be virtually flawless (i.e., highly polished and free of scratches and other abrasions) and the flange bolts must be torqued extremely tightly (approximately 150 ft-lbs on a 3", 150 lb flange) to create a positive seal. Therefore, the flange bolts are typically tightened and over-tightened with a relatively high level of torque to achieve positive sealing. Such over-tightening can warp the flanges, damage both the flanges and the bolts, and create the dangerous potential for seal failure. The bare metal corrugated gaskets have spring-like characteristics which give them high memory and structural integrity, in contrast with a flat metal gasket which has no memory or resiliency. However, the memory capability of a bare metal corrugated gasket is limited in extreme temperature or thermal cycling situations. Under conditions such as thermal cycling, thermal excursions, or thermal shock, these bare metal corrugated gaskets, and the other existing gaskets tend to leak. Furthermore, bare metal is highly vulnerable to corrosion, abrasion, scratching or other attack from hostile materials thereby creating potential leak paths and gasket failure.
Spiral-wound gaskets also exist in the art. These gaskets are composed of two materials, for example, a thin profiled metal strip wound into a spiral with an interleaved strip of a sealing material such as Teflon.RTM., paper, asbestos, or graphite. Spiral-wound gaskets have disadvantages. For example, spiral-wound gaskets have inadequate temperature resiliency when subjected to extreme thermal shocking, excursions or temperature cycling. Spiral-wound gaskets are also abusive to the flanges because they are very difficult to seal and require a relatively high level of torque (as much as 150-160 ft-lbs) be applied to the associated flange bolts. Attempts have been made to enhance the elasticity of a spiral-wound gasket, such as by using the gaskets in tandem, or, as suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,351, by using annealed high tensile strength, precipitation heat-hardenable alloy steel strip and then heat treating such strip prior to interleaving with the sealing material.
Asbestos gaskets have existed in the art. For example, flat metal, grooved-faced gaskets have been utilized with flanges wherein alternating grooves are filled with asbestos. Asbestos has also been used as a filling material between corrugated sheet metal, metal jackets or spirally wound strips. Also, compressed asbestos sheet material utilizing a rubber binder has been employed in the petrochemical industry as a flange gasket. This asbestos sheet material (such as that sold under the name "Durabla.RTM." by Durabla Manufacturing Co.) is cut into the desired gasket shape and placed between the flange surfaces. Asbestos fiber has desirable material characteristics for gaskets in that it is impervious to most chemicals and acids, it is wear-resistant, and it has high, but limited, temperature capacity (up to approximately 1,000.degree. F. depending upon the stability of the binder material). However, asbestos gaskets only have limited springiness or memory, thereby increasing the likelihood of seal failure during temperature cycling. Furthermore, due to the environmental health dangers associated with asbestos, such a material is no longer desirable in the industry. Kevlar is the most common replacement for asbestos as a gasket material, but it has a temperature limit of only approximately 450.degree. F.
It is also known in the art that graphite can be applied to the edge or center of gaskets to improve the sealing characteristics of the gasket. For example, a strip of expanded graphite tape has been applied around the edge of a flat metal gasket, or has been utilized directly on the flange surface. As described below, the use of a graphite tape is undesirable. Graphite has also been used to encapsulate thin, flat metal gasket reinforcements, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,333,975 and 4,422,894. However, these flat metal-reinforced graphite gaskets have no resiliency or memory, lack a plurality of seals, and do not possess a means of preventing seal loss due to extrusion of the graphite from the metal reinforcement during operation at high temperatures and pressures. Furthermore, the metal is often perforated or tanged thereby creating leak paths.
The use of a strip or strips of narrow graphite tape (i.e., typically less than one inch width) has been employed on corrugated metal pipe flange gaskets typically having larger than an 18" diameter. Application of this tape results in covering only a partial planar surface extending from one corrugation apex to an adjacent corrugation apex on only a portion of the corrugated gasket. Thus, the tape surface generally remains flat and parallel to the flange surface, adhering only to the apex portion of the corrugation, but does not extend into the valley areas between each apex. Furthermore, application of this tape to a circular strip of material creates irregularities or flutes in the tape as the tape is bent or folded to conform to the circular shape. This partial application of tape leaves the metal gasket exposed to corrosion, involves non-uniform, non-unitary, distorted, and overlapping application of the graphite to the gasket face, and does not create a plurality of concentrically spaced, parallel, fluid-locked barrier seals. Furthermore, when the adhesive backing carbonizes at high temperature, and the gasket is placed through a series of temperature cycles, the resulting expansion and contraction of the metal can thereby cause stress and loss of adherence at the graphite/apex points of contact, and/or cause the graphite layer expanse between adjacent corrugation apex points to tear. Furthermore, the expanse of graphite material between adjacent corrugation apex points is vulnerable to puncturing, tearing, and cutting during handling, installation, and use. Thus, the application of this tape creates leak paths, and the potential for extrusion of the graphite material and seal failure.
It has also been suggested that a thin rectilinearly embossed iron sheet could serve as a reinforcement for an inorganically bound graphite material, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,638. However, this thin rectilinear embossment serves only as a thin reinforcement to a thicker graphite seal, and is not believed to be interactive with the surface to be sealed, nor does it prevent extrusion or channelling of the graphite. This arrangement may experience seal failure at high temperature and pressure.
Graphite has also been used with grooved flat metal pipe flange gaskets, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,858. However, the grooves in the gaskets function only to help contain the graphite, and are not believed to give the gasket any memory or resilience.
Furthermore, graphite has been used on heat exchanger head gaskets (for example, as a filler material on a double jacketed heat exchanger gasket as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,850 and as a single flat surface coating on a heat exchanger gasket as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,506). However, these heat exchanger head gasket seals also require that a relatively high level of torque (up to approximately 150 ft-lbs) be applied to the head bolts to achieve a positive seal, and these heat exchanger gasket seals have no structural memory or resiliency.
Graphite has also been employed in conjunction with the manufacture of internal combustion engine head gaskets and exhaust manifold gaskets, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,926,539; 4,083,570; 4,423,544; 4,465,287; 4,591,170; 4,705,278; 4,723,783; 4,776,602; 4,810,454; 4,822,062; and 4,911,972. Automotive head gaskets typically require that about 90-100 ft-lbs of torque be applied to the associated bolts to achieve a positive seal and are essentially constructed from a flat, thin (e.g., 7 mil.) metal sheet material which has been perforated and subsequently laminated with a graphite material. The metal has perforations and may further include protrusions (or tangs) extending outwardly on one or both sides of the face of the metal. The graphite material is applied to the surface of this perforated or tanged metal and then the gasket is compressed to close the tangs to affix the graphite in place. Problems exist with these gaskets. For example, the perforations and tangs in the metal substrate may provide leak paths. Additionally, the actual perforated metal is believed to be too thin for welding, thereby, creating size limitations for the gasket. Even if one could weld this very thin (e.g., 7 mil.) material to create a large diameter gasket, the material must then be tanged, which again presents difficulties due to the increased size. Furthermore, these tanged, flat gaskets do not have resilience or memory, thereby reducing their effectiveness in high performance, temperature cycling applications.
Graphite has also been employed in conjunction with the manufacture of valve stem seals or stuffing box seals, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,116,451; 4,160,551; 4,190,257; 4,350,346; 4,394,023; 4,744,572; 4,753,443; and 4,892,320.
As noted above, these existing gasket configurations have limitations and are inadequate to accomplish the desired, combined characteristics for flange, heat exchanger and engine head gaskets as set forth herein.
Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, a fail-safe, multi-sealed, interactive gasket system is provided which overcomes or substantially minimizes these and other disadvantages of the gaskets presently known or used in the art.


In a service chain scenario, after a service path is specified for some traffic, the traffic passes through a flow distribution node and each service node according to the service path and a specified sequence. However, when packet processing is performed between adjacent nodes of the flow distribution node and service nodes, flow rules between the adjacent nodes may be the same, or an upstream node can support a flow rule of its downstream node, and packet processing performed by the downstream node such as discarding, allowing passing, and forwarding, can also be performed by the upstream node. In many cases, and especially in a case in which flow processing by the upstream node is implemented using hardware, how many actions are performed on a flow is irrelevant to traffic processing performance of the upstream node, which is flow processing performance in brief, or how many actions are performed does not have great impact on flow processing performance. That is, no matter how many actions are performed on the flow by the upstream node, the flow processing performance of the upstream node does not change greatly, for example, flow processing implemented using an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In the foregoing cases, if flow processing performed by the downstream node is deployed in its upstream node, burden of the downstream node can be reduced, and there is no great impact on the flow processing performance of the upstream node. In the foregoing content, the upstream node and the downstream node are two adjacent nodes.
Generally, flow processing by the downstream node may be deployed in its upstream node by performing traffic offloading on the downstream node.
However, in the prior art, no specific solution to traffic offloading on the downstream node is provided. Therefore, it is very difficult to perform traffic offloading on the downstream node.


1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a travel control device for a vehicle including a steering transmission ratio variable device and a power steering device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a travel control device for vehicles such as a motor vehicle, there has hitherto been well known a travel control device including a steering transmission ratio variable device and an electric power steering device in a steering transmission system between a steering wheel and steered wheels. The steering transmission ratio variable device is arranged between an upper steering shaft and a lower steering shaft, and is configured to rotate the lower steering shaft with respect to the upper steering shaft, thereby changing a steering transmission ratio. This type of travel control device is allowed to control a steering angle of the steered wheels without requiring a steering operation by the driver, thereby being capable of optimally controlling the steering transmission ratio, namely, a ratio of a change amount in a steering angle of the steered wheels with respect to an operation amount of the steering wheel depending on a vehicle speed or the like.
Further, there is also known a travel control device including a driving support device configured to calculate a target steering angle of the steered wheels for causing the vehicle to travel along a predetermined travel path, and to control the electric power steering device and the steering transmission ratio variable device so that an actual steering angle of the steered wheels conforms to the target steering angle. The travel control device including the driving support device may cause the vehicle to travel along the predetermined travel path, and may attain desired steering characteristics without requiring the steering operation by the driver.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-31770, there is described a travel control device configured to carry out driving support control of controlling the electric power steering device, to thereby control the steering angle of the steered wheels so that the vehicle travels along a predetermined travel path, and to suppress a behavior change of the vehicle generated during the driving support control. With the travel control device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-31770, the vehicle can be caused to travel along the predetermined travel path while suppressing the behavior change of the vehicle.
However, there are the following problems in a related-art travel control device in which the electric power steering device is installed in the steering transmission system between the steered wheels and the steering transmission ratio variable device like the travel control device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-31770. Specifically, when the electric power steering device is controlled through the driving support control and the steering angle of the steered wheels is changed, a steering member like a lower steering shaft between the electric power steering device and the steering transmission ratio variable device is rotated. A friction force acts between members rotating relatively to each other in the steering transmission ratio variable device. Thus, when those members cannot rotate relatively to each other due to the friction force, an upper steering shaft on a steering wheel side and the lower steering shaft on a steered wheel side with respect to the steering transmission ratio variable device do not rotate relatively to each other, but integrally rotate.
A steering angle sensor configured to detect a steering angle required to control the steering transmission ratio and the like is installed on the upper steering shaft, and thus the steering angle detected by the steering angle sensor changes as the upper steering shaft rotates. The steering transmission ratio variable device is controlled so as to attain a predetermined steering transmission ratio based on a changing steering angle, and thus the steering transmission ratio variable device tries to rotate the lower steering shaft with respect to the upper steering shaft even when the driver is not steering. However, the electric power steering device is generating a steering torque so as to change the steering angle of the steered wheels, and thus the steering transmission ratio variable device cannot rotate the lower steering shaft, while the upper steering shaft is rotated by a reaction force.
In particular, while the driving support control is being carried out, the driver does not need to actively carry out the steering, a force of the driver for gripping the steering wheel is low, and a so-called hands-off state may be brought about. Therefore, a repetition of the above-mentioned phenomenon causes a repetition of a reciprocal rotation of the upper steering shaft. As a result, a minute vibration of the steering wheel and a vibration change in a steering reaction force are liable to be generated, and the driver may feel a sense of discomfort and a sense of annoyance.
In the travel control device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-31770, as shown in FIG. 8 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-31770, when the driving support control is being carried out, the steering transmission ratio is changed toward a small side (so-called slow side) compared to a case in which the driving support control is not being carried out over an entire vehicle speed range. Thus, influence of the steering operation by the driver exerted on the change in the steering angle of the steered wheels can be reduced, thereby increasing a travel stability of the vehicle, but the problem of the minute vibration of the steering wheel and the vibration change in the steering reaction force cannot be solved.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for holding springs of a clutch, particularly to shock-absorbing springs for a clutch plate which are used in a direct-coupling clutch of a fluid torque converter, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A direct-coupling clutch for a fluid torque converter is disclosed, for example, in Published Examined Patent Application No. 9780/1987. An apparatus for holding shock-absorbing springs in this direct-coupling clutch has a construction shown in FIG. 12A. In the figure, reference mark "a" is a clutch plate. On a front side (i.e., left side in FIG. 12A) of the clutch plate "a", there is adhered a friction member b. On a rear side (i.e., right side in FIG. 12A) thereof, there is formed an annular recessed portion c. A shock-absorbing spring d is held inside this recessed portion c by means of a wear-resistant guide plate e and a retainer f. The retainer f has end surface holding portions f.sub.1 for holding both end portions of the spring d, and periphery holding portions f.sub.2 for holding the periphery thereof. The retainer f is fixed to the clutch plate "a" with rivets g after overlapping it with the guide plate e. In the figure, reference mark h is an input case, i is a turbine, and i.sub.1 are projection pieces which extend from the turbine i to abut with both ends of the spring d.
In this apparatus, as shown in FIG. 12B, prior to fixing with rivets g, the guide plate e and the retainer f are assembled in advance by caulking a small projection f.sub.3 which protrudes or projects from the retainer f into a small hole e.sub.1 which is provided in the guide plate e. However, the guide plate e is likely to give rise to distortions because it is made of a thin plate and is further heat-treated. Therefore, the portion which is overlapped with the retainer f presents remarkable distortions because it is planar and is wide in lateral width. Consequently, it sometimes happens that a clearance occurs between the guide plate e and the retainer f in a portion away from the portion that is caulked by the small projection f.sub.3. Even if the pre-assembled parts are caulked onto the clutch plate "a" with rivets g as shown in FIG. 12A, the above-described distortion will remain, resulting in a disadvantage in that there will be left a clearance between the guide plate "a" and the retainer f or the clutch plate e.
Further, in order to minimize the number of parts, it is considered to make the arrangement, as shown in FIG. 13, that a small projection j is provided in a clutch plate "a" and that the guide plate e and the retainer f are caulked at the same time without pre-assembling them. However, it is considerably difficult to protrude or project the small projection j into a height enough to caulk the guide plate e and the retainer f together. In addition, the guide plate e may be distorted to thereby increase in height. As a result, the height of the small projection j is likely to become insufficient in plate thickness at a caulking head portion j.sub.1. Further, due to the distortion in the guide plate e, the clearance as described above is likely to remain between respective plates.
The present invention has an object of providing an apparatus for holding a spring of a clutch in which the retainer can be mounted on the clutch plate without giving rise to a clearance.


It is often necessary for certain telephone-specific or switching system-specific operating steps to be performed in order to program a function key. The allocation of a programmed speed dialing key to a telephone number is usually indicated here by the user manually writing on a paper label strip of the telephone with a pen.
There are also modern telephones whose keys are assigned an LCD or LED display (LED: Light-Emitting Diode; LCD: Liquid Crystal Display) in each case, on which the stored telephone number of the programmed speed dialing key can be displayed as an electronic key label. Manual labeling of the keys is not required for such telephones. Function keys of this type with a display are often referred to as self-labeling keys.
In known communication systems, setting the display for a key is then carried out during programming of the function key. For instance, following programming of a speed dialing key, the telephone number allocated to the speed dialing key is displayed on the display for the speed dialing key. In addition, as part of programming the speed dialing keys, the user is often able to manually edit the electronic key label via a user interface, by entering a text or the name of the subscriber for the stored destination telephone number for example. This name can then be displayed on the display of the speed dialing key instead of the telephone number.


In the area of conventional business service development, there are, in general, three major roles, each role having specific tools to address its needs.
Application architects are primarily concerned with defining the contracts of the business services to meet the business requirements. An application contract consists of one or more interface definitions, reflecting the right level of interface granularity and service behavior such as operations exposed and their inputs and outputs.
An important aspect of the architect's task here is to ensure that existing interface types are reused so that multiple interface types and messages are not reinvented to fulfill similar requirements.
Once the correct interfaces have been defined, the application developers are ready to implement those interfaces. This often involves writing code that implements business logic. The developers also have to be able to unit test the code that they have just written.
Finally, once the code has been developed, it can be given to the system administrators for configuration, deployment and management. They can then configure the runtime execution environment for the newly developed service and deploy the application. Once deployed, the application can then be managed through the means available in the environment.
In the conventional development model, the applications are developed from scratch. This allows the users to perform top-down design and leverage the full capabilities of the available technologies since no baggage needs to be carried from the past.
Currently, there are 5 major phases of the lifecycle of the business services. In the model phase, the application architects design the interfaces for the business services to be developed. Once the interfaces have been designed, the business logic is developed by the developers of the system. The system architects then configure the runtime for the business service and the administrators then deploy and manage the business services.
In many cases, the business services already exist but are not manageable. These services may be either 3rd party off-the-shelf (COTS) applications or custom applications developed in-house or by system integrators.
This style of development is bottom-up development where the interfaces are actually constructed based on existing applications. The architects first use introspection to reverse engineer metadata from the existing applications. These applications may exist in one of many supported technologies such as Java classes, CORBA, EJB's, existing web services or COTS packages such as SAP or Siebel. Introspection would result in one-to-one interface generation. However, in real world, these interfaces may need to be refactored. Refactoring involves either suppressing some of the operation in an interface, creating brand new ones, combining two or more interfaces (contract aggregation) or splitting a contract into two or more contracts (contract dissemination).
It should be noted that the existing applications could also be web services. The process should however be no different than that for 3rd party COTS or custom applications supporting a particular technology.
Business logic generally does not change in nature. However, the underlying technologies are changing very rapidly. For example, there are a number of new standards that are being developed to address various aspects of distributed business services. Many standards do not have any sort of industry consensus and many areas have competing standards. However, the applications have to be developed today. Typically, the business services are written to provide all the other necessary functionality, such as security and others (application infrastructure services) that do not actually contribute to the business behavior itself. As the standards and technologies for these other services (application infrastructure services) evolve, the business services have to be modified and enhanced in order to take advantage of them. Furthermore, in the current state of the art, the configuration and deployment of these services is specific to a particular underlying environment and the underlying products.
In this type of distributed system, it is important that the deployed packages are fully supported by the underlying processes, and that the packages can be easily configured and deployed for use. Often, specific business services require multiple infrastructure services, and it is a common, costly, and time-consuming process to customize business service packages with all the required underlying services.
It would be desirable to provide a system, method, and computer program product which would allow a system to automatically generate program code that insures proper interaction of business services and infrastructure services.


Emulsion aggregation (EA) toners are used in forming print and/or xerographic images. Emulsion aggregation techniques typically involve the formation of an emulsion latex of resin particles that have a small size of from, for example, about 5 to about 500 nanometers in diameter, by heating the resin, optionally with solvent if needed, in water, or by making a latex in water using an emulsion polymerization. A colorant dispersion, for example of a pigment dispersed in water, optionally with additional resin, is separately formed. The colorant dispersion is added to the emulsion latex mixture, and an aggregating agent or complexing agent is then added and/or aggregation is otherwise initiated to form aggregated toner particles. The aggregated toner particles are heated to enable coalescence/fusing, thereby achieving aggregated, fused toner particles. United States patent documents describing emulsion aggregation toners include, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,278,020; 5,290,654; 5,308,734; 5,344,738; 5,346,797; 5,348,832; 5,364,729; 5,366,841; 5,370,963; 5,403,693; 5,405,728; 5,418,108; 5,496,676; 5,501,935; 5,527,658; 5,585,215; 5,650,255; 5,650,256; 5,723,253; 5,744,520; 5,747,215; 5,763,133; 5,766,818; 5,804,349; 5,827,633; 5,840,462; 5,853,943; 5,853,944; 5,863,698; 5,869,215; 5,902,710; 5,910,387; 5,916,725; 5,919,595; 5,925,488; 5,977,210; 6,576,389; 6,617,092; 6,627,373; 6,638,677; 6,656,657; 6,656,658; 6,664,017; 6,673,505; 6,730,450; 6,743,559; 6,756,176; 6,780,500; 6,830,860; and 7,029,817; and U.S Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0107989.
The disclosures of each of the foregoing patents and publications are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. The appropriate components and process aspects of each of the foregoing patents and publications may also be selected for the present compositions and processes in embodiments thereof.
Current formulations of toner show a need for improved fusing performance. Poor fusing creates problems in paper adhesion and print performance.
Current formulations of toner show a need for improved flow. Poor flow creates problems in gravity-fed cartridges, causing toner to hang up due to poor flow properties and leads to deletions on paper.
There remains a need for an improved toner composition and process that overcomes or alleviates the above-described and other problems. There further remains a need for a toner composition suitable for high speed printing, particularly high speed monochrome printing that can provide excellent flow, charging, lower toner usage, and reduced drum contamination.


Firearms use rapidly expanding gasses, typically from an explosive charge, such as smokeless powder, to accelerate a projectile down a barrel of the firearm toward a target. In contrast to bullets used in many rifles and handguns, shotgun shells include a collection of “shot” in the shell. The shotgun uses an explosive charge to accelerate a shot toward a target. Shot can take various forms, including various sizes, quantities, packing orientations, shapes (e.g., spherical, cubic, tetrahedron, etc.), and compositions. The shot may be initially contained by a wad during acceleration of the shot in the barrel. The wad exits the barrel of the shotgun with the shot while the shell remains in the shotgun. Conventional wads may travel a short distance with the shot, but are designed to experience atmospheric drag such that the shot separates from the wad in flight.
Shotguns utilize shot instead of a bullet to allow the shot to spread over an area as the shot travels from the barrel to the target. A bullet is intended to remain a single object during flight of the projectile to the target. The spread of the shot at the target may depend, at least partially, upon a number of characteristics of the shotgun and the shell fired, such as the muzzle velocity of the shot, the length of the barrel, the type of shot, and the distance to the target. The shape and dimensions of the area over which the shot spreads during the flight of the shot is known as the “pattern” of the shot. The pattern may be important to a shooter, as different patterns may be desirable for different purposes and different types of shot.
The shotgun itself may be altered or customized to modify the pattern of the shot. For example, the barrel may be shortened and/or widened (e.g., a home defense shotgun) to decrease the density of the shot pattern (i.e., create a larger spread to the pattern) at the expense of effective range and velocity of the shot. In contrast, a barrel may lengthened and/or constrained (e.g., a choke may be added) to increase the velocity of the shot and to increase the density of the shot pattern (i.e., reduce the area over which the shot spreads).
The wad may also affect the pattern. The wad will exit with the shot after moving through the barrel. The wad is lighter than the shot and will decelerate from drag with the air more readily than the shot, causing the shot and wad to decouple during flight to the target. Rotation of the wad during decoupling may cause the pattern to deviate in the direction of the rotation. Conventional wads are designed to decouple quickly from the shot to minimize the impact unintended rotation may have on the direction and, hence, pattern of the shot. However, after the shot is released from the wad, the shot may experience additional turbulence and drag in the air, causing the shot to slow and spread, reducing the effectiveness of the shot at distance.


This invention is related to the composition of an elastomeric triblock copolymer, and, additionally, to the use of such an elastomeric copolymer to prepare dip-formed articles.
Thin-walled, extensible articles such as gloves and condoms have long been made from natural rubber. In normal production, such articles are formed from natural rubber latex, a naturally occurring emulsion of rubber and water, with added stabilizing agents and vulcanizing chemicals. A form of the appropriate shape, previously coated with a coagulating solution in some cases, is dipped into the latex mixture once or several times to build up a layer of the desired thickness. The water is allowed to evaporate, leaving a solid rubber film. The film must be vulcanized to provide adequate mechanical and physical properties.
Natural rubber has many advantages in these applications, being strong and highly elastic and having good "tactility" or feeling to the user. The good tactility is believed to be a result of its low deformation stress at 10-500 percent elongations and high elastic recovery from these elongations. Natural rubber has the shortcoming that the resulting rubber film devices are sometimes prone to having "pinholes" therethrough, often on the order of micrometers in diameter. The pinholes are probably due to minute impurities in the natural latex which are difficult to filter out, and to the fact that the process converts a stable emulsion to a film by coagulating chemicals or heat. Natural rubber is also susceptible to rapid attack by ozone which causes scission cracking, as well as to oxidative attack during storage which causes cracking and destroys the physical integrity of the product. Even with these problems, for many applications the pinholes do not prevent the rubber article from having utility, and latex gloves and condoms are widely used. However, the presence of the pinholes is unacceptable in other applications, as for example where there is any possibility of the presence of the AIDS virus. Natural rubber is also not hypoallergenic due to the residual surfactants, vulcanizing agents, stabilizing agents, antioxidants, or protein materials in the rubber. Persons who are particularly susceptible to irritation or sensitization, or use the rubber products for extended periods of time may experience allergic reactions.
Various types of synthetic elastomeric polymer products have been developed for use in thin articles produced by dip forming. Synthetic rubber compositions can be dissolved in solvents to form a true solution, so that pinholes are much less likely to be present. Available synthetic rubber compositions have various other shortcomings, including unacceptable tactility. While each may meet some of the requirements, the known synthetic compositions do not have the required combination of strength, tactility, resistance to environmental damage, and hypoallergenicity required for many products such as examination and surgical gloves and condoms. Several synthetic elastomeric systems have provided strength and tactility, but none has solved the problems related to environmental damage and hypoallergenicity required for surgical gloves and condoms.
There is therefore a need for an improved elastomeric material for use in thin, dip-formed articles such as examination or surgical gloves and condoms. Such a material must have the required properties of strength and elastic elongation. It also must be pinhole free when the article is formed and used, resistant to immediate environmental or damage occurring during storage or use, and hypoallergenic. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.


The present invention relates to a method of monitoring the movements of an individual in and around buildings, rooms and other spaces, and then particularly a method of enabling the movements of individuals to be monitored during military or civilian exercises.


The determination of the optical properties of tissues is of fundamental importance in many fields of medicine, both for diagnostic and monitoring purposes. It is well known that light of differing wavelengths penetrates differently in various tissues. In the near infrared region, for example, (about 650 nm to about 1000 nm), light of this wavelength penetrates several centimeters through tissue. It is intended that the term "light" includes other electromagnetic radiation as well which is invisible to the human eye, for example, infrared and ultraviolet.
Because of the capability of various forms of light to penetrate tissue for several centimeters, photometric or spectroscopic methods can be used to measure the concentration of tissue metabolites such as hemoglobin by the measuring of the absorption of the light at one or more wavelengths. It is desirable and important that apparatus which measures the optical properties of tissues for clinical purposes provide quantitative information of a desired parameter, for example the concentration of oxyhemoglobin, or deoxyhemoglobin, glucose, or other metabolites.
In normal practice, the absolute determination of the concentration of a substance can be obtained by the measurement of the light transmitted through a sample of known thickness. Such a transmission measurement enables one to determine the absorption coefficient. Using this, the concentration of the measured substance can be calculated using the molar extinction coefficient of that substance via the Beer-Lambert law.
In the event of interference caused by more than one substance being present, measurement at different wavelengths can provide a method to determine the concentration of one or more different chemical species present, assuming that the materials present have different absorption spectra. The success of this method depends on the precision of the measurement and on the number of different substances present.
Additional problems arise in the photometry of tissues and other materials having high turbidity, such as emulsions. For purposes of this disclosure, it is to be understood that the term "tissue" includes living materials, but can also include non-living materials such as emulsions when it is desired to obtain similar data from such emulsions as is done by this invention with tissues. A measurement of the light transmitted through a slab of tissue has in the prior art been not practical, using non-invasive methods, except for special, thin regions of the body where light can shine entirely through the tissue and be detected on the other side. An example of this is a clinically used photometric blood oxygen sensor, which fits on the finger tip and shines directly therethrough to give real time oxygen concentration data.
In tissue photometry, the amount of transmitted light depends not only on the absorption of the medium being analyzed, but also on the scattering properties thereof. This light scattering greatly increases the complexity of photometric analysis of tissue, emulsions, and similar materials, since light scattering produces an unpredictable variation of the amount of light transmitted, which can vary significantly between various samples of tissues and the like.
Many different methods have been proposed to deal with this problem of scattering in photometric processes. For example, empirical corrections based on the type of tissue to be measured have been used to account for the effect of scattering on the absorption properties. For reflection measurements, theoretical models have been used to calculate the albedo of a surface. The success of all of these models has been poor, although there are commercially available instruments based upon those principles. A major problem is that in order to obtain a reasonable estimate of the concentration of a substance in tissue, some sort of a priori calibration must be performed, based on a statistical analysis of a large number of corresponding tissue samples. However, the range of variation of scattering within tissues from various individuals results in fundamentally unpredictable results, with the photometric results being strongly modified by factors such as skin color, and the amount of lipids in muscles.
The Hamamatsu Company of Japan in 1990 introduced a simple tissue spectrometer called NIRO 500 for the measurement of tissue oxygenation and total blood volume for neonatal monitoring. The principles of this device are as disclosed in Cope U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,024. The instrument is a steady state instrument, and is based on four different laser diodes emitting in the near infrared range. The light is brought to the tissue using a fiber optic system. The measurement is purely a steady-state one, with the optical path length in the tissue being not measurable. Thus, contrary to this invention, only relative quantities can be obtained, rather than absolute concentrations of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin.
By this invention, absolute quantities of materials found admixed in highly turbid media may have their concentrations determined in a quantitative manner. Specifically, by this invention tissue metabolites may be quantitatively determined in real time, on a continuous basis, for example, concentrations of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin, glucose, or the like. This can be accomplished without the need to pass light through a narrow portion of tissue, for example an extremity such as the finger. Rather, a sensor may be placed on a more central area of the body for determination of metabolite concentrations or other parameters there. This may be accomplished in a non-invasive manner, essentially instantaneously. Also, it may be possible for different metabolites present to be selectively and quantitatively determined on an essentially instantaneous basis.


Many different types of toasters have been manufactured and used all over the world for decades, ranging from small single or double slice home toasters to large commercial toasters. Toasters may be used to toast sliced bread, rolls, bagels, biscuits, and other similar food products.
One type of toaster is a conveyor toaster that continuously moves food prod products through the appliance. Generally, these conveyor toasters include a housing having a toasting cavity, a conveyor for moving the bread/toast through the toasting cavity, and one or more heating elements.
Various efforts have been made to develop conveyor toasters, and the following references show a few examples. These references are incorporated by reference herein, in their entireties:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,696,613: Toaster
A toaster includes a horizontal conveyor, the bread to be toasted being-placed on the conveyor at the front of the toaster and carried toward the rear in close proximity to suitable heating means, whereby the bread is toasted. At the rear of the toaster the bread is fed by the conveyor to means for returning it to the front of the toaster, this means being shown as an inclined slide. The toaster further includes means for regulating a draft of cooling air around the heating means whereby the generation of heat may be-regulated for different toasting operations and for light or heavy loads, and also a special crumb tray arrangement below the heating means.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,708,522: Toaster
A toaster is provided in which the articles to be toasted, such as slices of bread, are fed through the apparatus by suitable conveying means, and wherein the heating of the heating elements is started by insertion of the material to be toasted. The toaster includes conveying means for the material to be toasted and means for driving or stopping said conveyer in accordance with the presence or absence of the toaster of material to be toasted, and further includes a casing having insertion openings at different positions along the conveyer so that the length of path traveled by the bread in passing the heating means may be varied to vary.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,605: Bun Toaster
A compact and easily cleaned bun toaster such as for the heels and crowns of hamburger buns and the like. A conveyor confronts a toasting platen for driving buns along the surface of the conveyor to toast them. The conveyor is removable as a unit from the frame mounting the platen, thereby to expose both the conveyor and the platen for easy cleaning. The platen is movable toward and away from the conveyor to adjust the space therebetween. The platen is stepped to facilitate simultaneous toasting of bun heels and crowns of different thicknesses. The conveyor is in driven engagement only when moved into suspended engagement with the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,536: Apparatus and Method of Toasting Bread Like Articles
An electric toasting apparatus comprised of a conveyor adapted to support articles to be toasted and having the transverse width and a preselected rate of movement in a longitudinal direction. The apparatus includes at least two radiant heater means disposed adjacent the conveyor, each arranged to provide generally uniform heating conditions across substantially the entire transverse width of the conveyor and along at least a substantial portion of the longitudinal length of the conveyor. One heater runs constantly and has a heat output to bring the articles close to the toasting point. The other is modulated to control its heat output and thus the total output of both heater means to give the desired degree of toasting. The method comprises the steps of: (a) conveying the articles past and adjacent to the first and second heater means at a uniform rate; (b) fully energizing the first heater means in an amount sufficient to bring the articles at least close to the toasting point; and (c) simultaneously energizing the second heater means to produce less than its maximum heat output, but sufficiently to fully toast the articles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,760: Apparatus for Toasting Bread-Like Articles
Apparatus for toasting bread-like articles is disclosed comprising a housing providing a toasting chamber in which electrical heating elements are disposed together with an endless conveyor operable to receive and carry articles to be toasted past the heating elements. The housing has an entrance opening for introducing articles onto the conveyor and when the articles have been toasted they are discharged from the conveyor for removal from the apparatus. The housing is provided with a discharge opening in the top wall thereof and adjacent the rear wall of the housing, and a flue arrangement is provided within the housing to induce hot air in the housing to flow through the discharge opening. Flow of hot air through the flue induces ambient air to flow into the toasting chamber through the product entrance, beneath the conveyor and heating elements and thence upwardly toward the top of the chamber. A temperature sensing element is disposed in the housing in the path of ambient air flow and is responsive to the temperature sensed to cause energization and de-energization of the heating elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,509: Toasting Apparatus
An economical energy saving toasting apparatus includes a housing with an interior baffle defining a toasting chamber therein and an inlet for the introduction of the product to be toasted into the chamber. The housing also includes an outlet through which the toasted product is dispensed. A conveying assembly for conveying the product from the inlet through the toasting chamber to the outlet is also included within the housing. Mounted within the toasting chamber is a first set of resistive heating elements that are electrically connected in a circuit and continuously energized during the operation of the heating apparatus. A second set of heating elements is also included in the heating chamber and connected to a timer in order to be energized for only selected periods of time. A micro-switch is also included in the apparatus to actuate the timer and a micro-switch actuator is positioned in the inlet and adjacent to the conveying device so as to be engaged by the product prior to entry into the toasting chamber. The engagement of the product actuates the micro-switch to energize the timer and the second set of heating coils for a predetermined period of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,610: Apparatus for Conveyorized Toasting of Breads and Like Food Items
An apparatus for conveyorized toasting of sandwich buns and like bread and food items simultaneously on opposite sides comprises a central heated platen with two bun transport conveyors traveling in spaced relation along opposite sides of the platen and with a pair of auxiliary heating elements disposed outwardly of the respective food transport runs of the conveyors in facing relation to the opposite sides of the platen. Each conveyor is biased toward the platen by a pair of parallel pivot arms urged by springs into pivoted engagement against the transport run of the respective conveyor to define a predetermined desirable spacing to the facing side of the platen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,116: Rapid Toasting Apparatus
An improved toasting apparatus is disclosed including a variable speed conveyor belt for conveying products through the toaster; a bottom heating element positioned below the conveyor belt, the bottom heating element including variable control for controlling the amount of heat provided by the bottom heating element; a drying zone including a first plurality of upper heating elements positioned above the conveyor; a toasting zone including a second plurality of upper heating elements; and wherein the bottom heating element and the first and second plurality of upper heating elements are controlled individually and independently.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,785: Contact Toaster with Infinite Adjustment
A contact toaster has a housing with a product inlet, product outlet and at least one toasting chamber defined in the housing. A heated platen is mounted in the housing and has a platen surface arranged for toasting the food products. A flexible endless belt, which when rotated, is arranged to pass the food products in a toasting path along the platen between the belt and the platen. An infinite controller acts to selectively displace the belt to adjust the distance between the belt and the platen to any value between minimum and maximum distance limits to accommodate food products of different widths. A guide is situated between the belt and the infinite controller so that the controller is in contact with at least one area of the guide. The infinite controller includes a variable distance element with a cam surface which is settable to any selected point of the cam surface between minimum and maximum cam radial limits to move the guide and belt to any belt to a selected platen distance that can have any value equal to or intermediate the maximum and minimum distance limits.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,030: Conveyor-Type Food Product Toaster
A toaster for bread-type food products includes a housing defining at least one toasting cavity. A toasting heater is operatively associated with the cavity. An endless chain-type conveyor is provided for conveying food products through the cavity. An endless belt is disposed about the conveyor to prevent the chain-type conveyor from imprinting the food products. The belt includes a seam, and a retention portion of the belt at the seam is engaged with the conveyor to prevent slippage between the belt and the conveyor.
US Publication Number 20100139497A1: Food Heating Device
A food heating device includes a first conveyor having a first thermally-conductive belt and a second conveyor having a second thermally-conductive belt. A first platen is disposed on a first side of the first thermally-conductive belt and a second platen disposed on a first side of the second thermally-conductive belt. The first conveyor and the second conveyor are arranged and spaced to transport a food product between a second side of the first thermally-conductive belt and a second side of the second thermally-conductive belt.
US Publication Number 201000275789A1: Toaster with Removable and Adjustable Conveyors
A dual-sided, conveyor toaster provides operator-adjustable conveyors that are also operator removable. The removable conveyor assemblies are chain driven and removably supported in the toaster by re-positionable mounting mechanisms embodied as either adjustable pins that engage fixed slots or adjustable slots that engage fixed pins. Fixed pins can be located on the conveyor and engage adjustable slots in the toaster; adjustable pins can be located on the toaster and engage fixed slots on the conveyor. The conveyor assemblies use non-marring plates to urge food products against the heated platen surfaces and to carry the food products across the platen.


The present invention relates to the art of plasma arc torches and, more particularly, to improvements in connection with a drag cup for use with a plasma arc torch.
It is of course well known that a plasma arc torch comprises a nozzle receiving an electrode which has a nose end facing an end wall of the nozzle and which end wall has a plasma outlet opening therethrough. The electrode and nozzle may be relatively displaced between starting and operating positions in which the electrode respectively contacts the end wall and is spaced an operating distance therefrom. The end wall of the nozzle and the end face of the electrode provide a gas chamber into which a plasma gas is supplied and from which a plasma jet is emitted through the outlet orifice when an arc current is flowed between the electrode and nozzle. Upon starting the torch, by moving the electrode out of contact with the end wall to create a pilot arc, the torch operates in a non-transferred pilot arc mode and, when the nozzle is moved into proximity with a workpiece, the arc is transferred to the workpiece and the torch then operates in an arc-transferred mode. In an alternative structural arrangement, the electrode and nozzle can be fixed relative to one another and the torch started by the use of a high frequency or other known starting procedure.
Drag cups are used with hand held plasma arc torches and advantageously allow an operator to contact the torch assembly with a workpiece such as during a cutting operation, primarily to assist the operator in maintaining a correct standoff distance between the torch and workpiece. A drag cup also functions to protect against double arcing which occurs when the nozzle contacts the workpiece. Such drag cups are generally made from a ceramic material or a metal material, the latter being preferred due to easy breakage of ceramic materials. When a metal material is used, an insulating layer is provided between the torch nozzle and the drag cup so as to electrically isolate the drag cup from the nozzle. In either event, the drag cup is cooled by shielding gas flowing along the outside of the nozzle during operation of the torch. Drag cups heretofore provided have included a cylindrical skirt portion providing a relatively large diameter opening, often larger than the diameter of the nozzle and providing a large open area at the outer end of the drag cup. The shielding gas flows through the open area without disturbing the plasma jet which exits through the outlet opening in the end wall of the nozzle, and the primary disadvantage of this drag cup structure is that the nozzle is not protected from the blow-back of molten metal. Accordingly, metal builds up at the outer end of the nozzle and, ultimately, will short the nozzle to the workpiece and cause double arcing. Other drag cups heretofore available have included an end wall across the outer end of the cup and provided with a small opening axially aligned with the outlet opening from the nozzle for the plasma jet. The end wall blocks the blow-back of molten metal and the latter is blown away from the end of the drag cup by the shielding gas which flows through the central opening therein for the plasma arc and through a plurality of laterally outwardly directed bleed ports provided in the end wall about the central opening. The shielding gas flow through the central opening and through the vent passages must be smooth and, accordingly, drag cups having this structure are undesirably expensive to manufacture due to the drilling and deburring of the multiplicity of holes therethrough.


Aromatic compounds, especially naphthalene derivatives, bearing fluorine atoms on adjacent carbons (i.e., vicinal) have been found to be useful as liquid crystal materials. They are typically made by a multi-step process, starting from the aromatic amine via a fluoro-dediazoniation process (N. Yoneda and T. Fukuhara, Tetrahedron, vol. 52, No. 1 (1996), pages 23-36).
No simple methods are known for producing vicinal difluoro aromatic compounds. Methods for defluorinating highly fluorinated compounds are known; but, none of the methods have been shown to produce vicinal difluoro compounds in high yield. For example:
C. Hu, et al., Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, Vol. 48 (1990), pages 29-35, disclosed a method of synthesizing perfluoroaromatics, such as tetradecafluorobicyclo[4.4.0]dec-1 (2),6(7)-diene and perfluorotetralin, by defluorination of hexadecafluorobicyclo[4.4.0]dec-1 (6)-ene in an aprotic solvent using activated zinc powder as a catalyst. The extent of defluorination depended on the polarity of the aprotic solvent used.
J. Burdon and I. W. Parsons, Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, Vol. 13 (1979), pages 159-162, disclose the formation of 2,5-difluorothiophen by pyrolysis of 2,2,5,5-tetrafluoro-3-thiolen over sodium fluoride.
Sergey S. Laev and Vitalii D Shteingarts, Journal of Fluorine Chemistry, Vol. 96 (1999) pages 175-185, disclose the reductive dehalogenation of polyfluoroarenes by zinc in aqueous ammonia. In the reaction, hydrogen atoms replace fluorine atoms in the polyfluoroarenes.
JP 2001-10995A (Ogawa, et al.) describes a four-step process for synthesis of vicinal difluoro aromatic compounds involving fluorination of a hydroxy aromatic compound to form a tetrafluoro intermediate in two steps followed by hydrogenation and defluorination under basic conditions. It also discloses reduction of a difluoroketone intermediate with aluminum isopropoxide and then base-catalyzed dehydrohalogenation to form a difluoro aromatic compound. A third method involves reaction of the difluoroketone with lithium aluminum hydride to form a fluoroepoxide, addition of HF, and elimination of water to give a vicinal difluoro aromatic compound. The best overall yield shown is  less than 50%.
There remains a need for an effective and simple method for preparing vicinal difluoro aromatic compounds in high yield.
This invention is directed to a method of preparing vicinal difluoro aromatic compounds in high yield from hydroxy aromatic compounds and to preparing intermediates thereof. The hydroxy aromatic compound can be a mono-, bi- or tricyclic aromatic in which the rings are separate or fused. One or more of the rings can contain heteroatoms, such as oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur, and can contain substitutions, in addition to the hydroxy substitution. Substitutions on one or more of the rings can include a halogen atom, a C1 to C20 alkyl, a C5-C10 cycloalkyl, a C6 to C12 aryl, an amino, a nitro, a C1 to C10 alkyl ether or thioether, a C1 to C10 alkyl ester, a CF3, a Rxe2x80x2SO2O,
where Rxe2x80x2 is CF3, a C1 to C20 alkyl, a substituted or unsubstituted C5 to C10 cycloalkyl, or a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C12 aryl, in which the substitution on the cycloalkyl or aryl can be a C1 to C20 alkyl or a C5 to C8 cycloalkyl; Rxe2x80x3 is a C1-C10 saturated or unsaturated alkyl; x is an integer from 0 to 10, and y is an integer from 0 to 10.
The process can be described by the following reaction steps:
where R is a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom (Cl, Br, I, F), Rxe2x80x2SO2O, CF3, a fused aryl, a C1-C20 alkyl, amino, nitro, a C1 to C10 ether or thioether, a C1 to C10 ester, a heteroaryl, wherein the heteroatom can be O, N, S,
or R forms an aryl.
Rxe2x80x3 is CF3, a C1 to C20 alkyl, a substituted or unsubstituted C5 to C10 cycloalkyl, or a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C12 aryl, wherein the substitution on the cycloalkyl or aryl can be a C1 to C20 alkyl or a C5 to C8 cycloalkyl; Rxe2x80x3 is a C1-C10 saturated or unsaturated alkyl; x is an integer from 0 to 10, and y is an integer from 0 to 10. The preferred R group is trans-4-propylcyclohexyl.
The yields obtained from reactions (1) and (2) are highly dependent on the solvents employed for these steps. Polar aprotic solvents are desirable for the electrophilic fluorination in step (1) and dimethylformamide (DMF) is particularly preferred because it unexpectedly resulted in yields of greater than 95% difluoro ketone product. Reaction step (2) can be conducted in various solvents including aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, halocarbons, ethers, etc.; however, toluene unexpectedly gives much higher yields of the tetrafluoro product compared to other organic solvents. Step (3) involves reacting the tetrafluoro compound with a reducing agent, such as metallic zinc, copper, magnesium, or a mixture thereof, to form the vicinal difluoro aromatic compound in high yields (e.g., 90% or more). This reaction is preferably carried out in buffered aqueous ammonia in the presence of an organic solvent such as tetrahydrofuran (THF), methyl tert-butyl ether, acetonitrile, ethanol, or DMF. Since the tetrafluoro compound reacts under basic conditions to form a trifluoronaphthalene by-product, the pH of the aqueous ammonia is buffered to  less than 14 by addition of an ammonium salt, particularly NH4CI. Under these conditions, the selectivity to the desired vicinal difluoronaphthalene product is significantly increased.
This method of preparing vicinal difluoro aromatic compounds has the following advantages over known methods:
the difluoro ketone and tetrafluoro intermediates do not need to be purified prior to subsequent reaction,
the product is produced in high selectivity,
the overall yield is 70% or more, and
the product easily can be separated and purified by known methods.
In the method of this invention, vicinal difluoro aromatic compounds can be prepared in three steps from hydroxy aromatic compounds by electrophilic fluorination using a fluorination reagent such as Selectfluor(copyright) reagent (1-chloromethyl-4-fluoro-1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bis-tetrafluoroborate) to form a difluoroketone intermediate. The difluoro ketone undergoes nucleophilic fluorination by reaction with a deoxofluorinating reagent such as Deoxo-Fluor(copyright) reagent (bis(2-methoxyethyl)-aminosulfur trifluoride) to give a tetrafluoro intermediate species. The tetrafluoro intermediate is defluorinated by a metallic reducing agent in the presence of ammonium hydroxide, preferably buffered ammonium hydroxide, to provide the desired vicinal difluoro aromatic compound in high yield. An example of the reaction chemistry is described above in the Brief Summary of the Invention.
In the first step, a hydroxy aromatic compound (e.g., xcex2-naphthol or substituted naphthol) is reacted with an electrophilic fluorinating agent such as Selectfluor reagent, to generate a difluoroketone intermediate. This reaction can be conducted in various solvents including nitrites such as acetonitrile (CH3CN), formamides such as dimethylformamide (DMF), CH3NO2, carboxylic acids such as acetic acid, water, and an alcohol such as methanol, ethanol, and propanol.
The reaction can be carried out at temperatures ranging from 0xc2x0 C. to the boiling point of the solvent.
The fluorinating agent can be added to a solution or suspension of the hydroxy aromatic compound in one or more portions, or dropwise as a solution. Alternatively, the hydroxy aromatic compound solution or suspension can be added to a solution or suspension of fluorinating agent.
In the second step, the carbonyl oxygen of the difluoroketone is replaced by two fluorine atoms using a deoxofluorinating agent such as Deoxo-Fluor reagent. The reaction is carried out by reacting the difluoroketone with the deoxofluorinating agent in an organic solvent in an anhydrous atmosphere. Solvents include alkanes such as hexane, heptane, etc.; aromatic hydrocarbons such as toluene, xylenes, etc.; haloalkanes such as methylene chloride, chloroform, etc.; ethers, such as diethyl ether, THF, etc.; and any other solvent that will not react with the fluorinating reagent.
The reaction temperature can range from 0xc2x0 C. to 90xc2x0 C. In carrying out the reaction, the difluoroketone can be mixed with the entire charge of the fluorinating reagent or the reagent can be added dropwise to a solution of the difluoroketone. Lewis acid catalysts such as boron trifluoride etherate (BF3.Et2O) or HF can be used to accelerate the reaction. The product obtained is usually a mixture of the desired 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro compound and the corresponding 1,1,2,4-tetrafluoro isomer. We have found that both the yield and the isomer ratio are highly dependent on the solvent used. Toluene is unexpectedly superior to other organic solvents in producing a high yield of the desired isomer. For example, when THF was used as solvent at 60xc2x0 C., a 65% yield of 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro-6-trans-4-propylcyclohexyl)-1,2-dihydronaphthalene was obtained (1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro/1,1,2,4-tetrafluoro=51/49), while when toluene was used as solvent at the same temperature, an 85% yield was obtained (1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro/1,1,2,4-tetrafluoro=90/10) under the same reaction conditions.
In the third step of the process, the mixture of tetrafluoro isomers is reductively defluorinated using a reducing agent in an aqueous ammonia solution, preferably a buffered aqueous ammonia medium. Both tetrafluoro isomers react to form the same vicinal difluoro aromatic product.
The reducing agent in this method can be metallic zinc or other known reducing agents, such as copper, magnesium, or mixtures thereof. The metals typically are used in powder form, but other forms should also be effective. Reducing agents that do not react rapidly with water are preferred. At least one molar equivalent of the reducing agent, based on the amount of starting compound, is needed.
The process of reductive defluorination is preferably carried out in buffered aqueous ammonia with an organic co-solvent, such as THF. The organic co-solvent can be used to make a solution of the tetrafluoro aromatic compound. Other co-solvents that can be used include ethers such as methyl tert-butyl ether; nitriles such as acetonitrile; alcohols such as ethanol; and amides such as DMF. The aqueous ammonia is buffered to a pH  less than 14 and preferably  less than 11 with an ammonium salt; preferably ammonium chloride. Maintaining a pH below 14, minimizes the production of unwanted by-products. For example, when the reaction medium is too basic (i.e., a pH of 14), 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro dihydronaphthalene is converted to a 1,2,4-trifluoronaphthalene compound as shown in the reaction below:
The rate of this reaction has been found to be pH-dependent, and consequently the selectivity to this impurity is significantly reduced as the pH is reduced below 14, especially below 11.
Typically 3.2 ml of ammonium hydroxide and 1.6 ml of organic solvent per mmol of starting compound are appropriate for the reaction.
The reaction can be carried out at temperatures ranging from 0xc2x0 C. to the boiling point of the solvent; preferably 25 to 45xc2x0 C.
The reaction can be run in air or more preferably under an inert gas, such as nitrogen.
The reaction can be monitored by methods known in the art to determine completion. For example GC or GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) can be used to determine when the reaction is complete. Reaction times typically range from 2-48 hours.
The vicinal difluoro aromatic product can be isolated from the reaction mixture by methods known in the art. For example, the product can be isolated by filtering the reducing metal, extracting the aqueous layer into an immiscible organic solvent, evaporating the solvent, and purifying the product using chromatography, distillation, and/or recrystallization.
The invention will be further clarified by a consideration of the following examples, which are intended to be purely exemplary of the invention.